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The Swing City Big Band in action in SettleTwo recent trips to local music events provided memorable evenings to go with the others from 58 years of listening to music live - prompting me to have a small trip down memory lane.

It is said that, no matter how high the quality of modern recording technology, there is nothing to beat hearing music performed live. I couldn’t disagree with that – and over the years have had plenty of experiences to prove it. I’ve been thinking about some of them, and I talk about some of my favourite memories at the end of this article.

Meanwhile, we’ve had two reminders of the power of live music in the last couple of weeks, both of them on our doorstep at the Victoria Hall in Settle. First came a visit by jazz singer and Radio 2 DJ Clare Teal. This is the third time we’ve seen her perform live, and the second time in Settle, where she’s a local favourite having been born and brought up in the nearby village of Kildwick. It was a delightful evening with a huge variety of numbers from all eras – everything from Cole Porter to Soft Cell, Kurt Weill to George Gershwin. The programme was really well received by the sell-out audience. Clare has a really great voice, and the trio – Jason Rebello (piano), Simon Little (bass) and Ben Reynolds (drums) – who accompany her make for a really good combination. It was a great evening.

You can find out more about Clare on her website – including upcoming dates and recordings. There’s loads of material on YouTube as well for you to sample. One of my favourites is an extract from a BBC Prom in 2011 where she sings a couple of numbers with the John Wilson Orchestra – great stuff! Enjoy those, but also go and see her live – it’s a great experience!

The second event was a visit by the Swing City Big Band, a big band based locally in Lothersdale, performing their tenth anniversary concert in Settle. The band’s first ever performance was in Settle too, at the nearby social club and they perform regularly throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire. The concert encompassed a whole variety of music, from swing era classics such as Opus One and In The Mood to much more contemporary numbers and arrangements – which had the audience literally dancing in the aisles. The band was really good, with a great sense of swing - and it made for a really memorable night out.

These were two events which will definitely be added to my list of live music memories, which is already quite long – but then it does go back some 58 years!

Half a century of musical memories

The first live event I can remember was also my first ever classical concert. It took place at the Crystal Palace Concert Bowl in 1960 in the opening season of what for many years was an outstanding summer music venue. Within a couple of years, the opening of a new concert hall in Croydon made a whole variety of musical events both affordable and accessible. I have memories of numerous events there as a teenager, including Sarah Vaughan and Count Basie, the US Army Air Force band, Mantovani and his orchestra – and numerous classical concerts.

Strong memories from the seventies include Daniel Barenboim playing Mozart in Birmingham Town Hall, singer songwriter Al Stewart and jazz violinist Stephane Grapelli in Bristol. A concert conducted by the young Simon Rattle at the Fairfield was especially memorable for a wonderful performance of the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto by Dame Moira Lympany, and an electrifying rendition of Dvorak’s Carnival Overture. Clearly here was a young man with a future...

In the eighties, the list would include more visits to the Fairfield, including a memorable Dream of Gerontius with Dame Janet Baker conducted by a young Andrew Davies, Stephane Grapelli (again) and André Previn in his heyday conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. I remember with fondness early concerts at the Barbican in London, including a concert performance of Mozart’s opera Idomineo and a fine rendering of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. On our one and only visit to Vienna, we managed to attend a Schubert concert in the Musikverein – which we are reminded of by every New Year’s Day concert from there.

In the nineties, having moved north, there were special evenings in York Minster, Lancaster University and Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. In more recent times, we’ve discovered the delights of smaller venues and live jazz as well as concert halls and churches. We’ve listened to John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, Georgie Fame (twice), Lorna Luft, Elaine Delmar and Clare Martin perform live at Ronnie Scott’s or the Crazy Coqs. Amongst younger performers we've been impressed by Joe Stilgoe, Anthony Strong and James Tormé. At the Royal Festival Hall, two events with John Wilson and his Orchestra proved memorable, and we’ve really enjoyed several events at the Cadogan Hall in Chelsea. A particular pleasure has been the three concerts we’ve been to with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra at Ronnie Scott’s.

So, the power of live music is not only to provide the immediate high of a good night out, but to store up memories. For me, they not only evoke the evenings themselves and the people we were with, but also the times in which we lived and what else was going on in our lives at the time. Listening to live music also widens your own experience and knowledge – fresh composers, new tunes or even new material contributed by the artists themselves. What’s not to like?