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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

The Things They Say!

This is a good opportunity to say thanks to BSH for their support of the jazz scene in the North East (and beyond) - it's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for them many, many fine musicians, bands and projects across a huge cross section of jazz wouldn't be getting reviewed at all, because we're in the "desolate"(!) North. (M & SSBB on F/book 23/12/24)

Postage

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sat 04: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 04: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. Xmas party (rescheduled from early December).

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

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

Monday, July 19, 2021

For Sand Dancers* Only - Jazzin' around South Shields

(Fred Rowe)
Possibly the first ever jazz club I visited was the Wouldhave Restaurant on the sea front at South Shields. With the night club boom of the 1960s it became the Beach Club and then the Shoreline Club. It was the kind of place where even Hell's Angels feared to tread! However, back then, in the early 1950s, on a Sunday night it was a jazz club featuring the Rivermouth Jazzmen with Fred Rowe on trumpet, Bill Harper on piano as well as others whose names now escape me. Unfortunately, it didn't have a liquor licence so it was necessary to tank up beforehand then sprint across the road to the Sea Hotel for further sustenance during the interval.


(Ray Chester)
The Bungalow Jazz Club was another long gone jazz watering hole in South Shields. During the week it was the Gilbert Daniels School of Ballroom Dancing situated behind the County Hotel but, on Friday nights it was anything but a ballroom. Among the musicians that I recall were Ray Chester, trombone, Eric Pollard, tenor sax and Dave Fox, drums. In the early days of BSH there were two lengthy pieces on the Bungalow by Jim McDowell and Ray Chester. Sadly, both are no longer with us.



(Sammy Rimington)
Over the years, South Shields Jazz Club was housed in a variety of venues but, most notably, in the New Crown Hotel and, latterly, Westoe Rugby Club which, coincidentally, is but a few decibels distant (on a clear night) from the site of the old Bungalow Jazz Club. Most of the local, mainly trad, bands played both venues although occasionally, a national, even international star was booked to appear. Kenny Davern, Sammy Rimington, the Belgium gipsy band Waso were just some of the visitors.



(Bill Harper)

Up on the Lawe top there were a couple of pubs one of which featured jazz. I can't remember if it was The Beacon or the Harbour Lights but there were some good sessions with, once more, Bill Harper on piano and Tommy Moran on alto. (Thanks to David Francis for pointing out it was actually the Turks Head!)




(Maine Street Jazzmen)
For a couple of years, Rosie Malone's (since renamed The Address) in the Market Place had some great Thursday lunchtime sessions with the Maine Street Jazzmen led by Herbie Hudson on trombone, Ray Harley, trumpet, Jim McBriarty, clarinet, Alan Rudd, bass, Olive Rudd, vocals, George Richardson/Malcolm Armstrong, piano and Mike Humble/Tommy Graham, drums. It was at one of these sessions that I first met the great drummer Eric Delaney. 

(George Laing)

Apart from the recognised jazz gigs, in the 1950s/1960s there were a lot of fine piano, bass & drums trios and organ & drums duos playing in various bars and CIU clubs. These included George Laing at The Cyprus, Kenny Goodall at The Catholic Club, Chic Cole at The Kismet, Ronnie Callaghan at The Kings dance hall. There were many more. Callaghan formed a band that reached the final of the prestigious All-Britain Contest organised by the Melody Maker. At the Hedworth Hall the Johnny Openshaw Band played for dancing but it was also where future blues singing legend Sheila Giles made her debut.

(Customs House Big Band)
Jazz is practically non-existent in South Shields these days save for occasional concerts at The Customs House and, of course, The Customs House Big Band, led over the years by Tommy Moran, Keith Robinson and, currently, Peter Morgan. Their annual concerts at their home base are always a big attraction as were their open rehearsals at the New Crown Hotel.

This is but a general picture as I remember it. I'm sure there are readers out there who can augment these memories - Lance

Sand Dancers - a (usually) affectionate term for the residents of South Shields.

9 comments :

Russell said...

The Cellar Club hosted gigs in the 60s - Jimi Hendrix for one. Years later when the place reopened, an out-of-retirement Peter Green played his first indoor gig there. Two nights, sell outs in minutes of tickets going on sale. John Dankworth & Cleo Laine appeared at the Cellar Club, as did the West Jesmond Rhythm Kings. I recall the WJRKs outnumbering the audience!

Lance said...

I never went to the Cellar Club. Despite Dankworth, Cleo and WJRK, to me it wasn't a jazz club.

David Francis (on F/b) said...

I think it might have been the (now demolished) Turks Head on the Lawe Top that did live jazz.

Lance said...

You're right David it was indeed the Turks Head!

John Hallam (on F/b). said...

Fred! Lovely man who knew so many tunes. Played in bands with him for years. Very expressive eyebrows which signalled if he was going for a high note!

Laurie Brown (on F/b) said...

Fred guested many times with us at the Porthole and the Jazz Esquires always a pleasure !

Lance said...

Fred was also a keen cycling fan and, when we weren't talking jazz we were talking bikes. I remember him telling me that for 'a significant birthday' present his family paid for him to go to a Six Day Race in Belgium. He loved the racing but wasn't so keen on being surrounded in the arena by chain-smoking Belgium fans!

Gordon Solomon. said...

I remember the Beach Club well. In the mid sixties I ran the Phoenix Jazzband, we had Derek Dalton on trumpet, Johnty Clegg clarinet, Jim Wilkinson banjo, Eddie Piper bass, Gordon Herrick drums with myself on trombone. We had a Monday residency at the New Orleans Club on Forth Banks in Newcastle which finished at 10.30 pm in those days. At the end of the session we used to throw everything into the cars and race down to the Beach Club for our second residency which started at 11.30 pm. and finished around 1.30 am. The resident band there was the excellent Scott Adair Trio, I can't recall the name of the keyboard player but Willie Payne was on guitar, it was worth all the effort just to listen to his solos. This arrangement lasted for about a year, after which the live music was replaced by the inevitable disco.
Such fun,
Gordon Solomon.

Steve Andrews said...

I remember playing in a pub called the Douglass Vaults around 1974 with the Vieux Carre. I even have some photos of the band taken there, including Gordon Solomon on trombone and Gassy on trumpet and comb-over! Much of my early playing "career" was in Eddie Tindle's dance band at the New Crown, the Hedworth Hall Masonic (run by ex-trumpet player Alfie Josephs) and over the road at the huge Londonderry Drill Hall, where our quartet would play, unamplified, between 8pm and 1am (or sometimes 2am!) with just one 20 minute break. I could crack walnuts with my embouchure in those days! In 1976, the Savannah Syncopators played for a few weeks in a basement jazz club (or maybe just a basement!) in a pub called the Ship and Royal on the junction of King St. and Mile End Road. One night someone turned the lights out by accident (?) but the band just carried on playing apart from the lead trumpet and the lead alto, both of whom were the only competent readers in the band! The last South Shields musical memory I have is of going with Brian Fisher on Saturdays mornings to a school (Stanhope St.?) to watch Stan Coates run big band workshops for young musicians with the able assistance of Ronnie Pipe on piano and arranging, and other fine musicians. Happy days!

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