Reflections on Ushaw by Steve T.

It restores your faith a little when sometimes, just sometimes, good things happen to good people.

In the late eighties, I was one of the chief architects of the Upnorth Soul (Jazz/ Funk) Weekenders which are now considered one of the best ‘party’ events in the world. Many people were involved in them but we did it because we wanted it to be brilliant, which for a time it was, and almost despite the organiser.

Many people helped to put the Ushaw Festival together and most of us, yes because we want it to be brilliant, but also because we wanted to help Paul.

The inaugural Upnorth Weekender was held in Berwick, but six months later it had moved to Fleetwood, then Morecambe before it settled for the next couple of decades in Southport.

For some reason, we in the North East never seem to have confidence in our own potential to do something extra special. However, we now have an inordinate number of musicians and bands, in no small part, because of people like Paul Edis, James Birkett, Shaune Eland and many others.

The first Ushaw Festival, at its best, was amazingly good, but we probably now know it was two, maybe three, North East Bands short of epoch defining.

We need to redress the balance between the generations with young people mostly represented by the Early Birds, some other musicians, Russell and a few couples, but with shifting population trends as the baby-boomers come through, this is going to be an issue everywhere

The location is amazing, the building resplendent, the theatre magical and the lounge just like sitting in your front room at home. Any Jazz musician who wouldn’t want to play in that theatre and jam in that lounge, you wouldn’t want.

If it can again attract national giants of the calibre of Alan Barnes, Bruce Adams, Nigel Price and Ross Stanley, and Paul has the respect nationally (not to mention his contacts in the House of Lords) to attract them, we could be looking at American acts in the future and, while I would hate to jinx it, knocking on the door of Cheltenham, Marsden and Ilkley (not forgetting GIJF!) as one of the best weekend Jazz Festivals in the country.

Steve T.