The much anticipated launch of the Matt Long tribute album ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ took place at The Harlington in Fleet, Hampshire, UK. The album began with an idea from a musician friend of the Longs, Dudley Ross, who has a link to Matt’s music idol Joe Bonamassa, to ask Joe to play a solo on one of Matt’s original songs. It was only ever going to be that one single. However, once Joe had agreed, Matt’s mum Fiona Long decided to approach some of the stellar list of UK blues artists who had performed at the benefit gigs for Matt during the summer of 2024 to see if they would like to be part of the project. Many of the top UK Blues stars went on to create their own versions of songs that the late Matt Long had written for Catfish and for his heavier project Matt Long and the Revenant Ones, and the project quickly evolved from a single track to a double album.
On its release in March, the album went straight in at no 1 in the Official UK jazz and blues chart and no 1 in the physical compilation chart. With the success of the album, substantial funds have been raised for the cancer unit at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford where Matt was treated. The final figure for the donation is not yet finalised as there are still payments to go both in and out relating to the launch gig, but it is expected to be between £15000 and £20000.
With a cast like this, there had to be an album launch, and The Harlington in Fleet was the perfect location for a sold-out audience to witness the very packed afternoon/evening of live music that Fiona Long had pulled together. Performers included Nat Martin and Nicolas Meier who had been Matt’s tutors at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. As the audience flooded into the venue they watched on large screens snippets from past Catfish and Revenant Ones gigs featuring Matt Long, his dad Paul Long and other band members and other creative videos.
After an introduction from Fiona Long the first band to take the stage was Burning Rope, a band which includes two members of Catfish. It seemed appropriate to start the event with a Catfish song co-written by Paul and Matt, ‘Broken Halo’. They then gave the first live performance of a new track ‘Waste’ from the soon to be released second album ‘Dissolution’. This featured bassist Adam Pyke on lead vocals in a very powerful and strident style. A very heartfelt song in the set was ‘Before the Landslide’ written by Paul Long at a very difficult time with Matt’s illness and one Matt never saw performed. Before ending the set with a powerful rendition of Joe Bonamassa’s ‘Blue and Evil’, Paul explained that he had attended a Joe Bonamassa gig at the Albert Hall in London in 2009 with Matt, and after the show Matt exclaimed ‘That’s what I want do as a career!’. Paul Long (keys), Alex Voysey (guitar), Mitch Weaving (drums) and Adam Pyke (bass) stayed on the stage to form the house band for the next few acts.
Next, we had the energetic Thomas Heppell on stage (introduced by Nicholas John of Blues in Britain magazine) to give his take on the blues starting with ‘She’s on my Back’ and a song Thomas played with Matt ‘Let the Good Times Roll’ joined on stage by Greg Coulson (keyboards), Nat Martin (guitar), Nic Meier (guitar) & Dudley Ross (guitar). He finished with the first song he and Matt jammed on with ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ with the obligatory walk in the audience and playing standing up on a table!
On its release in March, the album went straight in at no 1 in the Official UK jazz and blues chart and no 1 in the physical compilation chart. With the success of the album, substantial funds have been raised for the cancer unit at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford where Matt was treated. The final figure for the donation is not yet finalised as there are still payments to go both in and out relating to the launch gig, but it is expected to be between £15000 and £20000.
With a cast like this, there had to be an album launch, and The Harlington in Fleet was the perfect location for a sold-out audience to witness the very packed afternoon/evening of live music that Fiona Long had pulled together. Performers included Nat Martin and Nicolas Meier who had been Matt’s tutors at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. As the audience flooded into the venue they watched on large screens snippets from past Catfish and Revenant Ones gigs featuring Matt Long, his dad Paul Long and other band members and other creative videos.
After an introduction from Fiona Long the first band to take the stage was Burning Rope, a band which includes two members of Catfish. It seemed appropriate to start the event with a Catfish song co-written by Paul and Matt, ‘Broken Halo’. They then gave the first live performance of a new track ‘Waste’ from the soon to be released second album ‘Dissolution’. This featured bassist Adam Pyke on lead vocals in a very powerful and strident style. A very heartfelt song in the set was ‘Before the Landslide’ written by Paul Long at a very difficult time with Matt’s illness and one Matt never saw performed. Before ending the set with a powerful rendition of Joe Bonamassa’s ‘Blue and Evil’, Paul explained that he had attended a Joe Bonamassa gig at the Albert Hall in London in 2009 with Matt, and after the show Matt exclaimed ‘That’s what I want do as a career!’. Paul Long (keys), Alex Voysey (guitar), Mitch Weaving (drums) and Adam Pyke (bass) stayed on the stage to form the house band for the next few acts.
