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2nd July - There are four new tracks on Jez's MY SPACE site, including the first "taster" of the forthcoming live album - a Bad Pennies rendition of Jez's 1985 composition CHICK HENDERSON'S MARCH, which sticks pretty closely to original version of the song, but with added fiddle, piano and bass. Jez has always performed this song solo, so it's great to hear the band tackling it. The other songs just uploaded are from different sources - A LONG WALK HOME from the 1999 Lowe Life CD promo, THE NET MY FATHER LEFT ME from the Fighting the Tide soundtrack album and THE MIAMI from the Jack Common's Anthem album, presumably included following it being featured two weeks running on Mike Harding's BBC Radio show, last week from the same album, and this week as part of the thrilling RADIO BALLADS concert broadcast, which also included Jez's performance of OLD HAMMERHEAD and Bob Fox's rendition of Jez's TAKING ON MEN. The show is available for listening again on the BBC website for the next seven days. Finally, part of the proposed "bonus DVD" that will be included in the forthcoming live album has just emerged, in the form of unedited test discs. Watch this space for more info on this...

24th June - The long-awaited broadcast of the January 2007 Radio Ballads concert from Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival has FINALLY been scheduled for next Wednesday, July 2nd at 7pm on BBC Radio Two. It is being aired to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Ewan MacColl series. The concert was a spectacular success, and a highlight of that year's festival. Jez Lowe is among the many artists involved - he wrote and/or sang about ten of the songs performed that night, some of which are included in this programme. There's a repeat broadcast at 3am on Friday July 4th, and it will be available for "listen again" on the BBC website for seven days. The BBC RADIO BALLADS website is still up and running - there's a link from the LINKS page on this site, and there are some great photos from the Glasgow gig on the Flickr.com website. There's also a short article about next Wednesday's programme in the new Radio Times UK TV listings magazine.

16th June - As we suspected, much of The Bad Pennies' set at the recent Southall folk festival has ended up on Youtube. Tracks include A HARD LIFE, CURSED BE THE CALLER, THE WALTZER and SUGAR WATER SUNDAY... Canadian band The Duhks are in the UK for some gigs, and BBC folk DJ Mike Harding played their version of Jez's DOVER, DELAWARE on last week's BBC Radio Two folk show as a taster... Set list from last night's solo gig in Warrington, sent in by Lucy Davenport - Set One - WILL OF THE PEOPLE/FAMOUS WORKING MAN/TAKING ON MEN/ARMSTRONG'S ARMY/ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE/LAST OF THE WIDOWS/JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM. Set Two - IDLE TIME/THE BERGEN/THESE COAL TOWN DAYS/GREEK LIGHTNING/BIG MEETING DAY/BALLAD OF TASKER JACK/THE BIG FEAR/OLD BONES - Encore - A SMALL COAL SONG. Jez has solo gigs in Baldock, Kings Winford and Rainford over the next week.

10th June - Newsbits - Peter Cox's book on the BBC Radio ballads, titled SET INTO SONG is now out, published by Labattie Books. It concentrates on the original Ewan MacColl programmes from the 1950's, but there is an extensive chapter on the 2006 series, including comments from Jez and some of the others involved. Check out the website at www.setintosong.co.uk... Two tracks from Jez's forthcoming live album have been sent out on a preview CD for radio. One track is A CALL FOR THE NORTH COUNTRY, originally recorded on 1993's BEDE WEEPS album. The other track varies from copy to copy apparently... Fiddler Tom McConville, with whom Jez worked briefly in the band Dab Hand in the early 1980's, is about to release a new solo album that includes a version of Jez's song THE NET MY FATHER LEFT ME, from the 2002 "Fighting the Tide" soundtrack CD. Tom's album is out in a few weeks... By all accounts Jez and the band made quite an impression at last week's Southwell Folk festival with a great set on the opening night. See for yourself when some of it turns up on You Tube soon...

