LATEST NEWS
December 25th 2009 - Happy Christmas to everybody. See you in the New Year!!

December 20th 2009 - The Winter Almanac drew to a (temporary) close last night with a sell-out show at Cramlington in Northumberland. The cast went their seperate ways to reconvene for the final gig at Gateshead's Sage on December 27th. The tour has been a huge success, and there's already talk about doing it again next year, but there's no mention of any of the dozen or so new songs being committed to CD at this point. No news also of if and when the recordings from the show will be made public... Jez has been invited to participate in another songwriters forum, similar to last year's Darwin Project, starting in late January. More news about that in the New year... Recording for a new one-off BBC Radio Ballad programme should also be starting soon, for broadcast in late March... Jez's solo gig at Beverley last week included a poignant version of Bob Dylan's Love Minus Zero/No Limit, in memory of Richard Wastling, the club's late organiser and fellow Dylan fan...

December 14th 2009 - WINTER ALMANAC NEWS - The tour continues a-pace, and is proving to be a huge success with audiences. Gateshead Sage is sold out, but "restricted view" tickets may be put on sale later this week, due to the demand. Lots of the other shows are also selling fast. Tomorrow at Thorganby near York is a relatively small venue, and a great place to see the show, with some tickets still available. Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre also has tickets left, and is again a great venue to see the show, and what's more, this will be one of a couple of venues where the show will be filmed and recorded, so they'll be pulling out all the stops. There are a few photos from last week's Halifax show on Flickr.com, with more to come no doubt. Meanwhile Jez is solo tonight at Beverely Folk Club, before the tour resumes tomorrow.

December 10th 2009 - The Winter Almanac Radio Roadshow opened last night here in County Durham, and we can report that it was quite a triumph, full of surprises, humour and quirkiness, and what's more, it is a COMPLETELY new show, with all NEW songs, apart from two old Bad Pennies numbers, one of which we'd NEVER heard performed live before. The stage set was very attractive and cleverly designed, and the band were on great form. The addition of Andrew Cadie meant we were treated to alternatively two sets of pipes and two fiddles, and it was great to hear Benny Graham back on stage with the group. We were also particularly impressed by the inclusion of yet more of Jez's songs from the 2006 Radio Ballads, none of which he'd played live before. All in all, it was a brave and ground-breaking show, quite different from anything we'd expected. The tour continues in Halifax tonight. The final show, by the way, at Gateshead Sage on December 27th, is now sold out, with some standing-room only tickets still available.

December 5th 2009 - The Winter Almanac tour starts on Wednesday in County Durham. There was a sizeable article in the local press in Durham earlier this week, with Jez quoted as saying that the origins of the show lay in an old radio show from the 1940's called "Wot Cheor Geordie", an his own BBC Radio 2 series from the late '90's, "A Song For Geordie". otherwise nothing much else was revealed. He was doing a solo gig in London last night, and final rehearsals for the show start tomorrow.

November 29th 2009 - News bits - We're delighted to announce that the forthcoming Winter Almanac tour will be kindly supported by The Northern Rock Foundation, who also supported the 2007 Song For Geordie tour. They've been a huge supporter of the arts across North East England for many years...Music magazine Maverick will have a feature on the recent AHS Folk Delivering Hope project, in which Jez was heavily involved, in their forthcoming issue... Thanks to those of you who have sent song-lists in from recent gigs. Notable inclusions have included a rare HEANEY'S FINGER by the whole band at Acoustic Sussex, and rare solo outings for MARY MARTINDALE and the Darwin project song WE'LL HUNT HIM DOWN at Lincoln... Jez is solo at Stockton and Thames Ditton this week, with final rehearsals for the Winter Almanac after that.

Nov 22nd 2009 - MORE NEWS UPDATES - Jez's Dutch tour blog is now available on the Spiral Earth website by clicking here.... Surprise songs at this week's gigs have included BROCKIE LADS in Leicester and MADDISON in Hengoed... Bad Pennies bassist David De La Haye has left his other band Myrtle Turtle (featured on BBC Radio 6 last week), to concentrate on his other "other band", The Monster Ceilidh band (and on The Bad Pennies of course!)... German folk band Gambrinus have included their version of THE BERGEN on their new album "Eyah!" which is just out. A fine version it is too.

