Northeast Music Guide

Blues Rockers Return to The Toon I last saw Nine Below Zero last May at the Cluny and their onstage performance blew me away. So the opportunity to see them again was not to be passed up. This gig was a little different, with a selection of songs the lads recorded with tonight's guest Ben Water's as well as a few Nine Below Zero standards. Another change, as well as the addition of a boogie woogie piano from Ben was some sax from Ben's son Tom. At only 13 Tom is an accomplished blues saxophonist and impressed the crowd no end. This was an outstanding performance which had me smiling all the way though, while trying to handle my camera, a beer and dance at the same time. Nine Below Zero are blues-rock experts with every one of them an exemplary musician. After 4 decades in the game Nine Below Zero still show their love for the genre and clearly enjoy their live work. This is what makes every gig a corker. This crowd left very happy. If you missed th...

Emergency Door Release Please the Twang Crowd I could review the whole gig, but in truth I was at the O2 to see EDR in their support slot for returning indie rockers The Twang and 90's baggy revivalists the Towns. To be fair, 3 great bands on the bill. But, as I say my reason for attending this gig was to see just how good is this band? After all I've taken them on as a PR client, and heard only a couple of songs. They are good tunes, but I wanted to see them play a full set and watch how they interact with a crowd, and each other. I was not disappointed. James Rooney is a confident and likeable frontman. He didn't allow the audience to be passive and encouraged the requisite amount of dancing and bouncing about. It was clear that a good portion of the audience were Emergency Door Release fans and as the band went through their repertoire, it was met with a positive response from the crowd. The band have been working hard to prepare for this gig and it showed ...

The Small Change Warehouse: A Big Change in Ouseburn The Ouseburn area is fast becoming the centre of musical and artistic industry and leisure in Newcastle. Printworks, art galleries, recording studios and  practice rooms all mean work and creativity for a great number of people. Jeans and shirts galore. The newest addition to the art and music community of Ouseburn is the   The Small Change Warehouse   at the top of Stepney Bank next door to the Star and Shadow Cinema. The converted warehouse is home to a number of small businesses where you can while away a happy afternoon, or have a great time at a gig. Coffee and Cigarettes is a comfortable bohemian coffee house with a kitchen serving vegan food from a Texan-style trailer called Starving in the Belly of a Whale and a large, heated outdoor smoking area. You can enjoy free pool, mini golf  (crazy, recycled and nautical) and darts, browse in the Knowing Flame comic book shop and look aroun...

FROM PASSION AND PISTOLS TO  AMBITION AND DESPAIR Opera North returns to the Theatre Royal, Newcastle this March with the Company’s first productions of 2014, featuring a long-awaited and critically acclaimed new production of Puccini’s thrilling opera of the American West,   The Girl of the Golden West . Dubbed ‘the original Spaghetti Western,’  The Girl of the Golden West  is a story of true love and second chances, set in a tough mining camp during the California Gold Rush. Puccini’s melodic gift and rich orchestral score is a perfect match for the love triangle between Dick Johnson, also known as the bandit Ramerrez, the embittered Sheriff Jack Rance, and Minnie, the Girl of the title, who runs the Polka saloon. The intensely lyrical and human score reflects the maturity of Puccini’s characters, experienced in life yet unhardened by it. Filled with delicately poignant moments, this opera presents a dramatic and stunningly beautiful love story,...

Euripides Classic adapted by Don Taylor Unaccustomed as I am to Greek tragedy, this does not compare to the unfamiliarity of the situation in which the characters in this story found themselves. Noble women suddenly find themselves with no men, no subjects, no servants and a falling country. Queen Hecuba, widow of Priam, King of Troy left us in no doubt as to the level of her loss and despair. Played tirelessly by Rye Mattick, Hecuba has lost her sons and sees her young grandson taken away by the Greek soldiers to be killed as he is seen as a threat despite his youth. The women are variously to be taken back to Greece to be enslaved, married off, made concubines or just killed. Not only do they suffer the loss of their children and husbands but they will suffer the rest of their lives as paupers. This is too much for someone like Hecuba to bear, her sorrow for her family more than equalled by her sense of loss for her royal lifestyle. Hecuba's daughter, Cassandra is a prophetess...

Nine Below Zero Return to The Cluny with Ben Waters London blues-influenced band Nine Below Zero will be joined on stage by world-renowned boogie woogie piano player Ben Waters, who has played with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis at The Cluny in Newcastle on Saturday February 22. Travelling the world for more than 20 years, Ben’s reputation as an internationally acclaimed musician was learned the hard way – playing in every imaginable type of venue from the bottom of whisky vats to the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall where he and his band were selected by Ray Davies as one of his 12 favourite bands to perform at his Meltdown Festival. In 2013 he recorded the album  Boogie4Stu , and was joined by all the Rolling Stones, PJ Harvey and Jools Holland - who loaned his studio - in aid of the British Heart Foundation in memory of The Stones' pianist Ian Stewart. Nine Below Zero's frontman Dennis Greaves said, " We ar...

Found on Steve Oliver's  blog Dracula finds fresh blood. Beautiful girls with mysterious puncture wounds in their necks? Count Dracula must be in town! Dracula has been a part of modern culture for over a hundred years. It has been the subject of countless films and plays through its clear imagery. The Blackeyed Theatre Company aim to produce honest touring plays that will attract audiences around the mid-sized ven ues. In their interpretation we have a fast paced play in which the 5 extremely hard working actors succeed in covering a variety of roles in this highly efficient and entertaining production. Jonathan Harker (Will Bryant) has passed his law exams and has been sent to  Transylvania to sort out the personal affairs of Count Dracula (Paul Kevin-Taylor). His fiancé Mina (Rachel Winters) agrees to get married beforehand and decides to visit her romantic friend Lucy (Katrina Gibson) in Whitby. Meanwhile Doctor Seward (Gareth Cooper) studies his inmates, in...