Maine Street Jazzmen @ Rosie Malone's South Shields.

Iain McCaulay (tpt/tmb/vcl), Derek Fleck (clt), Colin Haikney (pno), Alan Rudd (bs), Ollie Rillands (dms), Olive Rudd (vcl). On the face of it, Rosie Malone's Bar in South Shields and Lanercost Priory may not be spiritually close but, as they both have an affinity to jazz perhaps the only difference is that they worship different Gods. At Rosie's it is Bacchus who is in the top job and it has to be said that the music comes a distant second. Nevertheless, although some parishioners were missing from both the congregation and the choir, today the Maine Street Men gave a stalwart performance. Particularly impressive was Colin Haikney who soloed inventively although I wasn't quite sure what the synthesised electronics had to do with "Bye Bye Blackbird". Olive was in good voice and she sang really well on "I Thought About You". Good solos from Iain on trombone and Derek on clarinet. Colin too had some nice fills behind the vocal. Not an easy tune to get round. There are worse ways of spending an afternoon. Lance.