November 18th 2009- NEWS UPDATES - Film from last weekend's Bad Pennies gig at Henshaws in Knaresborough appeared on You Tube a few days ago. It's a version of BACK IN DURHAM GAOL with the full band... Last Sunday's charity gig in Doncaster for the AHS Foundation generated a lot of media coverage - one of Jez's tracks from the AHS album "Folk Delivering Hope" was played on radio Sheffield and has appeared with a special video of footage from the AHS project on various websites. The track is the version of A LONG WALK HOME of indetermined origin that appeared on a Lowe Life Music demo some years ago. Jez actually performed the song at the concert, probably for the first time ever... There is also a taped interview with Jez on the Northern Sky website, recorded backstage at the AHS concert. You can hear it by clicking here.... Due any day is Jez's blog on the Spiral Earth website, covering the recent Dutch tour... Jez is solo at The Musician in Leicester tomorrow, and at THe last Inn in Hengoed tomorrow, then The Bad Pennies join him for gigs in Wolverhampton and East Grinstead on Saturday and Monday...

November 13th 2009 - Some significant gigs coming up in the next couple of weeks, starting tonight with The Bad Pennies concert at Henshaws in Knaresborough, North Yorks, from where they head to Lowdham Village Hall in Nottinghamshire. Audiences can expect a wide cross-section of songs from the band's repertoire, including some new stuff, at both of these concerts. Jez is solo on Sunday at the all-star charity concert in Doncaster for the AHS Foundation for hospitals in Pakistan, at which a special new CD will be launched. Next Thursday Jez is solo again for a long-awaited return to the legendary venue, The Musician in Leicester, followed by another charity gig in Hengoed North Wales on Friday, this time for the Cancer Trust. Then it's the last two Bad Pennies gigs of the year, before The Winter Almanac Tour, at Wolverhampton and East Grinstead. More solo gigs follow at Bellingham Northumberland, Lincoln and finally at Stockton's legendary Sun Inn, to round out November. Details of all these shows are on the GIGS page of this website.

November 10th 2009 - Two of the Dutch gigs were recorded, at Koudekerk and at Katwijk, for radio broadcast. Consequently, The Bad Pennies astounded the tour organisers by playing completely different sets each night, with songs like HONEST WORKING WAY, ARMSTRONG'S ARMY and SEDGEFIELD FAIR appearing the second night. Soundcheck runs through of GRAMAPHONE DANCING and NEW TOWN INCIDENT sadly did not make it into the set-list proper... The new edition of Propergander Magazine contains a diary of The Darwin Project written by Karine Polwart that makes good reading... A Dutch TV film of the Bad Pennies from four years ago should be making it on to You Tube soon, we hear... The band should be on their way back from Holland now, in time for Jez's solo gig in Baldock tomorrow and two band gigs at Knaresborough and Lowdham this weekend...

November 6th 2009 - A set-list from the Dutch tour, sent in by Everett, shows a similar selection to Swiss gigs, with the addition of THE MIAMI, JACK COMMON'S ANTHEM and MILITARY ROAD. Hopefully these will be retained for the forthcoming UK gigs.

November 1st 2009 - "Folk Delivering Hope" is the title of a new CD to be released on 15th November by the AHS Foundation, a charity which gives support for the Kashmir region of Pakistan, following the 2005 earthquake there. Jez is among the artists who have contributed tracks to the CD, and he'll be playing at the launch concert at Doncaster's Regent Hotel on Novemeber 15th. His two tracks on the CD are a live version of BAIT UP and a solo demo version of A LONG WALK HOME, both previously only available on the Lowelife Music radio promo CD back in 2001... Blog news - Jez has a new blog on his MY SPACE site, reflecting on the recent Ewan MacColl concert. He's also been asked to contribute to the blog page at the Spiral Earth website (link below), so that should appear in the next couple of weeks... Jez was spotted at a recent Clive Gregson concert here in the UK, according to the Mudcat website. Clive and Jez toured together on the "Songwriters in the Round" show around five years ago... The Bad Pennies play UK gigs in Conwy and Dartford early this week, before heading off to Holland for concerts next weekend. Details on the GIGS page of this site...

