We were so honoured to be invited to perform as part of the renowned Durham Brass Festival playing at Bishop Auckland Town Hall Tea Dance, the first event of the festival.
Bit of a change having to play to strict tempos to suit the dancers but we had a great time.
Only had one near miss playing ‘Blue Skies’ at 170 bpm not 120 bpm but apart from that all went swimmingly.
We need to get our MD a snazzier jacket!
Great to be back playing this year opening up the Saturday night entertainment at this fantastic gig.
What an enthusiastic ‘New York, New York’ audience as always.
It was great to be back playing at Haydon Bridge Festival. This was one of our very first gigs when we first formed so some good memories!
No mud this year! Made change to be able to walk around without wellies. On the flip side the blustery wind proved challenging at times but hey ho, that’s Jazz.
Always a great day out we have been attending this fabulous annual event since we first formed the band!
This year we got a nice late afternoon slot giving us time to eye up the other bands.
Many thanks to the organisers and adjudicators who put in so much time and effort to make this such a successful event.
We got some nice adjudicator comments and a great write up from Russell at Bebop Spoken Here.
The tenth and final band of the day featured the mighty Tyne Valley Big Band (MD, Dave Hignett). In excess of twenty musicians on stage, the TVBB doesn’t do things by halves. Dave Connolly‘s arrangement of Hoyt Curtin’s much-loved theme tune The Flintstones kick-started the set (Tom Cantwell, guitar, Niall Armstrong, tenor sax). The TVBB marked the 30th anniversary of the global touring phenomenon Riverdance in typical style – all sections giving it some. And to close, local hero Sam Fender’s People Watching was given the big band treatment, vocalist Barbara Hignett giving it her all alongside MD – and trumpet ace – Dave Hignett blowing the roof off the place. If you’re listening to the Tyne Valley Big Band you cant be having anything other than a Yabba-dabba doo time!
It is tradition to avail ourselves of a curry at the end of a busy term. The lovely Valley restaurant in Corbridge being a band favourite.
The proprietor Daraz always looks after us with our own special room, to keep us out of the way?
Here we see the handing over of the Whisky to the band MD ceremony
We huddled together to keep warm and dry and end our Summer at the now annual Music by the Riverside arranged by Prudhoe Community partnership.
Keeping the microphone dry with a niftily constructed umbrella stand!
Phew what a logistical struggle to get us all through or over the mud and powered up for our slot completing a fabulous day of local live music at the Northumberland County Show.
Days of torrential rain had led to a quagmire scenario and quieter crowds than normal but we had a good day.
We had a splendid afternoon at our annual pilgrimage to the great North Big Band Festival on Saturday.
We played a challenging and entertaining programme which went down well with the audience and adjudicators alike. It was great to see all our hard work rewarded with an adjudicators award for the best Section going to our lovely trombone section. We will of course not hear the last of this for some time.
Special mention must be made of the fact that two of our pieces were arranged for the band by band members.
The multitalented and previous award winner on Bass, Caroline Guirr did a fantastically tricky arrangement of ‘All That Jazz’ from Chicago to feature our very own Jazzy vocalist Miss Barbara Hignett, (no relation)
Great intro from Mike ‘Keys’ Cunningham in his reinvigorated return to the band. Tom and Caroline assisting
Father and Son due Niall and Sam Armstrong arranged Earth Wind and Fires ‘Fantasy’ for a show stopping finale number featuring Sam on some impossibly high trumpet notes.
Great review as always from ‘Bepop Spoken Here‘
‘You can’t be having anything but a good time if you are listening to the Tyne Valley Big Band!’ Russell Bepop Spoken Here
What a lovely sunny afternoon to be playing in the Cloisters next to Hexhams historic Abbey. A swirly wind caused havoc with music and stands but hey ho, thats Jazz!
Mac the Knife featuring our lovely vocalist extraordinaire, Miss Barbara Hignett, no relation.
Thanks to Core Music for setting up the gear and a great warm up set by the Core Music Jazz Quartet, and surprise guest!
Read a great review of the afternoon on Bepop Spoken Here. Thanks as always for supporting us.
