fRoots magazine interview… BBC 6 Music revisit “A Song For Geordie”…

With Jez away preparing for the start of the impending Men At Words tour of North America, a couple of surprise news items have emerged. Firstly, the new edition of the leading UK folk magazine fRoots will have a featured interview with Jez, conducted by Colin Irwin, to coincide with his BBC Folk Awards nomination. It’s well over ten years since Jez was the subject of a fRoots article, and it should be essential reading. It hits the streets next week… Meanwhile, even more of a surprise was the broadcast of an episode of Jez’s long-lost BBC Radio Two series “A Song For Geordie” on BBC 6 Music last Monday, as part of a day-long series of programmes chosen by Tyneside-based band The Unthanks (who recorded a trio of Jez’s songs on the last album a couple of years back). The episode was titled “Geordie the Songwriter”, and is currently available on the BBC I-player. No-one, least of all Jez, had any idea that the series, which he wrote and presented for Radio Two in 1997, had even been archived. Maybe one day the whole thing will be repeated in full… Jez starts the Men At Words tour tomorrow night in New Hampshire. The LIVE GIGS page of this website has now been updated to include all of Jez’s forthcoming shows up to the end of November, including the dates of his UK tour with Steve Tilston, festival appearances with The Broonzies, and gigs with The Bad Pennies and solo too.