PJS – FINAL FRIDAY NIGHT GIG EVER!

PJS was born when Stray’s house band (PRS) guitarist Steve Rodda fell ill at the beginning of 2023. Guitarist Dan Johnson stood in for him and ended up playing in the house band regularly for the following 4 months. At the time we re-named the band PJS, to fit in Dan and it stuck! This gig is a fitting thanks to Dan and it’s our final ever Friday night ‘live’ lounge gig, not only for the year, but for the venue. We’re re-locating Stray’s around the corner to The Ossington in January 2024 – this gig will be poignant for the band and marks the end of 16 years of live music at the Middlegate Venue, but also the start of the next 20 years to come…

Dan Johnson (guitarist) tells us in his biography, that he was initially intrigued by the sounds of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Smiths and Stray Cats and that he “started to play along by ear on a cheap Argos classical – after a lot of perseverance and hacking away, eventually I was ready for my first electric guitar”.

As a teenager he started to delve into jazz, funk, soul, ambient, indie and classic pop; but from his 20’s Dan’s main focus was jazz. 

“During this time I was lucky to meet a local sax player and all round amazing guy Eddie Kettlewell who turned me on to lots of great jazz and was very encouraging in what I was doing”.

This led to many years of playing with local and not so local jazz musicians, including gigs with Dave O’Higgins, Joe Giglio and Sheryl Bailey amongst others.

Dan also plays on studio sessions, recording with Gary Reader, Neil Hunter, Tony Kofi and more.

This date sees Dan picking his favourite tunes to play with his compatriots Si Potts (drums) and Mat Short (bass)…