Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Mon 23: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 4:00pm. Free.
Mon 23: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Mon 23: Milne-Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sat 28: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 11:30am. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 28: Fri 20: Castillo Nuevo @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy, Rich Herdman & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 28: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Stepney Bank, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sun 29: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 29: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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, October 10, 2022

Those good old days ...

Bill Gallon sent me an article that he wrote for a magazine called Focus back  in the 1960s or the 1970s in which he drew my attention to a few more long, but not always forgotten, venues in and around Newcastle.

The Piccolo Restaurant on Gosforth High Street  featured the River City Jazzmen on Tuesday nights - did the venue have a previous name? I seem to think it did. A few doors down was Dave Bell's bookshop. Dave, for some years, hosted a jazz record show on Radio Newcastle and yours truly was interviewed on the show. This wasn't because Dave saw me as the next Stan Getz but because I (along with the late Ron Pollard) almost always won the guess the record quiz at the end of the show. This wasn't too difficult as, at the time, I worked in a shop selling jazz records!

The Diamond in Ponteland was the Wednesday home of the Vieux Carré Jazzmen. who also played on Thursdays at Balmbra's Music Hall. This would be back in the day when 'Gassy' (Peter Gascoigne) was at the helm.

Also on Thursdays, the Panama Jazzmen - probably the best local Dixieland/New Orleans band ever - held fort at the Hawthorn out Benwell way. With a front line of Ronnie McLean, Joe McMullen and Stan Martin plus a rhythm team of Norman Rudd, Ray Jobling Alan Brown and - remind me of the drummer - they were a formidable combination.

The alternative to the above Thursday nights was to go to New York. No not that New York but the one near Whitley Bay where the jam session at the Wheatsheaf had, seemingly, been going on since before Adam met Eve. Regulars included Hughie Aitchison, Leo Harwood - woe betide anyone who got in early and took his seat - Brian Clarke, Brian Fisher, Eddie Saint and, who's to say that Sting didn't dip his feet into the water there?

All are now, like most of the musicians, long gone but, before bemoaning the passing of the venues, take a look at the current BSH listings and ponder upon the thought that you are looking at the good old days of the future! Lance

No comments :

Blog Archive