OPENING night at the Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival can only mean one thing - time for Nine Below Zero.

The Colne festival - twice voted the best in Europe - starts tomorrow and leading the way on the International Stage at the Muni will be the South London outfit who have become a regular fixture.

“We’ve always been very supportive of the guys up there as they do a terrific job,” said the band’s frontman Dennis Greaves.

“This year we’re on with Dave Edmunds then Bernie Marsden after that so that’s not a bad line up in anyone’s book.”

It’s going to be an exciting few months for Nine Below Zero. In September their new album 13 Shades of Blue will be released and then they will head out on a full UK tour complete with a full brass section.

But for Colne the line-up will be the traditional quartet of Dennis, harmonica player Mark Feltham, drummer Mickey Burkey and bassist Ben Willis.

“This time we’ll have to do Colne as a four-piece,” said Dennis, “as we’ve got to do the gig and drive down to Gatwick and fly straight to Geneva so logistically it would have been a nightmare to get the big band.

“But Colne is a fantastic festival and if we are fortunate enough to be invited again I’d love to take the big band up there.”

The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival brings back many memories for Dennis and the boys.

“We once broke down on way to Colne around Birmingham and we got a black cab and we put all the gear in it and charged up the motorway,” he said. "Looking back you think ‘how did we do that?’ but we got there somehow.“

Earlier this summer the band played Glastonbury for the first time.

“That was the first ever big band gig.,” said Dennis. “We played in afternoon and then had another gig in the evening, typical musician stuff.

“So we were in and out of Glastonbury which was absolutely fantastic but I said to the boys what really impressed me about the evening gig which was as a four-piece was how we adapted.

“It is totally different being a four-piece to a big band. It would be like playing for two different managers in a football team with different systems.

“You have to adapt to being a four-piece where we all have so much more freedom. With the big band you need to be more disciplined. But I think when you are mature musician you learn how to adapt to these things and they are both great fun.”

Dennis is clearly excited about the band’s new album.

“It covers the whole spectrum of blues from zydeco to funk, and from soul to pure blues,” said Dennis.

“I know it’s all covers and we will get round to another original album next time but I think this one of the best albums we’ve done.

It’s important that a band that’s been around as long as we have gets in a studio and remains creative even if you are going through the library of blues.”

After almost 40 years of touring and recording Nine Below Zero remain one of the country’s leading R&B outfits but Dennis and the boys remain very grounded and are known for their generosity to bands just breaking through.

“Those early experiences shape you,” said Dennis. “I had it with Ray Davies and Pete Townshend when we were starting out. They were my idols and yet they’d talk to me about football and blues.

“One day we were late for a gig after we got caught in snow in Switzerland.

“The Kinks had us in their dressing room and gave us hot chocolate and brandy. Whenever a band comes and plays with Nine Below Zero I’m the same. If the dressing room is too small they can share ours.

“I really am very keen to be like that with bands who support us as you just don’t know.

“I remember we had this young girl supporting us once who no-one had heard of. Then she went into Yazoo and the rest is history - Alison Moyet became a major star.

“I can’t stand aloof bands.”

Nine Below Zero, the International Stage, Colne Muni, Friday, August 26.