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THE BiTS INTERVIEW: ROBIN BIBI

The blues trio led by the astonishing guitar playing of Robin Bibi played in
1999 at the Albert Hall with BB King’s support band. Superb blues and rock

‘n’ roll covers, and great original material.

Robin formed the Bibi Band in 1996. Having ‘paid his dues’ working as

guitarist for other artists and bands, he decided to embark on a solo project,
born out of his love of the blues.

Now he has branched out further by incorporting a horn section into the
band—Welcome to The Robin Bibi Big Band

Ian McKenzie spoke to him on the telephone about the latest development

in Robin’s blues trip.

BiTS: Robin. Hello. Nice to speak to you.

RB: It's been a long time, mate, hasn't it?

BiTS: It has indeed. How are you doing?

RB: I’m really well, thanks, Ian. Yeah, really, really well and
how are you?

BiTS: Listen, I want to talk to you about the new record. Let's make
a start. Tell me, first of all, Robin, what decided you to start a big band?
Has it been something you wanted to do for a long time?

RB: Yes, I always fancied it. I always really did. I like working with
horn sections and I like working with good horn players and I sort

of had an idea in my head that I could hear horn arrangements on
some of my songs because some of the songs that I do have got a
bit of a soul influence, you know, a bit of like a Stax Atlantic sort
of thing. I just wanted to try and get that sort of feel those great
horn sections that played on some of those songs onto some of
my things, you know, and that was my sort of visionary idea, if

you like. So that's what we're trying to do.

BiTS: How did you go about setting up the band? Did you
advertise or did you just ask people? What happened?

RB: Word of mouth it was actually, Ian. It was word of
mouth, mate. Basically it sort of happened slowly because
when we were recording, the previous studio
album we recorded, “No More A Secret”, which
was quite a long time ago now, 2016 in fact.

BiTS: Is it as long as that?