It wasn't quite as complex a journey as, say, the camel route to Iraq but it did involve several modes of transport including car, Metro, ferry, bus and more Metro to eventually reach Cullercoats Crescent Club.
I'd been scanning my eagle eye over the stalls at South Shields' Friday market and its surrounding caves. Aladdin was nowhere to be seen. After deciding not to fork out 5p short of 50 quid for a wind-up gramophone it occurred to me that if the ferry, the bus and the Metro were in alignment I'd catch the latter part of Classic Swing's lunchtime session at Culler. It happened, with the final leg being on one of those newfangled Swiss-made trains.
The band were in good form, Olive was in good voice and, outside, the sun shone which may have accounted for the lower than average attendance.
As I arrived Jim was singing an old Red Allen classic, not to be confused with the similarly titled early Sinatra hit, I Never Slept a Wink Last Night. Alan Marshall had his say on clarinet.
Olive stepped up to the plate to tell us What a Little Moonlight Can do and Jim did likewise on soprano sax. Cullercoats' 'First Lady of Song' stayed on board for Sentimental Journey which almost became a duet but didn't.
Neville sang Look For the Silver Lining and found it with a nifty trombone solo before Olive bid farewell to one and all with Avalon.
Special mention of the rhythm section with Alan as sound on lecky bass as he is on upright acoustic. Nobody keeps time better than Ian and Jeremy was his usual swinging self on keyboard. All that was left for me to do was find a less circuitous route home! Lance
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