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Chantel McGregor plays The Apex...

Chantel McGregor stunned The Apex’s audience with her guitar virtuosity, when she played there 2 years ago. Now she’s back in town to showcase her own style of contemporary rock-blues.

Imagine the tone of Robin Trower, the inspiration of Hendrix, the influence of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the energy of Bonamassa, the intensity of Walter Trout and the haunting vocal of Stevie Nicks all rolled into one... “A musician born with an effortless virtuosity, peppered by flights of incendiary guitar and flanked by moments of poise, grace and fluidity.” (GetReadyToRock.com) Guitar prodigy Chantel McGregor has won five British Blues Awards in the last three years, including Guitarist of the Year in 2013 and 2014 (the first woman to do so).

When Chantel was eight years old, she was the youngest person in the UK to pass a Rock school exam. At 12, she was jamming in her native Bradford and evolving into a gifted musician. At 14, Chantel was told by major labels that she had a "great voice, but girls don't play guitar like that!" Wisely ignoring the comments, she enrolled at the Leeds College of Music and became the first student in the college’s history, to achieve a 100% pass mark, with 18 distinctions.

When Chantel released her 2011 debut album, ‘Like No Other’, one critic said, “Chantel McGregor deserves to be held up as a messiah of blues-rock and given her own mountain. She doesn't strum or pick her guitar but almost bends and distorts it, as if she's channeling the ghost of Hendrix through her fingers"

New album ‘Lose Control’ sees Chantel producing an exciting pantheon of rock crescendos and riffs that will please her devout blues rock fan base, but also displays a bigger and bolder rock sound with progressive influences. Chantel explains: “I juxtaposed heavy, guitar riff-based, dark tracks with haunting, emotive acoustic tracks, whilst tying them together with the lyrical themes of desperation and loss so often seen in Southern Gothic fiction."

Chantel McGregor plays at The Apex on Thursday 8 September at 8pm. Tickets are £14, or £16 on the door. For more information, or to book, call the Box Office on 01284 758000, or visit www.theapex.co.uk.