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Last Show: Thursday 24 ^th August 2023

The Pheasantry (Chelsea)

The Untouchables are a band of London’s finest champions of swinging blues, basing their sound on the raw soul of the great artists who recorded for Chess Records in the 50s. When The Untouchables take to the stage you’ll be transported back to the days of rent parties and rumbas when the great blues masters kept them dancing ‘til the early hours. Expect an intimate show, featuring the more sophisticated side of their repertoire - drawing you into the place where blues, jazz and Latin rhythms meet.

“The Untouchables play sparse, tasteful Chicago blues. No, not blues rock: tight, swinging, focussed, authentic sounding urban blues, with every element honed to its bare essentials in an unostentatious display of taste and restraint. These players have lived and breathed the style until it's so much a part of them that it oozes out of their pores. If you like Little Walter, Bo Diddley or Willie Dixon, then this is as close as you’ll get to seeing them live. Utterly superb."

Live Unsigned

The Untouchables celebrates the coming together of some of the finest blues veterans that London can offer. Now in their twelfth year, the band has developed a distinctive repertoire that ranges from the low-down to the Latin, from slide guitar boogie, to sultry late-night jazz.

The band was formed by Pete Ellison (guitar) and Keith Parker (vocals and harp) with the express intention of creating a blues band that broke all the rules. Not for them, the long guitar solos and clumsy rhythms that characterised British blues of the time – this band would be closer to the originals, including a double bass and maybe even brushes on the drums. Eddie and Paul provided the perfect rhythm section.

It wasn’t long before the band built a reputation for playing to young audiences who knew how to dance. They were soon in demand at the new clubs in East London where their music found a home beside reggae sound systems and rhythm and blues 78s.

The Untouchables have played Bestival, Camp Bestival and many other festivals at home and abroad where their brand of blues has won over new audiences every time.

Band Lineup

Keith Parker (vocals and harp)

Peter Ellison (guitar and vocals)

Paul Green (double bass)

Eddie ‘the legend’ Buckland (drums)