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August bank holiday weekend in Blyth is shaping up to be a colossal event of entertainment for the thousands expected to visit the Tall Ships Regatta at Blyth Quayside. Not only are there bands playing during the day near the harbour, but there are also two huge nights going on at The Old Church on Waterloo Road - which is ran by local charity Headway Arts. I spoke to band promoter Vince Race and he had this to say about the weekend of night-time music coming to a Church near you…….
Vince: ‘If you are looking to enjoy the Tall Ships coming to Blyth in style this summer make sure you do not miss these two very special nights we have lined up with Headway Arts in the Old United Reformed Church at the top of Waterloo Road (The big red one!) …We will have a great bar and draught beers available plus the guys will have the Church looking amazing inside with all the decorations on display. The lights and sound system will be the best around, coinciding with the amazing live music planned. It will be open from 8.30pm until 1a.m and will be the only place to enjoy yourself when the lights go down. We have Saturday 27th August tickets available for £5 with The Longsands and the UK’s finest Oasis tribute Howaysis, along with a very special Britpop star guest arriving too. ….Sunday tickets for the 28th August are nearly all gone. They are £8 with Blue’s legend Paul Lamb and The King Snakes plus Blues-Rock band Clippah. We also have a very limited number of £10 weekend tickets available at Seetickets.com. '
Noel Robson is the Noel Gallagher of Howaysis and I managed to get a few words with him about the forthcoming gig…they actually played their debut gig in Blyth and what a night that turned out to be for all of the local Oasis fans!
Noel: “On the 18th June 2010 Blyth played host to the debut performance of our band Howaysis. Brought to Blyth by Vince, we spent the next 4 years playing all over the UK and in Europe. After an almost 2 year-long break we are back to where it all began...... Blyth will always be a special place for us, being the place we first tested the water with a mix of Oasis tunes and a Noel Gallagher acoustic set, and it seems fitting that after supporting Tom Hingley in June 2016 (in our first gig since July 2014) as a warm up comeback gig, Howaysis are back to headline at the prestigious Tall Ships as our first offical performance of 2016. The band are really up for the famous Blyth crowd…. Blyth has a real buzz at the moment culturally and with the Tall Ships and the music events taking place in August we are honoured to be asked to play at such a great venue as The Old Church. We can't wait to crank it up and belt out all the Oasis classics. With a new Liam Gallagher at the front centre-stage, it promises to be a cracking weekend. Dig out your 90's swagger because we are Mad fer’ it!”
Noel from Howaysis^
The Longsands will be familiar to most local music fans, hailing from Cramlington and Blyth, these talented lads are due to release their 2nd Album on the 12th August entitled ‘Us and Them’ and I have had a preview listen to this impressive follow up to debut Album ‘Meet me in Spanish City’. They have toured the UK with Bruce Foxton's From The Jam, performed at Festivals and even played their great version of ‘Blaydon Races’ at half-time on the centre circle at St.James’ Park! I’m really looking forward to hearing the new tunes being performed live and I know many other fans have been buzzing about this gig since it was announced.
The Longsands band^
If you are wanting to attend these two nights of top-quality entertainment and celebrate the unique Blyth Tall Ships weekend in style, then you may be able to snap up the last remaining tickets…… 50% of the ticket sales will be donated to the Headway Arts local charity…..
Here are the ticket links:
Weekend tickets: http://www.seetickets.com/event/tall-ships-fringe-weekend-ticket/the-old-church-headway-artspac/991116
