LONDON bluesman Marcus Bonfanti visits Selby Town Hall on May 25 for an 8pm gig with his band.

“This British Blues Award winner is widely tipped as the country’s next great blues guitar hero and has built up a fierce following for his mesmerising axe work and powerful, wall-shaking vocals,” says Selby Town Council arts officer Chris Jones.

Born to an English mother and Italian father, the young Bonfanti was exposed to the music of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Beatles and Cat Stevens throughout his childhood in north London, but it was not until a friend turned him on to Led Zeppelin and The Doors that his love for the guitar began.

Once he heard the first note of Led Zep’s Black Dog at 16, he knew which instrument he just had to play. At 18, he studied music at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, but left two years into the course to follow in the footsteps of his idols by learning his craft on the road.

Bonfanti formed a three-piece blues band, playing three blues club sets a night, seven days a week, all over the country, honing his performance skills and developing a healthy appetite for late nights.

“Marcus packed an incredible amount of work into his early music career, playing with the Classic Rock Award-nominated band Saint Jude, as well as backing legendary soul singer PP Arnold on tour and on record,” says Chris.

In solo guise, he has opened for Chuck Berry, Robert Cray, John Mayall, The Yardbirds and Walter Trout and worked with Joe Lewis Walker, Johnny Mars, The Selecter, Earl Thomas and Findlay Brown.

His 2008 debut album, Hard Times, announced a British talent demanding to be heard and his follow-up, What Good Am I To You, was listed in Classic Rock Magazine’s top 50 albums of 2010.

Last year, Bonfanti’s song The Bittersweet won him the Kevin Thorpe Memorial Award for Best Original Song at the British Blues Awards.

At 30, Bonfanti has near-telepathic powers of communication with his long-standing band members, bass player Scott Wiber and drummer Alex Reeves, as can be witnessed on his latest album, Shake The Wall.

“Over the last few years, we’ve hosted some of the most exciting young blues players that Britain has produced, but among that cavalcade of talent there really is no finer player than Marcus Bonfanti,” says Chris.

“Just like The Beatles back in 1960s Hamburg, Marcus learnt his trade performing live, day in, day out, honing those already formidable guitar skills and strengthening that extraordinary voice. This boy is a real star in the making and this gig is one for music fans of all tribes united by a love of life.”

• Doors open at 7.30pm for the 8pm start. Tickets cost £11 in advance on 01757 708449 or online at selbytownhall.co.uk or £13 on the door.