Live-Acts 2012

The Drizabone Soul Family

The UK based band, Drizabone, was formed in the early 90’s by Billy Freeman and instantly had their first hit record with “Real Love”, a timeless soulful dance groove, which endures on dance floors to this day. The band followed that up with a remix of “I Love Your Smile” by U.S artist Shanice, reaching No 2 in the U.K chart. Along with producing their own prestigious album, Conspiracy, they also remixed the likes of Diana Ross, Mary j Blige, Kylie, Lulu and Barry White, amongst many others during the 90’s.

Now reformed as The Drizabone Soul Family, a new name to represent the spirit of the new band, Billy is now working with a group of hugely talented and very close friends, musicians and family from his hometown of Northampton. Most of whom have known each other all their lives, making it more a family than a band.

The new album “All the Way”, released in summer 2010, was favored and play listed by many radio stations including Smooth Radio and BBC Radio2, who played multiple tracks from the album and declared it “album of the week” in July 2010. Tracks from the album have also been heard several times on “Eastenders” over the past year. They have been very busy touring the country, with their funky soulful live show, supporting the likes of Eliza Doolittle and Incognito and played a sold out set at the Jazz Cafe Camden, where they return in December 2011.

Some of the best vocalists in the country live right here in Northampton, according to Billy, all of which appear on the album, they include Nataya, Anna Marie-Johnson, Shniece McMenamen, Denise Gordon, Anneka Johnson and Natalie Valentine. The band also features some heavyweight musicians, who have played with the band Imagination, Desree and many others.

The close knit family atmosphere of Northampton gives The Drizabone Soul Family a stability which will take it on into the future, there are many albums planned and world domination is only a matter of time, but that is not the reason for doing what we do, says Billy. “we write songs and make records the way they used to be, when songs were melodic and beautiful and still sound great years later, the achievement of this gives all of us a great feeling which lasts a lifetime”. A cliche, it maybe, but Drizabone really is all about the music.