Next, we had the energetic Thomas Heppell on stage (introduced by Nicholas John of Blues in Britain magazine) to give his take on the blues starting with ‘She’s on my Back’ and a song Thomas played with Matt ‘Let the Good Times Roll’ joined on stage by Greg Coulson (keyboards), Nat Martin (guitar), Nic Meier (guitar) & Dudley Ross (guitar). He finished with the first song he and Matt jammed on with ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ with the obligatory walk in the audience and playing standing up on a table!
Between the acts during the evening, we were treated to videos on the big screens from several of the acts who weren’t able to be there for the launch. The first was from Blue Nation with their studio recorded version of the Revenant Ones’ track ‘Take it All’.
This was followed by Katie Bradley on vocals and harmonica, who Matt had recorded an EP with a few years ago, and Dudley Ross (guitar) with a set that included songs Katie and Dudley had co-written including ‘A Long Way From Home’, a slow blues passionate song ‘Be Careful With my Baby’, another song ‘C’est La Vie’ written by Katie and Chris Corcoran, and they finished with the song they recorded from the tribute album, Catfish’s ‘Change My Ways’ which they had reinvented as a Jimmy Vaughan style shuffle.
Another excellent live performance video followed from The Cinelli Brothers with their version of ‘Hit the Ground Running’ a fast-moving early Catfish song.
The next part of the evening was made up of a series of single tracks to showcase some of the superb world class musicians taking part in the show. The first was a track from the album which was originally performed with a female vocal from Adrienne Cowan of Avantasia, ‘The Root of all Evil’ but for one night only we had Will Wilde on vocals joined by Greg Coulson, Dudley Ross and the Burning Rope house band. Nat Martin then led a version of BB King’s ‘Every Day I have the Blues’ joined by the house band and Greg Coulson. After a special effects and performance video from When Rivers Meet with their soulful version of ‘Soul Breaker’ with Grace Bond on lead vocals, we were treated to ‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers’ made famous by Jeff Beck, led by Dudley Ross. This was Paul Long’s favourite Jeff Beck song which Matt played at The Star in Guildford in a tribute gig to Jeff when he passed. The next song ‘Surfing with the Alien’ led by Nicolas Meier was one that Matt had played at school assembly aged 15 to great acclaim.
Walter Trout had been a good friend to Matt and they had played on stage together a few times during Walter’s UK tours. The video of ‘All I Ask of You’ featured Matt singing and playing live but also includes a blistering solo from Walter Trout.
The excellent Greg Coulson was up next, introduced by Stephen Harrison the editor of Blues Matters! Magazine. Greg was joined on stage by Steve Rushton (drums), Luke Palmer (bass) and up and coming 21 year old guitarist Alex Astil (guitar) and gave some of jazz influenced blues songs including ‘Stitch Me Up’ where he showed his keyboard brilliance on his Hammond organ. He finished with a Will Wide song ‘Thirty Eight’.
Before the next band, we had a fun video with Elles Bailey featuring The Cinelli Brothers, Alice Armstrong and Demi Marriner on her version of the Catfish feelgood song ‘Better Days’.
Hollie Rogers came on stage for a couple of solo acoustic numbers with ‘Sinner’ and ‘Coast Road’. Hollie has close connections to Fiona Long as she was an English and Drama teacher at a school where Fiona was PA to the head teacher. The Longs had specially requested Coast Road as it was Matt’s favourite Hollie track.
All the way from Omaha, USA we had one the organisers of ‘Playing with Fire’ Festival Vanessa Marie who had flown over with her partner Jeff Davies to be there for this very special event. She had been asked to introduce the brilliant harmonica player Will Wilde who will be joining them at the festival this summer. Catfish (and When Rivers Meet) had been invited to play the festival in 2022, Elles Bailey has recently played for them and Will Wilde, King King & Wille & the Bandits are on the line-up in August. Will Wilde was joined by Nat Martin, Greg Coulson, Adam Pyke & Steve Rushton and included in his great set ‘Blues is Still Alive’ the title track from his last album, his version of Matt’s song ‘Break Me Down’ and finished with Coco Taylor’s ‘Voodoo Man’ with its funky beat, great keys and powerful vocals from Will as well as his powerful harmonica playing.
