With a brand new 10” vinyl album of this band hot off the presses in September 2024, this is a welcome return to the venue for Geraint Watkins and the Mosquitoes – which these days is an exciting quartet including Oliver Darling (guitar/vocals), Paul Riley (bass), Malcolm Mills (drums).

For so many years a keystone of the bands of Nick Lowe, Van Morrison, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, Dave Edmunds and countless more, Watkins is also a revered creator of his own sublime music, much of which has already been perfectly captured in a handful of solo albums. These days, he performs this material with his band – The Mosquitoes.

Bob Dylan – proclaimed himself a Watkins fan by playing two solo cuts on his Theme Time Radio Hour saying (without a hint of irony) that “Geraint Watkins is my favourite English piano player.”

Watkins was a member of noted British bands Juice on the Loose and Red Beans & Rice and following a move to London with the latter, he soon found himself on the “Be Stiff Route 78” tour as part of Micky Jupp’s band. Shortly afterwards in 1979, Andy Fairweather Low produced Watkins’ first album for the Vertigo label. Session work for producer Stuart Coleman followed which led to him joining Shakin’ Stevens’ band before going on to record and play live with Dave Edmunds and many others including Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Mark Knopfler, Dr. Feelgood, Rory Gallagher, The Blues Band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stray Cats, Carl Perkins, John Wesley Harding, Tom Jones, Roger Daltrey and John Martyn. In addition to his touring and recording with Nick Lowe, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings and Van Morrison, he somehow managed to keep The Balham Alligators stomping for fifteen years too.