A new date has been set for the Chester Blues, Rhythm and Rock Festival which will be taking place at The Live Rooms on Saturday, October 18.

The event had been planned for earlier this year but had to be cancelled when headliner Wilko Johnson was taken ill.

The new line-up has been revealed as: Steve Cropper; Animals and Friends; Billy Walton Band; The Hitman Blues Band and the New York City Horns; Makuini; Lucy Zirins.

Steve Cropper was born in 1941 on a farm near Dora, Missouri. He with his family to Memphis at the age of nine.

In Missouri he had been exposed to a wealth of country music and little else. In his adopted home, he was exposed to  gospel, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll that thundered over the airwaves.

He acquired his first mail order guitar at the age of 14 and his personal guitar heroes included Tal Farlow, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Chet Atkins, Lowman Pauling of the Five Royales and Billy Butler of the Bill Doggett Band.

Cropper and guitarist Charlie Freeman formed the Royal Spades, who eventually became the Mar-Keys.

The name referred to the marquee outside Stax studios, known as Satellite Records at the time.

Eventually the Mar-Keys began playing on sessions and in 1961, had a hit single of their own.

At this time Cropper's fame was not limited to the United States. The Beatles favoured Cropper's playing, and his production on Otis Redding records.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney made tentative plans to record in Memphis, and to work with the guitarist.

Perhaps the ultimate testament to Steve Cropper’s immense contribution to popular music over the last four decades was his ranking by England’s Mojo Magazine in 1996 as the number two guitarist of all-time (Jimi Hendrix was number one).

And in 2003, Rolling Stone magazine readers voted him among the Top 100 Guitar Players of all-time.

As impressive as that is, Steve Cropper’s legacy as a solo artist, member of Booker T and the MGs and the Blues Brothers, session musician and producer is far from complete.

Steve also owns a state-of-the-art recording studio in Nashville called Insomnia Studio.

In 2013 he was a special guest at selected concerts as part of Peter Frampton's Guitar Circus Tour, including the first performance which featured Frampton, Robert Cray and Vince Gill.

The enduring influence and breadth of appeal of Animals & Friends was demonstrated when The Animals' 1964 debut was recently included in Classic Rock magazine’s 50 Albums That Built Blues Rock.

They remain a seminal rhythm and blues band who still command great respect internationally among their peers as well as from fans of all ages who instinctively respond so enthusiastically to such pivotal songs from their catalogue such as We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, Boom Boom, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Baby, Let Me Take You Home, I Put A Spell On You and the bands' multi-million selling anthem and Number One hit across the world - House of the Rising Sun.

Billy Walton Band - in the history of rock ‘n’ roll there is a long tradition of guitarists trading in their jobs as sidemen to become virtuoso frontmen in their own right.

Such is the case with Billy Walton. Since the age of 15, Walton has plied his craft in the Asbury Park/New Jersey shore music scene – most notably as the guitarist/vocalist for Boccigalupe and The Bad Boys which features Tony Amato a veteran of the Asbury scene since the 70s.

During his time with Boccigalupe, Walton has played countless gigs in both the United States and Europe and sat in with numerous of rock luminaries including Bruce Springsteen, Gary US Bonds and Stevie Ray's backing band, Double Trouble.

The 30-year old Walton's talents are no secret among everyone in the Jersey shore music scene and with the founding of the Billy Walton Band there's little doubt his reputation will grow far beyond the Garden State.

The Billy Walton Band's sound is a combination of hard blues reminiscent of Hendrix, Clapton and Vaughn mixed with a healthy dose of Warren Hayes and Derrick Trucks.

Live, Walton has always been an explosive performer but with the addition of bassist William Paris, Richie Taz on sax, and drummer Johnny D'Angelo the Billy Walton band churns out a singular brand of funky blues.

Walton's connection to his heroes is not just through his record collection. Over the years he has developed a close friendship with Roger Mayer, the well–known British guitar effects guru whose devices have played such a pivotal part in rock'n'roll for nearly every major player since Hendrix.

The Hitman Blues Band was founded and created by Russell Alexander.

At the age of 13, Russell began working as a “band boy” (setting up the equipment) for Stuart White of Steven Scott Music, a large entertainment provider with several dozen bands.

He started his professional musicianship at 15, when he began doing gigs with a rock n’ roll cover band, and started writing original music.

His first major original group, Childhood’s End, was an original progressive rock band that played events such as Rock and Roll Conventions at The Hotel Diplomat in NYC, CBGBs, numerous clubs and festivals.

