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Bebop Spoken There

Orrin Evans: “Now, getting a teaching spot is the new record deal”. (DownBeat, November, 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

17523 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 797 of them this year alone and, so far, 35 this month (Nov. 10).

From This Moment On ...

November

Sat 16: Liane Carroll: Jazz Vocal Weekend Workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 9:00am-5:00pm. £95.00. Day 1/2. SOLD OUT!
Sat 16: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm.
Sat 16: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 16: Brand New Heavies @ Boiler Shop, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £75.00. + bf; £30.00. + bf.

Sun 17: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 17: Liane Carroll: Jazz Vocal Weekend Workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 9:00am-5:00pm. £95.00. Day 2/2. SOLD OUT!
Sun 17: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 17: Liane Carroll @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Sun 17: Julian Lage @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Lage, solo guitar.

Mon 18: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 19: Christine Tassan et Les Imposteures @ Bowes & Gilmonby Parish Hall, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. £14.00.; £7.00. child.
Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Mark Robertson.
Tue 19: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Billingham Catholic Club. 7:30pm. £5.00. from 07757 062798 or at the door.

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Christine Tassan et Les Imposteures @ Howick Village Hall, nr. Alnwick. 7:30pm. £12.00.; £6.00. child.
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 20: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session.

Thu 21: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. ‘Autumn into Winter Titles (music & songs that go with the change of the seasons)’.
Thu 21: Down for the Count Swing Orchestra @ Newcastle Cathedral. 7:30pm. £25.00., £20.00., £14.00. ‘Swing Into Xmas with the Down for the Count Swing Orchestra’.
Thu 21: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 21: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Neil Brodie (trumpet); Donna Hewitt (sax); Josh Bentham (sax); Garry Hadfield (keys); Ron Smith (bass); Mark Hawkins (drums).

Fri 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The White Swan, Ovingham. 12:30-3:30pm. £15.00. Line-up: Chris Perrin (clarinet, tenor sax); Phil Rutherford (sousaphone); David Gray (trombone, trumpet, vocals); Brian Bennett (banjo). To book a table tel: 01661 833188.
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: East Coast Swing Band @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm.
Fri 22: Dilutey Juice @ Independent, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £10.00. + £1.00. bf.
Fri 22: Archipelago @ Poprecs, High St. West, Sunderland. 7:00pm. £10.00. Multi-bill, Archipelago on stage 8:00pm. A Boundaries Festival event.
Fri 22: Groovetrain @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. £15.00. + bf. 8:45pm (7:30pm doors).

Sat 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 11:00-1:00pm. £6.00. at the door, £4.00. advance. Tel: 0191 691 7090. A Spanish City ‘Xmas Market’ event in the Champagne Bar.
Sat 23: Washboard Resonators @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Sat 23: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.

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

Friday, August 07, 2020

The Vieux Carre Jazzmen @ The Holystone - August 6

Ray Harley (trumpet); Jim McBriarty (clarinet, vocals); Lawrence McBriarty (trombone); Brian Bennett (banjo, guitar); Bill Colledge (bass guitar); Fred Thompson (drums, vocals) + Herbie Hudson (trombone, vocals)

The Holystone is out of lockdown; arrowed flooring navigating the flow of customers - in one door, out the other. At the front of the pub on Whitley Road stand seaside chalet-style structures, at the rear, a beer garden with socially distanced, numbered tables standing on paving stones and an expanse of artifical turf. A burning sun burned all afternoon, things were set fair, there was one question...would anyone turn out to greet the returning Vieux Carre Jazzmen?


They would and they did! Pandemic? What pandemic?! Shortly before the one o'clock start all tables were occupied, your reviewer nabbing table no. 37 situated next to the pub's aviary. Table service à la sur le continent, a pint of Wainwright's (the solitary handpull on the bar), a toastie with fries as a side. One o'clock came and went as MC Brian Bennett set about herding the Vieux Carre's jazz cats. First Ray Harley disappeared (car? loo?) then, as he welcomed one and all, BB turned round to see a vacant drum stool. Fred Thompson had gone AWOL! After five months without a gig it seems the boys in the band had forgotten about bandstand discipline! 

Sgt Major Bennett marched the VC boys Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (drummer boy Thompson should consider himself fortunate he was assigned to sing on the opening number rather than be peeling spuds!). Troopers McBriarty - Jim, clarinet and vocals, Lawrence, trombone - were in fine form; Jim singing the first of his numbers, Mama's Gone, Goodbye, Lawrence blowing better than ever. A varied, first set concluded with Blueberry Hill (FT's vocals), Bye, Bye Blues and, a rarity, Brian Bennett playing guitar on an effective Autumn Leaves

In these Covid-19 times there would be no interval raffle on the Vieux Carre's return, instead a hat would be passed around the regulars. As the VCJ made a bee-line to the bar the aviary's love birds could once again be heard billing and cooing Dixieland or was it the bebop of Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker? Meanwhile the Wainwright's had been seen off. In its place...London Pride! Hey, you can't go wrong, can you?! 

First set, award-winning trumpet ace Ray Harley, up from Darlington, had perched atop a high stool (ditto MC Bennett). Second set Harley stood up, clearly the man meant business! Thompson's vocals on Ace in the Hole silenced the love birds - or were they riffing away, diggin' it? Up jumped Herbie Hudson. If anyone was in danger of nodding off on this Mad Dogs and Englishmen afternoon then HH is the man to wake 'em from their slumbers. Big Butter and Egg Man followed by A Slow Boat to China (calling at Byker and South Shields!) made for an entertaining few minutes from Mr Hudson. 
  
The three o'clock finishing line was fast approaching - The World is Waiting for a Sunrise (the world is waiting for a vaccine!), Fred Thompson singing I Wish't I Was in Peoria and a last vocal number from McBriarty J (Honeysuckle Rose) and that was about it. The Vieux Carre Jazzmen are back! Same time next week, weather permitting.   
Russell

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