FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   (UK)

PUBLICATION DATE  31st October 2015

Published by R J C Media Group

contact details:

website : www.redcarjazzclubmedia.com

email : info@redcarjazzclubmedia.com

Author: Chris Scott Wilson : XXXXXXX

Photographer : Dennis Weller : XXXXXXX

Photographer:  Graham Lowe : XXXXXXX

Author website : www.chrisscottwilson.co.uk

Photographer website: www.grahamlowephotography.com

Marketing : Mick York : 07753685622

Mick York email : mickyricky@ntlworld.com

ARCHIVE OF UNPLUNDERED PHOTOGRAPHS FROM

REDCAR JAZZ CLUB FROM THE GOLDEN YEARS OF THE 1960s

The RJC Media group is proud to announce the publication of Backstage Pass : Redcar Jazz Club by Dennis Weller, Chris Scott Wilson & Graham Lowe, celebrating the golden years of Redcar Jazz Club. This large format 160 page hardback features over 200 photographs by Graham Lowe & Dennis Weller, many of them unseen, while author Chris Scott Wilson weaves the club’s story into a compelling social commentary, garnished with contemporary adverts, memorabilia, detailed vignettes, recollections of audience members and quotes from the artists who performed there.  

“It’s all about memories,” says author Chris Scott Wilson.  “The music we were introduced to on Sunday nights has stayed with us all our lives. Add even just one picture and you’re straight back there.” In an age when nobody had a camera phone, two aspiring photographers, Dennis Weller and Graham Lowe  captured those performances at Redcar. “Their archives are huge, and largely unplundered,” says Chris. “Although Graham’s work has received wider exposure, many of the photographs they both took at the Jazz Club remain unseen. When they allowed me a peek, I was astounded, and I hope the public will be too. They deserve to be seen.”

If the 20s roared and the 50s jived after the 40s bopped, then the 60s rocked. By the dawn of that decade England was the coolest place on the planet. And the musicians who swung in London, swung all over the country. In fact, before anyone had danced down Carnaby Street wearing white knee high boots and a mini skirt, Redcar on the north east coast was already swinging.

One venue stood out. Redcar Jazz Club’s early origins in 1958 featured Trad jazz bands like Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball and Terry Lightfoot, but by the time Carnaby Street became famous in the mid 60s the club’s name was already a misnomer. Retaining its original title, the Jazz Club was already promoting top R&B and blues artists like T-Bone Walker, Rod Stewart, John Lee Hooker and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. As the audience’s tastes changed to rock, the club presented The Who, Free, Eric Clapton, Cream, Joe Cocker, Deep Purple, Steve Winwood in Traffic, The Moody Blues and many others.  

As the golden years of the 60s drew to a close, the club foundered, eventually closing its doors in 1973.

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Backstage Pass : Redcar Jazz Club priced at £29.99 is available direct from the publisher at  www.redcarjazzclubmedia.com  or from local stockists including Guisborough Bookshop, Chaloner St, Guisborough;  Book Corner, Station Square, Saltburn; Whitby Bookshop, Church St, Whitby; Clock Gallery, High St Redcar; Kirkleatham Museum Redcar; Montage Gallery, Church St, Castleton, N.Yorks; Sound It Out Records, Stockton on Tees.  

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