Turned up at Ushaw just in the nick of time, after Mrs T had to stop (her crazy stop-start driving) at the bottom of the drive, with another stop - in Spennymoor - during the homeward journey.
Actually the two shows were almost identical but totally different. Sage Gateshead looked splendid but the theatre at Ushaw has an innate fairy-tale quality which makes it perfect for this type of thing. Ushaw was generally more relaxed, which makes no qualitative judgement, and we were fortunate to be incentivised to do both. The various horn players dotted around the theatre for Drummer Boy seemed to work better at Ushaw, or was it just that on Friday we were expecting it.
It's clear we all got our annual top-ten lists in too early this year, but the beauty of ten is that twelve is also a 'power' number. They say men never grow up and I've loved Christmas throughout my life, throughout its twists and turns, through all the instalments of it that life throws at you - captured wonderfully on Paul’s future Christmas number one - and I started thinking, (more on Friday, but maybe because by then I was pretty sure I wasn't going to need a quick exit) if I continue to become more sentimental and nostalgic as (if) I grow older, I may not be able to listen to music in public.
Unfair to single anybody out, but Matt Anderson was dominant throughout, with Graham Hardy reaffirming why he's a beast. The respective violinists across the two nights brought new moments of sublime jouissance to familiar classics and the girls in the corner were wonderful.
Paul Edis continues to enrich our region and I'm not going to denigrate him by comparing him to that bunch in the other place but, it's on nights like these, we dare to think we may be in the presence of greatness. Not forgetting that behind every great man there's a great woman, and credit to Kate Edis for co-writing the Christmas song and inspiring Matt Anderson’s uplifting rendition of Driving Home for Christmas; one of the few modern Christmas songs people genuinely seem to like.
The big problem they face next year is that, if everybody who was there tells just one person (and I have a list), where do we all go? But that's the sort of problem we like.
Steve T.
Paul Edis (piano, vocals); Jo Harrop (vocals); Andy Champion (bass); Russ Morgan (drums); Matt Anderson (tenor & soprano sax); Francis Tulip (guitar); John Paul Garner (violin); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugel); Jason Holcomb (trombone); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Megan Robinson (flute).
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