About this Event

One of the hottest blues talents has moved to Brighton and has been making a lot of noise in the Lion of Late, Little victor and friends are having their very own blues rock out, Check out his bio below and head down for a foot stomping evening of dancing and cocktails.



Little Victor has been called the King of Grit and the antithesis of meaningless virtuosity. His rich, quirky and inspired downhome blues became well-known to blues audiences through his work with the legendary Louisiana Red on the highly celebrated Back To The Black Bayou. This album introduced the world to the powerful musical chemistry between Louisiana Red and Little Victor as his producer/protégé/bandleader. The record featured guests including Kim Wilson, Bob Corritore and David Maxwell and won prestigious prizes like the Grand Prix Du Disque (the French equivalent of the Grammy), the renowned Record Critics' Award of Germany (the German equivalent of the Grand Prix Du Disque), numerous Best Album nods in different Countries and a pair of nominations at the 31st Blues Music Awards (the blues Grammys). The album earned glowing reviews on three continents, both in blues publications and in important mainstream music magazines such as Rolling Stone and Down Beat. Little Victor has also produced and played on records by David Evans, Sophie Kay, Hubert Sumlin, RL Burnside, Robert Belfour and Tav Falco's Panther Burns –his work on Tav's long-awaited comeback album Conjurations was even noticed by Mojo magazine.



A second helping of that winning combination, Memphis Mojo, took listeners from the swamp a little up ways up the river to Memphis (where the album was recorded) and provided Ruf Records with the perfect follow-up to Back To The Black Bayou. Shortly before releasing Memphis Mojo, Little Victor released an excellent album– sans Red – called Boogie All Night. Recorded in Phoenix, Arizona under the auspices of his friend Bob Corritore (who has a guest slot on the record), Boogie All Night features standout musicians including Johnny Rapp, Brian Fahey, and Bill Tarsha who create a beautiful ensemble sound and are the perfect complement to Victor's wonderfully "back alley" guitar, harp and vocals. His live performances are often described as "juke joint cabaret." Indeed, LV can bring to mind John Lee Hooker, Slim Harpo, Pee Wee Herman, Muddy Waters, Peter Sellers, RL Burnside, James Brown, Salvador Dali, Lightnin' Hopkins, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy Reed and Screaming Jay Hawkins all rolled into one.

Little Victor Mac (née Macoggi) had a gipsy-like childhood. His father was an American serviceman who was constantly on the move. Little Victor also leads a wanderers' life on both sides of the pond. Lots of lucky people have seen him perform in Memphis, Paris, Austin, London, Riga, Hollywood, Oslo, Phoenix, Madrid, Lisbon, Las Vegas, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Milan, Berlin, New Orleans, Barcelona, Stockholm, San Antonio and Amsterdam. He has played and lived in many different places but doesn't really have any geographical attachment. He's an itinerant bluesman, an international artist and a man of the world. Victor began singing in 1981 atthe tender age of 14 – hence the name "Little" Victor. His first band mostly featured songs from the Sun Records vaults. At 16, he picked up the blues harmonica and started to wail in the style of Jimmy Reed and Junior Parker. He learned the real blues from playing with real bluesmen in Memphis, Tennessee when he was still a young man.



He played on Beale Street six days a week with Uncle Ben Perry, the "King of Handy Park." Beale Street wasn't yet the tourist trap it is today. This is why Little Victor is sometimes billed as The Beale Street Blues Bopper. He also learned from Herman "Alabama" Alexander, Ben Wilson and Wilroy Sanders. Most of them were irascible characters and few other musicians wanted to play with them. They used distorted sounds, didn't make the"correct" changes and always seemed to be grouchy to their accompanists. Victor didn't mind. He knew this was the real stuff, the music that won't be found in any tablature books and can't be learned by sitting at home listening to records. Drifting down river to North Mississippi, Victor jammed in a variety of deep blues guitar tunings in juke joints with RL Burnside, T-Model Ford,Jessie Mae Hemphill, Junior Kimbrough, Frank Frost, Willie Foster and a host of other backwater bluesmen. He soaked up the blues feeling of these great men and women, applying it to his own repertoire and style.



Encouraged by blues scholars like Robert Palmer and David Evans, he also recorded experimental blues demo tapes in Memphis with Alex Chilton. Later, the legendary guitarist Hubert Sumlin played and recorded with Victor. In the 1990's, he lived for a while in Austin, Texas. In 1994, Victor recorded Cuttin' Out, a collection of original songs, followed in 1996 by Space Shuffle, featuring drummer Uncle John Turner and Hector Watts on guitar. By 1998, Little Victor had joined forces with Sophie Kay, a blues chanteuse and guitar player who was then filming her acclaimed documentary A Day With RL Burnside with Victor's help. Burnside himself gave them the idea to call their first record Cookin' With Gas. In 2001, the album Just Rockin' The Blues was released thanks to blues guru David Evans, who also wrote the liner notes. This album of vintage juke joint blues, recorded in superb LO-FI mono, received a great response from the press, music fans and promoters. In December 2007, the E.P. Blues Shakedown came out on Witchcraft Records. In January 2008, Victor signed with cult label Wild Records of Hollywood. A few months later, he recorded Let's Get High for the label, which was officially released in August of 2009.



Little Victor has shared the bill and the stage with The Jelly Roll Kings, Snooky Pryor, Pinetop Perkins, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Billy Boy Arnold, The Black Keys, James Harman, T-Model Ford, Henry Gray, Lazy Lester and many more. He has played with RL Burnside, Robert "Wolfman" Belfour, The Hound Dog Taylor Tribute Band, Big Joe Louis, Little George Sueref, Tav Falco's Panther Burns, David Evans, Sophie Kay and many more. In 2004, he started working with Louisiana Red, is one of his bles idolsl. Their very successful association sadly ended when Red passed away in 2012. But Victor, who never stopped performing and recording on his own, is keeping up the good work. He just recorded a new album in North Hollywood with Kim Wilson, Big Jon Atkinson, Carl Sonny Leyland, Nathan James, Steve Lucky, John Palmer and Brent Harding and The swamp-tonk sounds of Little Victor are known from the Rio Grande to the Danube and back again. You better watch your happy home, friends… Little Victor is coming to your town!