Past Event

with Live Performances from

Midweek Funk Band
Karl Clews
Dr. Funk

Location was: Miltown Malbay Community Centre

Check out the Miltown Malbay Community Centre Website here

Meet Dr. Funk

Originally from Sunderland, he now lives in Newquay, Cornwall, UK (he was actually born in California), where he mixed his love of surfing with music. He is a multi-instrumentalist, live-looper, jazz funk bassist Dr Funk loves busking as well as live performances. Jonny makes the four-string sing. He surfs. His dream is to own a 67 Mustang Fastback. He’s not actually a doctor. Dr Funk lives to play the bass. That’s really all you need to know. Slapping, popping, strumming, riffing, he elevates the humble rhythm instrument to levels of melody and showmanship that are more commonly associated with the lead guitar. Inspired by legendary bassists – Marcus miller, Victor Wooten, Louis Johnson – Funk is the type of player who could jam on a groove for hours, building it up with his loop machine and keys. Fellow musicians stop and play with him. Crowds gather. Intrigued ears fished by Funk’s playing, pausing and taking time out to enjoy a stranger’s soundtrack.

Meet Karl Clews

Karl began his musical odyssey at the age of 8, on the classical guitar. Having achieved a distinction at grade 8 and a Performer’s Diploma by the age of 16, Karl turned his attention to the bass guitar: ‘I was heavily into soul, funk and fusion as a teenager,’ he states, ‘and I quickly realized that it was the bass guitar that really drove and directed this kind of music.’
​
Influenced by such virtuoso bass players as Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Marcus Miller, Louis Johnson, Armand Sabal-Lecco and Mark King, Karl developed a distinctive percussive and rhythmic style that quickly established him as an in-demand player for jazz, blues and soul bands whilst still at university in Oxford. Following a period spent living in France, where he played extensively around the clubs of Paris and Nancy and gigged and recorded with such stars of the French music scene as MC Solaar, Manu Dibango and Laurent Voulzy, Karl moved to London, where he spent six years as a session player, songwriter and producer.

Karl is now settled in Galway on the west coast of Ireland and is currently working with various top Irish function bands, typically playing around 150 gigs per year throughout Ireland.