Welcome to The New Crawdaddy Blues Club here at our home, The Belvedere, Crays Hill, Billericay.

For those of you who have not experienced our Club before, let me give you an insight into the format of the Club we have successfully run for the last 8 years and tell you what we can offer the Blues lovers of this area and beyond.

The Crawdaddy Club started back in September 1999 when I, Paul Dean, and brother-in-law Chris Rose decided to come out of self-imposed retirement and form a band to play the music they we had always loved, but never played in a band before, namely Blues. The intention was to find a venue where we could play Blues with an open invitation for like minded musicians to come along and jam, quite simply for the pleasure of playing.

It soon became clear that there were many top quality Blues bands in the area who were finding it difficult to find a stage to showcase their talents. It was decided to invite those bands to do a guest spot each week with the band that we formed, The Heaters, acting as hosts and performing the warm up spot. The format of The New Crawdaddy Club was set.

The Club fast came to the attention of some of the biggest names on the Blues circuit who also had few dedicated Blues Clubs in this part of the country to include as part of their U.K. tours. From that point on, I adopted the mantle of Promoter and my phone has not stopped ringing with requests to play the club coming from all over the UK, Europe, Australia, and the USA.
The blend of top quality local bands, along with top National and International acts, has proved to be a winning formulae and the club has gone from strength to strength and has been credited by many bands as being the top blues venue in the South-East.

Having experienced, over the years of playing in bands, being treated as nothing more than hired hands by Managers and Promoter alike, I wanted to make The Crawdaddy a “customer and band friendly“ venue where everyone was treated well and made to feel genuinely welcome, something that I, and the rest of The Crawdaddy crew, take great pride in and I feel that this has successfully been achieved.

The Club is held in one of the large function rooms at The Belvedere, a popular Public House/Golf Centre/Function Complex just off the A127 at Billericay, near Basildon - a position which gives easy access to many parts of the country in all directions. Unlike traditional blues clubs of old, the club in held in the most comfortable of surroundings where the audience are seated throughout the evening, most at candle-lit tables, in an air-conditioned, carpeted and curtained function room.

The New Crawdaddy is a totally non-profit making club, run by musicians purely to promote live music. Resident band The Heaters, and the rest of The Crawdaddy crew, take no payment whatsoever.
A minimum amount is taken from the door take to cover the basis running costs, advertising etc., with the remainder used to pay for the top quality acts that appear each week.
Full P.A. and lighting facilities are provided so the acts only have to bring along their instruments and back line equipment.

My sole intention was to run a first class, friendly venue giving top quality Blues entertainment, at the most reasonable cost possible.
We have achieved that and intend to carry on in the same manner, attracting the best acts on the circuit for your entertainment.

All we ask is for the continued support of our club goers and for them to spread the word to those they think would also enjoy what we present each week.

Paul Dean

Promoter – The New Crawdaddy Blues Club
Keyboard player with resident Band The Heaters