ONE of the country’s hardest working bands will headline the Ribble Valley’s first one-day blues festival at the weekend

And for frontman Robert Kane, it’s just another chance for the band to do what they love to do – put on a show.

“That’s the secret of our success,” said Robert, who has been the band’s singer since 1999.

“Of course it’s all relative, we’re not U2, but I think that our longevity is down to the fact that we can put on a show that excites people.

“Let’s face it, we’re all getting on now, we’re all in our sixties, but there’s still a hell of a lot of energy coming off the stage which I think people appreciate. They can see we give 100 per cent every show.”

Robert is a charismatic and energetic frontman, putting many younger, ‘serious’ bands to shame.

“It has always puzzled me when I see bands that don’t react on stage,” he said. “You just wonder ‘are you aware that there is an audience out there?’ You’re not in a rehearsal room, this is it, it’s the real real thing.

“For us it’s also a two-way street. The more we get back from the audience the more we give.”

Formed in Canvey Island back in 1971 and featuring both Lee Brilleaux and Wilco Johnson, Dr Feelgood’s raw version of rhythm and blues was at the forefront of the early pub rock sound and songs such as Roxette, She Does It Right and Down at the Doctors remain fresh some 40 years later.

“We are a blues rock outfit,” said Robert, “but for a festival like Clitheroe we’ll probably include a couple more bluesier numbers.”

This may involve Robert picking up the harmonica a little more than usual. Now an accomplished player of the blues harp, it wasn’t always the case.

“When I went for the audition with the band after I’d been in the Animals, we’d done a few songs and someone asked if I’d brought a harmonica.

“I just said no but I know I’m going to have to learn it. I could see them looking at each other thinking, ‘we thought you could already play’ and then they asked if I could sort that out by next week.

“Initially I was delighted because it sounded as though I’d got the job then my second thought was I’d got to learn the harmonica in a week. That was the challenge they’d laid down.

“I did have a harmonica in the house with a busted reed which someone had given me years ago and it had just been in a drawer. So I just sat there with it for a few days until I cracked it.

“I won’t say I learned how to play it in three days but I could make an acceptable noise by then.

If you can get a little bluesy bend on it and make a reasonable noise you can get away with it and that’s what I was doing for the first few months, just getting away with it.”

Robert says it took him about eight months before he finally felt comf0tabler with the instrument.

“I was on stage playing a solo and for the first time I knew what I was going to do next, it had finally clicked,” he said,

Featuring alongside Dr Feelgood at the festival are Bernie Marsden, Danny Bryant, Red Butler and Rainbreakers and Blues Issue

The Clitheroe Blues, Rhythm and Rock Festival Clitheroe Grand, Sunday, October 15. Details from 01200 421599 or www.thegrandvenue.co.uk