Keith Stephen's Hot Club Trio @ Ashington Jazz Club

Caroline Irwin (vcl/uke), Keith Stephan (gtr/bjo), Roly Veitch (gtr/vcl). Two gigs are never the same but there can be similarities. At the Cherry Tree. Osborne Road on Monday night it was great to see the Paul Edis family supporting their son. At the Elephant last night Caroline Irwin's parents were also in attendance enjoying her performance. Both Ruth and Caroline sang "Santa Baby" as their interval numbers. We did have the advantage of having Santa himself to give out crackers and presents at the Elephant. Mince pies continued the festive theme. Caroline was on top form having fully recovered from the flu. A very entertaining programme was well received by an audience of 65 members. Roly did a solo in tribute to the well known local composer Eric Boswell who died at the weekend. Eric was best known for "Little Donkey" which was a hit for many artists worldwide. The solo, a folk ditty called "Wi Ma Pit Clays On" had the audience laughing during every verse. As part of the first half, fast moving "Running Wild" was followed by the slow ballad "Wonderful World". A Betty Hutton number "Murder She Says" came after "Lets Talk Dirty in Hawaii"!!After the interval we had "The Sheik of Arabi", "Only You" and "Sweet Georgia Brown". The floor space allowed the dancers a bit of a twirl. Next, a sort of Christmas number - "A Date With an Angel". Other numbers included "Judgement Day", "Alright, OK You Win" and a vocal by Roly, "Shine". The encore was "Red Hot Mama"- a particular favourite of mine. Reubin, our regular barman sees to the needs of one of our disabled lady members who uses a wheelchair . As our venue is on the first floor, and there is no lift, he helps her to get upstairs. He says that its great that the lady is motivated to come to the jazz every month. He's now so keen on jazz that he can't wait for the return of his favourite artist, James Birkett . Photos. John Taylor.