EXPECT a night of boogie woogie and toe tapping action at the St Helens Citadel later this month when Jazz and Blues veterans King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys come jiving into town as part of their UK tour.

The Star caught up with the legendary band’s lead singer King Pleasure as he prepares for the group’s first ever gig in St Helens on April 17. He gave us an exclusive insight in to what people should expect from the show.

“We’ll be playing stuff off the new album. I think the best way to describe it is ‘boogie woogie’ or ‘jump jive’ music,” says KP.

“Expect to have to get up and dance! It will be a fun night and it will be a mixture of swing, jazz, blues, 50s rock n roll – most of it written ourselves but in that sort of style. It’s just about having fun.

Toetapping stuff I guess you could call it.”

With a name like King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys expect adrenalin- pumping stuff at the highly awaited night at the Citadel.

The boys are out to beat the recession by entertaining the UK with their uplifting sounds and KP explains how he’s excited about coming to St Helens for the first time:

“Although people are broke they need some entertainment and have a nice night out.

“It’s always nice to play to a new audience and try and convert some new fans or whatever it may be. I’m sure that it’ll be a great night.”

Even after 23 years in the music industry, the group still packs out theatres across the country.

There may have been a number of technological changes in the music industry over the past quarter of a decade but King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys continue to record their sound in one form or another.

The group are currently promoting their latest album, Hey Puerto Rico!, which was released in 2007.

KP explains why he thinks the band has managed to have so much success: “Well we’ve been going now for 23 years. One of the things is that we all get on well so it’s like a bunch of mates going out every night.

Also, we’ve always tried to put the music across in an entertaining way so that it’s fun for everyone and so that the people who have seen the show want to come back to it again.”

It’s difficult to pin down the Biscuit boys to a particular genre. Are they a jazz band? Or are they R n B?

Only two members of the original lineup remain but one of them, King Pleasure himself, thinks the band will now stay the same for many years to come: “It’s settled down now and hopefully it will remain so for a few years.

Although it’s always sad when somebody leaves – if either they’ve packed it in all together of if they go on to different things – it’s always exciting when somebody new comes in and gives you some new life and gets everyone going again.”

The Biscuits formed at their Walsall high school in the 1980s, but never did they imagine that, 23 years later, they would still be together.

“We formed the band for fun and for the love of that particular style of music.

“We had no idea that it would take off and continue for all those years which has been great. When I think of some of the jobs that I used to do – hard labour for a living – and now it’s just doing a gig which I’d do for fun anyway even if I wasn’t getting paid for it.”

Who said you had to take things seriously? The band must be doing something right after being together since high school in 1986. They’ve completed numerous highly successful tours in America.

“The stuff that we do it’s kind of never in and therefore it’s never out.

If it suddenly became very popular and ‘charty’ then the next thing you’re old news. But because we’ve never had that sort of success we can just carry on forever with it.”

The band’s UK tour comes to the Citadel in St Helens on Friday April 17. Tickets are available through the Citadel Box Office on 01744 735436.