Wille and the Bandits & Demi Marriner

Mark Lear
Mar 12
6 min read

Night & Day Café, Manchester - March is a busy month for gigs and for me they all happen to be in Manchester. Samantha Fish started things off last week, next week sees me ‘move here’ for the Folk Festival, before Elles Bailey finishes off the month at Band on the Wall.

Let’s deal with tonight though. Night and Day Café are the hosts, which is a good venue and normally has a crowd that really shows their appreciation when they see and hear something they like. Caitlin Krisco and the Broadcast, The Deep Blue and St. Catherine’s Child have all played here in times gone by and gone down a storm, so it all bodes well.

Tonight’s headliner is Wille and the Bandits, a band that’s new to me, even though they’ve been around for a good few years, and one from a part of the country that’s not known for churning out musicians - Mick Fleetwood aside, that is. Heading to the bright lights and the big city of Manchester, from their homes in Cornwall, they’re a band that has a reputation for putting on a good show when they play live. They’ve received rich praise from the likes of Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart and, if that isn’t enough, their tunes have a huge chunk of Hammond sounding organ running through them - which always gets my attention. Whether it’s the real McCoy, with a Leslie cabinet in tow, or one of those Swedish Nord’s, that can pull off a neat imitation on a good day, remains to be seen.

There’s a Support too, which tonight comes in the form of the delightful Demi Marriner, who takes a break from providing Support and bv’s on the huge touring schedule of Elles Bailey, to do her own thing, so…

Let’s get on with it.

Demi Marriner - Anyone that’s familiar with Elles Bailey will know of Ms. Marriner, as they’ve been in cahoots for quite a while. Not everyone however might know that she has her own songs to offer. Tonight, she’s accompanied by Joe Coombs, who I last saw playing with Laura Evans, so as good a wing man as anyone could ask for.

A little later than advertised, the twosome appear and with a polite hello from the Lady, they open with ‘Sins’ from Marriner’s first album ‘The Things We Didn’t Say’ and follow it up with the next track off the same album ‘Distorted Desires’. Now as opening tracks go, these are very good, and very well received by the Manchester crowd. It didn’t go unnoticed though that a good few of them had Elles Bailey t-shirts on, so maybe she is more of a known quantity than she thinks she is, as she introduces the third song, ‘Think of Me’, as “a new song, well, they’re probably all new to you”. I think not, Ms. Marriner, as your reputation very much precedes you.

‘Repeat Refrain’ comes from the second album ‘The Things I Said’ that, she says “tells you too much about me, and if you want to get to know me really well and really fast” - listen and learn. It was nice for a delicate ripple of applause to come through when she mentioned the title as an additional show of appreciation.

‘Need to Know’ and ‘Good Guy Act’ finish off an opening salvo of wonderful vocals, delicate harmonies with Coombs and guitar work from both that complimented each other throughout. Very nice.

It was even more pleasing to hear the huge cheer that came about when Marriner said that she’s getting ready to announce a full tour later in the year, and with a full band in tow, now that’s something to really look forward to. On this showing Manchester, in particular, will look forward to it, so let’s hope the City makes the schedule.

Wille and the Bandits - Now these guys had been on my radar for a while, but I’d never got close to a gig and didn’t really know much about them. Fortunately, the lovely PR people had played a blinder and provided me with lots of info and an advanced copy of their latest album, their seventh by all accounts, ‘Salt Roots’, an album that Front Man, Edwards (during the gig) said that someone had described it as “an album that AI couldn’t make”, which he didn’t know how to take, but has put it down to their many different styles of music that they blend together to make their own unmistakeable sound.

With Manchester nicely warmed up, courtesy of Ms. Marriner, the crowd was ready and the overture that played as the band walked on was enough to set a few pulses racing – this is what they had come to see and were ready for it. A trio of tunes, all segwayed together as one big opener, came thick and fast. Wheal Jane started things off, followed by King Kong and Style Thing finishing us off very well, thank you.

The bands eclectic mix was on show from the beginning, and it carried on with Reina Del Mar, with a real Latin groove to it and all very Santana-esque, which is no bad thing, and it included some wonderful flat chops from Zachariah O’Loughlin on drums – who was definitely there, as we saw him walk on, but anyone that knows the Night & Day Café, knows that their stage lighting doesn’t reach the back of the stage (where does it, I hear you ask), so you have to have faith that he is actually doing his thing and it’s not a machine.

Up front, Wille Edwards was putting heart and soul into things, swapping out lap steel guitars on a regular basis and wringing out passion with soulful vocals that Manchester lapped up. Where Edwards took time to breathe, the gaps were filled in by Stevie Watts on keys and a Hammond sound from a Viscount that sounded delicious not least on Four Million Days, which had a pulsing bass running throughout it, courtesy of Harry Mackaill, but with that Viscount lauding it all across the back. Not to be left out, Edwards launched into one mean guitar solo that hit the mark with everyone in the room.

Heart strings were tugged with Angel, which Edwards wrote in memory of his mother, who he lost some twenty years ago. After taking a bit of a break to come to terms with things, he needed to let everything out when he finally came back to the band. Angel was the result which starts off all gentle and esoteric and haunting - until a big thumping beat kicks in, by he who could be heard but not seen, and the sound of that Viscount wrapping around everything like one big snuggly blanket. It’s a mammoth instrumental tune that pulls you every which way and leaves you grateful for it.

This song was one big outpouring of every emotion known to man and the response from the crowd was truly amazing and great to witness.

Keep It on the Downlow is a funky tune - well we’ve had everything else - with a brilliant solo from Watts, who’s up for Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2026 UK Blues Awards incidentally, whereas Caught in the Middle is a right meaty tune which loads of power behind it. That eclecticism knows no bounds.

1970 is another real tune with power behind it, and which went straight into Bad News as the (supposedly) last songs of the night and together must have lasted a good quarter of an hour – Prog Rock now being firmly added to the mix !

Manchester had been treated to anything and everything tonight, with a good selection of songs from the back catalogue and the new offering ‘Salt Roots’, no-one had been left out. The boys weren’t done just yet though as there was an encore on the way with two songs from that latest album, Sail Away is an emotional tale, telling the story of the children left behind by the Pilgrims when The Mayflower set sail, some 400 years ago, before Trouble Round The Bend really did finish things off.

If I didn’t know what to expect at the start, I do now. I’ve ran out of superlatives to describe the many different styles of music that these guys cover, but it is true to say that there’s something for everyone, all done extremely well by musicians that know their craft. It’s an emotional rollercoaster of a ride and I was very glad that I finally caught up with Wille and the Bandits and I promise not to leave it too long before I witness it all again.

Until the next time…

Wille & The Bandits Setlist