This Sunday, Paul Cox and his band will be the leading the tributes in a night dedicated to the influential Afro-American blues guitarist and singer Freddie King.

King was well-known for perfecting his own guitar style in the 1960s and was one of the first black artists to have a multi-racial band.

His fame has never been that of other artists at the time but Cox believes you can see his influence on many of the top guitar players today.

"It was the way he played songs that made them different," says Cox.

"He made them in his style as his guitar playing was quite unique, he is such an inspiration for a lot of the guitarist around today, like Eric Clapton.

"It all comes from what Freddie did.

"He was working with Clapton just before he passed away and if you listen to how Freddie sang and how Eric sings it's almost identical.

"He was not only a brilliant guitar player but the way he sang was tremendous.

"I am a signer more than I will ever be a guitar player and it is his singing that is so important to me and has inspired people to interpret music in that way.

"I admit he wasn't a massive influence on me but we found ourselves doing a couple of his songs in our set and I decided to investigate him a bit more and found I knew a lot of his songs.

"He probably didn't get the credit he deserved maybe at the time because there were a lot of other people around, particularly with the surname King, so we just wanted to give him something special to celebrate him."

A plethora of renowned blues guitarists will be coming down to support Paul and the gig, with the whole second half given over to a host of special guests.

"Marcus Malone is going to be playing and Alan Glen from the Yardbirds will be playing guitar though he usually does harmonica," says Cox.

"There's also going to be young up-and-coming talent Andy Cortes and then Tim Hain, he does what we call Bleggae, a mix of reggae and blues.

"Rick Martin is coming down to play guitar too so there won't be room to move for guitars in the place."

Paul Cox Tribute to Freddie King, BB's Blues Club, Colour House Theatre, Merton Abbey Mills, September 20, 8pm, £5. Call 020 8542 5511 or visit colourhousetheatre.co.uk.