October 28th 2009 - On-line folk magazine SPIRAL EARTH has a feature about Jez and the band, containing some exciting news, available by clicking here.... Jez played a short three song set at last night's Ewan macColl tribute concert in Manchester (WILL OF THE PEOPLE, BARE KNUCKLE and TAKING ON MEN), and joined Peggy Seeger and the rest of the evening's performers for a finale of MacColl's famous song "The Manchester Rambler". It was by all accounts, a memorable evening.

October 26th 2009 - The Bad Pennies are on the way back from Switzerland, in time for Jez to play at the Ewan MacColl Anniversary concert at The Peel Hall in Salford tomorrow. Details for this are on the GIGS page of this website. Meanwhile, Lizzie Raleigh has sent in a set list from the band's concert in Swaffe near Zurich last weekend - Set One - CALL FOR THE NORTH COUNTRY / A HARD LIFE FOR A ROVER / LATCHKEY LOVER / REGINA INSIDE / THESE COAL TOWN DAYS / A DREAM OF STEAM AND FREEDOM / A FEW FRONTIERS / ALL TRAWL / FUN WITHOUT FOOLS. Set Two - PROPPING / CURSED BE THE CALLER / CARTER'S FAIR / THE BERGEN / ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE /PIPES INSTRUMENTAL / WALKING HOME / TOM TOM / SUGAR WATER SUNDAY. Encore - BLACK DIAMONDS / BARNSTORMING / SODA MAN. Lots of old songs included, and one new one sneaked in during the encores! The band are in Conwy and Dartford next week, before heading off to Holland for a short tour starting on November 5th.

October 16th 2009 - Jez has a number of tracks due for release on a variety of compilation CDs up to Christmas. The SING OUT Magazine CD with a live recording of BARE KNUCKLE is due in the next couple of weeks, and the Croydon Folk Club CD promises a live version of GREEK LIGHTNING with The Bad Pennies in early December. Two of Jez's tracks are also to be included on a charity CD to benefit an appeal to build a hospital in India - more details to come on that... Jez included another new song at one of his solo gigs this week, with the title THE LOST PIPER, and introduced it as being another number from The Winter Almanac show, based on a traditional song... Jez and the band are touring Switzerland all of next week - details on the GIGS page of this site...

October 12th 2009 - NEWS ROUND UP - Jez was tutor and judge (along with Andy Cutting, John Leonard, Kellie While and Genevieve Tudor) at last weekend's BBC Young Folk awards semi-finals, the results of which are announced on BBC Radio 2's Mike Harding Show on Wednesday... Keith Armstrong's biography of Jack Common is launched at Newcastle Central Library next Saturday. Jez will doing a short performance at around 4.30 pm as part of the event... You can now click on links for tickets for both the Ewan MacColl concert in October and for The Winter Almanac tour in December, here on this page - see below... According to our spy in the Bad Pennies' camp, the Winter Almanac shows will be mainly new songs and other new material, including some traditional songs and other writer's songs, rather than the 50/50 mix of new and familiar numbers featured on the Song For Geordie tour. Sounds exciting!...

October 6th 2009 - Tickets for December's WINTER ALMANAC tour are on sale from today via the relevant venues' box-offices. For the Saltburn and Thorganby gigs, they are available from www.badappletheatre.com, where you'll find details of ticket prices and showtimes for the whole tour. Details are also on the GIGS page of this site. Please note that the show at The Sage, Gateshead is an afternoon performance. A special page devoted to the WINTER ALMANAC is now up on this site also - it's a transcription of an interview Jez did last week in Newcastle for the local listings magazine, giving much of the background to the project... Jez is in Sheffield solo tonight, and then he's tutoring from Friday at the BBC Young Folk Awards Weekend at Stratford Upon Avon, along with instrumentalist Andy Cutting...

October 1st 2009 - Welcome to our new-look website... There'll be a special page previewing the forthcoming WINTER ALMANAC tour available shortly... There are four new tracks for listening on Jez's MY SPACE site, BULLDOG BREED From 1993's "Bede Weeps", A PENITENT'S LENT from 2004's "Doolally", SLACK WATER SEA from 1997's "Parish Notices" and a version of SOD ALL by Jez and Kate Bramley from an Australian radio show earlier this year... Rehearsals in progress right now for December's Winter Almanac tour, with LOTS of new material...

