NONUNONU @ Elder Beer, Newcastle - July 17

Tim Williams (guitar); Andy Patterson (bass guitar); Ruben Sheridan (drums)

Elder Beer on Chillingham Road was doing good business, inside and out. The micro pub's backyard functions as an open air (part covered) performance space and on this balmy July evening NONUNONU were back in town. Since the trio's formation in 2019 the Manchester based musicians have clocked up no fewer than four appearances here in Heaton, Newcastle. This evening's gig, the trio's fifth, would play to a full house (backyard). 

In a throw back to the days when jazz clubs were (mythically or not) to be found in dingy, smoke-filled basements, here in Elder Beer's backyard it seemed it was all but compulsory to drink, smoke and/or vape. NONUNONU - that's Tim Williams, guitar, Andy Patterson, bass, Ruben Sheridan, drums - opened with a jazz-funk take on Paul Dupont's La Rosita. 

Summer Rain, Popemobile Blues, a Latin-infused Baby Tree, Clones (perhaps the tune of the first set),  the trio's compositions embraced intricate rhythms, groove-to-swing-to-groove sections, scintillating guitar solos, funk-heavy bass lines, fractured beats, all of it hugely impressive. 

The interval: drinking, smoking, vaping, gorging on the biggest pizzas on the planet, healthy living.

Second set: seemingly drawing on influences from every conceivable source, NONUNONU hit on a Sketches of Spain-like groove. As the punters drank, smoked, vaped and gorged, our trio immersed themselves in the music, some of it from their latest recording nunununu. From one composition to the next, Williams would lead, then pass the baton to Patterson or Sheridan. Sheridan would pass it on to Patterson or Williams, all of it done with admirable nonchalance. If Clones was the tune of the first set, Waiting certainly took the honours in the second set. Russell