A500 Music Presents

  KARA GRAINGER

Sunday 26th October 2025

Fulford Village Hall - Stoke on Trent - ST11 9QT

Doors 6pm for a 7pm start

Tickets £15

With sultry, mesmerizing vocals, engaging song writing talent, and fiery slide guitar work, Kara Grainger boasts an impressive set of skills. This Australian performer bears a style all of her own, full of soulful swagger and elegant musicianship, her songs bringing a distinctly unique and modern take to blues, roots and soul music.

Since her beginnings, playing the club scene of Balmain in Sydney Australia, Kara’s music has taken her on an incredible journey across the globe. She has travelled to Indonesia several times to perform at the Jakarta International Blues Festival, performing together with her band and also as a special guest with The Jakarta Women’s Blues Review.  In 2011 she toured Japan with "The Swampers and Donnie Fritts”, (the infamous house Rhythm section for "Fame Recordings" in Muscle Shoals). Kara has also taken her band to Switzerland and across Europe performing to sold out audiences throughout the globe.

In her adopted home base of the US, Kara continues to tour consistently, performing at many of the premier blues clubs and festivals. She has also opened for many extraordinary acts such as Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal and Jonny Lang, to name but a few.

A500 Music have been working on this gig for a few years now, and we are delighted to finally be welcoming Kara and her trio to Fulford this autumn.

"Talk about star power, a killer voice and guitar skills. She said to the band as much to the audience, “I think tonight, we’ll just play some blues.” Playing slide guitar, Grainger began with rootsy blues, her voice full-bodied with plenty of soul. There was clarity there too with that unmistakable bell tone mixed with grit. We were in for some serious musicianship with Kara Grainger. Her vocals packed a punch and she played monster guitar solos that had the crowd whooping andclapping. Nice to see a female musician kick some a** like that".

ROCK & BLUES MUSE

A500 Music Presents

THE LUKE JACKSON TRIO

Sunday 1st March 2026

Fulford Village Hall - Stoke on Trent - ST11 9QT

Doors 6pm for a 7pm start

Tickets £15

Blessed with a distinctive, bluesy, soulful voice, UK based singer-songwriter Luke Jackson has developed an enviable reputation for himself in the Roots, Acoustic, Americana, Blues & Folk circuits by virtue of his acclaimed recordings and dynamic live performances, be they solo or trio.

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Between his debut album released in 2012, through to his latest release in 2022 are 5 records, including a live album ‘Solo, Duo, Trio’ which were all released to high praise and 5* reviews!

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In the summer of 2019 he played the ‘Costa Del Folk’ Festival in Portugal, September marked his first full solo tour in the USA and his last full length studio album ‘Journals’ was released in November that year to great reviews and was made ‘Album of the Year’ by Fatea Magazine, with R2 Magazine saying "Journals is an excellent album from a very special singer with a great repertoire, fully confirming his star potential beyond the folk scene"

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After going back to both Europe and the USA in early 2020 for another two successful tours, like many, many others, Luke’s career was ‘put on hold’ by the end of March with the advent of Covid 19. Luke kept himself busy and engaged with the musical community through a series of themed live stream shows and after a bit of a creative writing surge, released a 7 track EP in early 2021 of songs written during lockdown called ‘Of The Time’. Initially a digital release, it is now available in CD format as well and garnered great reviews with Fatea magazine saying “Luke Jackson has gifted us with one of the most important and essential releases I’ve heard in quite some time” whilst At The Barrier journal noted “At a time when the gift of music is something to cherish, ‘Of The Time’ is an inspired offering” and it was subsequently voted 2021 EP of the Year by Fatea Magazine!

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2022 turned out to be one of Luke's most successful years yet. It started with a prestigious support slot opening for Fairport Convention on their Winter Tour in February, a dream run of openers for Richard Thompson, two weeks songwriting and performing in Nashville, including a show at the iconic Bluebird Cafe, a run of shows supporting the legendary Marillion and to finish off the year, several openers with the wonderful Jools Holland.

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If this wasn't enough, Luke also found time to record and release on Bandcamp the previously mentioned '10 year anniversary' version of his very first album, 2012's 'More Than Boys' which prompted At The Barrier to say "In fact the project, simple ideas are always the best, is an exercise in growth – growth of a person, growth of a musician and growth of a set of songs"

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Alongside all of this, Luke continues to tour relentlessly in his own right, either solo, with either a bassist or drummer, or as a trio with both of them.

2024 and 2025 were just as busy, with highlights being numerous support slots opening for the legendary Jools Holland, very well attended solo shows and a brilliant Trio tour in November to promote his 7th studio album 'BLOOM', which has been very well received gaining universally positive reviews and to date, over 60,000 streams on Spotify.