MUSICAL magpies, the India Electric Co, fly in to Marlborough International Jazz Festival this year.

The Devon duo of Cole Stacey and Joseph O’Keefe are currently touring the UK and Europe with Midge Ure, from Ultravox, but will return for their date at Glastonbury Rock Festival, before heading to Marlborough for the jazz weekend of Friday, July 17 to Sunday, July 19.

Joseph is a multi-instrumentalist and Cole is the vocalist. Together, They pick and peck at various genres of music, refusing to be pigeon-holed and like the magpie, are drawn to creating glittering sounds.

For the past 10 months, the boys have been working on their latest album called The Girl I Left Behind.

The theme is based on their own experience of living both in France and on the Devon coast.

English Channel hopping became the norm for the musicians, and the life of a travelling troubadour always moving on to the next town, is captured in this 10-track explosion of roots tunes, inspired by music from Europe to Africa, Spanish to gipsy jazz, and Irish reels to sea shanties.

Cole said: "It draws on a theme of transience, exploring non places with a sense of not belonging and the highs and lows of being on the fringes of society.’’ On the upside of their walkabout lifestyle, the duo have a timeless and classy album to tout round the festivals and they are now connoisseurs of coffee.

The boys will be joining a top line-up at the Brewin Dolphin Marlborough International Jazz Festival including Darius Brubeck, a member of one of the Royal Families of jazz being son of the legendary Dave Brubeck, headliner Elkie Brooks, the queen of the blues, and old festival favourites Chris Jagger, brother of Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, local boy Pete Allen, Big Man Clayton and the double MOBO award winning sax player Yolanda Brown.

Artists from more than 27 countries will be heading for the sleepy little Wiltshire town which turns in to a jazz hotspot and speakeasy for the weekend.

This year, the Brataslava Hot Serenaders will be back recreating the Big Band sound.

Festival Convenor Nick Fogg said: “We booked them last year on instinct. They were an absolute wow! I got a genuine feeling of what it was like to experience the great Big Bands of the inter-war years and, as for the vocal trio, The Serenader Sisters, how about the Andrews Sisters? But I would stress this band is not a pastiche of something else. It is the real thing.’’