The Chilli Road Band, not to be confused with Take it to the Bridge, the band that plays at the Chillingham on Wednesday nights, is a vibrant community band based, as the name implies, in and around the Chillingham Road area of Heaton and includes several pupils, teachers and parents from Chillingham Road School - where the band holds regular rehearsals - as well as other locals and the odd interloper from further afield (me!)
It's not an out and out jazz group although it has a fair number of jazz pieces in the repertoire - "Blue Bossa", "Canteloupe Island", "The Chicken" being typical examples and all 3 were given an airing - literally - tonight in an open air gig at Baltic Square on the Gateshead side of the Millennium Bridge.
The event was a fundraising fire-walk in which the participants, each of whom had to guarantee a minimum of £100 sponsorship for the privilege of walking across some burning logs, did just that. There were quite a number of them, in fact they were queuing up, and as far as I know there were no fatalities. It looks like the organisers - MacMillan Cancer Support - did okay and so they should for it is a deserving cause.
Getting back to the band, it is good to see young, talented musicians getting a taste of ensemble playing in such a loose band rather than the rigid formality of some musical organisations.
At tonight's gig there were about 25 players of varying ages playing a variety of steel pans/drums/percussion as well as a horn section of saxes, trumpets, trombone, flute, clarinet...
Despite the horrors of playing unmiked in the open-air the sound seemed to carry reasonably well and even the occasional music stand swept away by the prevailing mini-tornado didn't faze the players.
Available for weddings, bar-mitzvahs and firewalks.
Lance.
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