*”Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra” – at the “Cliff’s Pavilion” – Southend-On-Sea

It could be argued that this week’s blog is slightly in breach of the ‘Trades Descriptions Act-1968’, as the topic doesn’t actually involve London – but the subject matter of the topic is a Londoner and the location of the venue in question, is a place where thousands of Londoners frequent on a regular basis.

So – this week’s publication is all about a London Shoes trek out to Southend-On-Sea to see the excellent “Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra” in concert at Southend’s famous “Cliff’s Pavilion” venue.

The gig was a bit special as, because of the Covid pandemic – Jools Holland’s UK Tour had been postponed and rearranged many times throughout the past 18 months – and the performance that ‘Shoes’ attended was only the 2^nd gig of the now commenced tour.

Southend-On-Sea is a large coastal resort town on the Essex stretch of the Thames Estuary.

It is located 40 miles east of central London, and 25 miles east of London Shoes home base in Romford.

It derived its name centuries ago, when it was referred to locally as a settlement situated at the ‘south end’ of the main village of Prittlwell.

Southend’s famous “Cliff’s Pavilion” is the largest purpose built performing arts venue in Essex.

It is located in Station Road-Westcliffe-on-Sea, a suburb of Southend-On-Sea….(which has just recently been granted ‘City’ status).

It is called the Cliff’s Pavilion as it is situated on the 4.5 mile line of 100ft high cliff’s that stretch between Haleigh Castle and Southend Pier.

Construction of the original Cliff’s Pavilion began in the 1930’s, and it was designed as a 500 seater built in art-deco style.

However – upon the commencement of WW2, the building work was suspended and the building work never recommenced when the war was over – and the site was boarded up and remained that way until 1959, when the half built theatre was completely demolished.

In the early 1960’s it was re-built, on the same site, but this time slightly closer to the edge of the cliffs.

The Cliff’s Pavilion as it stands today, was formally opened in 1964 – although it has had some substantial refurb work done on it over the past decades, to bring it right up to date.

Today, the Cliff’s Pavilion can seat 1,630 people – and it has around 340,000 people through its door each year – enjoying all forms of performing arts from ballet, opera, comedy, musicals and ‘live’ music from bands and solo performers.

The roll-call of popular music artists who have performed at the “Cliff’s” is endless:-

Rod Stewart – Robbie Williams – Dionne Warwick – Bryan Adams – Oasis – Blur – Van Morrison – One Direction …..the list just goes on and on.

As mentioned – the purpose of London Shoes visit to the “Cliff’s” was to see the amazing “Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra” in concert, with some ‘Special Guests’.

Jools Holland OBE – was born 1958 and originates from ‘Sarf’ London.

Between 1974 to 1981 he played keyboards in the band “Squeeze”.

Squeeze were one of my favourite bands from back in the day, and I still regularly listen to their albums that I have on vinyl.

I always admired their principal songwriters ‘Chris Difford & Glen Tilbrook’ – as I felt that they wrote about stuff from a real London-life perspective that I certainly could relate to from my perspective and experiences.

Jools Holland eventually left Squeeze in the early 1980’s to pursue a solo career and undertake different pursuits.

He soon secured a place as co-presenter on a new music prog “The Tube” which he presented with the late ‘Paula Yates’.

In 1987, Jools Holland launched his first ‘Big Band’ which included the ex-Squeeze drummer ‘Gilson Lavis’.

In 1992 – he secured a regular slot on BBC tv with his “Later – with Jools Holland” series – which is still as popular today.

In 1993 – Jools Holland’s very first “Hootenanny” tv prog was broadcast – a prog that is now the staple diet of every New Year’s Eve on tv.

So – for this particular gig at the Cliff’s Pavilion, apart from the 14 members of his excellent ‘Rhythm & Blues Orchestra’(which  still includes ex-Squeeze drummer Gilson Lavis on drums) – Jools Holland introduced 3 ‘special guests’ to accompany him on stage and bang out a few numbers.

First guest star was Jools old bandmate from Squeeze…guitarist and songwriter “Chris Difford”.

Chris – Jools and the band knocked out a couple of old early numbers from Squeeze and from Jools first solo album.

But the audience went bonkers upon hearing the opening chords of the massive Squeeze hit “Cool for Cats” – which Chris Difford sang in his usual unique delivery…..brilliant.

Next up was 72 year old Lulu  – although you would never have known it from the way she was moving about – totally ‘owning’ the stage.

Lulu – Jools and the band knocked out an excellent version of the Beatles “Don’t Let Me Down” – a popular track from their 1969 ‘Let it Be’ album.

As with probably all her live performances – Lulu ended her appearance with her global 1964 and ‘still’ popular hit…the old Isely Brothers number  ‘Shout’, which she belted out in her usual style, which had the audience on their feet again.

That audience participation continued with Jools’s 3^rd guest singer for the night – the incredible ‘Ruby Turner’.

Ruby is one of the most popular Soul – R&B – Gospel singers around, with over 30yrs experience in the business. She has been a regular fixture with Jools Holland & the Orchestra since the early 1990’s – and her appearance, stage presence and powerful voice brought a magnificent finale to the show.

After the show, me and the bruv-in-law and good friend Vince, who had very kindly got the tickets for me – made our way to the Southend beach – but being a dark October late night, we decided it was perhaps just a little too cold to go for a dip !!

So – although this topic is technically outside the London Shoes remit – this was so worthy of a blog publication – as it was a great night out – great entertainment – and after the 18mths of Covid restrictions etc, it felt so good to be just that little bit ‘normal’ again – long may it continue.

Hope you enjoy the accompanying photos.

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See below – the full gallery of photos taken to support this blog