Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra don’t care what genre you choose to put them in – Western Swing, Blues, Country, Rock & Roll or whatever else– as long as you understand that they’re 100% sincere and 100% immersed in this stuff. This is no lazy pastiche, no dressing up box. They live and breathe this music and want you to get immersed with them.

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They last played here in 2017 and some may remember the memorable performance on the Frontier Stage (and in the midst of the audience) when the power went down and they played a magical acoustic set to a joyful crowd "the highlight of the festival" said more than one reveller.

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“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

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The Tea Pad are ten years into a remarkable story that began with four friends studying at Newcastle University and now sees them playing venues and festivals across the UK and mainland Europe. Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne but with members hailing from Orkney to Warwickshire, the Tea Pad sound draws on myriad influences – from Hank Williams to Django Reinhardt, Tom Waits to The Beatles – yet ultimately sounds like nobody else, that North Eastern Swing style that’s utterly their own and changing all the time.

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Joining Rob Heron (vocals/guitar) is Tom Cronin (mandolin/harmonica/guitar), Ben Powling (Saxophone/Clarinet) and Ted Harbot (double bass/electric bass) and Paul Archibald (drums).

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“Hank did it like this. So did Sinatra. So did Tom Waits. So did John Lee Hooker. Mix these influences with a healthy dose of youthful enthusiasm, a real passion and an ear for detail, sheer authenticity, and a good slug of both Scotch and Bourbon, and you might find that the results are very much to your taste. They are certainly to mine.”

Mark Whyatt, Folk Radio

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“That’s one hot band right there!”

Huey Morgan, BBC Radio 2

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"Amazing musicians who play with both passion and a sympathetic regard for the history of the genre.”

Maverick Magazine

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