Gig Info

The KD&L movement started about nine years ago when Big Steve the owner of a club called 'Come Down and Meet the Folks' asked Lewis to play a song with him as a floor spot. Just before the gig, Kitty sighted a drum kit and was eager to play. So when they played 'Folsom Prison Blues' with Lewis on the banjo, Kitty on the drums and Big Steve on the acoustic guitar, there was some idea of a band forming. Lewis and Kitty were asked to play again and this time Daisy wanted to play so she quickly learnt three chords on the accordion. They performed the same song 'Folsom Prison Blues'. At the time Kitty was eight, Daisy was twelve and Lewis was ten. They were then asked for the third time to play with Big Steve. On that gig they performed 'Mean Son of a Gun' with Kitty playing the harmonica and singing, Lewis had his Gretsch for the first time and Daisy was hitting one drum and a hi-hat. When the harmonica solo came people knew the joint was rockin'. The three siblings have since built a massive word of mouth audience through a stream of rapturously received gigs and festival appearances. At their packed live shows there's no compromise when Kitty's howling harmonica solos backed by Daisy's pounding rhythm on a battered snare-drum and Lewis's snapping guitar work, drive crowds into a Southern Evangelical frenzy. The trio jump from one instrument to another, which range from guitar, drums, harmonica, piano, lap steel, banjo, ukulele, accordion, xylophone, trombone ... it's a sound crew's nightmare ... and the music is a mix up of dirty R'n'B & blues, whiskey soaked country, haunting Hawaiian jungle drums and Gospel fever, with a punch in the face by Daisy's hard beatboxing. Joining them on stage are their (former Raincoats drummer) mother Ingrid Weiss on upright bass, their father Daddy Grazz on acoustic guitar, and legendary Jamaican trumpet player Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton. They have recently returned from a successful 6 week US arena tour opening for Coldplay - Chris Martin handpicked them for the tour. Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Eagles Of Death Metal, KT Tunstall, Jools Holland, Boy George, Canned Heat and movie stars Dustin Hoffman, Elijah Wood and Emma Thompson are all enthusiastic Kitty Daisy & Lewis fans. No dry exercise in musical luddism, their 2008 debut album swings with the passion, intensity and sheer exuberant joie de vivre that makes their live shows one of the gig circuit’s greatest and most innocent pleasures. The album is a mixture of the covers their dad used to sing to them when they were children, like ‘Going Up The Country’ - a perfectly rounded summer holiday feel-good jam, full of harmonica solos, handclaps and lyrics about leaving the city smog for fairer country hills - together with new material like the heart torn ‘Buggin’ Blues’, written by Lewis and inspired by the great late Otis Spann (Chess Records) and latest single ‘(Baby) Hold Me Tight’, written by Kitty and featuring Skatalites contemporary Eddy ‘Tan Tan’ Thornton. "A gift to those of us that still believe in magic" Observer Music Monthly **** “The vibe is irresistible” The Times **** “Their musicianship would put several older groups to shame” Independent on Sunday “This trio will blaze a trail to your heart and set your dancing feet on fire” Dazed & Confused “A wonderful album: passionate exuberant and fun” The Guardian **** “The sound of yesteryear, but also a band for the future” NME "A furiously sexy show" [PIAS] NITES “British band Kitty Daisy & Lewis brings American music back to the States” Venus Zine "Have you heard of Kitty Daisy & Lewis? They're f***ing amazing!" Chris Martin of Coldplay The album was recorded in glorious, utterly digital-free analogue by Lewis and Daddy Grazz at their home studio in Kentish Town. A stickler for living and breathing the music they play and talk so passionately about; Lewis DJs, collects and even cuts his own 78rpm records himself when he isn’t recording with his sisters. This obsessive passion for the vintage music that inspires their performances led to their compilation ‘A - Z of Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - The Roots Of Rock n Roll’ being named one of The Guardian’s 2007 ‘Albums Of The Year – 5/5’.