2nd June - A bit of a surprise for You Tube fans - a promo film for JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM has shown up on the site, showing Jez lip-synching to the album track in a back street in Northern England, playing his cittern and staring menacingly at the camera! The origins of the clip aren't known at the moment, but you can see it by clicking here. There's also a clip of The Bad Pennies doing GREEK LIGHTNING from that gig in Conwy last month, if you scroll down through the list on the right of the mini pop-up screen... Don't get confused by next weekend's itinerary - Jez starts on Thursday in York solo, then is joined by the band for Friday at Southwell festival. He's then solo at the Wirral festival during the day on Saturday, then is back with the band for a gig in Coal Aston on Saturday night. Then he's BACK at the Wirral Festival solo on Sunday. Clear enough? Hope so...

May 28th - For those of us who missed last year's SONG FOR GEORDIE tour, there is a tantalising glimpse of it in a page-long glowing review that appears in the latest edition of the UK folk magazine Living Tradition, more than six months after the last concert of the tour. It really does sound like it was quite a night. Reading through the details of the show, we can't help but wonder if there are any plans to re-stage it. We hope so.

May 22nd - News bits - There may be some new "exclusive" tracks on Jez's MY SPACE site in the next week or so - keep an eye out for that via the link on the home-page of this site... There is a new clip on YOU TUBE of The Bad Pennies playing BACK IN DURHAM GAOL at Conwy Folk Club last Monday... Song lists from the last few gigs include rare appearances for HONEST WORKING WAY, CALICO and A DREAM OF STEAM AND FREEDOM...

May 16th - Please note - Next Friday's Bad Pennies concert at St.David's Hall in Tudhoe, County Durham has been cancelled, due to a beaurocratic mix-up. The rest of this month's tour is of course going ahead as planned.

May 12th - NEWS ROUND-UP - The Bad Pennies are on the road in the UK from this coming weekend, and if last Saturday's show at Helmsley Arts Centre is anything to go by, it should be a cracking set of gigs - lots of different songs, and the band on top form... Mixing of the new "live" album is just being completed. An October release is now on the cards for the UK, September for North America... David Delahaye, Bad Pennies' bassist, has a new solo album out. You can link to his My Space site via Jez's own My Space... Lots of old Jez Lowe stuff currently on EBay, we notice, including old LP's from the 1980's and some Green Linnet-issue T-Shirts... Another cover-version, in Australia this time, of CALICO (from the DOOLALLY album) by Colin Beresford on his new solo album entitled "The Front Hall Effect"...

May 5th - The new edition of the North of England music magazine The Crack says that Jez's new live CD will include "some well-known Geordie songs" as well as his own "best known songs". The magazine says the album will be released in September. The information comes from a short interview Jez gave at last weekend's Bad Pennies gig in Newcastle, where the set-list was as follows - Set One - CALL FOR THE NORTH COUNTRY / CURSED BE THE CALLER / TAKING ON MEN / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / GREEK LIGHTNING / WILL OF THE PEOPLE / THE WALTZER / JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM. Set Two - BLACK DIAMONDS / SUGAR WATER SUNDAY / DOVER, DE;AWARE / CARTER'S FAIR / CHARLTON'S FANCY / FANCY GOODS / HONEST WORKING WAY / FUN WITHOUT FOOLS - Encore - THE SODA MAN.

April 26th - NEWS BITS - We're waiting for confirmation that Jez has been added to the bills of North Devon Folk Festival in early September and Coventry's Godiva Festival in August... Gareth Davies-Jones' new album Water and Light is just out - Jez is guest-vocalist on one track of this CD, recorded in Glasgow earlier this year... Some new cover-versions from America - The Tullamore Celtic Band from Virginia have BACK IN DURHAM GAOL on their new CD "Welcome Home", Sheri Mortimer from New England has THE BERGEN on her forthcoming new release, and The Robbins Brothers have a nice bluegrass version of THE BALLAD OF TASKER JACK on their self-titled new album, which might explain why Jez has been doing a "re-arranged" version of that song at his solo gigs in recent weeks!

