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JOE PARKER: Accordion, Keyboards;
TERRY DOCHERTY: Drums, Percussion.
DARREN ABBOTT: Fiddle;
MARTIN COWPLAND: Electric and Acoustic Guitars;
JONATHAN GREEN: Bass;
JACK FORBES: Vocals, Whistle, Harmonica;
MAX BLAKE (not pictured): Banjo, Guitar, Bass;
SLOW LORIS are a rip-roaring, acoustic/electric song and barn dance band, with an original sound and hot rhythms.
Jack has performed regularly on BBC Essex with Chris Jones in Southend duo, Piertalk. They also appeared on Channel 4’s “The Big Breakfast”, Channel 5’s “The Core”, and most recently, on “Meridian Tonight” and BBC 2’s “Inside Out”.
Jonathan and Joe have toured Germany with the Grand Reunion Band.
Max, Martin, Terry and Joe have played together as members of Thurrock blues rockers, Barewire and appeared at Truckworld, the Towngate Theatre, Basildon, Club Riga, Southend and the Palace Theatre, Westcliff.
Darren has worked in Jamaica, where he played at the Pegasus Hotel.
Terry and Jack started the Yardarm Session, ably supported by other members of the band, and have formed the Thamesgate Traditional Arts Association to encourage and promote Folk Arts in South Essex.
Jack’s composition, “Rolling Down the River”, is well known internationally. It has been sung at song and shanty sessions and folk festivals all around the world and recorded by numerous artistes on both sides of the Atlantic, notably by Jim Mageean and Johnny Collins, the Shanty Crew, and Bob Walser. Another of Jack’s songs, “Day Trip to Southend”, was featured in a BBC Radio 4 production, “Miles and Miles of Mud”.
Jack has recorded three albums with Chris Jones as Piertalk. Slow Loris have recorded versions of both “Rolling Down the River” and “Day Trip to Southend” on their first CD, “From Tilbury Town to County Down”.
The band’s music is a potent mix of folk roots, blues and songs and tunes written by Joe and Jack. Slow Loris are a multi-dimensional band, able to play for a barn dance or a ceilidh, provide entertainment at a festival, and adaptable to a concert hall or club, as well as participating in folk theatre. And many wedding parties and birthday celebrations have experienced the Slow Loris sound.
Appearances include: Leigh Folk Festival; Walton Folk Festival; Moreton Midsummer Festival; Burnham Festival; Hoy at Anchor Folk Club, Leigh-on-Sea; Sail Loft Folk Club, Horndon-on-the-Hill; Millbay Folk Club, Walton-on-the-Naze; Grand Ceilidh Club, Southend; Preview Club, Southend; Old Leigh Regatta; Castle Point Beer Festival; Civic Hall, Grays; Mill Hall, Rayleigh; Anchor Inn, Friskney (Lincs); Leverton (Boston, Lincs); Interchange Studio, Hampstead Town Hall Centre.