Blade Factory, the new live music venue on Greenland Street and the latest development of the impressive event and restaurant space Camp & Furnace, has joined together with Liverpool Philharmonic to present an innovative concert, Skip ‘Little Axe’ McDonald on the Saturday 15th June.

Providing guitars, bass, keyboards, and vocals, Little Axe is the return to the blues that Skip grew up with and learned from his father. Born Bernard Alexander on 1st September 1949, Dayton, Ohio in the U.S.A. Skip McDonald learned to play the blues on his father’s guitar from the age of eight, although by the time he was 12 years old he had opted to perform doo-wop.

McDonald has played on records by Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, James Brown, Robert Plant, Mark Stewart & The Mafia, Sinead O’Connor and Megadeth. He made his name as an integral part of the Sugar Hill house band playing on the most influential early rap classics like Rapper’s Delight, The Message and White Lines.

 Continuing the past meets present theme, Skip McDonald’s Little Axe performance mixes blues and roots music with modern technology and for this very special appearance McDonald will provide blues vocals and guitar loops while Matt ‘The Assembly Worker’ Smyth will feature on laptop and electronics. Smyth controls the beats, the bass and adds layers of reverb and delay to the tracks while Skip McDonald mainlines the old Delta blues. Together they plug it into the 21st century.

 Tickets for this event are priced at £10.