New Portsmouth jazz-pop band Furious Cool to play debut gig at The Groundlings Theatre

They released their debut single Sit Down last month, and on August 12 they make their first live appearance, at The Groundlings Theatre.

When the popular Portsmouth band Peach and The New Beats dissolved in 2020, three-fifths of the line-up: guitarist Gary Shaw, vocalist Hayley Alker and Cliff Chapman on keys decided they still wanted to work together. They brought in bassist Robin Vick and drummer Bernie Fox and Furious Cool were born.

Hayley explains: ‘They've all already played together for years and years – they've known each other since they were 16 – not always playing together but they’ve been in various different bands – lots of fab musicians.

‘Bernie and Robin's come along and we've all started writing together.’

Between them they’ve worked with artists as diverse as Jimmy Witherspoon, Eric Bibb, Mike Vernon, Sherman Robertson, Bad company, Giorgio Li Calzi, Curl and Cranes.

While they have focused on new material, there will be some songs hanging over from the previous project.

‘We've got some old stuff from Peach and The New Beats which is kind of reinvented – some of it's worth saving!

‘Peach got a bit confused about where it was going – you can get trapped in that local scene of doing pub gigs, and then it's: “Can you do some covers?” And it becomes something else.

‘We've got a massive back catalogue of covers we could do – but we don't want to. We might throw one in for a bit of audience involvement or something. But we want to push it out.

‘They're so good to play with – they gel so well, where they've known each other for so long they know each other really well musically. It's like a dream.’

How they got the band name

The name comes from a line in the John Martyn song Glorious Fool, and describing their sound, Hayley says: ‘It's like Rickie Lee Jones, Jon Cleary, Dr John, we like that New Orleans' vibe. It's got those tendencies – it’s quite relaxed, sitting back behind the groove, and I love that, that's my favourite.’

While Sit Down is the only song released so far, they plan to go back and record more at Studio One28 with producer and musician Jon Callender – who is also Hayley’s partner

‘We've done a demo, and we're going to do a few more at Jon's. We've also got something we did at Global Fire Creative,’ a video production company based in Fareham, ‘we did a live video recording with them – they did really good quality audio and video. It's so cool there.’

And when it comes to songwriting, they’re all involved.

‘It's not blues, it's not jazz, it's not funk, it's not soul, it's some kind of amalgamation of all those different areas – even a bit folky in places.

‘I do lyrics, melody, and there's some bits in there from a band me and Jon put together called Helsinki. But it can be Cliffy, who's a prolific songwriter, or Gary with the basis of the song.

‘This has been really organic, which is different for me. I'm used to working on a computer and building it like that, even if it starts with me doing something on a piano, then you put that in and shape it in the computer.

‘But this, though, is all in the room. We’re tweaking arrangements, and then we can never remember what we did because it's different every time!’ she laughs.

‘They're improvisers – there will will be more improvising in the future but with this show we want to get the staples there. At least then we've got beginnings, ends and vague ideas of how to get there! There's scope for elongating sections and feeling the vibe.’

They play at The Groundlings Theatre, Portsea, on Saturday, August 12, doors 7pm. Tickets £12. Go to groundlings.ticketsolve.com.