The sold out Witching Hour at Fleet's Harlington Arts Centre was such a romp of a pre-Halloween show, with the whole gig turning out to be something so wickedly special! Ably organised by Alice Armstrong, this Queen of the UK Blues White Witches, had said for a year that it had been her ambition to organise a Halloween party, and indeed the superb old style Victorian goth meets cobweb staging must have been down to Alice’s artistic curation and talent! The spooky stage featured a giant globe, skeletons and unlit candles, with the packed, costumed audience also adding to the Halloween theme, as inventive makeup abounded.

MC for the evening was Richard Dunning, who introduced Alice and her house band, as they opened proceedings with Kev Hickman, superb as always on drums, Olly Knight-Smith on guitar and Josh Rigal on bass, playing all night, wearing wonderful facial makeup, looking like hollowed out lost souls. Queen Alice was magnificent as ever, dressed in a beautiful black velvet dress with white neck channelling majestic Victoriana meets modern. Indeed, Alice’s Dad looked proudly on, as he also got name checked by his very talented daughter for driving her around in her formative years, listening to the Blues in his car!

Opening with 'Women Like Me', followed by 'Evil Gal Blues', joining Alice next on stage was not only Tom Julian-Jones from The Cinelli Brothers, wearing his fab skull inset shirt, having flown all the way from Sweden, but also the black eyed Connor Selby, with both of them delivering some first class raw guitar Blues with a cover of Tom Waits’ 'Heartattack and Vine'. Connor then led on 'River's Invitation' and 'St James Infirmary', before Marco Cinelli, not only resplendent in matching black eye makeup, but also in red lip stick, took over on Howlin' Wolf’s Evil Is Going On', leading on his special guitar, accompanied by Connor, Tom, Alessandro Cinelli (also masked up on drums) and Josh, to close out a supernatural first set!

The party theme continued with the second set and a cool costume change for Alice, now wearing a rusty original motived brown dress, so complementing both her flame red hair and cool specs. Opening with 'War Pigs' was a surprise, although with the help of the Armstrong house band, as well as being well renown for her Bluesy voice, Alice showed that she could deliver Rock lyricality in spades. It was then back to the classic Blues of 'Voodoo Woman', featuring Alice, Marco, Alessandro, Josh and Olly, before Tom added some haunting harmonica to the musical magic with the raw 'Deep Down Devil'.

A further welcome twist saw the blonde glittering fairy like Elles Bailey arrive on stage, proclaiming that she was a good witch. Indeed she was, conjuring up perfect throaty vocals on 'Hotel California', complemented by another good witch, Amba Tremain, who was not only wearing a glamorous long evening dress, but also delivered such Soul infused vocals. It was a spine-tingling delight to witness these non-demonic divas harmonise, as well as hearing Marco Cinelli play fluent guitar on this classic. Despite its ghastly title, the crowd also loved the buoyant feel of 'Toxic', with Amba once again shining on vocals, brilliantly backed up Josh, Kevin and Olly.

The big fun one for the delighted audience was Elles leading on the Backstreet Boys’ 'Everybody', which was upbeat, up there and explosive. Alice’s catchy chart song 'Speed Dial' was also requested, and it seemed almost as if a spell had been cast, given all the artists on stage, duly carried out the audience's wishes, spookily knowing how to play and sing along to it!

Very aptly, 'Superstition', with Amba leading, closed out this magical night. A bewitching musical cocktail and a super fun party, which delighted an ecstatic crowd from Sweden to Grimsby to London (like me), as well as elsewhere, not forgetting the wonderful court jester who won the costume contest! All in all, a spellbinding and utterly memorable show!

Review, Photos & Video: Denise Lester