Mike Sanchez hosted a homecoming gig at Kidderminster Town Hall (where he spent 25 years and went to school in nearby Bewdley) with local support acts with Bewdley’s Crimson Flame and the Chloe Mogg Band from Stourport. He also introduced special guests during the night including Jennie Vincent, Ricky Cool and then to loud applause Robert Plant.
The gig was an early part of the ‘Get Your Kicks on the A456’ festival, which volume 3 of the accompanying book now on sale. The first two books, about bands and venues in the Wyre Valley area, was written by the late John Coombes.
Kidderminster Town Hall had sold 600 tickets (500 standing & 100 seated on the balcony) at a venue that was fully re-opened after a £8.5 million refurbishment at the end of 2025. This was the largest audience at the venue since the Rolling Stones in the 1960s.
The full imaget set can be reviewed here
The full imaget set can be reviewed here
First up, introduced by Rich Morley from Get Your Kicks on the A456, was the 20s Crimson Flame duo of Chantelle Kimberley & Finley White who demonstrated their stage craft gained from their increased exposure for playing around the wider West Midlands and London. Their set was mainly their own work with the foot stomper ‘Hazey On You’ to start, followed by a song Chantelle wrote for her Grandad ‘Fly High’ who was a Kidderminster lad who inspired Chantelle & Finley, with both on guitar backing Chantelle’s vocals.
They followed this with a softer song ‘For My Soul’ which is about doing what’s good for you and your soul and is a more mellow song.
Then the latest single released on the same day as the concert was ‘Head In The Clouds’ which was written during the couple’s trip to the Cairngorm mountain in Scotland. It has great passionate vocals from Chantelle, on acoustic rhythm guitar with Finley’s great acoustic guitar picking.
Another newish song is ‘Fields of Imagination’ with its emotive vocals, which was followed by ‘Poisen Ivy’ with Chantelle with passionate vocals and Finley on acoustic guitar, with great interaction between them. A song about chasing your dreams was next with ‘She Dreams’ with stomping from the audience to Chantelle’s sultry vocals.
They finished with ‘If I Was Your Woman’ a song to boogie to with Finley’s Hendrix segment of 'Third Stone From the Sun' before kicking in the rhythm with Chantelle on powerful & passionate vocals.
Rich Morley again introduced the next support act the Chloe Mogg Band, with many in the audience in Stour Jam t-shirts, which Chloe & her fiancée James Rudge organised and managed the debut event in June 2026 in Stourport on Severn (Robert Plant did drop in to listen).
The set contained many songs from her forthcoming next album (due out in Spring 2027) and kicked off with Spoon Fed which is a heavy blues-rock song with Chloe’s unique but effective alt style vocals backed by her band. This was followed by ‘The Author’ with Chloe now on rhythm guitar with its strident vocals, great blues rock rhythms, with great lead guitar from Ethan Webster.
‘For Sale’ featured Chloe’s powerful alt-bluesy vocals with its eerie guitar sound and great rhythm section from Joe Davis (bass) and Jack Bowles (drums). Jack was deputising for regular drummer Nick Davis who is recovering from appendicitis.
A very new song, which will be released in November 2026 as a single is ‘That’s Something, Honey’, which was followed by ‘Thumper’ with its sleazy vocals and great guitar break from Ethan.
A song about a past manager was ‘Mr No Name’ and was recently re-worked and will be the 10th track on the new (not yet named) second album. ‘Façade’ is a great dancing & boogie number with its lead guitar led song with Chloe’s evocative & strident vocals, that got the crowd dancing, and great guitar break from Ethan, bass break from Joe and Jack on drums.
The last couple of songs were ‘Pay Me’ about an evil ex-friend, with its gentle start with subtle backing before it kicks into a full-bore funky number, with strident vocals from Chloe, mellow middle section with echoey guitar from Ethan. They finished with a Aerosmith cover of ‘Sweet Emotion’ with its powerful vocals from Chloe giving her all in her alt-blues style.
