At the appointed hour the sky lit up over the Tyne. Woosh! Ah! Bang! All in technicolor (that's Hollywood technicolor). Launched from the Gateshead side of the Tyne, rockets reaching for the sky, exploded in kaleidoscopic splendour.
Looking across to Gateshead's Glasshouse (the building dark, closed until tomorrow's NYD classical concert), from a High Level Bridge vantage point, thoughts turned to the gigging musician. No doubt many will be playing a NYE function gig on NYE rates. Good on 'em. The question is, in bygone days, were Tyneside jazz gigs commonplace on New Year's Eve? Russell
2 comments :
I recall one new year's eve in the early 1970s when I was working in a well-known Newcastle music shop. The phone rang, it was bass player Brian Fisher who needed a tenor player for a dance at a hotel in Whitburn and could I help? As I was probably the only tenor player in the whole wide world who didn't have a NYE gig (which tells you where I stood in the pecking order) I said that I'd do it. As an afterthought I asked him who was on piano? Peter Jacobson he replied. Peter Jacobson! One of the best jazz pianists in the country, this was way out of my league still, 'in for a penny, in for several pounds'.
As it was it turned out ok. I certainly learned a lot more from the gig than Peter did. Years later I reminded him of the gig - he couldn't remember it...
Peter was probably thinking...Lance who?
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