29th July
2pm (Doors 1pm)
Dr
Ika's Pharmacy
We welcome Dr Ika who many of you know
from Grapevine Blues, this time he brings is Pharmacy with him.
Dr
Ika started to play his granddad's gramophone at the age of 4,
piano at 7 and classical guitar at 12.
After listening
to Albert King, B.B. King and Albert Collins, Ika discovered
the blues and electric guitar. Later, after having heard the
Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, he fell in love with rock music
which was a strictly forbidden fruit in the Soviet Georgia.
Ika started to play electric guitar and instantly got the blues,
because everybody and everything that surrounded him was against
it - starting with the Soviet System and ending with his parents.
KGB was after him because he was listening to the "enemy" radio
stations like BBC and the Voice of America and the police wanted
to cut his moderately long hair short.
While waiting for a better future Ika became a Doctor of Biology
and earned a Bachelor's degree in music.
When the strict
attitude towards the "subversive western music" had softened, Dr
Ika started to perform on several rock and blues festivals and
twice was honoured as the country's best guitarist.
During the
1986-1989 Ika lived and worked as a scientist in Sweden. He has
played with top jazz and blues musicians such as Jimmy Smith,
Richard Roberts, Tom Levin and has twice performed with the
legendary B.B. King - an unusual claim to fame from a
neurosurgeon!
It is not
surprising that Dr Ika got the BLUES. Miraculously in 1993,
Dr Ika and his wife, Lia, were awarded the Royal Society
Fellowships to carry out research at Cardiff University. They left
Georgia for good and immigrated to the UK. Along
his scientific work, Ika started to play funk-fusion with the band
"The Funker" and also totally different type of music in the rave
clubs together with heavy house dance DJ Paul Lyons. Soon he was
sharing the stage with such top DJs as Sasha, John Digwid, Carl
Cox, Kalvin Andrews, Love Dub, Tall Paul and others.
Experience he
gained on the dance floor proved to be invaluable when he later
produced a Future Music's platinum award winning guitar sample CD
"Guitar Odyssey" (Zero-G Ltd.).
Dr Ika now lives
in Hertfordshire. He has given up his scientific career and has
entirely devoted himself to music. Ika performs about 150 gigs a
year with the "Grapevine" blues band or in a duo with a singer
Mike Chase. With the Grapevine Blues Band, Ika played on many
blues festivals in the UK, sharing the stage with Gary Moore, Stan
Webb, Papa George, Sonny Black and others fabulous musicians.
In 2004 Ika was
signed by virtuoso guitar label “Liquid Note Records” where he was
featured on the “Alchemists II” album together with the worlds 29
top virtuoso guitarists.
In 2014 Ika,
together with two wonderful musicians Ivan Hoe on drums and Andrew
Heart on bass/vocals, founded power trio The Dr. Ika’s Pharmacy,
which plays Jimi Hendrix and Cream classic tunes mixing them with
powerful original material.
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Coming Soon To Blues At Barleylands
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5th
August
Nigel
Bagge Band
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12th
August
Gentleman
Tim & The Contenders
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19th
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Papa
George Band
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26th
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Roy Mette
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2nd
September
Jamie
Williams & The Roots Collective
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