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Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey: "You [Bobby Watson] don't want to play too long, because you don't know they're clapping because they're glad you finished!" - (JazzTimes, Nov. 2019)..

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!"

Postage

15848 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 855 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Sept. 18).

From This Moment On ...

September

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: La Malbec Orchestra @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 21: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Ragtime piano. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.
Thu 21: Linsday Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Ray Stubbs R & B All Stars @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:30pm. Free.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman's Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 22: Brief Encounter @ Bardon Mill Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:00pm. Tickets: £10.00. adv from 07885 303166; £12.00. on the door. Chris & Veronica Perrin improvising to a screening of the 1929 'Jazz Age' silent film Piccadilly (Dir. Ewald André Dupont).
Fri 22: Paul Edis & Graeme Wilson + Three Tsuru Origami @ Jesmond United Reformed Church, Newcastle. 7:30pm. A Newcastle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music event.
Fri 22: Crooners @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Abbie Finn's Finntet @ Traveller's Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tanfield Railway, Gateshead. 2:00-4:00pm. Free. A '1940s Weekend' event.
Sat 23: Jason Isaacs @ Stack, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 23: Andrew Porritt & Keith Barrett @ Cullercoats Watch House, Front St., Cullercoats NE30 4QB. 7:00pm.
Sat 23: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig. Country blues.

Sun 24: Musicians Unlimited @ Park Inn, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 24: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.

Mon 25: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm.

Tue 26: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.

Wed 27: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 27: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 27: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Friday, February 28, 2020

The Slim Bees @ The Hotspur, Newcastle - Feb 27

Michael Littlefield (guitar, vocals); Scott Taylor (harmonica, vocals) 
(Review by Russell)

The Slim Bees play country blues, they drink beer. For two hours straight they sat in a corner of their one room country shack and entertained themselves playing a selection of numbers by a who's who of American blues greats. Moonlighting from their regular gig - the Chicago blues band King Bees - Michael Littlefield and Scott Taylor found themselves an audience in the Hotspur here on Percy Street, Newcastle.

The boys like Little Walter, Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi John Hurt, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson (I and II), T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Rogers,  Elmore James, John Brim and a host of others. Two hours of this stuff with a beer - it doesn't get any better than this! 


Michael Littlefieid's wears lightly his encyclopedic knowledge of the music and its practitioners, the blues staples, the guitar styles from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago and beyond. His guitar playing and vocals a match for anyone. Scott Taylor's vocals and harp playing would have seen him stand toe to toe with all-comers on fifties South Side Chicago. Had he been around back then we'd now be listening to him on rare cuts from Chess.

From Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor (in his head your reviewer couldn't help but hear Dave Rae singing the number) to Quarter to Twelve to My Babe to bar room Jimmy Reed's You Got Me Dizzy to Taylor hollerin' Five long years, I been workin' in a steel mill, this was blues heaven. Reviewers can talk up a gig - 'Gig of the Year' etc  There's nowt wrong in enthusing but your reviewer stands by every word of this review - these guys are the business. If you're in any way doubtful, 'scuse me, get along to Prohibition Bar on Pink Lane, Newcastle, Friday 6 March. Littlefield and Taylor will be there with King Bees, the best Chicago blues band east of Illinois. 
Russell       

2 comments :

NeilC said...

Hello Russell,

Was this organised or impromptu and if the former is it to be a regular gig ? I have seen the King Bees many times and Michael Littlefield was the star when he played solo a couple of years back at the Americana Festival at the Sage.

Russell said...

Hi Neil It was a one off gig although the duo did play a 'one off' at the pub a couple of years ago. Don't miss King Bees on Friday (Mar 6) at Prohibition Bar. The band will be in the downstairs bar which means Dom Hornsby will be on the upright piano.

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