Errol Linton

Cabot Place, Canary Wharf
London, E14 4QT
Thursday, May 31, 2012 9.30PM

Errol Linton remains one of London’s hidden treasures. The Brixton harmonica blaster, singer and songwriter, has made a living playing his highly original and distinctive Brixton blues for two decades.

Back in June Erroll released his third album Mama Said on Ruby Records and he might just be about to receive the attention he deserves. The 12 songs on Mama Said distill Errol mercurial talent - both loving and acoustic and tough and electric. And as he sings of contemporary urban hassles then reflects on a child putting 10p in the gas meter Errol Linton draws a lyrical portrait of working class London life. ‘Mama Said’ is a tough blues based on all the things his mother used to say to him. ‘Hooked On Your Love’ is a love song to his wife, Maggie, a London bus driver for many years.

Songs like ‘Stressed Out’, a contemporary London blues about how modern life adds to our stress levels, should soundtrack any report on the recession and rising prices while the lyrical detail of ‘Roll On Tomorrow’, about growing up in Brixton’s Acre Lane as the child of Jamaican immigrants in the 70s, is worthy of Squeeze or The Kinks. ‘J.Y.’s’ is a nostalgic instrumental referring to a hill in Jamaica where his grandfather built the family’s home. And finally, ‘Through My Veins’ is a song about his relationship with the city of London.

www.myspace.com/errollinton