(Review by Russell)
Happy Valentine's Day! Newcastle's student hangout on Leazes Park Road couldn't have been busier. If anyone was looking for a valentine this was the place although it could be that they would have to settle for a sardine so packed was it.
Through the doors then up the stairs - on the way nodding to NUJO (Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra) President Tom McDonald - to the unmistakable sounds of TS Monk. The jam session was well underway...MAKE JAZZ NOT 
!!!
A Train, Watermelon Man, It Don't Mean a Thing - performed by an ever-changing, quite bewildering number of NUJO sitters-in. What's this? Alto saxophonist Matt Green behind the traps...where's Archie Williamson? Southpaw guitarist James Cuxson was there, he's an ever-present cog in the NUJO set-up. Horn players galore, percussionists by the dozen, it was noisy, raucous, make jazz not !!!
To help along the the bar was ticking over at a rate of knots. Downstairs a folk session was getting underway, Bar Loco has a thing going on...
Hey! Ben Richardson leapt up to sit-in on Lullaby of Birdland, staying on for A Night in Tunisia. In the run-up to a short interval the hordes wondered: I Wish I Knew...sing-a-long now! Mr PC took it out. The interval...make not jazz - the bar supplying the lubrication.
Second set, question: How many students can fit into Bar Loco's upstairs room? Answer: zillions. Grade A students this lot, you know. Altoist Matt took the mic (Archie had arrived) to sing Fly me to the moon with a room full of backing singers - make jazz not
Departing the scene your correspondent looked in on the downstairs on-going folk session. Fiddles and squeezeboxes fiddled and squeezed and in amongst it all was the Ushaw Ensemble's Andy May. Yep, Bar Loco is the place to make jazz, folk, and, perhaps.... Happy Valentine's Day!
Russell.
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