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

Thu 08: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones of 1976.

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.

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

Sunday, October 23, 2016

The Regals @ The Globe Jazz Bar, Newcastle - October 22.

Neil Hunter (vcl/keys); + gtr/bs gtr/dms.
(Observations by Lance)
Not a jazz gig by any means although who's to say the solos weren't jazz nor that the rocking soul voice of Hunter isn't blues? There are lines drawn in the sand between genres. Trouble is, sand is ever shifting.
For me, this was quite nostalgic reminding me of when I lived in a flat in Bell Street in Hebburn. Listening to Radio Caroline and the various other pirate radio stations. Of listening to the first Clay-Liston fight in the early hours.

The music epitomised that era e.g. Georgie Fame (Yeh Yeh); Albert King (Pretty Woman); Smokey Robinson (Talkin' 'Bout My Girl); Eric Burdon (Please Don't Let me be Misunderstood); Dan Penn (I'm Your Puppet); Bobby Bland (Further on up the Road); Ray Charles (Hallelujah I Just Love Her So); Wilson Pickett (In the Midnight Hour) and others.
Hunter, whose pedigree includes the legendary Eastside Torpedoes and the Smokin' Spitfires (December gig in the offing for the SS at The Globe) has a powerful voice and backed it up with his, at times, B3-like keyboarding. I didn't get the names of the other three but the guitarist was humbucking good and bass and drums did the business.
Like Liston, I didn't go the distance - Metro/bus uncertainty - but I enjoyed what I heard.
Look out for The Regals although, be warned, it seems as though every town on the planet has a band called 'The Regals'!
Lance.

1 comment :

Dave Parker said...

The band personnel was as follows:
Neil Hunter: keyboard and vocals
John Gretton: guitar
Mick Hutchinson: bass
Les Crosby: drums

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