Mixtape: Jumpin Hot Club

Hey, I’m Graham Shipcote – Head honcho at Jumpin Hot Club, main programmer, musician, author, curator, Abuelo and Gateshead supporter.

We have our 40th anniversary exhibition of Jumpin Hot Club. Yep, 40 years of grassroots music in the region, showing at St Mary’s Heritage Centre, Gateshead atm. All the amazing years of archives in the impressive historical surroundings of the church next to The Glasshouse. It’s taken me 12 months to organise this, but it’s certainly been worth it…. And probably finished by the time you’re reading this piece! (It ends Sat 1st Nov) 

So rather than just picking eight mix tracks that mean a lot from shows through the years, instead I’m just going to swing that around and give you anecdotes from eight venues I’ve used that are not in the new updated book we have just released, Where Good Music Belongs about the history of Jumpin Hot Club.”

1/  I got the legendary Ska trombonist Rico Rodriguez’s direct phone number off an associate and thought, why not just give him a ring and ask if he can come and play the Bridge Hotel cellar bar. This was November 1991. I did that & to my amazement, not only did he answer the phone, but he agreed to play in spring 92, coming up with his local musician as Rico & friends . We agreed a good fee & I asked if he could sign my MU contract to confirm and return with a publicity photo. Nothing arrived so I waited until January and rang again, and Rico said it wasn’t a problem & they would be there… Then a week later I got the signed contract back  and a photo of Rico & his wife standing in front of the Christmas tree! The date arrived in April and there they were, sitting in a van outside The Bridge Hotel at 5pm. That gig was even sweeter when Rico got his 80-year-old mate, who’d made the journey up , sing the last number, his only tune of the evening and an awesome finale.

2/ Talking of Reggae, we booked Gregory Isaacs for the very first Evolution Festival, on our stage near the Pitcher & Piano on the quayside. It was a scoop & again he turned up & played. I even got my kids to pose for a photo with him (although it wasn’t long since he’d been released from jail ☺ ). However unbeknownst to us , he had also been booked for a French Reggae Festival the very same day & with that being cancelled, that’s why he came to Newcastle….

3) We were in between venues in 1997, when the Bridge Hotel cellar bar closed before we eventually went down to Live Theatre, so we had 6 months upstairs in The Chillingham Arms in Heaton. The manager there was totally bonkers. We had African-American bluesman Michael Roach who I got on BBC radio and a fair bit of publicity too, but only 30 people turned up . The manager went mad, then the following week we had local ska/jump blues outfit Deacon Jones and The Sinners and possibly 160 people in and he threatened to call the police, as he thought it was far too many.

4/ Let’s get a bit more up to date and Cluny 2 in Sept 23 when the room didn’t need the heating on, not that they have fixed the boiler! This is a culinary tale. Joshua Ray Walker is a big lad from USA with a big country voice. His version of The Cranberries’ “Linger” just voice and guitar, was one of the highlights of the year in that great little acoustic room. He certainly had the energy for it as he ate 6, yes 6 dinners in The Cluny kitchen bar, before the show. I wondered why it had taken 3 hours to get back to the venue after soundcheck ….

5/ Talking of acoustic’s we did some special show’s in All Saints Church near Tyne Bridge, almost two decades ago and the council hired the sound equipment in for the one of a kind gigs. We had booked legendary singer – songwriter Chip Taylor (Wild Thing/Angel Of The Morning) with fiddler Carrie Rodriguez a few times, so I knew them. When the council were taking ages to set up the 5k sound rig, Chip told them to put all their equipment back in their two trucks and “F Off”. It was a “wild thing” to do but the duo played on the raised altar bit acoustically and sounded amazing. However, another booking in there, the American songster Amos Lee freaked out as he had to play on the altar and wouldn’t come out the vestibule dressing room. 

6/ In summer 2021 Emily Barker, the Australian songbird brought live music back to Newcastle and Gosforth Civic Theatre after covid with our first gig in over a year. Granted the support act were country icons Brennen Leigh and Noel McKay streamed all the way from Nashville (although they couldn’t have heard the cheers from the Gosforth audience after every song) it was quite a night. A keen gig goer Harold said he cried with joy when Emily took the stage and Emily herself said that she could cry anytime, she was so pleased to be back. She proclaimed even having the Tesco humus and celery rider in the dressing room made her teary.

7/ I suppose the last appearance of a Jumpin Hot Club favourite Justin Townes Earle at Live Theatre warrants a mention. Justin always enjoyed coming to Newcastle when in Europe as when he was on tour with his father Steve Earle in his early days , they had a Geordie roadie who Justin thought was hilarious. He played here lots and they were all occasions. At Live Theatre I didn’t have any whisky on the rider and Justin had a private word (his agent didn’t like him drinking) and we walked over to Tesco extra and got a half pint bottle. That seemed to do the trick & he played superbly. What a man he was…. And he’s sadly missed.

8/ We used Hyena Café up on Percy Street for a year during Newcastle’s push for city of culture back in the day. I liked the venue, even if the stage was quite small, as it was mainly used for comedy, but the 7 piece string band from Virginia The Hackensaw Boys made the most of it, and played wildly on the floor too. One fella with a bit of cash was so overwhelmed he invited them back to  Newcastle to play for his daughter’s wedding that summer.  We had The Hackensaw Boys on recently at Cluny2 and they were still as awesome as ever.