By Mal Butler
They have played with some of the biggest names in the music business, and Friday night The Blue Water Giants, fresh from a knockout performance at the IW Festival, rocked Yarmouth in a charity concert.
The band – Josh Phillips, Neil Taylor, John ‘Rhino’ Edwards, Mark Brzezicki and Jesse Smith – is made up of musicians who have performed with the likes of Robbie Williams, Tears for Fears, Tina Turner, Procol Harum, Status Quo and Big Country.
Their setlist is drawn exclusively from songs they have performed live with previous bands or artists – giving them a huge catalogue to choose from.
Guitarist Neil Taylor, who toured the world with Robbie Williams for 10 years, said: “Tears for Fears actually started my career. At my first session with them, I had to play the guitar solo in ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ – and that was it. After that, I was in demand, even though I never saw my career as a session musician.
“It was a great period of my life to be involved with Robbie; we were playing the biggest stadiums. It was fantastic. After leaving, I was doing nothing at home when Josh approached me to play for the Blue Water Giants. I wasn’t sure at first, but thankfully, my wife told me to get involved and get out from under her feet! I’m glad she did.”
Keyboard player Josh Phillips, who has been with Procol Harum since 2006, said: “After Gary Brooker died in 2022, my son said I should get a band together as I knew so many musicians in the business. I was lucky to get Rhino, from Status Quo, involved – and now we have Big Country drummer, Mark Brzezicki, with us. Our lead singer is Jesse Smith, who looks like a rock star and sings like a rock star! He sings in the Classic Rock Show all over the world. We have a real feel of a band who is playing together and enjoying ourselves, as we showed at the IW Festival.”
Isle of Wight Observer