April 19th - As mentioned below, this week Jez was involved in the making of a forthcoming TV series about well-known films shot in the North of England, specifically in this case the movie BILLY ELLIOTT, shot in Jez's hometown in the late '90's. In the TV show, Jez talks about the town and how the plot of the film related to life there in those days. He's also seen walking through the streets featured in the film - the same streets of course seen on the JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM CD artwork. Some of Jez's music is likely to be used in the programme, which will be screened in the UK later this year... This week Jez also was interviewed for a programme on the local independant station Radio Teesdale, for broadcast sometime next week, available on line for listen-again at www.radioteesdale.co.uk... Jez is solo in Southampton tomorrow (Sunday) and in Liverpool on Tuesday - see gigs page for details... And full marks to everyone on the LAUREL AND CHARLIE project - the show is hilarious and a really classy production! See it if you can!!

April 17th - Kate Bramley's latest production with Badapple Theatre, entitled LAUREL AND CHARLIE opened last night in North Yorkshire - it plays tonight at Huby Village Hall near Otley - tickets still available for most shows. Click here at www.katebramley.com for more details... Meanwhile, with Andy May in Seattle USA teaching on a Northumbrian Pipes course, Jez is involved in a BBC TV show about the making of the hit movie "Billy Elliott", which was filmed in his home town in East Durham. More details on that soon...

April 7th - News Update - Those extra dates have been confirmed for Conwy Folk Club (not Rhyl) on May 19th, St Paul's Hall Tudhoe (not Spennymoor) on May 23rd and Bursledon Village Hall (NEAR Southampton) on April 20th - the first two with the band, the last one solo. All places where Jez hasn't played for quite a while, so the band is very excited to be going back at last... Whispers about that "live" album - set for an October release in the UK, maybe earlier in America - with a total of SEVENTEEN tracks currently under consideration, and as we surmised, some pretty rare stuff amongst them, as all the "greatest hits" were covered on the LIVE AT THE DAVY LAMP CD. As for the SONG FOR GEORDIE tapes - and it's amazing how much interest there is in that project, both by those who saw the gigs and those who missed them! - once the Caedmon Hall tracks are mixed, attention will be turned to the recordings of three shows, Cramlington, Whitby and Carlisle, that were taped, and a decision as to what to do with them will be taken.

April 5th - There are several late additions to the tour date list - Jez has a solo gig just added on April 20th in Southampton - details on the gig page of this site. There are also two unconfirmed dates in May for The Bad Pennies, in Rhyl, North Wales on May 19th and in Spennymoor County Durham on May 24th - deatils of both venues will be added later this week...

March 25th - Hot on the heels of his BBC Folk Awards nomination, Jez finds himself a finalist in the annual American-based Indie Acoustic Project awards for the best CDs of 2007. He's nominated in the "Best Lyrics" section for JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM, and once again he's up against some stiff competition - this time it's Steve Earle! The results are announced on April 3rd. It's not the first time Jez has been included in this competition, coming second in the "Best Male Songwriter" list in 2004 for DOOLALLY, third in 2002 in the Acoustic Ensemble catergory for HONESTY BOX and actually winning the "Social Commentary" section back in 1998 with THE PARISH NOTICES. Most of the other nominees are North American, with a smattering of Celtic names. Full details can be found at www.indieacoustic.com... A song list from Jez's solo gig at Hitchin Folk Club last weekend has been sent in by Julie McManus - SET ONE - WILL OF THE PEOPLE / FAMOUS WORKING MAN / TAKING ON MEN / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / THE SEA AND THE DEEP BLUE DEVIL / SPITTING COUSINS / SONG OF THE INDIAN LASS / TEARDROP TWOSTEP. SET TWO - A FEW FRONTIERS / THE BERGEN / MARY MARTINDALE / THE MIAMI / JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM / HADAWAY GAN ON / BAIT UP / TENTERHOOKS / OLD BONES - Encore - YELLOW HAIR... Jez is currently in the studio, recording music for Kate Bramley's forthcoming production for Badapple Theatre, LAUREL AND CHARLIE...

