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Bebop Spoken There

Spasmo Brown: “Jazz is an ice cream sandwich! It's the Fourth of July! It's a girl with a waterbed!”. (Syncopated Times, July, 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

17444 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 718 of them this year alone and, so far, 100 this month (Oct. 10).

From This Moment On ...

October

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano), Paul Grainger (double bass), Bailey Rudd (drums).

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Cath Stephens’ improvisation workshop @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 4:30-6:00pm. Collaborative group focusing on vocal improvisations.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Olivia Cuttill Quintet @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 17: Moonlight Serenade Orchestra UK: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Phoenix Theatre, Blyth. 7:30pm.
Thu 17: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 17: Niffi Osiyemi Trio @ The Harbour View, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 17: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesborough. Guests Jeremy McMurray (keys); Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Adrian Beadnell (bass). 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s, Crook. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Chet Set @ Seventeen Nineteen, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Pete Tanton & co.
Fri 18: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Doors 7:30pm (upstairs). A Hoodoo Blues dance & social event. £10.00. class & social (£10.00., £7.50., £5.00. social only). Michael Woods (country blues guitar) on stage 9:00pm.
Fri 18: East Coast Swing Band @ Hexham Abbey. 7:30pm. £9.00.
Fri 18: Ben Crosland Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 18: Durham University Jazz Society’s ‘High Standards’ @ Music Dept. Music Room, Divinity House, Palace Green, Durham University DH1 3RS. 8:009-30pm. Tel: 0191 334 1419. £7.00., £5.00.
Fri 18: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Blues Underground, Nelson St., Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sat 19: Sat 19: Paula Jackman’s Jazz Masters @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Country blues guitar & vocals. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 20: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. POSTPONED! New date Saturday 5 April 2025.
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 21: Gideon Tazelaar Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 21: Gideon Tazelaar Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm.

Tue 22: Bywater Call @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Americana/blues/soul excellence.

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

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Reminiscing in (and out of) Tempo by Andy Hudson. Part Three: Middlesborough 1978

As Lance had requested I reflect these nostalgic moments chronologically so next up was Newport Festival at Ayresome Park. As I had written about this for BSH a few years ago on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, I thought it worth replicating here with a few amendments

This was my first really big gig as a producer/promoter,  although, at the time, I was also at the helm of the Newcastle Festival. The happiest experience for me was meeting and getting to know George Wein. After Middlesbro',  we went on to run many events together for nearly 15 years and remain good friends to this day.

The event as a concept was born in late '77 when Cleveland County Council was looking for a high profile event. As a producer living just to the North, I was approached by John Pinches, the Council’s Culture Officer and, along with George, created an event which also brought in the artistes of George's great rival Norman Granz (manager then of Ella and Oscar). That year it was the strongest single billing in the world for jazz events (...AND it was in Middlesbrough!) It made National TV with a young, then  BBC cub reporter, Jeremy Thompson interviewing a completely mystified Ella Fitzgerald in the back alley of some terraced houses just behind the football ground.

Although we had secured the ground, Charlie Amer the then Chairman of Middlesbrough FC refused to allow the public on to the hallowed turf (It was given the reverence of Wimbledon, The US Masters in Augusta, Wembley Stadium and the Buckingham Palace lawns). - The alleged magic qualities of this grass never seemed, however, to enhance the standard of football played...

Sorry! Cheap shot from a Newcastle supporter.

The upshot of Charlie's fears was that the nearest participant to the performances was 70 metres from centre stage. I think this could have been a disaster except for the expertise of the magnificent production crew which was a complete assembly of top-notch rock and rollers, veterans of Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and back as far as the Beatles. Principally from "Britannia Row" and “Edwin Shirley". I remember that the sound was warm and clear.

Behind the scenes, there were many tales to be told...One of my favourites involved a part-time tour coordinator, a French man called Monastier, in George's NYC office. He had become obsessed with AIRLINE 3 letter shortcodes for transport. (George believed that we were as much in the travel business as we were music as if you got routing wrong then the cost could rise by thousands of dollars). George had a travel supremo called Greta Moses, a forthright Jewish, formidable and extremely knowledgeable logistics manager.

Monastier had the World's Greatest Jazz Band coming from Denmark to Teesside and announced in a thick accent -"It ees simple there's CPH to CDG Then CDG to LHR Then LHR to MME, C'est 7 hours mais c'est la vie." 

Greta riposted "Monastier - you don't know your ASS from your EBW there's a goddam direct flight... Takes an hour."

Transport was a major issue as there was a French air-traffic work-to-rule on at the time, such that we brought Bill Evans in on a private plane. When I personally greeted him on the then Teesside Airport tarmac with "Welcome to Middlesbrough, delighted you made it" I was met with "Horseshit!"

Buddy Rich had been severely disrupted and was likely to miss a gig after the Middlesbro' event. When told, being a black belt in Karate, he drove his fist through the inner and the outer porta-cabin walls in one swipe.

Although it was reasonably well attended by standards of the day - 12,000+ on one of the shows - the event lost money and was never repeated. Cleveland were unable to see the bigger picture and understand the larger macroeconomic value that can be gained if you persist. A few years later, in London, its successor, the JVC Jazz Parade with sponsorship and spin-offs netted over a £million profit for my partners at the time Capital Radio.

The depth of talent in that show was remarkable - still hard to believe that it all happened - I gather that a play was written about it many years later.

The direct consequence of the event  was that George persuaded me to hook up with him in business….BUT in London - so next up are the Ally Pally Festivals, Knebworth and the Festival Hall JVC Jazz Parades. Andy.

Part Two. 

Part One.

1 comment :

Mike Farmer said...

Hi Andy-I will always remember the Middlesborogh Newport Jazz Festival; just about all the top US jazz talent took part and I attended every event. I must point out though, the sound from where I was seated in the stands could have been better but I can understand the problems you had to surmount. I think I met you once many moons ago when I went to a workshop which was part of the Newcastle Jazz Festival. I went to your house to pick up the tickets and you had arranged a room for me at a hotel in Jesmond. That was a great 3 days and I'm pleased you are still involved in jazz. Looking forward to hearing more of your interesting tales.-Mike
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