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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 2024).

The Things They Say!

Hudson Music: Lance's "Bebop Spoken Here" is one of the heaviest and most influential jazz blogs in the UK.

Rupert Burley (Dynamic Agency): "BSH just goes from strength to strength".

'606' Club: "A toast to Lance Liddle of the terrific jazz blog 'Bebop Spoken Here'"

The Strictly Smokin' Big Band included Be Bop Spoken Here (sic) in their 5 Favourite Jazz Blogs.

Ann Braithwaite (Braithwaite & Katz Communications) You’re the BEST!

Holly Cooper, Mouthpiece Music: "Lance writes pull quotes like no one else!"

Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...

Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.

Postage

17421 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 695 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Sept. 30).

From This Moment On ...

October

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Wed 09: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. A ‘second Wednesday in the month’ jam session.
Wed 09: Shunya, Dudù Kouate & Seb Rochford @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (7:30pm doors). £21.00.

Thu 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 10: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Collaborations - it happened all the time’.
Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices w. the Little Big Band @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.
Thu 10: Side Cafe Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 10: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. With guests Donna Hewitt (sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). Free.

Fri 11: Dulcie May Moreno @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: The Jazz Quartet + Stratosphonic @ Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £15.00. A Rotary Club of Hexham event. The Jazz Quartet (Jude Murphy & co), Stratosphonic (blues/rock).
Fri 11: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW. 7:30pm. Free.
Fri 11: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Sat 12: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Michael Woods @ Victoria Tunnel, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00. (£10.00. adv.). Country blues guitar & vocals.
Sat 12: Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £13.28, £11.16, £9.04. A two-track recording launch gig.
Sat 12: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Stuart Turner @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Rockabilly, rhythm & blues etc. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 12: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 8:00pm. Free. New trio: Paula Whitty, Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy.

Sun 13: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Emma Wilson @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 13: Catfish Keith @ The Cluny. 7:00pm. Country blues.
Sun 13: Cath Stephens & Paul Grainger @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Stephens & Grainger, one third of a triple bill.
Sun 13: Dulcie May Moreno Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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

Saturday, January 06, 2018

King Bees @ Billy Bootleggers – Jan 5

Michael Littlefield (guitar & vocals), Scott Taylor (vocals, harmonica & guitar), Dominic Hornsby (piano, guitar & vocals), Simon Hedley (double bass) & Giles Holt (drums)
(Review by Russell). 
The Downbeat, the Newcastle New Orleans Jazz Club on Forth Banks, Club-A-Gogo, and latterly Crombie’s Jazz Café. Legendary venues, stories galore (apocryphal or not), add Billy Bootleggers to the list.   
Overheard at the bar: I stumbled across this place by chance. Now I come here all the time. The place is Billy Bootleggers, an American dive bar which is packed to the rafters every time. Blues, American beers, a seat if you’re lucky, and a dance floor full of jivers and wannabe jivers in front
of the band. On stage it’s lounge suits, collars loosened, sweat dripping, this is Chicago’s South Side circa 1950 relocated lock, stock and two smokin’ blues barrels to Newcastle, England 2018.

Tonite’s band, the King Bees, fronted by Michael Littlefield and Scott Taylor, delivered the goods. Close your eyes and you were in Chicago. Littlefield’s vocal style incorporates Sonny Boy (I Don’t Know, the evening’s opening number), Otis Rush (If You Were Mine) and Louis Jordan (Caldonia).  His guitar playing,  obsessive in its quest for authenticity, Littlefield’s approach is that of the Chicago guitar greats – he isn’t interested in flashy solos. Scott Taylor is a mean harp player (frustratingly a little low in the mix) with a terrific blues voice (Big Walter Horton’s Hard Hearted Woman). Dominic Hornsby could be Otis Spann playing piano, and he played guitar, and he sang. A talented young man. Talking of talent, the towering Simon Hedley’s double bass playing cut through – a welcome change from the usual, pragmatic electric bass alternative of so many blues band bass players. A young man sat obscured behind Littlefield and Taylor. His name? Giles Holt. Occupation? Rhythm and blues drummer par excellence. Secreted in the corner, not seen all night but heard playing the drums that many can’t/don’t/won’t play. Holt’s restrained style is to die for.                       
An unexpected instrumental, the only one of the night, covered for Littlefield as he changed a rare broken string, with the band playing Don’t Get Around Much Anymore. Restrung, Littlefield and co ripped through their set list culminating in no fewer than three encores with the band referencing a legendary early sixties appearance at Newport by Muddy Waters as the King Bees played Got My Mojo Working not once but twice! And, of course, Hoochie Coochie Man.The King Bees gig around town (Billy Bootleggers is the place to hear them), be sure to check them out, they’re the business.       
Russell.

2 comments :

Stewartd said...

Spot on Russell - I was there too, and will be back next month for their residency!

Anonymous said...

I was there too. Love this venue and loved the band. Spot on when it comes to the guitarist too - nothing your average person would call flashy but as a guitarist myself, I really appreciated his style - so authentic and so tasteful.

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