Candy was a new wave group which enjoyed local popularity and played often at the famous My Father’s Place in Roslyn, NY, for owner Michael Epstein, opening up for famous national acts.

They also appeared at the Electric Circus, CBGBs, and many other places in the New York and Long Island area.

From this band the song Bop de Bop came out as a single, and was played locally on the airwaves.

While all this was going on, he also began doing ‘club date gigs’ (weddings, bar mitzvahs and corporate events) at 16, and by 18 was playing high society dates such as cotillions, quadrilles, debutante balls, and high end dinner dances at every major hotel in NY, private estates, and other places around the country.

The big advantage of this was that Russell was able to play with top notch players, who themselves had played with luminaries such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Mel Torme, and other famous jazz and swing bands.

He got to play with large orchestras and small combos, noting that it was sometimes the same material, but arranged differently.

As a young musician he was enjoying the experience of playing with many different seasoned musicians, and absorbing their musical styles into his own.

Russell took lessons from famed guitarist Joe Monk at the age of 13, who was a big influence on him.

He then moved on to progressive guitarist Neil Vineberg, and later studied with producer/guitarist Johnny Gale.

All of this enabled him to play gigs of many different musical genres such as jazz, rock, blues, funk, reggae, Hassidic, Greek, Italian, German, Salsa, plus some light classical (waltzes, etc).

Proficient in guitar and bass guitar, and noted for his unique vocal ability, he composed songs of many different genres and released them under the names of The Hitman Blues Band, The Yaz Brothers, and The Songwriter, as well as some country tunes which were recorded and are still being performed by the Americana band, The Mary Lamont Band.

The band comprises Russell ‘Hitman’ Alexander (guitar, vocals), Mike Porter (bass, vocals), Kevin Rymer (keyboards), Guy LaFountaine (drums), Eric Altarac (trumpet), Michael Snyder (saxophone), and Al Alpert (trombone), the band knows how to blend a historic genre with modern flare.

Makuini was introduced at a young age to the sounds of, Mahalia Jackson, Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald and the story starts not on the Mississippi delta, but on the banks of the Whanganui River, in the rural village of Jerusalem, New Zealand.

With her sister Heeni accompanying her on guitar, Makuini entered Maori community and national festival competitions leading to a Maori Education Foundation Grant, which allowed her to study music in the city of Auckland.

Makuini became an established singer, dancer and actress both on stage and with appearances in television drama, radio, and light entertainment shows.

Before travelling to England, where she is now based, Makuini toured venues in, Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Hawaii and Los Angeles.

Not long after arriving in the UK Makuini was cast opposite Yul Brynner in The King & I at the London Palladium.

One of the highlights of her career was her appearance in the Royal Variety Show for Her Majesty The Queen, at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Over the years Makuini has presented her ‘Ladies of Soul’ in residencies throughout the UK, Malta, Tenerife, Cyprus, Mallorca, Dubai and cruise ships around the world.

Makuini has had the honour of performing her country’s national anthem at the openings of Great Britain v New Zealand Rugby League tests here in the UK, televised around the world on Sky Sports.

This was followed by an appearance with the Royal Grenadiers Band at Windsor, for the England v New Zealand Cartier Polo championship.

Lucy Zirins hails from the small town of Burnley, near Manchester. She picked up the guitar aged just 12 after inheriting one from her late uncle and has been playing now for eight years.

Combining a mix of blues, soul, folk and gospel numbers in her set and increasingly performing original material, Lucy is fast making a name for herself on the acoustic scene and as a songwriter.

In 2010 Lucy was chosen as one of the Class of 2010 singer-songwriters by PRS for Music and featured in a high profile event in London set up to recognise and support the UK’s most promising young talent.

She was one of the youngest musicians in Britain ever to receive a royalty cheque and at the age of 15, she was chosen by the European Blues Association to receive the Sam Mitchell Scholarship for slide guitar, for which she received a week’s tuition under the watchful eye of Michael Messer.

In 2012 Lucy was runner-up in the British Young Artist category at The British Blues Awards and was winner of the Best Newcomer category in the Blues Matters’ Writers' Poll and runner-up in the Best Solo Artist category.

Having recorded her first EP at 16, Lucy has just finished recording her debut album at Liam Watson’s ToeRag Studios in London, with Michael Messer as producer.

Advance tickets are £27. To book, call 01472 349 222 or visit www.chesterbluesfestival.co.uk. The music starts at 2pm and finishes around 10pm.