Poor White Trash

Poor White Trash and the Little Big Horns began in the nineties. At Ben Elton's wedding, the Bootleg Beatles played and were fantastic. They left their instruments on stage because there were rumours that later on, Sophie – Ben's new bride, would get up and play the bass whilst her sister sang. (Sophie is an Australian of renown, playing in various bands with her sis and basically rocks like a mobster) I think there was a point in the evening, where I got up and sang most of the songs I knew... and that was the beginning really. Hugh Laurie played keyboards at some point, Adrian Edmondson played guitar, Kev Allen sang Heartbreak Hotel in Welsh, and we had a good time. But everyone said that Sophie and Ade and Hugh and I should get a band together.

I called some people that I knew and we began rehearsals at Nomis in Shepherd's Bush.

I think Ade did one gig with us, and then split It wasn't a big deal, but I do think Ade's love of the Blues that influenced the Beatles and the Stones meant that what he wanted to play and what I wanted to sing (however badly) wasn't going to work.

"we also did 'The Empire Strikes Back' which was a late night Comic Relief live show a couple years back"

But no harm done we stuck together and played some gigs: We did the Sense and Sensibility wrap party (our first gig) I'll never forget Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett and Alan Rickman shaking their booties to the funk, brilliant, We played at the Edinburgh festival for two nights, I was really worried about my voice holding out, but it did and we absolutely rocked it.

Big respect to Hamish Stewart and Ruby Turner for guesting on those two gigs. We played at the Olympia in Dublin and we also did 'The Empire Strikes Back' which was a late night Comic Relief live show a couple years back we did Shake A Tail Feather (which seemed to last for three days ) and a pretty neat version of Love Train, Big respect to Lulu, who on the night did her own remix of Love Train acapella with the backing singers and threw in a bit of 'Shout' for good measure.

In 99 we stopped for a bit for various reasons. And then this year... we just decided to come back for goodness sakes. We did our first gig for ages at Ce Ce's nightclub which is written about elsewhere on this site...

"I'll never forget Emma Thompson. Kate Winslett and Alan Rickman shaking their booties to the funk"

Our current line up is:

• Lenny Henry: Vocals, funk, saying 'hunh!' a lot.
• Shade Adejumo: Vocals
• Kate Mckenzie: Vocals
• Hugh Laurie: Keyboards, Looking incredibly debonair
• Sophie Elton: Bass, rocks the joint.
• Ken Bowley: guitar
• Andy Gangadeen: Drums – v funky. v loud.
• John Thirkell: Trumpet 'you guys British? Sounds like it...'
• Phil Smith: Sax –a gent.

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Download a pdf of the latest tour dates here

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