AUSTRALIAN blues guitarist Geoff Achison plays the Deep Blues Club in York for the second time on Thursday with his UK Souldiggers band.

The son of a stationmaster, Achison grew up in rural Victoria, Australia, where he played in his father's dance band. Then fate intervened, in the shape of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. "It wasn't so much the lyrics; it was the sound of Eric Clapton's lead guitar, which got me right in the guts. I was converted," he says.

Teaching himself to play by listening to Freddie King records, Achison first appeared on the Melbourne scene in the early 1990s as the hotshot guitarist with veteran bluesman Dutch Tilders.

He formed his own band in 1994, became the first non-American to win the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 1995, and visited London for the first time in 1997 when he founded a British version of his home band, The Souldiggers.

In 2000 they released the live album Souldiggin' In The UK, building a platform for Achison to tour Britain each year. Thursday's gig takes place at the Post Office Club, Marygate, where doors open at 8pm and admission is £7, £6 for concessions and CIU members.

Updated: 15:19 Thursday, March 17, 2005