The manager of a social club has revealed they had to cancel a line dancing night in order to host an upcoming gig by The Good, The Bad & The Queen.
The Damon Albarn-led supergroup, which also features The Clash‘s Paul Simonon, The Verve‘s Simon Tong, and afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, will tour a series of small venues across England and Scotland next week, including two nights at North Shields’ Cullercoats Crescent Club (November 27, 28).
The venue can hold 220 people and the shows will be slightly different from the space’s usual fare, which regularly sees tribute acts perform, with nights dedicated to Johnny Cash and Coldplay in the diary for the coming months.
Speaking to Chronicle Live, manager Bernadette Rutherford said: “Usually we have line dancing on a Tuesday night. But they were quite happy to move it when they found out about the gigs.”
She continued: “It is a chance to just get a little bit more up close and personal that you wouldn’t get elsewhere. It gives something to the locals that you wouldn’t get somewhere bigger like the O2 Academy.”
Rutherford added that she has been playing the band’s new album ‘Merrie Land’ in the club and said while it’s not “for everyone”, most of the regulars “have loved it.” “I’ve been putting it on and they’ve been singing along,” she said.
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In a three-star review of ‘Merrie Land’, which was released last week (November 16), NME said: “Ruminations on a post-Brexit nation from a bunch of middle-aged musicians is, perhaps, less essential than it seems to deem itself, but there are probing thoughts and moments to make it worth sticking with.”