Roade Jazz Club
VENUE : Roade Ex-Servicemen’s Club, Bailey Brooks Lane, Roade, Northamptonshire
LOCATION : Just off the A508 Northampton to Milton Keynes road.
TIME : 12pm to 2.30pm, Sundays September to May
TRANSPORT LINKS : Considering these events are in a village and on Sundays, the transport links are surprisingly good. The bus you need is an X4, which goes from Northampton to Milton Keynes and vice versa, and stops very close to the Ex-Servicemen’s Club.
Trains run from Euston to Milton Keynes Central, and the X4 goes direct to Roade.
The events are on Sunday lunchtimes, making them ideal for the winter. It is possible to get there and back in the daylight even in December, and the Ex-Servicemen’s Club is very close to a bus stop offering direct travel to Northampton or Milton Keynes.
Many of the bands which play at Roade are among the country’s finest. In the last year, we have heard Savannah Jazz Band, Tad Newton’s Jazzfriends, Matt Palmer’s Millennium Eagle Jazz Band, Five Star Swing, Hot Club Of Cambridge, Phil Mason’s New Orleans All Stars, New Orleans Heat, and the Frog Island Jazz Band. Nobody can say that Mr. Newton is not bringing top quality musicians to Roade.
Of course, the standard is not this high every week. There are many good solid bands who are not quite as accomplished as these, but still capable of producing a satisfying performance. There are still some weeks where a bog standard act is brought in from the local pub, but these are now few and far between.
In the last twelve months, there has been significant improvement at Roade. The standard of bands booked has been very consistent, the crowds have been appreciably higher in 2009 than in the previous two years, and facilities at the club have improved as well. Roade is very much on an upward curve.
The Ex-Servicemen’s Club has now introduced Bec’s Kitchen, providing hot meals at very reasonable prices to add to the full range of drinks available. The seats are comfortable, the windows provide wide, panoramic views of the nature outside, and the décor is light and pleasant. This is the best jazz venue for many miles around, and the season comes strongly recommended.
MARK : 9/10 VERY STRONGLY RECOMMENDED
WHAT ROADE JAZZ CLUB COULD DO TO IMPROVE : Despite the economic depression, and the problems affecting other jazz clubs in the region, Roade is on a prodigious up-curve. Crowds are rising, the quality of the music is high, and the facilities are unequalled anywhere else. Only a few minor improvements would make things even better.
Firstly, I do disagree with the pricing policy. When the base price of a Roade jazz event was £5, we also had some at £6 and some at £7. Now, with the base price having risen to £6, we still have some events at £7, but nothing higher. At a fundamental level, this does not make sense. It means that the best events have actually fallen in price due to inflation, while the price of the bog standard events has risen by the highest percentage. Some of the big name bands could surely be priced at £8 without affecting the attendances.
As for the bog standard bands, they should just be eliminated entirely. One step I would definitely take if I was running Roade is to try to get the best bands to come back twice in the long season, once before Christmas and once afterwards. A top band can easily produce two entirely different programmes, and surely it is better to keep the quality high than dilute it by insisting on a different band every week?
Other than these small points, with Roade we can truly say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN 2010?
The Roade Jazz Club season is ongoing, with live music every week from September to May. I strongly recommend attending the Roade Jazz Club.
For more information, click here – ROADE JAZZ CLUB