Remembering Mike Jeffery – 50 Years On

My previous blog on Ready Steady Gone was about the unveiling of a heritage plaque commemorating a Newcastle venue called the Club a’Gogo – a club that came to an…

Unveiling the past – Amanda, Mike and the plaque

What was it that drew an American jazz pianist over from New York to a city street in Newcastle upon Tyne for the unveiling of a plaque honouring a long…

The Soul Deceiver

Many of us who were around during the mid-sixties through to the early seventies will look back on the music scene of that period with great affection. Some of us…

Stairway To Heaven

For many Newcastle teenagers in the mid-sixties, the Club a’Gogo was their own piece of Heaven. The unlicensed part of the club, known as the Young Set was an exciting…

Art Of The City

For at least a hundred and fifty years there has been a perceptible link between music and the visual arts. From the 1950s onwards the bond between the two art…

Farewell Charlie Harcourt

Just three days after the death of legendary blues guitarist Peter Green shook the music industry and music lovers worldwide, generations of northeast music fans were devastated to learn of…

The Battle Of Percy Street

Although the main theme of Ready Steady Gone is the northeast music scene from the mid sixties to the early seventies, I sometime come across a losely related subject that…

Return Of The Beano

It’s a chilly Winter’s night in January 1966 – Saturday the 29th to be precise. My band, Jazzboard, have just finished performing at the West End Club in the Fenham…

As Long As I Have You

Whilst driving home last week after a short trip to the northeast I turned on the car radio and caught the end of a very familiar song. It took a…

The People’s History Of Pop

In 2016 BBC Four are to broadcast a series of documentaries entitled ‘The People’s History Of Pop’. The programmes will be about pop music from the 1950s through to the…