Hot rhythm to cool blues, rock’n’roll to smooch… vintage party music, with style

That gives the general idea but it’s not a very specific description, needing to cover a wide range of music: rock’n’roll, blues, jive, jazz, ska, swing and even a touch of Latin. Throw in classic rock crowd-pleasers like Wild Thing next to a smoochie ballad or two and it turns into a journalist’s nightmare. “What sort of music do you play? What’s the genre?” The answer is that we play what we like, anything we fancy having a crack at that’s vaguely danceable in the dad-at-a-wedding style or better… or worse. Most of it is old, dating back to the 60s, 50s or earlier, most of it is roots-based, and most of it is chosen by me because, as the band’s singer, I’m only prepared to sing songs I like. Or songs I have written, as there are indeed a few Harvey originals in the mix.

The original Back Seat Jivers began around 1990 as a 3-piece rocky offshoot of R. Cajun & The Zydeco Brothers, with Dave Blant on bass, Freddie Hopwood on drums and yours truly on guitar/vocals. Soon after it became a quartet with the addition of Steve Salfield (sax), then… well, it would be tedious to go through all the changes – there were lots! It depended on availability and largely affected the rhythm section. We had 3 or 4 different bass players and, I think, no less than eight different drummers, some filling in for only a gig or two. We were a 5-piece for a while, with the fairly regular attendance of Pete Bullock on keyboard and baritone sax. However in the mid-90s a settled 4-piece line-up emerged and remains intact to this day:

Clive Harvey – guitar/vocals
Steve Salfield – saxes
Graham Jones – double bass/bass guitar
Phil Naylor – drums

All four of us used to live within a half-hour drive of each other in Derbyshire/South Yorkshire but with my relocation to Surrey and Phil’s to Brighton the band is geographically challenged, to say the least. That, and the inevitable fact that we’re all busy with other things (other gigs, families, work etc.), means that getting together is difficult and rare. We don’t have a website, we don’t advertise, we don't chase gigs, but when they are offered we accept if we can. As this always entails major logistics, the offer must involve at least reasonable money. Gigs are infrequent. But when we do one, we really, REALLY enjoy it!

CH 2011

To enquire about the Back Seat Jivers contact Clive ~ see Contact page

Or contact Steve Salfield ~
Email: steve << at >>stevesalfield.com
Tel: 01629 650183