Then the main attraction of the night with Mike Sanchez and his homecoming gig with his six-piece band, upright bass, tenor & baritone sax, lead guitar, drums and Mike on vocals and keyboards.
Mike first introduced himself with some background about his life starting as a Spanish Cockney before moving to Bewdley and joining their High School and living in Kidderminster. One of his first band was The Rockets with Robert Plant joining in on some jam sessions. As Mike said “This is one of the special nights in my life”.
The first section was with his band who started with ‘Red Hot Mama’ a great boogie woogie song to kick off the set, ‘Highway 60’ with great vocals from Mike with great beat and brass section, with Spanish influences in the song with great guitar & keys interplay, underpinned by the two sax’s.
Then ‘Let Em Rock’ an up-tempo rock n roll song with strident vocals from Mike and then ‘The Kokomo’ which was a slower tempo song with tenor sax solo and great keys, with Mike’s unique southern vocals and boogie woogie piano.
‘Lydia’ was another up-tempo rock n roll song with electric guitar break and great horns, followed by ‘Boogie Oogie’ an old song from 40 years ago which is a classic piano led boogie woogie song. ‘Kiddio’ was another classic tempo rock n roll song with passionate vocals from Mike backed by horns.
‘I’m Ready’ was a piano led quick rock n roll song with audience rhythmically clapping in time with the song, followed by ‘Three Months, Three Weeks, Three Days’ a horn led song with evocative vocals from Mike and great rhythm section.
‘Girls All Over the World’ with its up-tempo beat, great vocals supported by horns and guitar with next ‘Shirley’ a great boogie woogie song with great horns, led by passionate vocals from Mike, then straight into ‘Just a Game’ a quick tempo song with boogie woogie beat and great piano with quick hands.
Then Mike introduced the first of the guests with Jennie Vincent taking to the stages singing vocals on ‘Wildcat’ with great passion supported by Mike’s great piano playing, and then ‘As Long As You Are Moving’ with passionate vocals from Jennie with great horns.
Jennie was followed on the stage by Ricky Cool on harmonica on ‘I Wish You Would’ on a slinky song with Mike on vocals and the powerful rhythm section. With the horns returning we had the funky boogie woogie number ‘Shake Your Hips’. Then we had some Chicago Blues with a John Grimm song ‘Be Careful’ with Ricky showing his harmonica excellent with Mike on vocals & keys.
Then the big one with special guest Robert Plant taking to the stage to wild applause and taking over the vocal duties on a selection of great blues numbers including ‘No Place To Go’ with Ricky Cool still on harmonica duties backed by the horn section & guitar. We had a bit of Elvis Presley with ‘Big Hunk of Love’ sung powerfully with passion by Robert and then a piano led song ‘Mess of Blues’ with Powerful and passionate vocals from Robert.
As Robert explained Mike went out with Robert’s daughter for a while and took her out one New Year’s Eve with instructions to get her home by midnight – He didn’t!!
A slower sexy blues number was ‘Trying To Get To You’ with great lead guitar break with Robert’s evocative bluesy vocals, with then another Elvis Presley song ‘One Night (with you)’ joined again with the two sax playing members of the band, with Robert’s passionate vocals.
They finished this section with the classic Led Zeppelin song ‘Rock and Roll’ with its powerful start on drums before a more boogie woogie version of the song but with Robert showing he still has the powerful blues-rock voice.
Then back to the band they finished the concert with ‘Everybody’s Got a Buick’ an up-tempo piano led song with Mike back on vocals, ‘She’s Gone Away’ a classic rock n roll song with rhythmic beat and evocative vocals from Mike and ‘Ramblin Boogie’ with boogie woogie piano from Mike matching his vocals.
After much applause Mike and the band, supported by Jennie Vincent & Ricky Cool, finished the night with an encore with a Chuck Berry song ‘Almost Grown’ and ‘Tallahassie Lassie’ with the audience dancing away.