LOCAL acoustic/rock trio Albenaza will be back together to play a rare city show at Ride Marquee on July 9, after the return of Ben Hall from bass-playing duties with Neil Halstead and his band.

"We did a 6,000 mile round trip of the States, stopping off at a few of the venues we played on previous tours," explains Ben, of his stint with the band who hail from Newquay and are signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label.

Last year they supported Jack on a jaunt of massive stadia around the country, followed by a smaller headlining tour.

"We played to around three or four hundred people most nights, but the best gig to my mind was in San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall.

"Quite a few members of my family were there so it was great to see them plus we got to stay at the home of filmmaker Emit Malloy – I've watched his surf videos for years – which was really cool."

As a band Albenaza themselves are no strangers to performing in exotic locations, having returned to the Alps earlier this year for the second time to play at up market resorts from Meribel to Val d'Isaire.

As a result of that they were invited back again to support KT Tunstall at the annual Altitude Festival in the Alps, a major comedy and music event aimed at raising awareness of climate change.

"We played to around 2,000 people which was just the biggest buzz," says Al, "and we stayed in the same hotel as KT. So we were able to remind her that she was the one responsible for giving us our name.

"We went to see her in Bristol around five years ago at the time we were trying to come up with a name for the band. She had advised us to go with something that incorporated our names – so we called ourselves Al-Ben-Aza. I think she vaguely remembered…

"As well as enjoying the gig, plus we did a couple of other smaller shows, we got an amazing all-expenses paid, stress-free, week-long Alpine holiday out of the deal," continues Aza, "which allowed us to really enjoy the Alps. in all our time touring there we've never managed to do that before."

Now back together in Plymouth, at least for the foreseeable future, the lads plan to gig around the local area in order to raise money to complete their album which they have already partly recorded at Sawmills Studios.

They're also talking about releasing another single similar to their hugely successful cover of Jurassic 5's Concrete Schoolyard, a collaboration with Aldo Vanucci.

"We want to do another hip-hop cover – we're working on a mash up of Damien Rice vs Warren G featuring Luniz track I Got 5 On It – and the plan is to release it on vinyl as before.

"That way you hit the DJs who then play it in public and more people get to hear it."

"I know Jurassic 5 themselves have a copy of our previous seven inch," says Ben.

"I met a taxi driver in America, a musician mate of Jurassic 5, who was able to tell me all about it!"

To find out more about the band go to myspace.com/albenaza