And now it’s 2022…

Best wishes for the New Year to everyone, and thanks for supporting Jez over the last twelve months as he’s gradually returned to live shows and appearances. He’s back out on the road in January with a smattering of gigs around the UK, all of which seem like they’ll be going ahead as planned, starting at York’s famous Black Swan venue this coming Thursday…
OTHER NEWS – The story of the Hartlepool Monkey is widely known, especially in Northern England, and is usually told as a humorous tale of how the people of Hartlepool mistook a monkey for a French spy when one was washed up on the local beach during the Napoleonic Wars. Jez’s song THE SIMIAN SON was a show-stoppingly light-hearted “up-dating” of the story and was included on his “Heads Up!” compilation CD a few years ago. As we have reported here before, Jez’s song was more recently used as part of the soundtrack of a Spanish animated film called “The Monkey”, which tells the same story in a somewhat more grim and tragic way. That film has now been nominated for a Goya Award in Spain (the equivalent of the Bafta Awards in the UK). You can see a trailer for the film here – https://vimeo.com/xosezapata/trailerthemonkey
Jez has a few UK festival appearances lined up for 2022, including  Sidmouth, Whitby Folk Week, New Forest Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Priddy, with more still to be confirmed…
Jez’s PATREON page is about to be updated with some more video and audio footage, as well as a deep delve into Jez’s involvement with The Broonzies, the semi-mythical band that he may (or may not) have been part of some years ago. There may even be some unreleased music from that mysterious project included in that feature. You can check out his PATREON page here to find out more details https://www.patreon.com/user?u=53978553 

LATE EXTRA – We just got a set list sent in from Jez’s last gig of the year near Lincoln a couple of days ago, at Nettleham Village Hall, and there are some unusual choices included – Set One – WILL OF THE PEOPLE / TAKING ON MEN / THE PITMEN POETS / BACK IN DURHAM GAOL / LOUISA’S CHOOSING / THE WRONG BUS / FAN DANCER’S DAUGHTER / TALK TO ME DIRTY IN GEORDIE. Set Two – TIME RICH, CASH POOR / CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA / THE FELLER IN THE CHECK-OUT QUEUE / LONDON DANNY / THE MORPETH OLYMPICS / THIS IS NOT MY TRIBE / THE FROZEN ROMAN / OLD BONES . Encore – CAULD FEET AGAIN, PET (Thanks to Simon Lavender for sending that in).