A fantastic night in Newport, Nov 2019. A new incarnation of the ever shifting Hill Bandits – The HillPorts. The amazing Lily Gray taking on the singing and stunning the room with her beautiful voice. With Lily and the cream of Newport’s musicians making up the band I reckon no-one noticed my ham-fisted guitar thumping. A welcome relief.
(Photo: Jayne Cox).
#newportrising — with left to right Smartie Vader, Kevin Lycett, Dave Corten, Lily Gray, Matthew Gray and Dave Cox.

Hill Scouts play the opening of Kev’s exhibition ibecamewhatisaw Oct 2018

Since the departure of Fiona in 2018 the Hill Bandits have been in flux. The release of 6 new tracks (recorded mixed and raring to go) had to be abandoned, along with a slew of major festival appearances and gigs in the summer of 2018.

Since then Kevin has continued writing and there have been some low key performances. Helped out by half of the wonderful Esper Scout, with Sarah singing, guitar, and percussion, and Reb on bass and vocals. We worked under the name of Hill Scouts. But Sarah is so busy with so many projects that it came to a close – far too soon.

Our most recent incarnation has been Hillport, a band drawn from some of Newport’s Finest musicians. We came together to perform new material Kevin wrote for a memorial performance for the 180th anniversary of the Chartist uprising in Newport, November 2019. The band were amazing and Lily Gray, who took on the vocals was simply stunning.

Dave Bowie Jr and Sarah Statham, the Northern Powerhouse

We had a very cold but lovely gig Friday 27 Oct at the Big Send Off in Leeds. We were joined by the great Sarah Statham of Esper Scout who sat in on the drums at the last moment, with no rehearsal and did a right grand job.

There was a great line up of talent, huge variety and all top stuff.

Just got to get rid of this cold now.

Richard playing not only drums but, for the first time with us, the bass as well.

We had a great night playing at the Cloth Cat gig at the Chemic in Leeds. Cloth Cat do amazing work and it’s always a pleasure to play one of their events.

We’re really excited to be playing supporting Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP, this Friday, 1st Sept 2017 at Victoria Hall, Saltaire. If you want to come best get a ticket soon as it’s nearly sold out.

We had a great time at Mekonville, July 2017, and were joined by an original Hill Bandit, Rico Bell for our set. It was a shame Dave and Richard couldn’t make it.

Mekonville July 2017

Fiona & Kevin June 2017

We’ll be playing LS6 Cafe, Hyde Park, Leeds Sunday lunchtime 12-1pm, on July 16th 2017. This will the first outing for the full line up, with both Dave Bowie Jr and Richard Ormrod playing and we’re really looking forward to it.

http://www.ls6cafe.com/about.php

Dave Bowie Jnr.

Richard Ormrod. For a sax player he’s not a bad drummer.

We’re made up to welcome Dave Bowie Junior on bass and Richard Ormrod on drums to our number.

They are both incredibly busy musicians, gigging with more bands than we can even remember so we’re really lucky to have them join us. (Even if they can’t always make the gigs…).

Eiger Studios gig May 2017

We had a great time playing our first gig for 4 years at Eiger studios. We came over all acoustic and Dave Bowie Jr joined us on double bass – and looked epic and played beautifully. Someone told us our version of Aragon Mill raised the hairs on the back of their neck.

We’re really chuffed to have been asked to play at Eiger Studios 10th birthday on May 6th 2017.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1848766822027905/