Joining Jools Holland on the show this year are Ed Sheeran, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Jessie Ware, Soul II Soul, Beth Ditto, The Beat starring Dave Wakeling, George McCrae, Jose Feliciano, Ruby Turner and the Pipes and Drums of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.
Jools welcomes in the New Year for what, incredibly, is the twenty-fifth time on his annual musical shindig. Joining Jools this year is the man of 2017, Ed Sheeran, performing songs from his mega-selling album, solo and with the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, and throwing in a surprising cover of a classic British rock song.
Gospel-soul legend Mavis Staples, now in her seventy-eighth year, performs songs from her latest album If All I Was Was Black, produced by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, along with classics from The Staples Singers' great 70s repertoire. New Orleans' funkiest ambassadors Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue perform good-time tunes from their latest album Parking Lot Symphony, including a stonking version of the late great Allen Toussaint's Here Come the Girls.
Also joining the party is south London's Jessie Ware, currently enjoying the success of her third Top 10 album Glasshouse. Jessie sits in with the orchestra and, alongside her own material, tackles a Nina Simone classic. Across the studio floor, please step forward Jazzie B and his awesome Soul II Soul, surely the biggest British soul act of the late 80s and featuring the storming vocals of frontwoman Caron Wheeler, performing classic hits like Keep On Movin'.
Ex-Gossip frontwoman Beth Ditto joins Jools with her giant voice and personality, with songs from her debut solo album Fake Sugar and a classic soul cover. Early 80s 2-Tone stalwarts The Beat starring Dave Wakeling, now based on the West Coast, are popping in for a rare visit to the UK with songs from their forthcoming album, alongside plenty of their hits like Mirror in the Bathroom, and are joined for the occasion by old friends Jennie Bellestar and Rhoda Dakar.
Soul and disco legend and Worldwide Ambassador of Love George McCrae, originally from West Palm Beach, joins Jools to send the party into overdrive with his 1974 number one hit Rock Your Baby and a tune from his latest album Love.
It's been a year since they met on Later... and now they are on tour together with their album As You See Me Now; Jools hosts the soul voice and stunning guitar of Jose Feliciano, with songs from that album and his hit version of The Doors' Light My Fire and, of course, the queen of boogie woogie, the inimitable Ruby Turner raises the roof with an incendiary gospel tour de force.
When midnight comes, don't be too surprised if there is an emotional appearance by the Pipes and Drums of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards and an impressive selection of stars of stage and screen offering their predictions and resolutions for 2018 while letting their hair down and dancing the night away. Show less