Guy Collins & The Groove Machine
Guy Collins was born on the southern tip of Africa and has been playing music for 35 years.
His interest in blues really took off when the song Highway 49 by Howlin' Wolf Highway 49 came into the living room through his father's longwave radio. With musical roots that stretch from Cape Town to Clarksdale, from Mali to Memphis, he is a relaxed and dynamic artist. Guy Collins has become closely associated with the music scene in Notodden. He formed the band "The Goove Machine" together with Notodden musicians Trygve Strande on bass and Håkon Kruge on drums. Together they create a trance dance-Mississippi disco that will get you on your feet and cheering like you're flying on homebrew.
Guy Collins began his musical career in 1995 during the grunge explosion in the small student town of Stellenbosch in South Africa. The band Billygoat was the antithesis of grunge, an improvisational blues rock band that drew its inspiration from the late 1960s and 70s and artists such as Jimi Hendrix and The Allman Brothers. His more recent South African projects include his own raw blues duo, Mean Black Mamba and Gerald Clark & the Deadmen. Guy Collins moved to Norway in 2017 with his family and has since performed in Norway with several different bands and musicians, including Trond & Øystein Ytterbø from Notodden and Ulf Myrvold from Kongsberg. Together they have played at both the Notodden Blues Festival and the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. Guy Collins & The Groove Machine is definitely a band you should get to know at the Notodden Blues Festival 2026.