SLIM Chance, the band Ronnie Lane formed when he left the Faces, is treading the boards again.

Original members Steve Simpson, Charlie Hart, Steve Bingham, Alun Davies and Colin Davey have established a reputation around the country as a top quality band playing Ronnie’s songs with passion and commitment.

When Ronnie left the Faces, he and his partner Katy moved to Fishpool, an isolated farmhouse in the Shropshire hills, where he tried his hand at sheep farming, spending much of his time – as farmers did – in the Three Tuns, The Drum and Monkey or The Miners Arms. He continued writing and recording in LMS, his mobile studio, and was often joined – for drinking and recording – by old friends such as Pete Townshend, Robert Plant, Alexis Korner and Eric Clapton. Eric wrote Wonderful Tonight for Pattie Boyd, another regular visitor, while sitting in a wheelbar row in a field above the farmhouse.

Ronnie always jokingly claimed that he found the musicians for Slim Chance in the pages of Exchange and Mart. In 2010 Charlie Hart and Steve Simpson trawled the streets of South London and miraculously found three more ex-Slim Chancers who were all keen to sign up again to the quest for Ronnie’s musical holy grail. The band played the opening show of the subsequent tour in Shropshire – “where it all began”.

Once again, the band have decided to return to Shropshire and, for the ‘firm’s night out’, will be playing at Worthen Village Hall on Saturday. They will be joined by the legendry Geraint Watkins on keyboards and the show will be opened by Dutch bluegrass guitarist, singer-songwriter Vera Van Heeringen.

Tickets, £12.50, available from stone-circle.co.uk, or text ‘tickets’ to 07802 357553.