Shuffle to the Shuffle

YOU won't believe your ears when you first hear THE SHUFFLE KINGS, which performs the first of its three dates this month at Club Phoenix on Sunday. Playing on Sunday, June 6, June 20 and June 27, The Shuffle Kings 'generally' go by the label of rhythm & blues band. But with influences as diverse as world music, swing and rockabilly, the band's sound is as diverse as members' experience and ability to play many instruments. Take PAUL ROBERT BURTON who plays bass, harmonica and percussion, or MICHAEL HAWKE on sax, harmonica, flute and percussion. Then consider you have CHARLIE COLE on organ, piano, accordion and trumpet or TAO WANDERS on drums and percussion, and you start to get the idea. Former Newcastle player Hawke has played with TOTAL FIRE BAND, Cole with 1927 and MOVING PICTURES and Wanders with MAL EASTICK, PHIL EMMANUEL and in another country (Ireland) and a lifetime with BB KING and U2. Band manager Burton, who has played with IAN MOSS, DON WALKER, ED KUEPPER, PAUL KELLY and many others, explains the band's surprising lack of guitar, despite being a mainstay in r&b rooms around the country. 'They're shocked that a band can go into a blues/r&b room and not have a guitar,' he said. 'The band jumps around from a lot of different things musically which I think is a good thing. It makes it much more interesting for punters to come and see.' The group tends to entice the punters onto the dance floor with familiar covers, before 'warping out into the left-of-centre stuff' later in the evening. TE