Always a great day out we have been attending this fabulous annual event since we first formed the band!

This year we got a nice late afternoon slot giving us time to eye up the other bands.

Many thanks to the organisers and adjudicators who put in so much time and effort to make this such a successful event.

We got some nice adjudicator comments and a great write up from Russell at Bebop Spoken Here.

The tenth and final band of the day featured the mighty Tyne Valley Big Band (MD, Dave Hignett). In excess of twenty musicians on stage, the TVBB doesn’t do things by halves. Dave Connolly‘s arrangement of Hoyt Curtin’s much-loved theme tune The Flintstones kick-started the set (Tom Cantwell, guitar, Niall Armstrong, tenor sax). The TVBB marked the 30th anniversary of the global touring phenomenon Riverdance in typical style – all sections giving it some. And to close, local hero Sam Fender’s People Watching was given the big band treatment, vocalist Barbara Hignett giving it her all alongside MD  – and trumpet ace – Dave Hignett blowing the roof off the place. If you’re listening to the Tyne Valley Big Band you cant be having anything other than a Yabba-dabba doo time!