September 25th - As we previously mentioned, a track by Jez will be featured on the free CD that will accompany the next issue of the US folk magazine SING OUT, due out shortly. We can now confirm that the track will be BARE KNUCKLE, recorded live at Old Songs Festival in New York last June, with Kate Bramley duetting with Jez. The CD will only be given out to subscribers, and not available with copies bought in the stores... Jez finished his UK dates for this month in Glasgow last night. He continued to stretch his repertoire throughout the Scottish dates, by including songs like ALOYSIUS, LAST OF THE WIDOWS, LONDON DANNY, BLACK TRADE and SOD ALL alongside the new songs and a "sparkling" new arrangement of GULL'S EYE... More film of The Darwin Project concert is up on You Tube, from Shrewsbury Festival, and shot in remarkable close-up throughout...

September 20th - Details have reached us for the Ewan MacColl tribute concert on October 27th at Peel Hall, University of Salford, Manchester UK. Jez appears alongside Peggy Seeger, Sandra Kerr, John Faulkner David Ferrard, Bob Fox and others. Tickets are £10 from 0161 275 2310 or www.wegottickets.com. Start time is 7.30... A song list from one of Jez's solo gigs earlier this week was send in by Pat Dobson. Set One - WILL OF THE PEOPLE, BLACK DIAMONDS, BARE KNUCKLE, TAKING ON MEN, KID CANUTE, GULL'S EYE, THE BERGEN, VIKINGS. Set Two - PROPPING, IDLE TIME, THE JUDAS BUS, A CHAMPION LIFE, YELLOW HAIR, DANDELION CLOCKS, SODA MAN, BACK IN DURHAM GAOL. Encore - GRAMOPHONE DANCING. By all accounts, the set has been quite different from night to night. This was the debut, and so far only performance of GRAMOPHONE DANCING, previously only heard on the BBC Radio Leeds broadcast last month. Jez is in Scotland for the rest of this week, with gigs in Glenfarg, Chapelton, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

September 14th - Jez met up with the band for Bromyard festival at the weekend, but is currently in the middle of a three-week solo stint, during which he seems to be vigorously varying his choice of songs as a matter of policy, judging by a couple of song-lists that have been sent in. After regular start-ups WILL OF THE PEOPLE and BLACK DIAMONDS, he's been jumping into rarely chartered territory with songs like SONG FOR SAORSE, KEEP THEM BAIRNS AWAY, YELLOW HAIR, GULL'S EYE(with cittern), as well as new songs THE JUDAS BUS and CHAMPION LIFE, the latter of which is fast becoming something of a show-stopper. He's back down south later this week, for gigs in Ringwood and Redbourne, and a rare duo gig with Kate Bramley in Maidenhead on Sunday, then it's off to Scotland for a week...

September 5th - Suddenly Jez is including a slew of new songs into his solo performances - as well as GRAMOPHONE DANCING and THE JUDAS BUS, there's a new one about a football match! He's solo in the South of England all this week, then he's off to Scotland for a week... Film of the Darwin Concert at last week's Shrewsbury Festival is appearing on You Tube, including Jez's song WE'LL HUNT HIM DOWN... Kate Bramley is listed as special guest on the Swindon FM Radio show The Crooked Road on September 10th. It is also streamed live and will be featured on The Music Well a week later at www.themusicwellhome.co.uk...

September 1st - The month ended spectacularly for Jez , with the triumph of The Darwin Concert at Shrewsbury (from where Jez's mainstage spot on Sunday was streamed live on the web in high quality sound and vision), an acclaimed rock and roll set at Whitby last week, and a quick 500 mile trip to Cornwall festival on Friday night. His pre-recorded appearance on The Durburvilles Show on BBC Radio Leeds also caused a stir, when he debuted two brand new songs, THE JUDAS BUS and GRAMOPHONE DANCING, the former from the new Radio Ballads programme due next year, and the latter from the forthcoming Winter Almanac tour. You might still be able to catch this radio show on the BBC Leeds website "listen again" feature... The entire Darwin Concert from March this year, which was previously available in part on You Tube, is now also out as a complete DVD, and includes an extra song not on the CD - Jez's song THE DARWIN WALK, which features verses written by each of the performers, and is a lot of fun... More news shortly...