Long
before my proper jazz days, I remember a jazz club on Monday evenings at the
Turks Head pub in South Shields. The pub is long gone and houses stand there
now. This must have been many years ago when I was aged about 30, because I
seem to remember that the club was full of ‘old’ men and there were many
expensive cars, such as Mercedes, outside. Who on earth were these rich jazz
people, or did I dream it all?
I knew about the jazz because there was a folk club in the same pub on Friday nights, so I thought I'd try the jazz, which I realised was good music but which didn't quite chime with me in those days.
I don't know who
the bands were but it was not the 'trad' jazz of which you heard a lot in those
days.
I also remember
that there was a trad jazz evening on Sundays at the local Westoe Rugby Club. I
went there just a few times in, I think, the 1980s and I was fascinated to see
people dancing quicksteps and such to the band.
One night in the
early 2000s I bumped into Lance in Newcastle and we went to a jazz venue down
towards the Side Gallery. We heard Zoë Gilby who sang impressively. Ann
Alex
4 comments :
As I recall, I think the band at the Turks included Bill Harper and Tommy Moran.
I came up to Whitley Bay in 1975. I used to go to the High Point Hotel, with Hughie Aitchison and Jim Ruddick in the band I think.
Sometime later Mike Durham's WJRK took over, which prompted me to start playing tuba again, sitting in after buying a big old Conn from America ( in those days it was possible to get it shipped cheaply by surface ). Mike Durham, Bob King, ?Danny Dunbar, Fergus Hope, John Wheatley/Malcolm Moyer, Jimmy Stewart. All gone now.
1:Golden Lion, Winlaton Mill now called the Red Kite. A good venue on a bus route and a good room. Many memories of Gassie, Ronnie Robinson, Ronnie Mclean and Bill Brooks. It was still active in 1978.
2: Rose, Shamrock and Thistle at Streetgate, Sunniside with the Tyne Valley Stompers with Fred Rowe, cornet; Bill Smith and, on one occasion, a rare visitor from London - Cy Laurie on clarinet. This was back in the days when attendances were high.
3: A personal one for those who were at Gateshead Grammar School round 1951 to 1954. On a Monday evening at 4.00 pm the Head Boy - "Dabs" Walker - held a jazz records session with discussions on records and bands.
This was in the days of Ken Colyer, Chris Barber and Humphrey Lyttelton. Another attendee was Derrick Cogger who went on to play cornet with local bands. Derrick is still seen at venues but sadly all the others can now only be heard on recordings.
Yes, Billy Harper was on piano, good pub back in the day. One of my regular sit-in sessions before you guys and the tinternet turned up! P.G.
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