Customs House Big Band Open Rehearsal @ New Crown Hotel, South Shields

A new year, a few new faces and a few new tunes, at least to me but the Customs House crew proved they can still do it. Ruth Lambert being indisposed, it was an evening of instrumentals,  they rehearsed Sweet Georgia Brown, Prelude To A Kiss, Sing Sang Sung, and But Beautiful. The two ballads were out of this world.

The Concert set had The Way You Look Tonight, Just Friends, Georgia On My Mind, with some lovely trombone solos, It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, and then two numbers I hadn't heard before North Shore Morning and Switch In Time,  the set ended with a swinging Indiana.

 It was a good night with a sparse audience probably due to the cold weather, we came from as far apart as Durham and Dinnington, so where were the locals? It's a funny old world when name bands (and some of them dead names) can get people to pay to listen to the old warhorses whilst a good contemporary local band performs to a handful.

Miles