Bob Wade (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jim McBriarty (clarinet, tenor sax, vocals); Don Fairley (trombone); Malcolm Armstrong (piano); Alan Rudd (double bass); Tommy Graham (drums); Olive Rudd (vocals) + Neville Hartley (trombone), Gordon Solomon (trombone)
(Review by Russell)
It Don't Mean a Thing sang Olive Rudd. That tells you two things - it's Tuesday lunchtime and you're in Monkseaton. The Ship Inn on Front Street does good business when Classic Swing are in town. Coffee, tea, toasties, a pint or three and some New Orleans to swing-era jazz make this weekly residency an all-round success.
Bye Bye Blackbird, I Got Rhythm sang band vocalist Olive and she stayed on to tell us, accompanied in a duet with Malcolm Armstrong, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. The frontline - Bob Wade, Don Fairley and Jim McBriarty wielding clarinet - grabbed solos on There'll Be Some Changes Made, as did depping pianist Malcolm Armstrong.
Second set, Olive Rudd promised Blues Skies - in truth, it was a typical cloudy sky down at the coast. Taking it down Olive confessed that she Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man with Wade switching to flugelhorn and McBriarty playing some Johnny Cool tenor. Meanwhile, the 'boys' had arrived...Messrs Neville Hartley and Gordon Solomon. Well, the rest of the set went up a notch...C Jam Blues, Sweet Georgia Brown (Wade, McBriarty, and Rudd, O, sitting out, leaving it to the trombone triumvirate to swing it with a cookin' rhythm section - Armstrong, Alan Rudd and Tommy Graham - behind them).
Rudd, O, stayed on the bench, leaving it to the eight piece Boyz Only outfit to have a right regal time on Royal Garden Blues. And, as three o'clock approached, Olive rejoined the band to dance the night away Tuxedo Junction-style.
Russell
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