This was followed by Katie Bradley on vocals and harmonica, who Matt had recorded an EP with a few years ago, and Dudley Ross (guitar) with a set that included songs Katie and Dudley had co-written including ‘A Long Way From Home’, a slow blues passionate song ‘Be Careful With my Baby’, another song ‘C’est La Vie’ written by Katie and Chris Corcoran, and they finished with the song they recorded from the tribute album, Catfish’s ‘Change My Ways’ which they had reinvented as a Jimmy Vaughan style shuffle.
Another excellent live performance video followed from The Cinelli Brothers with their version of ‘Hit the Ground Running’ a fast-moving early Catfish song.
The next part of the evening was made up of a series of single tracks to showcase some of the superb world class musicians taking part in the show. The first was a track from the album which was originally performed with a female vocal from Adrienne Cowan of Avantasia, ‘The Root of all Evil’ but for one night only we had Will Wilde on vocals joined by Greg Coulson, Dudley Ross and the Burning Rope house band. Nat Martin then led a version of BB King’s ‘Every Day I have the Blues’ joined by the house band and Greg Coulson. After a special effects and performance video from When Rivers Meet with their soulful version of ‘Soul Breaker’ with Grace Bond on lead vocals, we were treated to ‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers’ made famous by Jeff Beck, led by Dudley Ross. This was Paul Long’s favourite Jeff Beck song which Matt played at The Star in Guildford in a tribute gig to Jeff when he passed. The next song ‘Surfing with the Alien’ led by Nicolas Meier was one that Matt had played at school assembly aged 15 to great acclaim.
Walter Trout had been a good friend to Matt and they had played on stage together a few times during Walter’s UK tours. The video of ‘All I Ask of You’ featured Matt singing and playing live but also includes a blistering solo from Walter Trout.
The excellent Greg Coulson was up next, introduced by Stephen Harrison the editor of Blues Matters! Magazine. Greg was joined on stage by Steve Rushton (drums), Luke Palmer (bass) and up and coming 21 year old guitarist Alex Astil (guitar) and gave some of jazz influenced blues songs including ‘Stitch Me Up’ where he showed his keyboard brilliance on his Hammond organ. He finished with a Will Wide song ‘Thirty Eight’.
Before the next band, we had a fun video with Elles Bailey featuring The Cinelli Brothers, Alice Armstrong and Demi Marriner on her version of the Catfish feelgood song ‘Better Days’.
Hollie Rogers came on stage for a couple of solo acoustic numbers with ‘Sinner’ and ‘Coast Road’. Hollie has close connections to Fiona Long as she was an English and Drama teacher at a school where Fiona was PA to the head teacher. The Longs had specially requested Coast Road as it was Matt’s favourite Hollie track.
All the way from Omaha, USA we had one the organisers of ‘Playing with Fire’ Festival Vanessa Marie who had flown over with her partner Jeff Davies to be there for this very special event. She had been asked to introduce the brilliant harmonica player Will Wilde who will be joining them at the festival this summer. Catfish (and When Rivers Meet) had been invited to play the festival in 2022, Elles Bailey has recently played for them and Will Wilde, King King & Wille & the Bandits are on the line-up in August. Will Wilde was joined by Nat Martin, Greg Coulson, Adam Pyke & Steve Rushton and included in his great set ‘Blues is Still Alive’ the title track from his last album, his version of Matt’s song ‘Break Me Down’ and finished with Coco Taylor’s ‘Voodoo Man’ with its funky beat, great keys and powerful vocals from Will as well as his powerful harmonica playing.
This was followed by an emotional video from Matt’s close friend Alice Armstrong with her version of the powerful song ‘Archangel’ with shots in the video of Matt & Alice on tour and of her band creating the track in the studio.
