Two Gentlemen In Cologne - Joe Scholes and Robert Taylor do the honors and play new and old hits, sometimes solo, sometimes in pairs. And they'll probably find time to chat in between in the Heimathirsch's cozy "living room".

Joe Scholes - "Singer/songwriter with ska DNA" (Stadtvrevue)

2025: After several tours with his tribute program for the British singer Terry Hall (The Specials and others, 1959-2022), Joe Scholes is currently being taken over by his own stuff again. A new album has been announced for 2026 in collaboration with legendary ska/jazz producer Victor Rice (Sao Paulo, New York); the successor to "Songbook Vol. II", on which Joe Scholes reduced ska and songs to little more than a guitar and a voice. This time there should be more "bells and whistles" without losing the singer/songwriter vibe. At the upcoming shows, new songs will be presented, backstories will be spread out, but also one or two heartfelt covers from the world of 2Tone (from "It Doesn't Make It Alright" to "My Girl").

As the singer and songwriter of the band The Braces, Joe Scholes was part of the first ska generation in Germany. Between 1984 and 1991, the band toured at home and abroad. The band was represented on the most important compilations

and released their own albums for labels Unicorn Records (London) and Pork Pie (Berlin). There were also occasional re-unions and another album in 2002. Since 2007, Joe Scholes has mainly been a solo singer/songwriter and theater musician. His solo debut "Songbook Vol. II" was released in 2016.

Robert Taylor first appeared on the Cologne music scene in the mid-90s - as the singer and guitarist of the four-piece band Tonic, whose idiosyncratic Britpop style quickly gained notoriety with street gigs and sold-out concerts at Luxor. After the end of Tonic, Taylor began a rather unspectacular phase as a solo singer-songwriter, which he concluded at the turn of the millennium with an excursion into the club scene: as a guest singer, he lent his buttoned-up baritone voice to Mathias Schaffhäuser's surprisingly mainstream dancefloor hit - a stylish techno cover version of the Icehouse song Hey Little Girl.

In the meantime, Taylor and his former Tonic songwriting partner Alex Paulick-Thiel had settled their musical differences and started experimenting with electronic music themselves. The result was their first album as Coloma, which was released on Schaffhäuser's Ware label. Coloma performed at the renowned Sonar Festival in Barcelona, among others, received several French newcomer awards and released a total of four albums before the project faded into the background. They recently announced the release of a new album.

Over the past decade, Taylor has been an occasional fixture on the Cologne cultural scene - at art exhibitions, poetry readings, street festivals, short-lived residencies and sometimes as rhythm guitarist for the speed polka band Skurilli. He is also known for singing along in full voice in the audience at Joe Scholes concerts.