THE Marshall amplification group is to launch its latest record release at this weekend's Ealing Blues Festival.

There will be a preview performance of Living The Blues by Terry Marshall and Friends.

The Friends include many of Britain’s top blues musicians, including Robert Hokum, founder of the festival, along with a number of other performers this weekend, including Robin Bibi, Hugh Budden, Geoff Garbow, Emma Wilson and Zoe Schwartz.

Terry Marshall, a regular performer at the blues festival, said: “Every musician on Living The Blues I've played with on stage, so it was just like meeting with mates.

“I asked the singers what songs they'd like to sing on the day and we'd make an arrangement on the spot and then get a take.

“We recorded all those tracks in four days – I didn't want any rehearsals. I wanted the singer to feel relaxed and, because all the people we had on there were jammers, I knew it would work.”

Robert Hokum said: “It’s fitting that Marshall should launch its latest venture close to where it all started at the Ealing Blues Club in 1963. That’s where the classic 'loud' Marshall JTM45 guitar amplifier was first heard in public.”

Marshall at the time was run by the late Jim Marshall and his son Terry and was known as a musical instrument shop in Hanwell. Today, the Marshall Group is a global business with a £290m annual turnover.

The company developed its first guitar amplifier following a request from Pete Townshend of The Who.

“Pete wanted something louder,” recalled Terry Marshall “and, being a sax player, I had no loyalty to Vox or Fender. I knew what these guys wanted and it took a sax player's ears to give it to them.”

Terry Marshall and Friends will be performing tracks from Living The Blues on Sunday (28) on the festival main stage.

Later that night, the highly-anticipated Sons of Cream, featuring Malcolm Bruce and Kofi Baker whose fathers – Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker -- cut their teeth as blues players at the Ealing Club, will appear.