Val Wiseman will perform with star-studded Lady Sings the Blues orchestra on Friday 31st July at The Core Theatre in Solihull during the festival, which runs from Friday 24th July to Sunday 2nd August.

Jim Simpson, Festival director, whose Big Bear Music company has organised the annual festival for the last four decades, explained how The Lady Sings the Blues was initially a one-off project that featured at the 1987 festival. He said: “We’re pleased to confirm Val as one of the two headline acts, a great thread of continuity for what was only originally envisaged as a one-off gig all those years ago.”

“Back in 1986, I booked London-based Eggy Ley’s Hotshots to feature in that year’s festival and was delighted to find that Val was the featured singer. She was terrific, even better than I remembered – in the styles of Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee and Anita O’Day. We talked – a lot – while Val was at the festival and as a result she relocated back to Birmingham and we got to work creating Lady Sings the Blues, an all-star tribute to the music of Billie Holiday.

“This debuted in 1987 with a sell-out concert at Sir Adrian Boult Hall, with Val fronting an eight-piece band featuring seven leading UK musicians. It was so successful, we decided to put it on the road throughout the UK and Europe and today it’s still plying its trade.”

The other headliner at this year’s 42nd consecutive festival is King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys, one of the world’s greatest jump, jive and swing bands, performing at the Botanical Gardens on Friday 24 July.

Simpson added: “King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys’ first featured at the festival 40 years ago in 1986 and they are now celebrating an amazing 40th year of being on the road. The band’s career has been incredible, with tours throughout Europe, Russia, North Africa and the USA, but this will be a great ‘back to the cradle’ moment to have them at the festival four decades on from their first appearance.”

Funding for the festival has already been agreed from Sandwell Council, LA-based Rockefellas TV, Brad Henshaw, and the Musicians’ Union, but Big Bear Music still needs more backers. The number of bands confirmed for this year’s festival is now well over the 60 mark, from throughout the UK as well as from France, the USA, Estonia, Japan and Venezuela. More are expected to confirm in the next few weeks. There are 99 venues confirmed so far throughout Birmingham, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and nearby towns between them presenting 170 performances- 158 of them free admission.

However, Mr Simpson said: “We want this year’s festival to be as big as last year’s, but we need more partners to help make this happen.”