For the past seventeen years we've been updating the world about jazz in the north east of England and updating the north east of England about jazz in the world. WINNER of the Jazz Media Category in the 2018 All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Contact lanceliddle@gmail.com
DECEMBER 2025
Sun 07: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Feat. special guest Donna Hewitt (sax, clarinet).
Sun 07: Finn-Keeble Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 07: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free. Trio + Ruth Lambert.
Sun 07: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Jason Isaacs Big Band @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 5:15pm (4:00pm doors). £21.50 (inc. bf).
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3 Stories, High St. West, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Support set from Play More Jazz! course participants. Note earlier start.
Mon 08: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Tue 09: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm
Wed 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 10: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Mike Lindup Jazz Trio @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £26.50 (inc. bf). Lindup, Yolanda Charles (bass), John Sam (drums).
Wed 10: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Thu 11: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: West Coast (cool ) / Wordsearch (cool) Cool Jazz or ‘Cold’, ‘Cool’, ‘Hot’, ‘Warm’ in the title or lyrics.
Thu 11: George Robinson @ Prohibition Bar, Albert Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RU. 7:00pm (doors). £5.42 (inc. bf). Vienna’s Voice charity evening featuring ’15 year old singing sensation the ‘Redcar Crooner’ George Robinson’. Over 35s only.
Thu 11: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. back tapes.
Thu 11: Ransom Van @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 11: Down for the Count Swing Orchestra @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:30pm. £37.70 (inc. bf). ‘Swing into Xmas’.
Fri 12: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 12: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 12: Milne Glendinning Band @ Northumberland Club, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £15.00. ‘Xmas Soiree’.
Fri 12: A Jazzy Xmas @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Matthew Forster (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 12: Tony Hadley: Xmas Big Band Tour 2025 @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm.
Fri 12: Alexia Gardner @ The New Ship Inn, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. 8:00pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy, Abbie Finn.
Fri 12: Jive Aces: Swingin’ Xmas Show @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm.
11 comments :
Charlie Carmichael was greattttt
Couldn't agree more Dave. Apart from being a very good friend, the late Charlie could blow just about anybody off the stage in a 33 bar chorus. Tommy Moran could do it in 32 but, as Charlie used to say, "Who's counting? and when Charlie was in full flight a lot of sax/clarinet/flute players took to the hills!
I also recall Brian Fisher saying that Charlie was the only guy in the north east who could play bebop clarinet - it should have been inscribed on his gravestone.
The clarinet player (if that's the correct description) is Monroe Sutherland, noted for not being a very good player. He had a "feud" with another famously poor clarinet player and regular at the Wheatsheaf, Russ Miller. Russ once asked Monroe if it was true that he was giving up playing. Monroe, nettled, said no, absolutely not! Russ, apparently much relieved, replied: "Thank God, otherwise I'd be the worst f***ing clarinet-player in the North East!"
Ah yes Monroe Sutherland! Mention of Russ Miller reminds me of when we were flying back from the Breda Jazz Festival. I was sitting next to Russ and, across the aisle was a German chap. Russ said to him, "We've been to the Breda Jazz Festival."
A Teutonic grunt.
"Heard some really good bands."
Another grunt.
"I suppose, being German you're more of a one for classical music - Beethoven and all that."
He gave Russ a steely glare that Heinrich Himmler would have been proud of.
"I do not like any music!"
Russ turned to me and said, "Friendly sort of chap!"
Russ had a baritone sax that had once belonged to George Melachrino, of Geraldo fame, which he actually sold to Charlie Carmichael who in turn sold it to a lad who worked next to me in J.G. Windows. He eventually sold it in Amsterdam. I wonder where it is now?
I'm fairly sure it's Charlie [Lovell], Lance. The haircut and especially that shoulder (it seemed to help him solo, though he must have had permanent neck ache!) are exactly how I remember him from the 80s.
The picture is not The Wheatsheaf it is The Porthole, North Shields.
The trombone player is Lenny Sampson. Cannot identify the alto sax..
Blimey..George Melachrino, haven't heard that name for decades!Didn't he have his own band at one time?
The Melachrino Strings were regular broadcasters on the BBC back in the '50s.
It was myself who was enquiring about Charlie Lovell. And he definitely is not late. Alive and well and a splendid 91 years of age. I met him again today, and his lovely wife, Olive.
Good news indeed. Pass on my regards. He won't remember me by name but he might recall me as one of the guys who sold him reeds in Windows Music Shop way back when...
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