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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

Thu 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 03: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Practices of Freedom workshop @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Book at: www.eventbrite.com.
Thu 03: Alcyona Mick + Juliana Day @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. & £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM (Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music) in assoc. w. Northern Silents & JNE.
Thu 03: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 03: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Guest band night w. '58 Jazz Collective led by trumpeter Kevin Eland with Paul Donnelly (guitar); Donna Hewitt (saxes); Dave Archbold (keys); John Daniel (bass); Alex Cromarty (drums); Darren Moore (percussion) + JAN SPENCELAYH!. Free.

Fri 04: Satoko Fujii @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: Amirtha Kidambi w. Manon McCoy @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 6:20pm. £8.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. Gem Arts, JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Ziv Taubenfeld/Olie Brice/Kresten Osgood + Andy Champion + Izumi Kimura & Gerry
Hemingway @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Fri 04: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: As I Sing & Breathe @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘Songs & Improvisations’ - Nicols, Dalling & guests.
Fri 04: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 04: John Rowland Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Training @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 2:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. ‘A workshop for musical improvisers’. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Wylam Village Institute, Church Road, Wylam NE41 8AP. Doors 7:00pm. Tickets £15.00. + £1.50. bf, available from: www.gigantic.com.
Sat 05: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. From 7:00pm. £12.00. Bright Street Big Band on stage at 7:30pm, preceded at 7:00pm by a swing dance taster session.
Sat 05: J.A.M. String Collective + Tara Cunningham + The Flame @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 7:20pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & Lit & Phil.
Sat 05: Heavy Drunk @ Anarchy Brewery, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00. + £1.50. bf. ‘Mississippi Delta Blues Experience’ feat. Heavy Drunk, Watermelon Slim & Leonardo Giuliani.
Sat 05: Maggie Nicols & Tim Dalling: Musical Boxing Night @ The Tute, Ridley Terrace, Cambois NE24 1QS. 7:30pm. Free. Tickets: www.eventbrite.com. Nicols, Dalling ao. An event in a boxing ring!
Sat 05: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 05: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Swarland Village Hall NE65 9JG. 8:00pm. £12.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 06: Luis Verde Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 06: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Catriona Bourne Quartet + Heather Ferrier + Emma Johson’s Gravy Boat @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. £10.00. + bf. NFOJIM in assoc. w. JNE & The Globe.

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.

Friday, December 28, 2018

RIP Nipper

The sad news is that HMV is once again going into administration and, sadly, this time it looks as if Nipper, like HMV's 2000 plus employees, will no longer be the musical face of the High Street.

This, in an era when, smaller, independent record shops are appearing on every street corner, seems to be an anachronism. People are downloading rather than buying CDs yet are still shelling out for vinyl at grossly inflated prices. 

The debate on the merits of the two formats goes on. 

Personally, I like vinyl because you can at least read the notes without a magnifying glass. However, as the name implies, CDs are more compact and take up less space but, whereas I lovingly hold an LP, almost caressing it before I place it on the turntable and listen, a CD is, irrespective of the music, colder, almost frigid by comparision. The scratching sounds of well-played vinyl are as much a part of the listening experience as the moans and groans emoted whilst in the ecstatic throes of passion.  They become wallpaper alongside say, Songs For Swinging Lovers, A Kind of Blue, Concert by the Sea or your own particular favourite.

Downloads? I can't be arsed with them although, maybe soon I'll have no choice. However, whereas you can't buy a download in a charity shop for 50p, jazz LPs you can - they are out there, you just have to look...
Lance.
PS: 78s too!

2 comments :

Ken Drew (on F/b) said...

Well Said !:) Shame about Nipper though 😕

Steve T said...

The only thing vinyls have going for them is the album sleeve; so nothing - just buy a poster (my friend bought a magnifying glass to read the liner notes of Mingus' Black Saint). Vinyls were designed specifically for radio play and the artists didn't actually like the snap, crackle and pop.

The problem with downloads/streaming is that people tend not to play the album. Some bands - ie Genesis/ Pink Floyd - have tried to stop people selecting tracks, but nobody takes any notice.

Some people in the media have tried to say CDs never took off, which is patently nonsense. I remember Piers Morgan saying, in a claim befitting of a Dallas scriptwriter, we went from vinyls to downloads.

Five years ago the only people who cared about vinyls were the half a dozen people who weren't sufficiently interested in music to replace their half a dozen vinyls. Does nobody else think it curious that all of these people went back to vinyls at the same time, which just so happens to coincide with the time the media started telling us to; a bit like the Beatles in the nineties.

We flatter ourselves it's about freewill, taste, opinion. There's a very famous essay by Marshall McLuhan called ' the Medium is the Message' (written in the sixties (I think)) where he claims people are more interested in the means of transmission than the content.

The figures are also grossly exaggerated by the media. Just over 4 million last year against nearly 3 million of just one Ed Sheeran album, and over 40 million CDs; the media didn't tell us that; they didn't mention Cds at all.

Since the media tells us that music fans prefer vinyls (vinyls fans prefer vinyls, music fans prefer music), if each one gets one for christmas, one for birthday, one for fathers day, one on vinyls record shop day and one just because they're such big music fans, that's about 2 thousand people buying vinyls.

Last year the BBC claimed that almost half of vinyls bought remained sealed, while they download/stream the music. The vinyls are left lying around as a demonstration of how right-on he is - it's always always stupid, white, straight men.

No doubt it'll be up again this year, now that all us middle class, middle aged, square men got a player last christmas. Christmas, birthday, fathers day presents for life.

I've even heard people say they prefer vinyls because great music is supposed to be difficult, and it requires effort to turn it over after side one and you have to go to a shop or a post-office because it won't fit through a letter-box. I don't think this is what people mean when they say the best music requires effort.

The insistence on vinyls has been catastrophic to the Soul Scene. When I left it in the early nineties, it was the best it's ever been and going in the right direction (in no small part, because of me). I had the best collection of vinyls in the region (probably still unsurpassed) and now have one of the best collections (on CD) in the country, perhaps the world. Now any fool with half a box of not very good vinyls can turn up and play the same rubbish every night and middle-aged men who went to Wigan Casino years too late and haven't been anywhere since will say KTF.

The media tell us that vinyls will save music (like punk-rock and the Beatles) but the reverse is true (in all three cases). The greatest collections of music on a hard copy the world will ever see has been CDs. The good news for me is they're drying up; the bad news is they're rocketing in price. The media don't tell us that either.

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