MOSCOW Drug Club have played Womad, the Larmer Tree and Marlborough Jazz Festivals and the Royal Albert Hall, but tomorrow ( Saturday April 30) they bring their intoxicating musical mix to Forest Arts Centre in New Milton.

Bristol, 2009, North American chanteuse Katja Gorrie and International guitar virtuoso Denny Ilet stumbled into a pub and met a Django guitarist named Dave Archer. Finding that they each had a passion for the swing music of the 30s and 40s and the Parisian songwriters of the 50s, an idea began to form in their minds. They teamed up with classical violinist John Pearce and double bassist Andy Crowdy and Moscow Drug Club was complete.

Nowadays Moscow Drug Club occupy a fertile cross roads: with a bohemian line-up that includes guitar, accordion, trumpet and voice, and it gives them the scope to turn east to Klezmer and Berlin cabaret, dwell in the world of chanson, or look west to Leonard Cohen or the Andrews Sisters. They tour extensively and have grown a devoted following who adore their mix of original material and songs by the likes of Jacques Brel, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Bertholt Brecht and Duke Ellington.

Trevor Bannister, writing for The Jazz Man, described Moscow Drug Club’s performance in Reading:

“Katya’s rich vocal tones, impeccable timing and perfect diction held the audience captivated as she held centre-stage with a wonderful sense of Grand Guignol theatre, and led her band of troubadours, Jonny Bruce on trumpet, accordion player Merek Salmon, Andy Bowen on guitar and Andy Crowdy on bass, on a story-telling journey through song.”

Tickets for Moscow Drug Club cost £14 (£13 concessions) and can be purchased by calling 01425 612393 or online at www.forest-arts.co.uk