The Don't Tell Them Pike! Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club - June 5

David Gray (trumpet, trombone, vocals); John Faragher (clarinet, vocals); Brian Bennett (banjo); John Eckhard (bass guitar)

The Vieux Carré Hot 4 waited for two of the four to turn up and waited and waited. Traffic congestion at South Gosforth delayed both David Gray and John Eckhard, resulting in the Hot 4 getting under way some fifteen minutes past the hour. No one was complaining, it was a nice, sunny day, we weren't in a hurry. 

John Faragher, down from north Northumberland, took the first of umpteen vocals (vocals shared with David Gray), singing Shoe Shine Boy. David Gray, playing as much trumpet as trombone, took his first vocal with All By Myself. And that set the pattern for the afternoon here in the Crescent Club's buffet, alternating frontline vocals, ably supported by bandleader Brian Bennett (banjo) and bassist John Eckhard. Gray singing the verse to I'll Be Seeing You unaccompanied proved to be an early highlight. 

Interval: the raffle came and went, a refill at the bar (Cullercoats' Jack the Devil) and before we knew it the second set was underway with Gray singing Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor. This being (almost) the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the VCH4 chose to mark the occasion with a classic...Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler? Brilliant! The odds are the Jimmy Perry-Derek Taverner theme song to the hit tv programme Dad's Army had never been heard at a jazz gig anywhere...until today. Don't tell them, Pike!...Stupid boy! (Captain Mainwaring), We're doomed! (Private Frazer), Don't panic!...Permission to speak, sir...They don't like it up 'em! (Lance Corporal Jones), just a typical (not) Vieux Carré gig down at the coast.

Hopefully this despatch by carrier pigeon will arrive at BSH HQ before nightfall. Over and out. Russell