March 20th - Earlier this week, Tantobie Records put FOUR new tracks on Jez's MY SPACE site, all rare and unreleased "archive" tracks. They were labelled "Demo 1 to 4" at first, and indeed they are relatively rough, unmixed rehearsal recordings of undetermined origin, but it's great to hear them! There are two Bad Pennies tracks from (possibly) 2002, namely OLD HAMMERHEAD and TEARDROP TWOSTEP, then the first ever version of MILITARY ROAD with Jez singing lead. Finally there is a unique solo recording of the song Jez and James Keelaghan wrote together, MY BLOOD (as featured on Keelo's last album with Jez sharing lead vocals). There are details of each track in the "lyrics" section of the tracks. They will be available for listening, not for download, for the next month. Quite a treat, all in all!

March 16th - News updates - Jez's evening concert at The Castle in Combe Martin, Devon next Saturday is preceded by a songwriting workshop during the day, for which there are still a few places remaining. This isn't something Jez does a lot, so catch it while you can! Contact details are on the GIGS page of this website... There was a broadcast of a TV concert given by The Bad Pennies in 2006, on a Dutch channel last week. We're hoping to get video footage from the show to post on the site in the near future... A songlist from last week's solo gig in Penecuik includes songs like HOI POLLOI, THE MIAMI and BAIT UP, this last one being an outsatnding solo contribution to the recent Caedmon Hall show. We hope it ends up on the promised live album, work on which is continuing, we're told... Check out Kate Bramley's website at www.katebramley.com for news of her forthcoming stage production for Badapple Theatre, entitled LAUREL AND CHARLIE, and for which Jez has contributed incidental music and a couple of songs. The play starts a run of small halls in Yorkshire next month, with a more wide-ranging tour later in the year...

March 8th - NEWS BITS - Some extra solo gigs have been added to Jez's April schedule. Dates at Stanley, Sheffield and Liverpool's Everyman Theatre have been added to the gigs page of this site... News from Canada is that JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM is riding high in the charts at the Galaxy Radio cable station alongside albums by Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, Linda Thompson, Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle. Jez is due to tour Canada solo in late September... A new book of collected verse inspired by the music of Frank Sinatra has just been published in America, and includes Jez's song HAD AWAY, GAN ON... Mixing of the live tracks recorded at Gateshead's Caedmon Hall last week is due to start soon. Recordings made during last November's Song For Geordie tour are also being looked at, we hear...

March 1st - Last night’s Bad Pennies concert at the Caedmon Hall in Gateshead on Tyne to a sell-out crowd of fans from near and far was a fine show by any standards. A set of local "Geordie" folk songs from some of the local Tynefolk singers provided a fitting introduction to the night, echoing the success of the recent Song For Geordie tour. Jez acknowledged from the start that it was being recorded for a potential live album, and asked the audience to clap hard “even if you don’t like us!” The set list was highly unusual, delving back into Jez’s old repertoire with band arrangements of Call For The North Country, Chick Henderson, A Hard Life for a Rover, Honest Working Way and many more rarely heard numbers, with only a couple of recent things such as Jack Common’s Anthem and Taking on Men included. There had been a smaller solo concert for an invited audience earlier in the day, so if and when a new live album does appear, we can no doubt expect it to cover a lot of ground... There's a review of one of the Song For Geordie concerts in the current issue of the Yorkshire Folk magazine Tyke's News which captures the magic of those gigs really well. Is it too much to hope that the project might be repeated at some point? Watch this space...

February 27th - There's a busy weekend ahead for Jez and the band - there are still some tickets left for Friday's Caedmon Hall gig in Gateshead. The show will be filmed as well as recorded, we're told. Saturday's gig in Bawtry is now sold out, but there are still tickets available on the night for the shows on Monday and Tuesday... All the dates for the September US tour by the band are now up on the gigs page of this site. All the shows are on the East Coast this time, but then Jez continues solo up to Canada and hopefully to the West Coast to end the tour. We'll list the complete solo leg of the tour as soon as we get the final list... Jez has been in Glasgow this week, doing backing vocals on a new album by songwriter Gareth Davies-Jones. This should be out by April.

