A MEMBER of Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra will showcase his own songwriting skills at Otley.

Mark Flanagan has been playing guitar for the orchestra since 1988, performed with everyone from Eric Clapton and Al Green to Amy Winehouse and BB King.

Born in Liverpool, he started playing ukulele at the age of eight and got his first guitar at 12.

Soon afterwards he was entertaining friends and family with his father, a good guitarist and singer himself.

Growing up listening, and playing along, to the likes of Django Reinhardt, Hank Williams, The Beatles and David Bowie, he joined his first group at the age of 15.

He went on to move to East Anglia where he founded cult swing harmony group, The Box Brothers.

Then in 1988 Flanagan moved to London - where his neighbour just happened to be one Jools Holland, who he proceeded to to jam with at that year's Edinburgh Festival.

As well as having appeared on all of Jools Holland's award-winning albums, he played acoustic lead guitar on Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, a track on George Harrison's final album, Brainwashed.

A live performance of the track also appears in Martin Scorsese's film Living in a Material World, which documents Harrison's life.

Writing his own songs on Dobro and acoustic guitars, Flanagan has two produced two albums to date.

His first was the acclaimed The Chosen Few, which featured guest performances from top artists including Jools Holland, Sam Brown and Seckou Keita.

His second, the alt-country flavoured Down The Wire, was co-written and performed with old friend Jimmy Bergin and included a guest vocal by Ruby Turner.

Flanagan will take the stage at Otley Courthouse at 8pm on Saturday, March 24 and the venue is promising 'an evening of high quality guitar playing featuring original songs, some covers and some brand-new material'.

Tickets cost £12 and can be booked by visiting www.otleycourthouse.org.uk, calling (01943) 467466 or popping into the Courthouse, on Courthouse Street.