Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

The Things They Say!

This is a good opportunity to say thanks to BSH for their support of the jazz scene in the North East (and beyond) - it's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for them many, many fine musicians, bands and projects across a huge cross section of jazz wouldn't be getting reviewed at all, because we're in the "desolate"(!) North. (M & SSBB on F/book 23/12/24)

Postage

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 15: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Quartet + guest Paul Donnelly (guitar).

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Percy Bush Orchestra/Females Brawling in London Night Club


Colin, our link to the Orient, sent me this photo from the 1926 Xmas edition of the Melody Maker of the Percy Bush Orchestra who were the first ever band to play at Newcastle's famed Oxford Galleries.
Colin also sent an entertaining cutting from the same magazine reporting a fight between two females in a London night club.
 Lance.
PS: How ironic that the Newcastle City Council have approved an application to tear the building that housed the Oxford Galleries down and build student flats. on the site. Smith and Poulson ride again!
Details.
PPS: Photo from Colin Aitchison of Lew Stone with Percy Bush Orchestra

3 comments :

Steve Andrews (on F/b) said...

Didn't Lew Stone play for Percy Bush at the Oxford? Can't make him out in that photo, though.

CCJAZZMEN said...

Hi Steve, Yes, Lew Stone did play with Percy Bush at the Oxford, not sure for how long, but I do have a picture of him with the band at the Oxford, that I will send it on to Lance.
Colin

John Carstairs Hallam said...

It was Lewis Steinman's first professional gig outside London! Percy Bush was classically trained - played cello and oboe I but opened with his Aeoliands as the first resident band at the Oxford. He came back a few years later . He organised children'sparties and even conducted the singing at Newcastle United .....and then decamped to Sunderland. Even later he came back as the manager/musical director at the Heaton Picture Palace/Cinema/Ballroom.
When Louis Armstrong came to England Percy Bush was quoted in Melody Maker as not being complimentary, mainly because of Louis' mugging and exhibitionism which J Percival Bush, M.A. regarded as unprofessional! By the way, Percy wasn't the first band at the Oxford. Opening night was the LOndon Sorora Band.

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