February 21st - Jez was featured on the "Tour Bus Tunes" section of the BBC Radio Two Folk Programme last night, where he picked his five current favourite tracks. These were by Finnish group Frigg, Billy Bragg/Wilco, Mosaic, Bob Dylan and Benny Graham. Jez chatted briefly about each track, and then Benny's track was played, along with The Bad Pennies' version of DOVER, DELAWARE from the "Not in our Name" CD. You can hear the podcast of the show on the BBC Radio Two website for the next seven days. There's also a brief review of Jez's recent gig at Kirkby Fleetham festival on the BBC messageboard on the same website... Tickets selling fast for the February 29th Bad Pennies gig at the Caedmon Hall, Gateshead, which Tantobie are recording for a possible "live" album... Note also that the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on this site has been updated, with some new contributions from Jez, Andy and Kate.... Jez has a solo gig at the famous Grove Folk Club in Leeds tomorrow, Friday...

February 13th - Jez is featured on Mike Harding's BBC Radio 2 show next Wednesday, February 20th, in the "Tour Bus Tunes" feature. He chooses five tracks from the CD's that are currently "drive-time" favourites while on tour.

February 7th - Some notable gigs coming up in the next few weeks, not least a rare "duo" gig by Jez and Kate Bramley at Faldingworth this Saturday, which is in fact already sold out. Then following solo gigs at Skelton, Kirkby Fleetham and Leeds, there's a special Bad Pennies concert at the Caedmon Hall in Gateshead on February 29th, which will be recorded for release on a live CD later this year. Tickets for the show are limited, but are available at £7 from the box office on 0191 4338420. The concert will apparently be a mixture of solo and band performances of Jez Lowe songs "from early albums and special projects", so it's possible we'll be hearing some of those "lost" songs from the Radio Ballads series. Meanwhile, there's a bokk about the original Ewan MacColl Radio Ballads about to be issued. It's written by esteemed author Peter Cox, but does include a section on the 2006 Radio Ballads, based around interviews with Jez and some of the other writers. Finally, thanks to everyone who has been in touch to congratulate Jez on the Folk Awards nomination. Jez will be featured on Mike Harding's BBC Radio 2 show later this month, by the way - watch for more details soon.

February 5th - No Folk award for Jez this time around, with his category Folk Singer of the Year being won by the great Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis. Jez stepped up to the podium earlier in the night to present the Folk Club of the Year Award to Dartford Folk Club. The commemorative Folk Awards three-CD set is now available, and includes a track by Jez - JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM, lifted off his latest album. From tomorrow, highlights of the night, both audio and video, will be available on the BBC website, and BBC Radio Two are broadcasting the whole show this Wednesday from 7pm. Click here for info

January 31st - Things are hotting up for next week's BBC Folk Awards. Jez's nomination in the Folksinger of the Year category is drawing some attention, and got him coveted air-time on Mike Harding's Radio Two folk show awards preview last night. Mike played TAKING ON MEN from Jack Common's Anthem. Jez finished his short set of solo UK gigs last night at Dorking Folk Club, so presumably is hanging around to attend the Awards in London on Monday. No confirmation regarding the rumour that he'll be presenting an award at some point during the evening.

January 26th - Yet another great album review for JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM reaches us, this time in the American folk magazine Dirty Linen... The date and venue for the rumoured "live in concert" recording by Jez and the band seems likely to be on February 29th at The Caedmon Hall in Gateshead on Tyne. The concert is being promoted by the Tynefolk organiation, who have run the Blaydon Races Festival for the last few year. More details on ticket etc to come... Kate Bramley has been added to the bill of Glagow's Celtic Connections Festival, and will open at Monday night's concert at the Glagow Piping Centre (Monday 28th). Andy May is also at the festival, playing with Calum Stewart in their occasional duo... Jez is at South Shields Folk Club tomorrow, then heads south for solo gigs at Nettlebed (Monday) and Dorking (Wednesday). Details on the tour page of this site.

