Hokie Joint
"They sound rough, dangerous and steaming …" Rootstime, a Belgian Webzine
On the one hand we’re talking part Waits, part Wolf vocals, fuzzing slide guitar, dirty harmonica, driving bass and train-like drumming … On the other hand it’s gut-wrenchingly emotional vocals, melancholic guitar playing, sweeping harmonica, well constructed melodic bass and intricate mesmerising drumming.
These musicians have covered all corners of the blues that influenced them and forged together a refreshing new sound. From perfectly executed slow blues to high-energy upbeat tracks Hokie Joint is a five piece band from Colchester that audiences can’t help but dance to.
The difficult task of writing blues with a catchy chorus is something that this band revel in. A vibrant, stimulating live band, harking back to the club scene of the sixties, but with a distinctively original modern approach.
Charismatic singer Jojo Burgess, guitarist Joel Fisk, ace harmonica player Giles King (who guested on Ian Siegal’s “Meat & Potatoes”), drummer Stephen Cutmore and bassist Fergie Fulton make up Hokie Joint – the band to take the Blues to the masses.
Giles King
Giles King is one of the country’s top blues harmonica players, he began his career when he joined the jam at the Weavers Arms in London.
He has recorded and guested with many leading artists including Ian Siegal, Matt Schofield, Mick Abrahams and Jon Amor, and as featured on Johnny Walker’s drive time show, Paul Jones Blues programme and many radio stations across America. Giles has had the privilege to fly out to Hollywood to play at BB King’s legendary Blues Club and recently travelled to LA to record their new album, ‘Tracks’.
Giles was described as “one of our own” and “beautifully dirty” by Char Ham of LA magazine Southland Blues. Blues In Britain Magazine said, “What this guy doesn’t know about puff, isn’t worth knowing” and Ian Siegal recently introduced him as a guest at the 100 club as the most soulful harmonica player in the country.
Joel Fisk
Born in 1986, Joel first picked up the guitar at the age of 4.
Influenced from an early age by the likes of Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, he made his first public performance on guitar at the age of 11, coinciding with the acquisition of his first electric guitar, a red Fender Stratocaster.
During his early teenage years, he formed a band with school mates, playing gigs at local village halls and parties. At the age of 18 he began studying music at university where he met Jo Jo. Within a few months, they had formed “Jellyroll” and throughout his time in Jellyroll, Joel gained a very reputable fan in ex-Derek and The Domino, Bobby Whitlock.
Learning every step of the way, Joel's interest in The Blues expanded greatly, influenced by Delta Blues heroes Robert Johnson and Son House, through the 3 Kings, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, right up to today's blues greats, including John Hammond, Ian Siegal and Doyle Bramhall II.
Jo Jo Burgess
JoJo's first rock n' roll experience like that of many others before him, was at a school summer concert aged 13. He and some school pals started the band Phon. The group played the school concert performing covers of popular 60'/70's favourites such as All Right Now and Let It Be.
JoJo continued to perform irregularly with Phon, on and off for the next year before forming another school band called Pobel, which in turn performed on and off for a number of years, until JoJo was 18 and had to leave town for university. However the band did perform many times to rave review at a popular venue in Leicester called The Shed, where they were asked to perform for a very popular and prestigious charity night supporting 80's chart toppers Doctor & The Medics.
It was through moving to Colchester to university and through the giant hand of fate that JoJo would meet Joel Fisk. Conveniently, fate had placed both JoJo and Joel in the same house together, and over a warm can of John Smiths bitter the two discussed life the world and everything. Discovering a shared love for the blues, the boys formed their first band together - Jellyroll.
From there, the boys found Stephen on the internet, they met him in a strange shed in Witham, and the rest is history.
Stephen Cutmore
In the late 50s and early 60s, Stephen became aware of a new exciting sound beginning to filter its way through the airwaves. Rock'n'Roll had already taken America by storm and by the end of the 1950's this exciting new kind of music had made it's way over to the UK.
Wanting to be part of the new music, in the 1960s Stephen picked-up a guitar and joined a band. After a few rehearsals the rest of the group realised Stephen wasn't going to make it as a guitarist. "Why don't you turn the bloody thing over and tap on the back or something" said one of the group. Stephen did just that and it wasn't long before he had his own real drum kit to play on. In those days drum tutors were practically unheard of, so Stephen taught himself by watching and listening to other drummers that he admired.
By 1967 and just out of school Stephen joined his first Blues band 'The Omaha Blues'. Blues music had become very popular with young people of that time thanks to British pioneers like Alexis Korner, John Mayall and of course The Rolling Stones.
But music seems to change a lot in such a short time. By the mid 70s Disco and Punk were becoming popular. Blues and Rock'n'Roll were not fashionable any more. The 80's arrived and finding like-minded people to play with was no easy task. By 1987 a chance meeting was also the start of a long term partnership, with bass man Fergie Fulton. Known as the 'Bottom Brothers' they hit it off from the start, developing an almost telepathic understanding together. Out of a jam in a local pub, ‘Booze n Blooze’ were formed and went on to become voted the best unsigned Blues band in the UK 1989. Booze n Blooze went on to play with some of the most famous acts from the Blues world including, in 1992, a UK tour with Chuck Berry. Bookings at Blues festivals with the likes of Jimmy Rogers, Koko Taylor, Chicken Shack, Zoot Money, Honey Boy Edwards, and Doctor Feelgood followed. They even played a gig backing 'Screaming Lord Sutch' who had mislaid his Savages one evening!
In November 2007 another chance meeting, another jam. Joel Fisk, Jojo Burgess and Stephen got together at a rehearsal studio in Witham. The following week Stephen invited Fergie, and then along came Giles …
Fergie Fulton
Fergie Fulton is a musical fusion on four strings. Classically trained in Trumpet and Cornet as a child, he eventually grew into baritone and tenor horn spending two years with the Scottish Symphony Youth Orchestra, before he turned his back on a music scholarship and picked up bass guitar
“I started off at the top end of the orchestra but I liked the feel of the other end, their instruments sounded more fun and you could feel them.”
At the end of the 70’s he played and jammed in the West of Scotland music scene where the jazz fusion period of the time saw his playing become influenced by players like Jeff Berlin, Stanley Clarke, Tim Bogart, Steve Swallow, Billy Cobham, Jeff Beck, ultimately leading him to lose his way and give up playing. A move to London in the early 80s as a sound engineer and roadie, lasted about a year and it saw him go back to playing in many of the recording studios in London and regular visits to the legendary Nomis studios in Shepherds Bush. At the end of the 80s he played with Booze’n’Blooze, linking up with Steve ’Cupsy’ Cutmore for the first time. The band topped the UK’s search for the best Unsigned Blues Band and went on to release three albums. In the late 90s he joined Groove Doctors, a band made up of the finest players on the East Anglian Blues scene, releasing three more albums and being regarded as one of the most original blues bands around on the European scene.
In a career that has spanned over thirty five years and seen him pick up numerous awards, he has played from one side of the world to the other, working as a guest for various artists from the USA, and now back full circle after 20 years to rejoin Steve ‘Cupsey’ Cutmore as part of the Rhythm section of Hokie Joint.
