DECEMBER 2025
Sun 14: Musicians Unlimited + Darlington Big Band @ West Hartlepool RFC. 12 noon-6:00pm. £9.00. Musicians Unlimited’s Xmas Party. SOLD OUT!
Sun 14: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 14: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 14: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 14: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The White Room, Stanley. 6:30pm. £15.18 (inc. bf).
Sun 14: Paul Skerritt @ The Black Candle, South Shields. 6:30pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 14: Sean Noonan Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.
Mon 15: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Tue 16: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Tue 16: A Jazzy Xmas @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Kyran Matthews (tenor sax, soprano sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums).
Tue 16: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.
Wed 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 12 noon. £29.00 (inc. bf). ‘Festive Lunch’. VCJ on stage 12 noon (three sets 'til 4:00pm).
Wed 17: Lazy River Band @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Veronica Perrin, Chris Perrin, John Farragher, Phil Rutherford
Wed 17: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 17: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Wed 17: A Jazzy Xmas @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Kyran Matthews (tenor sax, soprano sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums).
Wed 17: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 18: Paul Skerritt @ YOLO, Ponteland. 7:00pm. ‘Swing & Jazz Night’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 18: Joe Steels & Friends @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:30pm. Free (donations).
Fri 19: Fraser Urquhart @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT! .
Fri 19: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00..
Fri 19: Castillo Nuevo @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:00pm. Free. .
Fri 19: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy..
Fri 19: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes. .
Fri 19: Giles Strong Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club..
Fri 19: Creakin’ Bones & the Xmas Dinners @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £13.01 (inc. bf)..
Fri 19: Mark Toomey Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Sat 20: Jazz Attack @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 11:00am. Free.
Sat 20: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy. SOLD OUT!
Sat 20: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Sat 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 20: Hoodoo Blues @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:15pm (doors). £14.25, £11.55. Dance class, social dancing, live music & Xmas Party. Live music from 9:00pm - Ruth Lambert, Giles Strong, Ian Paterson & John Bradford (jazz and blues).
Sat 20: John Pope Quintet @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 7:30-8:30pm. £7.70 (inc. bf). Album recording session.
6 comments :
Just read this in the middle of the night and immediately switched to news channels but nothing. In America this is massive, like Elvis, a Beatle or MJ.
Said to people at Xmas to expect this one this year. I think most people thought he died years ago.
Although I think the whole Rock and Roll narrative is pure myth - at it's best blues for teenyboppers - Chuck Berry would have been the king of rock and roll in a less racist America and was the best, alongside even more novelty oriented Little Richard, crooner Elvis, bluesier Bo Diddley and the doowop groups.
Although he essentially made the same record over and over, his riffs launched a thousand inferior white groups who made rock and roll for teenyboppers and made a fortune doing it.
He was arguably the most influential guitarist right up until the break through of Hendrix.
Steve, Radio 5 Live broke the news late Saturday. Dotun Adebayo devoted much of his Up All Night programme to the news (Dotun is a big music fan).
Your comments about Berry being the king of rock 'n' roll are spot on. The alternative narrative (Presley etc) is just that,the American media's preferred alternative.
The guitar riffs are legendary (launching a thousand pub bands), Berry's lyrics are second to none.
Sorry Russell, have to disagree - surely not - Curtis Mayfields lyrics were second to none, and I had to read about his death in a newspaper. What colour was he again?
Sorry Steve...too cryptic for me!
I left the North East in early ’79 on the Dick Whittington trail (but without the cat!) to put on the First big jazz festival at Alexander Palace in July of that year.- you know the one that didn’t burn down.. This was the start of my partnership with George Wein another nonagenarian jazzer.
There was Hamp, BB King, Muddy Waters, Dizzy, Buddy Rich - In fact arrest the usual suspects. Included was the great musician, lyricist and especially showman Chuck Berry.
He was appearing amidst tax issues with the US government wherein much of his earnings were sequestered to pay back taxes. Those part which weren’t, but I am sure he would consequently declare, were to be paid in $100 bills in an envelope before the “artiste performed on stage”.
I recall handing the envelope to him which he duly opened, counted and put in a voluminous inside pocket, looked at me with those piercing eyes nodded and said “That’s good man.”
10 minutes later he was onstage with a scratch band that we’d put together and blew everyone away.
Jazz it wasn’t - but performance, energy and crowd engagement and reaction showed he had no peers.
Hey 90’s a good innings.
Andy
Bit of cross reference with what's going on at the Sage I suppose. White people always come along and do Black Music better. How many times today will we hear that without Chuck Berry there'd have been no Beatles, no Stones, no Beach Boys, like that was his contribution.
And somebody like Curtis Mayfield who transcends soul music and twentieth century music generally and should stand with the all time greats doesn't even make it on to the news.
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