Ben and Tom Waters

Ben Waters woke up one morning at the age of about 14 to find he could play piano! Fascinated by

the rhythms of the Deep South he fell in love with the music of the great boogie woogie, rock ‘n roll

and blues men. Working hard from the age of 16 in virtually every venue in his home county of

Dorset in England, he was catapulted at the age of 18 into a professional musical career by a request

from Shakin’ Stevens who asked him to accompany him and his band on an international tour.

Ben and his band have performed for royalty and at Ray Davies’s Meltdown Festival at the Royal

Festival Hall, followed by tours of Canada, Europe, Scandinavia and the States, where Ben played in

the Lincoln Center and on Broadway in New York with the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie. (The A being

Axel Zwingenberger; B – Ben Waters; C – Charlie Watts; D – Dave Green) He performed at the

Royal Albert Hall on 1st November 2013 alongside Ronnie Wood at the fabulous Blues Fest.

The Band were selected by Ray Davies as one of his favourite bands when he curated the wonderful

Meltdown Festival at the Royal Festival Hall 60 th Anniversary.

Ben recorded his album “Boogie for Stu” at his great friend and mentor Jools Holland’s studio

(which Jools donated freely) – it is a commemorative album in honour of the late Ian Stewart, family

friend and founder of The Rolling Stones , all of whom, along with Jools and P-J Harvey are featured

in the CD. It has topped blues and rock ‘n roll charts world wide with proceeds from sales and Ben’s

advance going to the British Heart Foundation in Stu’s memory. The CD cover painting of Ian

Stewart was created by Sir Peter Blake who has donated a further £10,000 from print sales to the

BHF in memory of Stu.

Ben is has just returned from sell out shows in New Zealand with his 15 year old sax playing son,

Tom, who has been amazing audiences all over the world and steals the show every time. Tom’s

saxophone was given to him by Tim Ries of the Rolling Stones at the Hyde Park concert in July 2013

and last year he had a sax lesson from Blue Lou Marini (Blues Brothers) in New York). He has been

accepted on the Jazz Course at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London.

On his return from New Zealand Ben felt immensely privileged to perform with his 16 piece band at

a very special wedding at which members of the English Royal family were guests.

Truly international, Ben and/or his band have performed all over the UK, Europe and Scandinavia,

Barbados, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, The States and Canada. They occasionally arrange

for friends from their extensive mailing list to join them – recent trips have included going to

Memphis, New Orleans, Canada, German Christmas Markets and the wonderful Isles of Scilly. A

party of 20 have just been to see Jools Holland perform in Bad Ischl in Austria when Jools asked Ben

to play a few numbers. They have just returned from Buenos Aires with a party of friends where

they enjoyed a phenomenal concert by The Rolling Stones. There are many more planned at terrific

locations throughout the world.