Last updated 11:23, Thursday, 20 November 2008

The Sean Webster Band will be the opening act at Carlisle Blues Festival tomorrow night. The three piece band, led by guitar vocalist Sean, have become well known on the blues and rock scene with their combination of blues with a harder edge.

First up: Sean Webster kicks off Carlisle Blues Festival tomorrow

This isn’t their first visit to Cumbria, previously playing in Maryport, Silloth and Penrith.

Sean, 32, said: “The north west of England is a big fan base for the blues.

“It is still a minority in this country yet a lot of music today is based on blues.

“In the set we perform upbeat songs and then drop things down so things are a bit slower.”

Sean, from Elkesley near Retford in Nottinghamshire, formed the band.

Base player Tom Latham has previously played with the Nimmo Brothers while drummer Dave Raeburn has worked with Scott McEwan.

Sean’s performing career started at the age of 14, when he was asked to sing as part of his school band and started playing the guitar when he was 15.

“It happened by mistake,” he said. “I was trying to prove to a friend that I couldn’t sing but it backfired.

“I have never had a guitar lesson, I have picked things up through watching and listening.”

While he was still at school Sean sang in the band Journeymen, playing pubs and weddings several nights a week.

But after a couple of years in the band Sean knew he didn’t want to just be the singer in a band.

“I started to feel that I was out of place,” he said. “When the guitar plays a solo there is nothing for the singer to do but stand there.”

The result was Stateside, formed in 2000.

Sean said: “I wanted to choose my own band. I was impressed with the base player Nigel Roberts in Journeyman and asked him to join.”

Stateside sang covers on the blues pub circuit and when Sean started to write his own material for the band to perform, it was renamed the Sean Webster Band and their debut album, Long Time Coming, was released in 2004.

“It had been forever in the making,” said Sean. “I usually write about things that have happened to me or people close to me.

“My songs are about lost love which is the one common denominator that everyone has experienced.

“You have to make the audience believe what you are singing and so I think that it has to be something that you have experienced yourself.”

The band’s second album, If Only, came to the attention of Tony Edser, editor of the official Eric Clapton magazine Where’s Eric! who said Sean was one to watch and also gave Clapton a copy of the CD.

Sean said: “Clapton is a huge influence on my music. I couldn’t believe it when I was told that he had been given a copy of the album.”

Sean’s other influences include Dave Gilmour, Gary Moore and Mark Knopfler as well as John Mayer, Joe Bonammasa and Jonny Lang.

The band’s third album, Live and in Session, was released last year, and was recorded live at the Robin 2 in Wolverhampton.