Route 66

ROUTE 66 LIVE BAND

LAURA ÖZKERIMLER   Lead vocals

AL BURN. guitar and vocals

ANDY CLOUGHLY  guitar and vocals

GARY O'NEILL.   drums and percussion

BOB MARSHALL.  Bass and vocals

Route 66 is a 5 piece band that originated out of the ROUTE 66 DUO Al Burn and Laura Cox (now Özkerimler) We had been performing together for 4 years or so and all of that time we were looking for Bass and Drums to join us to form a live performing band. Unfortunately we couldn't find anyone at all to come and join us so we kept on performing as a duo while still searching.

Late 2021 I was contacted by a Bass player Darren Dumbleton who had seen an advert of mine and he said he was interested to come and play with us. 

At that time we couldnt do anything because we had no drummer, then out of the blue I got a message from a guy in Turkey saying he was moving to TRNC and was a drummer and wanted to make contact with people playing there. His name was Gary O'Neill. His lovely wife managed to find a house for them very close to mine and ROUTE 66 4 piece band was formed. We started to rehearse as a 3 piece band initially while I persuaded Laura it would be good for her to join us, which she did. At that time I had another duo called DEUCE which was playing regular gigs at the park Cafe in Karsiyaka with another guitarist called Andrew Cloughly so he was the natural choice to join the band to make up a 5 piece line up

Steve Stockwell the owner of Stevies Bar in Küçük Erenköy where I had played live for many years got to hear that i was rehearsing a live band and immediately said he wanted to book us for 10 gigs through the summer of 2022. He gave us our first gig 27th April swiftly followed by Eagles Nest on 4th May.

After those two performances the phone didnt stop ringing and by the end of May we were fully booked 3 months ahead. Every gig except one was a capacity crowd.

That first season 2022 was  tremendous for the band and as the confidence grew the performances became tighter as we gelled together. Unfortunately Darren our original Bass player left Cyprus to move to Australia which was a big disaster for us at the time until Bob Marshall stepped in to help us out. He is still with us but also plays with two other bands so we laughingly refer to him as our permanent stand in. He slotted right in because of his attitude and experience and is continuing to help us out this season again as we search for a suitable full time replacement. We ended the year playing on the big stage at the Alsancak Beer Fest which was awesome for us.

Once we had persuaded Laura to join us then the original 3 piece Blues/Rock set list we were playing had to be changed to songs that would suit Laura so that we could appeal to a much wider audience and become more of a show band than a rock band, however we still maintain some of the original set list to keep us true to our Blues/Rock Roots. We are of course a cover band and we play songs from lots of different artists and genres to appeal to the wider audience and allow us some flexibility to fit our set to the audience on the night. We like to think we have something for everyone.

2023 already looks like being another busy season for ROUTE 66 and we are indeed highly honoured to get to play at the temple of live music in Alsancak, the SOULIST which is something we are all really stoked about.