@NineBelowZero1 return to the Northeast on 7th Nov @GatesheadOTH

Nine Below Zero Back in the Northeast

With Original Drummer

Coming to Gateshead Old Town Hall on the 7th November

London blues-influenced band Nine Below Zero, are celebrating 35 years in the business, with their biggest UK tour in decades and have reformed their classic line-up.

And for fans of the band, it will be a chance to hear tracks from their two critically-acclaimed A&M studio albums from the 1980s, Don’t Point Your Finger and The Third Degree, both with extra discs, which have been re-released through Universal.

The band’s original drummer Mickey ‘Stix’ Burkey has re-joined NBZ for the tour. Apart from a one-off appearance at their 30^th anniversary show, he had not played with the band since they broke up in 1982. He also wrote many of the songs with frontman Dennis Greaves.

Nine Below Zero built an almost obsessive following in the early 1980 with their take on American blues, while maintaining the energy of punk in their live performances. It was captured in their first album, Live At The Marquee, which was re-released towards in 2012.

Since reforming in 1990, NBZ have toured the UK and Europe and even Bangladesh constantly, and have recorded a number of new albums, but this tour will be longer, more extensive and at larger venues.

Frontman Dennis Greaves said: “We just love getting out there and playing live. And it’s been nice to see our fan base steadily grow again in the past few years. Some of our original fans, sometimes don’t even realise we are still going.

“What with our audiences growing and Universal putting out the two albums, and our debut Live At The Marquee, last year, we thought we’d really go for it with this tour. And it’s great having Mickey back. During rehearsals, the first time he counted us in brought back some wonderful memories of the classic line-up.”

And it was that classic line-up which performed their single 11+11 on the first episode of cult TV show The Young Ones. They then featured in a South Bank Show and supported both The Who and The Kinks. However, at this point the band split up and Dennis formed The Truth, who enjoyed two UK top 20 hits. But in 1990, Nine Below reformed for their 10th anniversary and sold out the Town and Country (now the Forum) in London.

Dennis said: “It was great to see the fans still had the appetite for what we were doing.”

A sell-out UK tour followed and the band were invited to join the likes of Eric Clapton, Ray Davies and Brian May.

Dennis Greaves will play alongside his friend of 35 years, also a founding member of Nine below Zero, harmonica player Mark Feltham. 

NBZ at the Cluny...messy arrangement of photos by Jowheretogo