MEMBERS of a band which has performed at The Royal Albert Hall and the NEC since it formed 20 years ago in Bewdley are celebrating the release of their seventh album.

Ian Jennings, the only original member in The Big Town Playboys, said their latest offering, Roll The Dice, was unique in that it is their first album to feature guest musicians, including Jools Holland, Robert Plant and Jeff Beck.

The bass player, who lived in Far Forest until 10 years ago, described the music as "original rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll music".

He said the group had recently acquired a new singer and guitarist, Ian Roberts, and the current line-up also consisted of drummer, Mark Morgan, lead guitarist, Dave Wilson, saxophonist and harmonica player, Julian Webster-Greaves and pianist, Matt Empson.

Back in their Bewdley days, the group's singer, pianist and guitar player was Mike Sanchez, who went to Bewdley High School with Ian. Still living in Kidderminster, he is now a successful solo artist after leaving the Big Town Playboys in 1999.

The pair's former high school teacher, Ricky Cool, was the original saxophonist and harmonica player, while former Chicken Shack bassist, Andy Sylvester, from Stourport, was the guitarist and John Spinetto, from Birmingham, played the drums.

Ian said: "We started rehearsing upstairs at The George pub, which was good because a lot of bands rehearsed there and then we had a residency at The Thurston pub in Bewdley and played there every Wednesday for about a year.

"We used to travel down to London every weekend for gigs and then drag ourselves back to Bewdley."

Since then, the band has performed a sell-out benefit concert with Robert Plant in aid of Birmingham Children's Hospital at the NEC and supported Eric Clapton on three tours.

He added: "Each time we've worked with Eric we have played at The Royal Albert Hall and done big shows like that. Then we did an album with Jeff Beck called Crazy Legs."

The Big Town Playboys also toured South Africa on their own for a month in 2001 and performed to sell-out crowds of around 3,000.

The 41-year-old said of Roll The Dice: "At the moment they're talking about distributing it throughout the world and, if they do, it will go ballistic, hopefully ... the idea was we wanted to ask people who had been involved with the Playboys over the last 20 years to come on board because we've never had any guests on our albums before."

The album also features Andy Fairweather-Lowe - who charted as lead singer with Amen Corner on Bend Me, Shape Me and went on to solo success with Wide-Eyed and Legless. He now plays guitar with Eric Clapton. Alabama singer, Lisa Mills, also guests on Roll the Dice.

Ian, who now lives in Exeter, added: "In a couple of weeks time I'm going over to Alabama to record an album with Lisa because when I do gigs with her it's usually just me and her.

"Last time she came over, last summer, we played together in the acoustic tent at Glastonbury Festival."

The band is also jetting off to tour Holland and Belgium in March. Roll The Dice is on sale at most High Street record shops and more information is available at www.bigtimeplayboys.com