January 22nd - Great review of JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM album in the new edition of UK Folk Magazine Living Tradition, a mere nine months after it was released!... Jez played at the Jack Common Memorial concert in Newcastle last Sunday night, a most memorable evening by all accounts, attended by many of the local poetry and literary figures from around Tyneside. Jez closed the concert with the title track of the album, making it quite an emotional climax... News reaches us that Jez may be a "presenter" at the forthcoming BBC Folk awards, as well as a nominee...

January 16th - NEWS ROUND UP - Jez's nomination for Folksinger of the Year in the BBC Folk Awards is causing quite a stir, with an enormous swell of public support. One blogger on a well known folk site reckons that a Jez Lowe win would "undoubtedly get the biggest cheer of the night"!... There's a chance that the Celtic Connections RADIO BALLADS concert may be broadcast after all, we hear (see below)... Jez's North American tour for 2008 begins on September 11th, and is split between solo gigs and Bad Pennies gigs. Dates will be announced shortly, but are thought to include solo dates in Western Canada... Watch out for an imminent announcement that a Bad Pennies gig is being set up for a "live" recording, somewhere in the North East, in the very near future... Jez has solo gigs in Bury St. Edmunds, Frodsham and Newcastle this weekend, the last of these being the commemorative concert for Jack Common.

January 10th - NEWS BITS - The tour dates list on this site now runs through to the end of 2008, and will be regularly updated... Kate Bramley has a rare solo gig at Reading Folk Club this coming Sunday - details on our gigs page... According to the BBC folk website, there NO plans to broadcast last year's RADIO BALLADS concert from Celtic Connections. It WAS recorded, but it's doubtful we'll ever get to hear it, which is a great shame... There is a new "slideshow" featuring The Bad Pennies at YOU TUBE, along with about twenty five other clips... The tracks on Jez's MY SPACE site have been changed. All are previously available tracks taken from the regular CDs, presumably to give a better overall view of Jez's recent work in light of the imminent Folk Awards.... The SONG FOR GEORDIE photo page on this site now also includes a list of the songs included in the show... Two of those shows were recorded, by the way, and several were videoed. There is an oblique reference to a possible "live" album on the "snail-mail" newsletter that is about to be sent out to the mailing list. This has been mentioned before, but as far as we know, nothing is in the pipeline at the moment...

January 8th - A set list from one of Jez's gigs last weekend, sent in by Robert McAndrew... SET ONE - WILL OF THE PEOPLE / FAMOUS WORKING MAN / TAKING ON MEN / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE / DONNINI DOOLALLY / SPITTING COUSINS / THE SEA AND THE DEEP BLUE DEVIL / VIKINGS - Set Two - A SKIN TOO THIN / WORKING DIRTY / GREEK LIGHTNING / LATCHKEY LOVER / JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM / BAIT UP / TEARDROP TWOSTEP / YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU - Encore - THESE COAL TOWN DAYS / TENTERHOOKS. Jez plays at the Potteries Folk Club in Stoke this Friday, and at a memorial concert for the Hartley Mining Disaster in Northumberland on Saturday.

Jan 2nd - Happy New Year to everyone - if you thought 2007 was eventful, just wait until you see what's in store for next year, we kid you not...
The results for the BBC Folk Awards are announced in the first week of February... Jez appears at a special anniversary concert for Jack Common in Newcastle on January 20th... A provisional list of Jez's folk festival bookings for 2009 include appearances at Saltburn, Broadstairs, Swanage, Fylde, Southwell and Warwick, all subject to confirmation...

Also.... Shop updates... Tantobie Records have just received a limited number of the 'Northstars' books that feature John Tobler's chapter on Jez that followed on from his inclusion in the ITV/ Tyne Tees series of the same name. Its an interesting music bio of some of the most famous musicians from the region, from The Animals to Knopfler and many many more.... Also we have news from the states that you can now buy  a range of Jack Common's Anthem T-shirts online from Cafepress, so UK buyers take advantage... visit the shop page for links.