Kyla Brox Band

The Kyla Brox Band is a blues act from Manchester, England, fronted by singer Kyla Brox. Brox grows up in a musical family, listening to her father sing the blues and her mother sing opera, alongside the soul and rock music of her four older siblings. She begins singing in her father’s band, the Victor Brox Blues Train, at the age of 12.

Formation and early work

Kyla Brox and guitarist Danny Blomeley meet in 1993, when he is 13 and playing bass in her father’s band. The two spend their teenage years performing and developing their skills with the Victor Brox Blues Train. Blomeley leaves the UK in 1998 to travel and play music, then returns in 2001. The pair then form a duo, with Brox on vocals and Blomeley on acoustic guitar.

The duo builds a following in clubs and venues across North West England and then more widely in the UK. Their first album together is Window, recorded in 2003 and made up of original songs and older material.

Band line-up and recordings

An electric version of the band forms in 2002 with Danny Blomeley on bass, Marshall Gill on electric guitar, Tony Marshall on saxophones and Phil Considine on drums. The Kyla Brox Band records the studio albums Beware, Coming Home and Gone, as well as the live album Live at Matt & Phred’s. A later acoustic release, Grey Sky Blue, features Blomeley’s guitar work and combines moody blues, personal reflection, and rhythmic, riff-led songs.

Brox also records a number of CDs with the Victor Brox Blues Train, giving her early experience on stage and in the studio. Her own singing is described in the material as drawing on blues and soul, and the band’s sound is characterised as funky, jazz-tinged blues.

Recognition and performances

The band performs at festivals and concerts in the UK and abroad, including the Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, Copenhagen Blues Festival, Blues autour du Zinc in Paris, the Great Southern Blues and Rockabilly Festival in Australia, Phuket International Blues Festival in Thailand, Edinburgh Festival and Limavady Jazz & Blues Festival in Ireland. The group also performs in Europe, Australia and Asia and often appears as a festival headliner.

Brox gains media attention through features on the covers of Blues in Britain and Blues Matters!, the latter giving her the nickname “The Voice”. She also takes part in a live session for BBC Radio 2. Press comments in the material describe her as a leading British female blues singer and praise the power and control of her voice.