Classic Swing @the Crescent Club, Cullercoats - June 5

Jeremy McMurray (piano);  Jim McBriarty  (clarinet, soprano sax, vocals);  Alan Marshall (tenor sax, clarinet); Neville  Hartley (trombone, vocals); Alan Rudd (double bass); Ian Stocks (drums), Olive Rudd (vocals).  

A slightly depleted crowd of regulars today with several stalwarts off on holiday. However, the unusually empty chairs were quickly taken up by some new faces who were checking out what The Crescent Club has to offer. As I was leaving they were talking of coming back and bringing friends. Be prepared to get there early if you want a seat otherwise you’ll be standing at the bar!

The band kicked off, as they always do, with an instrumental written specifically for them by Tommy Moran, Classic Swing, setting the scene for two hours of (what it says on the tin) classic swing music from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. 

While there were other instrumentals, notably St Thomas, Too Little Time and While We Danced at the Mardi Gras, this is a band well endowed with willing vocalists. Jim McBriery sang Angry and Sweet Sue, Neville sang Buena Sera and Just a Gigolo but Olive, back from a weeks absence due to a fall, took her rightful place at the microphone and sang a selection of old favourites and new material to the delight of the audience, some of whom hummed along , or tapped their feet, all pleased to see her back where she belongs.

This is a well established group of accomplished musicians so it’s hard to pick ‘stand out’ moments but Jeremy McMurray on Almost Like Being in Love; Alan Marshall’s solo  on The Good Life and Jim McBriarty on St. Thomas were all memorable . Not forgetting of course the men in the engine room, bass and drums, out of the limelight but driving it all along nicely, and of course Olive who sent us out into the sunshine at 3.00pm with a rousing version of Avalon.

Good food, good company, a raffle, a decent selection of drinks, and a top notch band for  free on a Friday afternoon, what more could a girl ….or in fact anyone, want? Sylvia