Enjoy Hammond-led jazz funk workout... Also playing: The James Taylor Quartet.

Byline: Andrew Pain

EMERGING from the bankruptcy of Stiff Records, James Taylor founding member of the infamous group The Prisoners - formed THE JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET.

JTQ's first single Blow Up was released on the Re Elect The President Acid Jazz label in 1985.

It was a huge success, immediately attracting the attention of John Peel who championed it and the track appeared three years running on Peel's seminal Festive 50 Chart.

Now just shy of 25 years together, the band - who shorten their name to JTQ to avoid being mistaken for American folkster James Taylor - are still going strong.

They have always been known for the driving Hammond organ of their frontman but, in the early 1990s, the band changed direction and released a string of song-based albums to appeal to the then fashionable Soul and Acid Jazz scene in the UK.

They featured vocalists such as Rose Windross of Soul II Soul, Alison Limerick and Noel McKoy, and the latter became a permanent member of the band for part of this period.

The single Love The Life reached the Top 40 and the accompanying album Supernatural Feeling reached the top 30 in the UK charts.

The next album In The Hand Of The Inevitable saw a return to the Acid Jazz label where it remains the label's biggest selling album.

Since then JTQ have returned to their original style of instrumental Hammond-led jazz funk workouts on albums that have showcased their instrumental talents.

Cover versions such as Whole Lotta Love, Dirty Harry and Jesus Christ Superstar are still recorded in the same spirit as the band's debut Blow Up single, but the albums are mainly original compositions.

Live gigs regularly feature a vocalist and showcase songs from the soul period of the band, and tomorrow night the group are at Arc in Stockton.

JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET: Arc, Stockton Tomorrow night Entry: pounds 15

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JTQ: Known for frontman's driving Hammond organ