No Fixed Abode!

 Albrighton,

Shropshire.

Admission £6.00

Jazz Club 90

email:

john.howell121@btinternet.com

Contact John or Marie on

01902 756158 or 07947668750 

Sad news about Reg Keirle

This was on Bev Pegg’s Facebook page on Jan 12th……

This morning, the Black Country has lost one of its great characters, Reg Keirle.

Reg was a comedian who has made me cry with laughter at on many occasions. He was a brilliant and articulate, and observant funny man, besides being a fine pianist, vocalist and artist.

His sketches of regular jazz musicians who have appeared at The Trumpet in Bilston have adorned the walls for many years. I have so many happy memories of doing lots of gigs alongside him over the past thirty plus years.

To my mind, he was one of the greats of this Black Country area. A wonderfully talented man. You’ll be missed Reg mate.”

Marie and I have known Reg since about 1977 and agree with everything Bev said. We became regulars at the Trumpet, every night and Sunday lunchtimes, and Reg was always there with Tamar, his partner, and he was the life and soul of the party, very often singing with other bands while every Monday he played piano, sang and told his jokes. He helped us on many occasions to raise thousands of pounds for several hospital departments and was very also very good company outside the jazz world.

We look forward to being able to start the jazz gigs again,

hopefully at the "Royal" (the old British Legion Club) in Albrighton.....when Covid 19 allows!

******************************

The club opens at mid-day and all gigs will be from 1.00 pm - 3.00 pm.  Marie's rolls will be available for your Sunday lunch!

*******************************************

***********************************

Links to Alex Clarke and TJ Johnson are now on YouTube...click "Videos" link above

Here a a couple of links to videos of the celebrations ofAlf's 100th birthday:

https://youtu.be/-w_40VqRSLo    Wolves surprise

https://youtu.be/zNZHwR6ggxE   Part of his "do" at the jazz.

Use the links above to keep track of our plans and programme for jazz in Albrighton.

On the "Programme" page you can now click on the band name to link with their website

Click the "Videos" link above to find videos of bands who have played at the Club and also the many filmed at the Harp since 2007.

We now have a total of 570+ videos on YouTube.

New videos are added regularly, the latest are of Eagle Jazz Band and the Sopranos

************************************************************************************************

The links below are to pages from our days at the Harp...seems like the dim and distant past now!

[ Notices ] [ Gigs 06-07 ] [ Gigs 08 ] [ Gigs 09 ] [ Gigs 10 ][ Gigs 11 ] [ Gigs 12 ] [ Gigs 13 ] [ News ] [ More news ] [ Jazz club 90 photos ] [ More photos ] 

****************************************************************

Our First Gig

Sunday, October 25th. 2015 was our first gig at the Social Club and it turned out to be even better than we expected.....an almost full house with many friendly faces from our days at the Harp, it was so good to see everyone.

The music provided by the Carl Sinclair Trio was ideally suited to an occasion which celebrated both the 25th. anniversary of jazz in Albrighton and the re-birth of Jazz Club 90....it covered everything from Fats Waller to Winifred Atwell , Jools Holland, Elvis, Fats Domino and more, not jazz for the purist but highly entertaining. Carl is a superbly talented pianist and singer with a great rapport with a mostly more senior audience, Howard Smith on drums complements him perfectly and Kenny his dad, on guitar, brought back many rock and roll memories.

Click to enlarge

George Sims, one of the founders of Jazz Club 90, and original raffle ticket seller was there with his wife, Joan, and duly sold raffle tickets again, even though he is now in his 90s!

Totally out of the blue was a presentation to Marie and myself, and George and Joan, of an engraved glass plaque in recognition of our contribution to jazz in Albrighton....many thanks to Terry Taylor, John Bosworth, John Hill and every one else involved in this lovely idea.

Any misgivings we may have had about the suitability of the Sports and Social Club as a venue were soon forgotten as it is a warm, welcoming, comfortable place with very friendly, helpful staff, we look forward to future gigs with a growing amount of confidence.

*******************************************

Great music, excellent beers, friendly welcome....why not give us a try, you might even win the superb wine and other prizes in the raffle?

*************************************

Click to enlarge

The final gig at the Harp

On May 17th 2015 Brian Turnock's brilliant New Orleans Z'Hulus brought the curtain down on Jazz Club 90 at the Harp with a session which reminded us of how much we will be missing.

The Harp was packed with many sitting in the bar where they could just hear the band.

We went back in time a little when George, one of the originators of Jazz Club 90 ( and now 90 years old himself!) sold the raffle tickets and managed to extract more money from the audience than Marie did!

John Hill read out a message from Bev Pegg which went :

"Dear John, Marie, and all of the Harp Jazz Regulars.

I’m so sad to hear of this great jazz club finishing.

 I just want to thank John & Marie for organising what has been a great little club with a wonderful homely atmosphere.

 I have always loved playing here, and having a bit of a laugh, in front of such a lovely warm welcoming crowd. You will all remain in my mind for the rest of my days.

 Thank you all for the happy memories.

 Bev Pegg"

I think that sums up everything about the Harp, with the addition of all the wonderful bands who have entertained us so brilliantly and helped create that atmosphere.

Marie and I would like to thank everyone for their support over the years and for the many cards and gifts which we have received....but more especially for the many friends we have made and hope to keep in touch with in the future.

The final act was to remove the photos from the "bandstand"....the walls look very bare now!

Click to enlarge