POCKET Central are 12 professional musicians who all love good music. They met in the early 90s at college in Manchester where they were all studying music. And as students, under the guidance of Heaton based Neil Fairclough, the lads put together a big band. But not a big band in the Glenn Miller sense of the word, but a big band in the sense of size - 12 musicians.

And over the years since leaving college the 12 friends have all managed to carve out careers working as professional musicians.

In fact they are considered to be some of the best musicians you'll find in the country with performance and session credits ranging from Robbie Williams, Black Grape, Happy Mondays, Brand New Heavies, Billy Cobham, Will Gaines, Ike Willis, Raw Stylus, Chaka Khan, and Faithless, to name but a few.

But like boomerangs, they always come back to Pocket Central, squeezing in the odd gig when their busy work schedules allow.

Organised

And we caught up with bass player Neil and sax player Andy Morel in Bolton this week.

They were in town to plug a gig they've organised for Saturday night at The Mill at Wigan Pier.

Neil explained that because of the size of the band - it features a rhythm section, brass section, percussion and the superb vocals of John McCallum - it's difficult for them to get venues that are physically big enough.

"So instead of just moaning about the limitations, we decided to do it ourselves."

And so they hired Wigan Pier.

Neil describes Pocket Central, as: "A big band in the way the super groups of the 70s, like Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire, were.

"We all love music and we do covers of classics from Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin through to Steely Dan and Led Zeppelin. We also do our own original songs. But because we've no policy, we just play the music we like. We want people to have a good time and to get up and dance."

He went on: "I think the strength of the band is the live performance. You don't often get so many musicians on stage, and it's a big sound. In the past we've thought about doing smaller venues, with less musicians, but that would be a cop out. You wouldn't get the full effect."

Last year Pocket Central opened the Wigan Jazz Festival and closed the Manchester Festival. And that's something they would like to do more of in the future.

Andy says: "I think if we could get the gigs we would all jump at the chance of doing Pocket Central full-time. The industry is a little bit frightened by the thought of 12 guys, and they shy away. I can understand that, but for us, primarily, it's about the music, and having a good time."

And that's what they guarantee their audience - good music and a good time.

Admission to the date at Wigan on Saturday is £5 and £3.50 concessions.

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