PIANO maestro Jools Holland returns to Eastnor Castle later this month with his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra as part of his summer tour that includes a variety of stately homes and racecourses.

For more than 15 years the host of “Later…With Jools” has been taking his 18-piece band throughout the country playing to thousands of happy picnic-carrying fans, who enjoy the duet of stately ambience and musical delights.

Jools says, “To start with, there were just one or two houses that would do these shows in their grounds, and then they suddenly caught on. Say there’s a big stately home, they’d have these big parks and they’d try to find a use for them. If you put some music on that’s quite nice, but if things were too formal, it wasn’t necessarily the most comfortable thing to have in a park. But if you had something where people can bring a picnic then it’s much more enjoyable… you can have a drink and a dance around, have your cheese and pickle sandwich and mug of tea, and enjoy it that way.”

After all these years, and the miles clocked up from Alnwick Castle in Northumberland to Powderham Castle in Devon with many picturesque locations between, does Jools ever think of slowing down?

“People sometimes say to me: you tour a great deal with your Big Band, shouldn’t you take it a bit easier? What I always say is that it’s not like work, I love it so much. Also, you get into a thing that that’s what you do. Tom [Jones] doesn’t need to tour. Van [Morrison] doesn’t need to tour. But they do, because they love the music.”

So is he still enjoying every night on stage?

“I really love doing them. We get out to different parts of the country on a really hot summer’s evening… getting the spirits lifted up, which is what we want to do. Getting this “steamroller of joy” happening! I think the warm air lights everything up and creates an atmosphere of vibrant swingingness. So I hope people will come and swing with us throughout the summer.”

Every summer Jools has been joined by special guests and at Eastnor Castle on July 26, two top performers will be on stage with the R&B Orchestra. Melanie C, is a hugely accomplished artist in her own right; she began her career in 1996 as one fifth of the iconic Spice Girls. Triumphant across the world, they remain one of the most commercially successful acts in recent music history.

Marc Almond was one half of the most successful ‘electro duo’ of 1979, Soft Cell who had a number of top ten hits including the international classic Tainted Love. It broke all records as the track that remained the longest in the U.S billboard top 100 and received a Brit award for best single of that year.

Tickets for Jools’ picnic concert at Eastnor are on sale now through the KAL website www.kalmusic.co.uk or at Malvern Theatres 01684 892277. Discounts are available for children and group bookings. Gates open 5pm and there’s a firework finale to top off the night.