Sandy Brown Jazz

When my old school friend, Emmie, and I met up after a gap of some 30 years the catch-up stories came thick and fast. And when they were over, we inevitably tip-toed into ‘do you remember when?’ territory.

Not that it was school itself that was the attraction – oh, no. It was the après school we were keen to re-visit.

We were besotted by jazz. We used to hoard our pocket money so that when the time came we could jump out of our gym slips and into something less comfortable to get to wherever there was jazz. The music was always good. And some of it was even better. We went to anything from high-school bands to top names like Humph, or Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes. We kept pace with every development: trad, mainstream and modern. But the number one attraction for our money was the late great George Melly. We may have been dumb with admiration during his performance but we’d re-run his every note and move for days afterwards.

One night when he was playing within striking distance we got to the venue as it opened and bagged ourselves a table a few feet from the band.

This page has now been updated and moved to

https://www.sandybrownjazz.com/the-story-is-told-19/misty-eyed-with-good-time-george