Rebecca Downes Band

Birmingham-based Rebecca is a fully independent artist creating original blues/rock music with her co-songwriter Steve Birkett and releasing it on her own label Mad Hat Records.  

Rebecca was born and grew up in Wolverhampton.  She started performing live music when aged 13 and as a teenager wrote and performed her own material.  The current music began when she linked up with co-songwriter Steve to write blues-infused material – a partnership that ‘clicked’ right away to deliver their excellent first album, Back To The Start (2013) followed by Believe and the live album BeLive (2017).  Rebecca was voted Female Vocalist and Emerging Artist of the Year at the British Blues Awards 2016 and Female Blues Vocalist of the Year in the FORM UK Blues Awards 2018.

Her latest and sixth studio album A Storm Is Coming (2025) is a ten-track, modern blues-rock album built around emotional agency, confrontation, collapse, recovery and self-preservation. Blending gritty guitars, Hammond organ weight and powerful, emotive vocals, it balances cinematic slow-burn ballads with groove-driven and up-tempo anthems. It was produced by Steve and mixed and mastered by Steve Birkett Jnr. The singles Falling Into You and Waiting For The Morning were playlisted by Planet Rock Radio.

The current band line-up (in addition to Steve and Rebecca) is Neil Ablard on drums, Nigel Darvill on keys and James Peterson on bass.