Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Last week, my parents and I went on the ‘Big Band Sounds Break’ with Tony Jacobs; the Jim Barry Quintet; the Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra, the Swing Time Jivers and many more. This was a birthday treat for my Dad from Monday the 6th to Thursday the 9th of November, which he really enjoyed indeed.
Earlier in the year, my parents and I attended a similar event at one of the Warner Leisure Hotels in Thoresby Hall outside Nottingham, England called ‘Swing That Music’ in May 2017. This midweek event was held at Gunton Hall in Lowestoft, Suffolk. My parents and I stayed for four nights in chalets.
We enjoyed the midweek break very much and my Dad and I took some photos with the digital camera. I’ve included some of them here in this blog post for you to enjoy!
On the Monday evening, we enjoyed the concert, ‘A Swell Party’. This was the Great American (and British) Songbook show and featured Tony Jacobs, the Jim Barry Quintet and guest singer Catherine Sykes. The concert also featured the very talented saxophone and clarinet player Sue Greenway.
On the first night, they had songs like ‘Just The Way You Look Tonight’; ‘Serenade in Blue’ and ‘Putting on the Ritz’. There were also some duets sung that evening between Tony Jacobs and Catherine Sykes including ‘An Apple For The Teacher’, ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ and ‘For Me and My Gal’. There was also a duet sung between Catherine Sykes and Sue Greenway called ‘Sisters’.
On Tuesday, my parents and I visited Lowestoft itself. We didn’t do much apart from exploring the shops. There was a Marks and Spencer’s in Lowesoft and they had a gold statue of Paddington Bear in the shop window. This was to promote the new movie ‘Paddington 2’ to be released at cinemas.
That evening, my parents and I went to enjoy the concert, ‘Shake That Thing’! This was a similar concert to the one my parents and I saw at the end of June 2017 in Swansea. This was my Dad’s favourite music evening for the midweek break and I enjoyed it too. The concert was the Great British Swing-Dance Show and it featured the Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra and the Swing Time Jivers.
The Swing Time Jivers danced the Charleston which I enjoyed and I also enjoyed their speciality number, ‘One Man Dance’. It also had Tony Jacobs and Catherine Sykes sing several duets including ‘Cheek to Cheek’ to commemorate Fred Astaire. There was also bass saxophone player Mick Foster, who is well-known for having a guest star appearance in the ITV drama series, ‘Downton Abbey’.
On Wednesday, my parents and I visited Great Yarmouth. We enjoyed our day trip there, as we explored the pier. It was quiet, considering summer had gone and nobody was about. We also explored the shops and I saw a Dalek from ‘Doctor Who’ and a Stormtrooper from ‘Star Wars’ in one of the shop windows of a market street. I can’t get away from ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Star Wars’ at all! 😀
Thursday was our last day for that midweek break. In the morning, my parents went to enjoy the ‘Morning Cabaret – Putting on the Ritz’ with Tony Jacobs and Jim Barry. Whilst my parents enjoyed that, I went to see the movie matinée for the day – the ‘Dad’s Army’ 2016 film which I enjoyed a lot.
In the afternoon, my parents and I took some photos of us standing outside our chalets for that week. My parents were staying at No.3 in Kingwood whilst I was staying at No. 7 in the Woodlands. My cuddly toy dog Cuddles also joined us on our midweek holiday. He gets everywhere that dog! 😀
That evening, my parents and I went to enjoy the ‘Swing Special with the Tony Jacobs Big Band’. This concert featured guest singer Louise Cookman joining Tony Jacobs and Sue Greenway to perform some of the greatest music from the Big Band era. My parents and I enjoyed this very much.
The music and songs included ‘Strike Up The Band’ from the film itself and ‘St. Louis’ Blues March’ that was originally performed by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. Louise Cookman sang some songs including ‘Get Me To The Church On Time’ from ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘My Heart Belongs To Daddy’.
My parents and I enjoyed our little holiday break in Gunton Hall with Tony Jacobs and his team of musicians and singers. It made my Dad’s perfect birthday treat and my Mum and me were glad to partake in it with enjoying the concerts and exploring the sights of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.
I’m sure we’ll soon be seeing Tony Jacobs and his musicians again at another musical event soon!
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 