Founder members Louie Black (drums), Manny Seddon (guitars) and Dave Hogan (harmonica & vocals) are now joined by John Stax of England’s The Pretty Things on bass.
“There are moves afoot to put out the two albums we recorded in the 1980s – they were on Rough Trade/Cleopatra and Missing Link respectively,” Hogan told Beat. “None of use thought that these recording really captured the true sound of the band so we decided to record live, loud and sweaty and put the two old LPs on a single bonus disc to accompany the new stuff.”
The recording will be done by “Red” of Woodstock Studios who is their regular sound engineer at their second-Sunday-of-the-month residency at Cherry Bar. The Live At The Cherry album is expected out at the end of the year, with plans to make a studio album in 2015.
Hogan points out that aside from the two studio albums, there is also unreleased material with another lineup. “There is a great session that we recorded back in the late ’90s but was never released,” he said. “The band at that time was myself, Manny Seddon and a rhythm section which consisted of (Daddy Cool’s) Gary Young on drums and (Rose Tattoo’s) Geordie Leech on bass. Perhaps they’ll end up as more bonus material somewhere down the line.”
In November 1978, Black put an ad in Rolling Stone looking for a harmonica player and guitarist. It read: “Please, please if you do not know blues do not waste our time.” Southern Lightning quickly made an impact on the club and festival scenes. They also opened on tours by B.B. King, Canned Heat, Roy Buchanan, John Mayall and Long John Baldry.
A chance meeting between Black and Hogan in the City last year and an offer of a gig at Cherry Bar saw the original three members get back together.
Doors open at 2pm with DJ Max Crawdaddy spinning discs.
