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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

17470 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 744 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Oct. 23).

From This Moment On ...

October

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

Thu 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly, next one Nov. 14.
Thu 31: The New '58 Jazz Collective @ Hops & Cheese, Hartlepool. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 31: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Carlisle Rugby Club. Warwick Road, Carlisle CA1 1LW. 8:30pm. £12.
Thu 31: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests Josh Bentham (sax); Dave Harrison (trumpet); Garry Hadfield (keys); Ron Smith (bass)

November

Fri 01: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ The Village Hotel, North Tyneside. 12 noon. Day 1/3. SOLD OUT!
Fri 01: Will Howard Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 01: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 01: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 01: Louis, Louis, Louis @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.

Sat 02: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ The Village Hotel, North Tyneside. 12 noon. Day 2/3. SOLD OUT!
Sat 02: Red Stripe @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. ‘Bebop Language by Barry Harris.’. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Guy Davis @ The Witham, 3 Horse Market, Barnard Castle, DL12 8LY. &:30pm. £18-£20. Legendary American blues artist.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 03: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ The Village Hotel, North Tyneside. 12 noon. Day 3/3. SOLD OUT!
Sun 03: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm (12:30pm doors). £7.50.
Sun 03: Dean Stockdale Trio @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, John Bradford.
Sun 03: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 03: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free. Rescheduled date from Sunday 27 October.
Sun 03: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 03: Leeway @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 03: Hi Res Heart @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Pyne/Archer/Keefe/Bardon. JNE.

Mon 04: Enrico Tomasso/Cia Tomasso/Curtis Volp @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Square, Whitley Road, Palmersville, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1.00pm. Free.
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.

Tue 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval NE25 0AT. 12:30pm. £12.00. ‘Guy Fawkes Steak & Ale Pie & Pea Lunch’. To book tel: 0191 237 3697.
Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

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, 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!

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