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Trillian’s, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Posted by Charlie in 2002 John Jorgenson & Friends UK Tour

The drive from Hull started bright and almost sunny, and got progressively more dull. By the time we had made it past York, rain was threatening, and as we climbed the hill 20 miles from Newcastle, it was foggy and drizzling. No wonder they closed the A66 Pennine route! If it was this bad on the coast, one could only imagine how bad the conditions were on the moors! Somehow, by a succession of lucky hunches, I managed to find Trillian’s! It is situated just off the main pedestrian shopping centre in the middle of downtown Newcastle, on a badly signposted back street, and yet we managed to get ourselves there without any mistakes! I think it was more down to divine intervention than cleverness on OUR part, believe me! What a dive! My immediate feeling was one of concern and my next one was that we had been sadly miscast in a role we were unable to fulfill. But, as the evening progressed, I would discover that I was wrong. Despite the loud Thrash Metal music that greeted us when we first loaded in, the audience were appreciative of JJ’s more subtle music, although he sensibly decided NOT to play any of the Django-style gypsy jazz music. We concentrated on mostly the Rock oriented material, and I think this paid off. By halfway through the gig, we had their attention.We had our share of technical problems: Alan’s amp blew up, and the balance on stage was dire, but we soldiered on and overcame as much of it as possible. After the gig we had a long and tedious drive down to Stockport – it appears there was an oversight regarding accomodation here (there was none), so JJ managed to get the same place that is putting us up on Saturday night – a wonderful Bed & Breakfast outside Stockport. We stayed there last year. This place rivals many 4 star hotels, so it was worth an extra 3 hours in the van to get there! We drove through the mist and rain across the Peak District, aided by John’s immaculate map reading and a certain amount of memory recall from last year’s visit. We eventually pulled into the driveway at 3am, to be greeted by Steve and Elaine (the owners), who had very kindly awaited our arrival to show us to our rooms – and collapsed into bed.