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Bebop Spoken There

James Brandon Lewis: "Sometimes I'm not thinking about anything other than blowing the paint off the walls, and other times I'm narrating a story about my life." - (DownBeat June 2023).

The Things They Say!

Hudson Music: Lance's "Bebop Spoken Here" is one of the heaviest and most influential jazz blogs in the UK.

Rupert Burley (Dynamic Agency): "BSH just goes from strength to strength".

'606' Club: "A toast to Lance Liddle of the terrific jazz blog 'Bebop Spoken Here'"

The Strictly Smokin' Big Band included Be Bop Spoken Here (sic) in their 5 Favourite Jazz Blogs.

Ann Braithwaite (Braithwaite & Katz Communications) You’re the BEST!

Holly Cooper, Mouthpiece Music: "Lance writes pull quotes like no one else!"

Postage

15516 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 536 of them this year alone and, so far, 25 this month (June 7).

From This Moment On ...

Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 09: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Fri 09: Emma Rawicz @ Sage Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 10: Miners' Picnic @ Woodhorn, Ashington. Music inc. Northern Monkey Brass Band (3:00-3:50pm); New York Brass Band (4:00-4:55pm).
Sat 10: Jeffrey Hewer @ The Vault, Darlington Covered Market, Darlington. 6:00-8:00pm. Free.
Sat 10: Front Porch Three @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Americana, blues, jazz etc.
Sat 10: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A 'Jar on the Bar' gig.

Sun 11: WORKSHOP: Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Workshop @ JG Windows, Newcastle. Time TBC. Further details tel. 0191 232 1356.
Sun 11: Jeremy McMurray's Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Ropner Park, Stockton TS18 4EF. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 3:00pm.
Sun 11: Groovetrain @ Innisfree Sports & Social Club, Longbenton NE12 8TY. Doors 6:30pm. £15.00 (£7.00. under 16).
Sun 11: Jeffrey Hewer Collective @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 11: Jam No. 19 @ Fabio's Bar, Saddler Street, Durham. 8:00pm. Free. All welcome. A Durham University Jazz Society event.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.

Tue 13: Paul Skerritt @ The Rabbit Hole, Hallgarth St., Durham DH1 3AT. 7:00pm. Paul Skerritt's (solo) weekly residency.
Tue 13: Infusion Trio @ Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 13: Alice Grace & Pawel Jedrzejewski @ Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre. 8:00pm. £12.00 (£10.00. adv.).

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Wed 14: NUJO Final Jazz Jam @ Bar Loco, Newcastle. 6:30pm. Free. Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra's final jam session of the academic year. All welcome.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: 4B @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:00pm.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 15: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 15: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library. 2:30-4:30pm. £2.00. All welcome.
Thu 15: Castillo Nuevo @ Revolución de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30-8:30pm.
Thu 15: Alexander Ord Trio @ Tynedale Beer & Cider Festival, Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. Evening, time TBC.
Thu 15: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. Time TBC.
Thu 15: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.

The John Potts Story


Ted Fry of the notorious Figleaf Jazz Band passed your e mail on to me. So great to hear from you. You say from a website people are hunting me down – hope it’s not collection agencies after the 3 quid I borrowed from Joe Shenton in 1951. You are right about the College of the Venereal Bede connection – we were there at the same time – moi from 57-59. Do you remember GE Selby of the English department – he tolerated some of our more bizarre interests in eng lit. Keith Oglesby was my room buddy and he had the entire Frank Sinatra Capitol recordings at the time – big influence in later years.

I think 1957 was the year I started with the River City Jazz Band of Newcastle. In the early 1950s I had started with Tojo’s Jazzmen from Gosforth with me on mandolele (cross between mandolin and ukulele) and Tojo on bass trombone – we played Norrie Paramour arrangements – the reedman played an A clarinet while the rest of us were in Bb so we had some very advanced dissonance for the time! A little later I played banjo in Clem Avery’s Jazzmen with Peter Cole on piano – we were both at Heaton Grammar where there was quite a bit of jazz – and pitched fisticuffs between the trad jazz maniacs and the Stan Kenton aficionados.

Around 1952 Peter Cole and I formed a band with Johnny Handle on piano (he later moved on to folk and the High Level Ranters) with Colin Beale on clarinet and Chas Cole on drums, Pog Hall on banjo. We played some dances at All Saints Youth Club in Gosforth. Called up for 2 years in the RAF 54-56.  

Meanwhile Ray Shenton, Herbie Hudson and Harry Stevenson who had heard us at All Saints were involved in a mouth organ band called the Harmonica Hoodlums coached by Maxie Share who had a music store in the Grainger Market. After I got demobbed I was working as a porter at Newcastle Central Station when this bloke told me on a coffee break that the only other person he knew who wore orange crepe sole shoes was a geek called John Potts. By this time heavily bearded I confessed that it was indeed I. Ray said that they had recently formed a band called The River City and that their trumpet player had just been called up for national service and was I interested in playing for them – did Harold Wilson vote labour!! – of course I joined up right away and played with them until 1962. Great fun years with Ray Shenton on the oldest tuba in western Europe, Joe Shenton on washboard, Herbie Hudson trombone, Harry Stevenson on clarinet, Brian Sampson on drums, Colin Hopper on banjo and self on trumpet.

Ray Shenton tracked me down through the Figleaf Jazz Band website and we have corresponded a few times and exchanged photographs of the early River City.

I was married in 1960 with a sweetheart I met at the Downbeat Club in Newcastle. With two kids we headed off to teach in Cadiz Spain in 1962. Returned to Gateshead in 1963 for a year then off to Ankara Turkey to teach for 4 years before emigrating to Canada with 5 kids (a Canuck baby added in 1974). Didn’t play any jazz until about 1973 when my mom-in-law brought my trumpet from  Blighty. I had no case and carried it around in a paper bag. Fell in with the early Figleaf Jazz Band about this time – by coincidence the piano player is Geoff Mulholland from Walker, Tyneside (didn’t know him in the UK), Roger Kerslake trombone played with various bands in Devon before coming to Canada. Ted Fry drums and Dildo Dave banjo were mates in Toronto recently deported to the Great Frozen North for unsavory behaviour. Bass player Bruce Rumble was at the time an acne blighted teenager – now in appalling physical decline like the rest of us. 28 years later the band still has the same personnel although we have gone through several reed players two of whom passed on to celestial (or otherwise) endeavours some time ago.

Glad to hear that the Ashington Jazz Club is going strong. Perhaps you can send me some stories about jazz in the northeast. The 1970s and early 80s were the halcyon days for the Figleafs – bars, ski clubs, restaurants often 4 or 5 times a week. In recent years there has been little interest in trad jazz and we are regarded as pre-Jurassic dinosaurs. The band gets a few summer jobs in parks and plays the Simcoe County Jazz Society once a year. I play mostly now with a group called Moonglow which as a trio concentrates on swing style while as a duo (plus computer) play senior citizen residences – standards (Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers-Hart), Irish, Scottish, Newfoundland, novelty songs.

You were pretty accurate guessing my age – actually I’m 75 pushing 76. I would love to hear about your adventures since Bede College.I think you found the figleaf website which also has a link to Moonglow. If you listen to the musical examples you will hear that my excruciating tone has deteriorated over the years and my pathetic technique is even more pitiable.

http://rstrathdee.com/
moonglow/
John Potts (pottsi with a small pee.)
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Original post. from George Simpson.

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