AN END OF AN ERA!
Chris Mercer Trumpet
Chris Pearce Reeds
Richard Leach Trombone
Clinton Sedgeley Banjo/guitar
Ian Parry Double Bass
Graham Smith Drums
Ex Band Members who attended were
Keith Hockin (founder member)
Alan Bateman,
Tony Billingsley
and Andy Robins
To a crowded room The Antique Six wearing their smart trademark jackets started their performance with South Rampart Street Parade followed by You Made Me Love You in which Graham played wood block percussion behind Clinton’s banjo solo. Some Day Sweetheart gave us muted trumpet and drum intro and a banjo solo and then the first vocal by Chris Mercer was I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby. Richard encouraged the audience to clap and he and Chris Pearce harmonised behind the vocal. We were treated to a trombone feature Harlem Folkdance that has been a popular tune with the band backed by the rhythm section. Snag It with lovely harmonies followed and Chris did his best to reach the high notes in the middle section of this tune as he was suffering from a cold. Chris Pearce introduced Copenhagen as the next number explaining that it was not connected to the place but to chewing tobacco. Memphis Shake with Chris on “bubbles” his alto sax and a delightful banjo solo from Clinton was the next number followed by a favourite of mine Eccentric – a great fast and furious number. The tunes came just as fast and furious with not much talking in between to pack in as many tunes as possible, which was lovely. Their own version of Chimes Blues with Clinton on banjo for a solo and the chimes was next and beautiful chimes to finish. The first set closed with the up-tempo Black Bottom Stomp, which is a great finishing number and had woodblocks with clarinet solo and muted trumpet and trombone solos.
The second set started with Alan Bateman and Keith Hockin who both wore the original green jackets and ties – very impressive that they still had them – replacing Chris Pearce and Richard and the first number was Stevadore Stomp containing a good drum solo. Bugle Boy March followed this with Alan’s intro on trumpet and solos from him and Keith on trombone. A lovely slow version of Workingman Blues delighted us next - what lovely trumpet playing. Tony Billingsley was next on stage to join Keith and Alan who switched to play clarinet to play At The Jazz Band Ball. Tony explained that the last time he had played with the band he had black hair and that’s how I remember him too!!!! Delightful playing it was too, as was the next number, All By Myself which had a guitar intro, beautiful clarinet solo from Alan and again Tony’s trumpet and Clinton on guitar. All Of Me, which Tony sang or All En Wee as he said was brilliant with great rhythm section behind the trumpet and banjo solos, finished the second set.
The final set saw Chris and Richard back with the band and Andy Robins on bass for the first three tunes, which were Joe Avery’s Piece - great, drum backing, Go Ghana - a tune written to celebrate the forming of the Gold Coast and Mabel’s Dream. Wonderful bass playing and thank you Andy. Wolverine Blues a Jelly Roll Morton tune was next and followed by a clarinet feature from Chris Pearce of When You Wish Upon A Star. Absolutely beautiful as was Clinton’s guitar solo and very much appreciated by the audience. The final number was Bei Mir, which had the infamous drum solo going into Big Noise - Ian with bass solo and Graham playing on the bass strings. A definite crowd pleaser!
Graham thanked Alan, Keith, Tony and Andy for making the journey and wanting to play again with the band for their last performance. All good things come to an end but watch out for all of them in new bands in the future. Already Chris Pearce’s Frenchman Street Jazz Band has been formed and of course Richard has his band The 7 Stars of Jazz.
It was very fitting that The Antiques should play their last session at the jazz club as they were the first band to appear when we started the club back in June 2006 which was then held at No. 8, the Community Arts Centre in Pershore.
Never have I seen so many people with cameras taking pictures. I hope you all have happy memories of the band and will have pictures to look back on and CD’s to listen to.
Maggie Smith
