Our next London based multi-award winning LCM featured band have just released their brand new album 'Brilliant Light' on June 23rd. February last year saw Danny and the Champs dominated the inaugural UK Americana Awards taking home the award for UK Artist of the year, UK Album of the year for 'What Kind of Love' and UK Song of the year for 'Clear Water'. With such success it was very interesting to see listen to the new album. As a taster our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the lovely lead single 'Waiting For The Right Time', it's the track on the album solely composed by Danny Wilson; personal philosophy, reflections on Ronnie Lane and a paean to neckerchief rock all rolled into one.

if you would like to see the band live, Danny & The Champs have a headline date in London at The Scala on the 20th September

The new album has some very good tracks from singalong ‘Everything We Need’. Chris Clarke co-wrote that, and with John Wheatley of The Suburban Dirts came up with the soulful Arthur Alexander-ish ‘It Hit Me’. Guitarist Paul Lush provided ‘Never In The Moment’ - a hard-hitting number with a lot of brass and something akin to The Band doing ‘The Weight’ with The Staple Singers. The beautiful ‘Coley Point’, one of Danny’s personal highlights, sees him set a tune to words by Caught By The River‘s resident poet Will Burns. ‘Bring Me To My Knees’ and the cryptic ‘The Circus Made The Town’ are both co-writes with James Yorkston, while Polly Paulusma and Carra Bacon contribute to ‘Swift Street’. Deeply personal and inspired by three family photographs; Swift Street in Melbourne is where Danny’s mother grew up, and where in childhood he stayed with his grandparents.

The Champs are understandably proud of what they’ve achieved. Chris Clarke says outright it’s the best record this line-up has come up with so far, while for Danny it’s “a bit like taking a peek into somebody’s house; there’s great stuff that immediately grabs your attention, and then there’s other stuff and you start out thinking it might be a bit mundane but as the whole picture takes shape it proves to be incredibly beautiful”. That’s typical Danny Wilson, a brave stab at modesty but far too honest to sell himself short. He and his band are already much loved; for their whole-hearted openness, their democracy, and their sheer joy in what they do. They’re going to be loved too for this record. Very soon 'Brilliant Light' will be the soundtrack to an awful lot of people’s lives, and that is no small achievement.