Will Wilde with Support Ross Harding
Will Wilde has taken the harmonica way beyond its traditional blues roots since he first emerged on the music scene in 2010.Always pushing forward, evolving and redefining his sound. He gained popularity on Youtube with his awe-inspiring harmonica covers of classic rock guitar solos such as Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird. Throughout 2022/23 Wilde has been touring with his critically acclaimed rock band Bad Luck Friday, but 2024 sees him return to the blues with the recording of a new solo album (release date TBC).
Wilde’s hard-edged harmonica steals the spotlight from the traditional blues rock guitar, with a sound that owes as much to Gary Moore as it does to Sonny Boy Williamson ."I’m always looking to make new sounds with the harmonica, pushing its boundaries, trying to change people’s perception of it.”In fact Wilde has gone one step further and created his own signature "Wilde Tuned" harmonicas so he can play licks that weren’t possible before .“The Wilde tunings help me take things to the next level. They enable me to hold my own with any blues rock guitarist.”
Wilde picked up his first harmonica at a house party when he was sixteen. “I basically nicked it,” he says. “It was a cheap plastic Guinness harmonica just lying around amongst the drink bottles and cigarette butts, I was drawn to it. ”From then on playing became an obsession. “I used to play along to old Muddy Waters records for hours every day. Sometimes I played so much my lips bled,” says Wilde. “I couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted to know everything it could do, every sound it could make. After a while it became like an extension of me.”
Wilde comes from a musical family .“Music was always around me" he says. “Classic rock, blues and soul were the soundtrack to my childhood .”His grandfather was a wartime jazz & blues pianist and his sister, Dani Wilde, is an acclaimed blues singer in her own right.
Wilde has released four studio albums and one live album: Unleashed (2010), Raw Blues (2013), Live In Hamburg (2015), Bring It On Home (2018) and Bad Luck Friday (2022), as well as appearing as a guest harmonica player on albums by Walter Trout, Earl Thomas, Toby Lee, Dani Wilde, Marcus Malone, Krissy Matthews and Brave Rival. His early music reflects more of a traditional blues sound, but over time he has developed a more aggressive style that draws from the classic rock and blues rock music he grew up on.
Wilde has recently been nominated in the UK Blues Awards for "Instrumentalist of the Year 2024".
Photo by Riccardo Piccirillo
Ross Harding
is an acclaimed Blues Rock Musician from Johannesburg, South Africa, currently
based in the UK.
As a
songwriter and performing artist, he personifies rich, powerful vocal abilities
with mesmerizing guitar skills, gaining international industry recognition for
his commanding blend of blues and rock music, reminiscent of the classic rock,
grunge & blues artists of the past.
A prolific
performing artist, his versatile stage performances range from a deeply soulful
solo acoustic artist to a high energy blues rocker, whose experience is that of
an artist much older than he. A seasoned touring musician, he has played
hundreds of shows in clubs, festivals, and notable venues in his decade-long
professional career. Ross Harding continues to push boundaries in his
redefining approach to the blues rock genre'
Dates and times
- Thu 20 Nov 20:00