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Bebop Spoken There

Abbie Finn: "Even though there's a lot of great work being done to promote women in jazz, I still come up against some attitudes! I pulled up at a recording session with my drums in the car and the studio owner said, 'I'm sorry, this space is reserved for the drummer!'" - (Jazzwise April 2023).

The Things They Say!

Hudson Music: Lance's "Bebop Spoken Here" is one of the heaviest and most influential jazz blogs in the UK.

Rupert Burley (Dynamic Agency): "BSH just goes from strength to strength".

'606' Club: "A toast to Lance Liddle of the terrific jazz blog 'Bebop Spoken Here'"

The Strictly Smokin' Big Band included Be Bop Spoken Here (sic) in their 5 Favourite Jazz Blogs.

Ann Braithwaite (Braithwaite & Katz Communications) You’re the BEST!

Holly Cooper, Mouthpiece Music: "Lance writes pull quotes like no one else!"

Postage

15245 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 264 of them this year alone and, so far, 77 this month (March 25).

From This Moment On ...

March

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Mar 26: Pop Jazz @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. 'Jazzified' tunes by the likes of Sylvester, Bowie, the Monkees etc., feat. Alan Law, David Gray, Richard Herdman & Jude Murphy.
Sun 26: Outlines @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE promotion (upstairs).

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 28: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 28: Sanaz Lavasani Trio @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv).

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 30: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. Back to 1:00pm stomp off. Free.
Thu 30: '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 30: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm.
Thu 30: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 31: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm. CANCELLED! Back next week (April 7).
Fri 31: Jasmine Myra + Waclaw Zimpel @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 31: The Revolutionaires @ The Shack, Boldon Colliery. 7:30pm. £10.00. The Revolutionaires' big band (horn section) line-up.
Fri 31: Andrew McCormack @ Maltings, Berwick. 8:00pm. £20.00.

April
Sat 01: The Big Easy @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - In a Minor Key. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Hot Club du Nord @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth. 8:00pm. £79.00. A charity fundraising event.
Sat 01: Boys of Brass @ Stack, Seaburn. 7:00-9:00pm.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. RESCHEDULED to next week (Sat 08).

Monday, January 21, 2013

The Curse of the Banjo and Other Stories

This evening I was wearing my other musical head, at South Shields Folk Club, where there was an   entertaining, and true, banjo story and also many burger tales (or should it be tails!).
John, a banjo player, who is also a model railway enthusiast, was at a model railway exhibition some years ago.  He was playing his banjo to entertain himself when the stall was quiet.  Another stallholder complained to the exhibition manager, instead of approaching John first, and the manager told him to stop playing, which he did reluctantly.  John returned to the same exhibition last year – the other stallholder was nowhere to be seen and it turned out that the exhibition manager was dead!  John reckons this was the curse of the banjo!
Burger jokes:
Heard in Tesco ‘I’ll have a fiver each way on that burger’
A certain supermarket is selling a new line in burgers – My Lidl pony
My wife and I ate horseburgers from Tesco, they were good but we got the trots
I bought a bottle of Bacardi, a bottle of navy rum and some burgers – white rum, dark rum and Red Rum.
I showed the assistant in Tesco’s the barcode and she handed me a zebra.
Ann Alex

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Apropos of nothing in particular and banjos in general, in Dublinese, the verb 'to banjo' means to commit a violent act against some usually innocent bystanders (This may apply to jazz audiences listening to banjo solos). For reference see Christy Moore's song 'The Crack was Ninety in the Isle of Man'. This may explain the curse of the banjo...but on the other hand, maybe not.

Ann Alexander said...

I'm surprised (or maybe not!) to find that there is a prejudice against banjos in the jazz world as well as in the folk music world. In folk, the bodhran drum is also joked about - it's a one-sided drum held in the hand, and it's more difficult to play than you'd suppose - I know as I've tried. Perhaps all musical instruments are good if played well, so I wonder how these prejudices get started?
Ann Alex

Lance said...

The problem with the Bodhran is that nobody knows the correct pronunciation unless they live in a hamlet situated close to a peat bog near Tipperary. However, the pronunciation is probably totally different in Kildare - it certainly is in Jarrow.
As regards the unmentionable - Bloody Awful Noise Jazz Oddity - Its failings are in melodic charm, harmonic depth, and the ability to sooth the savaged breast. In it's favour, it is lethal in a game of Conkers.

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