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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

17458 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 732 of them this year alone and, so far, 37 this month (Oct. 16).

From This Moment On ...

October

Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Chet Set @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Pete Tanton & co.
Fri 18: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm (upstairs). A Hoodoo Blues dance & social event. £10.00. class & social (£10.00., £7.50., £5.00. social only). Michael Woods (country blues guitar) on stage 9:00pm.
Fri 18: East Coast Swing Band @ Hexham Abbey. 7:30pm. £9.00.
Fri 18: Ben Crosland Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 18: Durham University Jazz Society’s ‘High Standards’ @ Music Dept. Music Room, Divinity House, Palace Green, Durham University DH1 3RS. 8:009-30pm. Tel: 0191 334 1419. £7.00., £5.00.
Fri 18: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 19: Sat 19: Paula Jackman’s Jazz Masters @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Country blues guitar & vocals. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 20: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. POSTPONED! New date Saturday 5 April 2025.
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 21: Gideon Tazelaar Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 21: Gideon Tazelaar Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm.

Tue 22: Bywater Call @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Americana/blues/soul excellence.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 6:30pm. £12.00. (at the door, no advance sales).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 24: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 24: John Garner & Tobias Sarra @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 24: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Desert Island Discs’.
Thu 24: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ Holy GrAle, Durham. 7:00pm. Free (donations). Thu 24: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm.
Thu 24: Faye MacCalman + John Pope Quintet + Moonfish @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Donations.
Thu 24: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 24: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free.

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

Sunday, January 19, 2020

RIP Geoff Castle

LondonJazzNews reports the death of former Nucleus keyboardist Geoff Castle on January 15.

Nucleus played Newcastle Jazz Festival on several occasions as well as other gigs in the area. I don't recall if Castle was with the band although, given that his tenure with Nucleus is listed as 1974 - 1982 and, according to my festival programmes, Nucleus' NJF gigs were later, maybe he didn't.
My only personal recollection of Geoff Castle  goes back to February 23, 2010, when he played and led from the piano a Nucleus reunion at the Southbank Centre as part of a tribute to the late Ian Carr. I posted about that event here.

Other than that, I can't  really comment other than to say that his CV as laid out on the LJN site sums up a musician who was dedicated to his art.
It would be good to hear from anyone who attended Nucleus gigs in the northeast or who have first hand experience of hearing Geoff Castle live.
RIP.
Lance

The photos are courtesy of Harry Monty and are of Geoff with the Graham Collier Band at the 1971 Montreux Jazz Festival.

3 comments :

Russell said...

I heard Geoff Castle's Expanded Band at the Corner House, Newcastle in 1994. From memory the line-up included Brendan Power playing harmonica. Thanks to Chris Yates' invaluable memoir 'Blue Horizons' for stirring/confirming the memories.

Peter Bevan said...

Sorry to see that Geoff Castle has died.

He also appeared at the 3rd Gateshead International Jazz Festival at the Sage on Saturday 17 March 2007 as part of Nucleus Revisited. The rest of the band included Tim Whitehead, Chris Batchelor, Mark Woods, Mark Purnell and Rob Statham.

kevin whelan said...

he was a very very nice man. As well as enormously talented.

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