Paul Long introduced The Zac Schulze Gang for a very energetic performance with lots of wild expressions pulled by all band members. They have just come back from Europe for this gig and were straight back to France for a gig the next day. The set included ‘Hole in my Pocket’ and Matt’s Revenant Ones song ‘Have My Say’ and finished with a very high tempo version of the Dr. Feelgood song ‘She Does It Right’. These guys really do leave everything on the stage.
The final video of the night of ‘Broken Man’ featured both Matt’s powerful vocals and guitar as well as a solo from guest guitarist, Matt’s musical hero Joe Bonamassa.
We then had Samantha Leese (Matt’s wife), who had been Stage Managing the event, introduce the final band of the night, Brave Rival. The connections between Brave Rival are close as their guitarist Ed Clarke had been friends with Matt from his teenage years and the band played at Matt & Sam’s wedding. They kicked off with powerful vocals by Lindsey Bonnick on ‘Let Me Rock n Roll’ and then ‘Bad Choices’ with a blistering guitar solo from Ed. They also gave us an acoustic number with drummer Donna Peters on acoustic guitar on ‘Try Again’ at the beginning of the song before she took up her drumsticks on the heavier beat of the main portion of the song, with Ed ‘The Shred’ Clarke providing some great slide guitar. Will Wilde joined them on stage on ‘Stand Up’ before Paul Long joined on the Catfish song ‘Up in Smoke’. Ed was playing Matt’s last guitar, Athena, a guitar that was built specially for him by Jon Beeson of Wood Spirit Guitars in the USA who had also come over from Seattle to be there on Sunday.
Hollie Rogers read a short extract of a Michael Nunn article about Matt, before all the performers came on stage for The Beatles song ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ (though inspired by the Joe Cocker version) with lead vocals from Will Wilde and backing vocals from Lindsey Bonnick, Hollie Rogers and Katie Bradley. The guitarists took a short solo each as did Greg, and they finished to a standing ovation from the packed and emotional room. Final thanks from Paul Long were given to Samantha Leese (Stage Manager), Rupert Peters (stage sound), Paul Arthurs (stage support), Simon Taylor (venue sound), Ruairi McNulty (lighting) and to Alex Robins and his team at The Harlington, Fleet
Paul Long introduced The Zac Schulze Gang for a very energetic performance with lots of wild expressions pulled by all band members. They have just come back from Europe for this gig and were straight back to France for a gig the next day. The set included ‘Hole in my Pocket’ and Matt’s Revenant Ones song ‘Have My Say’ and finished with a very high tempo version of the Dr. Feelgood song ‘She Does It Right’. These guys really do leave everything on the stage.
The final video of the night of ‘Broken Man’ featured both Matt’s powerful vocals and guitar as well as a solo from guest guitarist, Matt’s musical hero Joe Bonamassa.
We then had Samantha Leese (Matt’s wife), who had been Stage Managing the event, introduce the final band of the night, Brave Rival. The connections between Brave Rival are close as their guitarist Ed Clarke had been friends with Matt from his teenage years and the band played at Matt & Sam’s wedding. They kicked off with powerful vocals by Lindsey Bonnick on ‘Let Me Rock n Roll’ and then ‘Bad Choices’ with a blistering guitar solo from Ed. They also gave us an acoustic number with drummer Donna Peters on acoustic guitar on ‘Try Again’ at the beginning of the song before she took up her drumsticks on the heavier beat of the main portion of the song, with Ed ‘The Shred’ Clarke providing some great slide guitar. Will Wilde joined them on stage on ‘Stand Up’ before Paul Long joined on the Catfish song ‘Up in Smoke’. Ed was playing Matt’s last guitar, Athena, a guitar that was built specially for him by Jon Beeson of Wood Spirit Guitars in the USA who had also come over from Seattle to be there on Sunday.
Hollie Rogers read a short extract of a Michael Nunn article about Matt, before all the performers came on stage for The Beatles song ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ (though inspired by the Joe Cocker version) with lead vocals from Will Wilde and backing vocals from Lindsey Bonnick, Hollie Rogers and Katie Bradley. The guitarists took a short solo each as did Greg, and they finished to a standing ovation from the packed and emotional room. Final thanks from Paul Long were given to Samantha Leese (Stage Manager), Rupert Peters (stage sound), Paul Arthurs (stage support), Simon Taylor (venue sound), Ruairi McNulty (lighting) and to Alex Robins and his team at The Harlington, Fleet