Keighley Blues Club members will be missing tonight – but you can be sure they are having a good time!

They’ll be down at the club’s venue – the Cougar Park Hall of Fame – watching Steve Phillips.

Steve, a veteran of the UK blues scene for more than 40 years, is performing with his band the Rough Diamonds.

Steve is well known as the guy who, together with Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, formed the nucleus of The Notting Hillbillies.

The band’s album Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time peaked at number two in the album charts in 1990 and sold millions worldwide.

As well as playing conventional lead guitar, Steve is a respected slide player and has featured on the likes of McDowell’s Write Me A Few Of Your Lines and Tampa Red’s Guitar Boogie.

He is well-noted interpreter of work by such artists as Blind Willie McTell, Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Johnson and Blind Blake.

A Keighley Blues Club spokesman said with the Rough Diamonds, Steve Phillips proved his enduring status as one of the best blues guitarists in the land.

The spokesman added: “A rare talent in the blues field, he is respected throughout the music business by both musicians and fans alike, and a gentleman to boot!”

Support at the gig comes from debutant Sunjay Brayne.

The spokesman said: “Balancing his style shrewdly between blues and traditional folk music, Sunjay will perform his own compositions.

“These will be interspersed bet-ween his own workings of Sitting On Top Of The World, John Martyn’s Lullaby, No Regrets by Tom Rush and Pete Seger’s The Fire Down Below.”

E-mail bbj21@btinternet.com or call (01535) 600310 to book tickets, which cost £13. Visit keighleybluesclub.net for information.