GRIMSBY blues rock trio The Brew play Fibbers in York tonight, recalling the classic rock of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and The Who in their songs.

They line up with a father-and-son rhythm section of Tim Smith on bass and his lad Kurtis on drums, behind guitarist and frontman Jason Barwick.

Tim and Kurt started jamming together in 2004 and decided to do a gig a month; Jason came on board a year later when their guitarist left, and now they tour Europe for months at a time.

Their career really took off when they were asked to play the Rockpalast show in Germany, broadcast live on national WDR. "It was alongside Joe Bonamassa, who for some reason best known to himself decided he didn't want to have his set shown that night," recalls Tim.

"So they asked us and the other artists on the bill if we could do an extended set from 30 minutes to one hour. It took us a millisecond to say 'yes'. They also said there was no room for an encore, but the crowd went mad and they couldn't refuse."

The Brew's albums have since charted in Germany, Poland and Spain and in 2014 the band played to 250,000 people at Europe's largest festival, Woodstock in Poland.

From their six albums – the latest being Shake The Tree – Tim is proud of "different songs for different reasons, some personal to each band member or to us all for the reason it was written". "In the end what matters is what it means to the person listening to it," he says.

"Does it have any meaning to them? If so, it's then when the music and the track takes on a life of its own and becomes personal. It may not even be the reason behind its creation or have the meaning it was written for, but that doesn't matter as long as our music speaks to the fans."

The Brew will be supported tonight by York band The Dead Cats. Tickets cost £10 on the door from 7.30pm.