Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra have been gleefully trampling over genre boundaries for over a decade now, chucking Western Swing, Blues, Country, Rock & Roll, Soul and more into their musical gumbo, but always sounding mostly just like themselves.
Based in Newcastle but hailing from across the UK, the Tea Pad have released four albums before their new The Party’s Over set, and toured across the British Isles and Europe, playing everywhere from Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival to village halls and barns, and all points in between.
They’ve done support tours for big-name Americana outfits such as Pokey LaFarge, The Dead South, and Sierra Ferrell, released music on German label Migraine Records, appeared three times on Radio 4’s Loose Ends, and had their music played by everyone from Marc Riley to Huey Morgan.
Across their four studio albums – 2012’s Money Isn’t Everything, 2014’s Talk About The Weather, 2016’s Something Blue and 2019’s Soul Of My City – the band have constantly added new flavours to their sound: Heron in particular is a vinyl obsessive, always fired up about some new passion – calypso or boogaloo or whatever this week brings – but mostly enthusing about obscure blues and country 45s, and that eclecticism and search for new sounds certainly feeds into their songs.
September 2022 saw the band release their fifth studio album, The Party’s Over, which takes their signature blend of classic country and rhythm and blues to a new level. After a decade of honing their craft, this might be the best album to date!
Joining Rob Heron (vocals/guitar) are Tom Cronin (mandolin/harmonica/guitar), Ben Powling (saxophone/clarinet), Ted Harbot (double bass/electric bass) and Paul Archibald (drums).
‘That’s one hot band right there!’ – Huey Morgan, BBC Radio 2
‘Rob Heron evokes the spirit of Bob Wills and Django Reinhardt with a quintet that shuffles and boogies with panache. Infectiously good-humoured’ – Uncut Magazine
‘Amazing musicians who play with both passion and a sympathetic regard for the history of the genre.’ – Maverick Magazine
