Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Simon Spillett: “ Bebop and hard bop came naturally to him [Tubby Hayes]". Morning Star, March 28, 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

16287 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 169 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (Mar 18).

From This Moment On ...

March

Fri 29: FILM: Soul @ The Forum Cinema, Hexham. 12:30pm. Jazz-themed film animation.
Fri 29: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 29: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 29: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 6:00pm. Free. POSTPONED!
Fri 29: Thundercat @ Newcastle City Hall.
Fri 29: John Logan @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Fri 29: True Colours @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 9:00pm. Blues, jazz & swing.

Sat 30: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 30: Pete Tanton’s Cuba Libre @ Whitley Bay Library, York Road, Whitley Bay. 8:00pm.

Sun 31: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay Metro Station. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 31: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields NE30 1HJ. 3:00pm. Free. Lambert, Alan Law & Paul Grainger.
Sun 31: Sid Jacobs & Tom Remon @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. USA/London jazz guitar duo.
Sun 31: Bellavana @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

April
Mon 01: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 01: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free.

Tue 02: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Dean Stockdale, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 03: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 03: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 03: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 04: FILM: Soul @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 2:00pm. Jazz-themed film animation.
Thu 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 04: Funky Drummer @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 04: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 04: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Smokin' Spitfires @ Route 72 Cafe, Newcastle - Sept. 12

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 - 634-5789My GirlTake Me to the RiverHallelujah, I Love Her SoPrivate NumberIt's AlrightGet 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 :

Lance said...

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!

Blog Archive