OYE Santana and four decades’ of hits made famous by the legendary Carlos Santana will be live on stage at the Regent in Christchurch on Friday (March 31).

The band is returning to the Centre, following their sell-out concert in 2016 with the venue predictably keen to have them back. And with over 80% of seats gone already, this year's visit is heading for a sell-out too.

Other opportunities to catch the band locally will be at the Shanklin Theatre for their first trip to the Isle of Wight on Friday 7 April, and then the Guildhall, Winchester on Saturday 8 April.

From the early hits like Black Magic Woman, Soul Sacrfice, Samba Pa Ti and Oye Como Va via Carnaval, Dance Sister Dance and She’s Not There to Maria Maria, Smooth, Corazón Espinado and Santana’s 2016 hit, Anwhere You Want to Go, they are all played with the power, passion and perfection of Carlos Santana himself.

This is a concert dominated by guitar wizardry, keyboard mastery, astonishing vocals, powerhouse brass and a rhythm section with more groove than you could shake a pair of maracas at. There’s even more to Oye Santana than that because every track the band play is a fiesta.

Listen out for the awesome, vituoso guitar of Milan ‘Carlos’ Webb, who is as passionate and exciting as Santana himself, plus the band’s infectious good-time feel for their music from the first chink of tambourine to the get-up-and-boogie finale.

Leading the fiesta of latin rock for Oye Santana will be: Milan ‘Carlos’ Webb (electric and acoustic guitars, vocals); Gez Kahan (piano, electric piano, organ, synthesizers, vocals & percussion), who has played alongside Jimmy Page and Phil Collins and Hector Gomez (vocals & percussion); the astonishing breadth of abilities of Auriol Kobani (lead & backing vocals, trumpet & percussion) and Paul Murphy (congas, timbales, djembe & percussion) as they unite in a feast of musical talent called Oye Santana!

Milan 'Carlos' Webb (maestro – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals)said: "The first thing that really appealed to me about Carlos Santana was his tone. As soon as I heard Samba Pa Ti I knew one day I'd love to be able to play like that."

It's a dream he cherished for years, until the time was right to form a Santana tribute, with the right ethos and the right players to do justice to the sound, to the material and to all the Santana fans who felt the same way.

There's no denying that he has the credentials to pull it off. When Milan Webb plays a guitar solo, he takes no prisoners. It’s not just his superb technique and wonderful tone that make him the ideal ‘Carlos’ for Oye Santana. It’s also his view that it’s his duty to wring every ounce of emotion out of a ballad, to inject even more excitement into up tempo numbers and never to forget that music is less about showing off than about communicating with your audience.

Milan also looks the part, with costumes ranging from Santana’s jeans-and-teeshirt early years right up to the Supernatural era white suit.

The Winchester Guildhall gig is a fundraising concert in support of HAEUK, the UK charity for sufferers from hereditary angioedema (see http://www.haeuk.org/ for details). Kevin Blake, a surveyor from Winchester whose wife suffers from the disease, saw the band at Farnham Maltings and contacted them to help raise funds.

Regent, Christchurch

01202 499199

www.regentcentre.co.uk