Coventry will become the home of jazz next week when the city’s five-day festival, which runs from 26 - 30 August, begins.

The event has attracted a host of top names but one that will be absent is Coventry music supremo Pete Waterman, who was due to compere the event but has had to pull out due to family illness.

However, Pete Walters from Coventry and Warwickshire Promotions which is publicising the event, believes there is still enough on the bill to attract huge interest.

He said:

"It would have been nice to have Pete involved but his son is not very well so he cannot make it.

"We do have a host of really top class acts coming to Coventry though, and that includes people like Jimmy Smith, who has attracted huge interest so far.

"He is a jazz legend and we have had people ringing up and asking us if it was ‘the’ Jimmy Smith. I can assure people it is."

The jazz festival in Coventry is an annual event, and this year it will be better then ever after the City Council agreed to provide more financial backing for the event.

Walters explains:

"We want to build this festival into something that is well known across the country. That will not happen overnight but if we get the support we need then the festival can build year on year."

Other well-known acts to be performing during the event are King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, Georgie Fame and the Bryan Spring Trio.

Most of the acts during the festival will be held at the Leofric Hotel, which has a long history of hosting top-class music acts. The hotel has previously been graced by Rod Stewart, Cream (the group formed by Eric Clapton) and the legendary Jeff Beck.

Club promoter Roy Brunt, one of the organising committee for this year’s festival recalled some of the top acts at the Leofric.

He said:

"I can remember a chap called Reg Dwight playing one night. He later became Elton John."