Herbie Armstrong

Herbie Armstrong is a Northern Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter, who has strong links with Sheffield. Born in Belfast (1944), he started his musical career there in the early 1960s as guitarist with the Manhattan Showband, alongside his friend Van Morrison. He became a member of The Wheels, who wrote and recorded the original version of "Bad Little Woman". Armstrong and his bandmate Rod Demick, then joined Screaming Lord Sutch's band for six months in 1967. The following year, the pair left and recorded as the James Brothers, releasing two unsuccessful singles on the Page One label in 1968. They continued as a duo under their own names, and released several singles and two albums, Little Willy Ramble (MAM, 1971) and Lookin' Through (A&M, 1972).

Armstrong then joined with American songwriter and singer Kenny Young and Australian singer Noosha Fox to form the band Fox. They had several chart hits in the UK, notably "Only You Can" (1974) and "S-S-S-Single Bed" (1976), and released three albums. Armstrong co-wrote several of the album tracks with Young.

After Noosha left Fox, Armstrong and Young formed a new band, Yellow Dog, who had UK chart hits in 1978 with "Just One More Night" and "Wait Until Midnight" and released three albums. Armstrong then spent several years touring as the guitarist in Van Morrison's band, and played guitar on four of Morrison's albums between 1978 and 1982. In 1985 he released an album under his own name, Back Against the Wall, on the Making Waves label.

Following his management of the Slug and Fiddle, in 1996 Herbie Armstrong and his partners reopened the former Black Swan as a modern music venue called the Boardwalk. This venue held an important place in Sheffield's music scene playing host to a number of high-profile bands including AC/DC, Deaf School, Genesis and Be Bop Deluxe with The Clash playing their first ever gig at the venue in July 1976 on a bill that included the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks.

In 2011 he reached the Semi-Finals of Series 5 of Britain's Got Talent. His son Jesse continues the musical connections, playing in the Sheffield Folk/Metal band Thunarwülf