Neil Hunter (vocals); Alan Thompson (tenor sax); Terry O'Hern (trombone); Mike Hepple (organ, vocals); Bob Garrington (guitar); Ian Rigby (bass guitar, vocals); Gary Cain (drums)
Sustrans develops and maintains the National Cycle Network. Routes criss cross the country. Route 72 runs from Kendal, winding its way via the west coast of England over to Northumberland and down onto Tyneside, a journey of some one hundred and seventy something miles. Cyclists, some clad in lycra, stop off at intervals to refuel with water, tea, coffee, cake. Some refuel with a pint or three.
On the banks of the Tyne lies Newburn Indusrtrial Estate, a semi-rural, sprawling mass of business premises (a bakery, steel stock holders, businesses large and small, some of which you've never heard of) between Lemington and Throckley. On a Saturday afternoon it's largely a sleepy, shuttered location. If you're lucky you could see a kingfisher, perhaps a goldcrest and (guaranteed!) any number of lycra-clad Le Tour wannabes. And if you're really lucky you could here One, two...two, two. 
The Smokin' Spitfires were in earshot, preparing to deliver an afternoon of Atlantic/Stax classics to an outdoor, socially distanced audience at Route 72 Cafe. The band that emerged, Phoenix-like, from the smouldering embers of the East Side Torpedoes, hadn't been out of the hangar in six months*. Neil Hunter's facial hair is something to be hold. Cutting a figure somewhere between a Father Christmas teddy boy and a Doc Marten boot boy, the frontman's vocal power is second to none. The Spitfires play soul, they play it loud, committed, virtuosic, but, ever ready to take the p*** out of one another.
Soul Man (Sam and Dave). If you're hearing the band for the first time (some were, in a sold out crowd) you're thinking: Wow! I hope they play some more of this stuff! And they did just that, tune after tune - 634-5789, My Girl, Take Me to the River, Hallelujah, I Love Her So, Private Number, It's Alright, Get Ready. Every number belted out by Hunter supported by a 'tight as' rhythm section (Bob Garrington, guitar, Mike Hepple, organ, Ian Rigby, bass and Gary Cain, drums) and two of the band's three regular horn players (Alan Thompson, tenor sax, Terry O'Hern, trombone)**
One element of a great gig is hearing a band that knows what it's doing and the Spitfires is such a band. Today's seven piece line-up nailed it time and again. Hepple and Rigby supplied the Yeah, Yeah backing vocals with the horns taking it higher and higher (Jackie Wilson-style). The Temptations, Floyd and Cropper classics, Otis Redding, Cropper and Redding (Mr Pitiful), Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Arthur Conley's Sweet Soul Music. Two pulsating sets, no let-up, a canny way to while away a sunny Saturday afternoon.
* The Smokin' Spitfires' first Sunday in the month residency at the Cluny was suspended after the band's gig in the first week of March.
** Steve McGarvie was indisposed.
Russell
1 comment :
Back in my lycra clad days I recall cycling near Newburn. The Keelman's Way was the site of a former railway track. At one end was George Stephenson's cottage (he of Locomotion fame - Little Eva came later) at the other end was a pub that was also home to the Big Lamp Brewery. I'd called in one day and ear-wigged on a conversation.
"Could you get a shag in Newburn?" I almost told him he most certainly could then I noticed the binoculars and realised they twitchers and the shag they were looking for wasn't the kind of bird I was thinking of!
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