* “The Jazz of Dudley Moore”- by the “Chris Ingham Trio” at the “Finsbury Park Picturehouse-Club Room” (Oct 2025)

This particular London Shoes blog mixes the Shoes ethos of covering-off the lesser known and more unusual places in the ‘Smoke’ – with London Shoes love of music, especially ‘live’ music events. So – this weeks piece is : –

         CHRIS INGHAM TRIO’s

 “THE JAZZ OF DUDLEY MOORE”

at the

**CLUB ROOM**

of the

‘THE FINSBURY PARK PICTUREHOUSE’

London N4

The ‘Finsbury Park Picturehouse’ is a new style cinema set-up that opened in 2021.

It’s located in City North Place-Finsbury Park-London N4 just down the roaf from the busy Finsbury Park station.

The venue is fitted with 7 cinema screens, all with a state-of-the-art sound system and comfy reclining seats with plenty of leg room – and the venue also has its own bar and kitchen.

The Finsbury Park Picturehouse presents itself a bit differently to other run-of-the-mill cinemas, in that it believes cinema can change lives and broaden perspectives by catering and appealing to a more diverse and inclusive audience – showing a broad range of films suitable for all ages, those from different backgrounds and different walks of life.

The 7 spacious cinemas of the Finsbury Park Picturehouse are designed to make cinema going easier for those that may have physical disabilities and mobility issues. It also caters for those that may have conditions like autism, or dementia – by adjusting the lighting and sound levels etc to make the surroundings more comfortable.

There are no adverts or trailers shown – and the layout of each cinema is designed to enable customers to move about freely during films should they need to.

The range and types of films screened at the Finsbury Park Picturehouse is very impressive. For example, they show a ‘new release’ every month / an all-time classic film every month / there’s a ‘Watch with Baby-Club’ for under 1yr olds with their parents or guardians / a Kids Club that’s a bit like the old Saturday Morning Pictures that I, and those of my generation used to go to / there’s an Over 60’s Club / there’s a 16 to 25 Club / and there are special screenings of arts stuff films covering ‘live’ opera / ballet /theatre events from around the world.

The Finsbury Park Picturehouse even has its own bar, kitchen and lounge area where punters can simply just meet up and socialise.

Even though my London Shoes didn’t actually experience watching a film during my visit, I have to say it really does look an impressive set up.

Anyway – the reason my London Shoes visited the ‘Finsbury Park Picturehouse’ this week was to check out its newly opened “Club Room” – a room within the venue that is set out with cabaret style seating and tables – where you can watch ‘live’ performances of Jazz / Comedy / Cabaret and stuff like that.

The Finsbury Park Picture House-Club Room has only been open since 14^th October, and one of its first bookings was the “Chris Ingham Trio” performing their popular “The Jazz of Dudley Moore” set.

Now – regular followers of my London Shoes stuff will probably be aware from past Shoes blogs published, that in the 1990’s I decided to have drumming lessons, and my tutor was a young man by the name of George Double, who was actually a customer of a bank branch in Hackney that I was managing at the time.

Since that time George’s music career has progressed considerably, as he is now recognised as a stalwart of British jazz and one of the jazz scenes most acclaimed and accomplished drummers – having worked with many high-profile singers/musicians/performers. George is also curator of the popular Southwold/Frinton/Hadleigh jazz clubs.

Although a freelance drummer – George is very much part of the “Chris Ingham Band” set up and has been for several years, touring and playing all over the place with them.

Prior to the Covid lockdown years, my London Shoes would often publish blog articles of the Chris Ingham band’s performances at London venues/clubs, and regular Shoes followers may recall that only a couple weeks back I kick-started covering the Chris Ingham band (with George on drums) performances again, when  I published a blog of their “Steely Jazz” set at the Pizza Express Jazz Club-Soho, on the London Shoes website and its other social media portals.

The ‘Chris Ingham Trio’  have been performing their popular ‘The Jazz of Dudley Moore’ set at venues and clubs up and down the country for quite a few years now. In fact, London Shoes published a couple of blog articles relating to their Dudley Moore gigs , a few years back.

Anyway – with the Finsbury Park Picturehouse-Club Room being a completely new venue on the London music map – and with the late great Dudley Moore being very much a local boy done good in my hometown manor – these 2 topics were ideal content for a London Shoes blog – and so I legged it over to London N4 to capture this Finsbury Park Picturehouse event .

Dudley Moore was born in 1935 and grew up on the 1921 built Becontree Estate in Dagenham, which at the time, was the biggest council estate in the world.

Despite having a club-foot disability and being only 5’2” tall – Dudley excelled academically as a student and especially in music as a pianist.

He won an organ scholarship at the prestigious Magdalen College-Oxford and it was there that he developed a love and passion for jazz music.

On leaving his Oxford University in 1958 he joined the UK jazz giant Johnny Dankworth’s band as pianist and went on to form and perform with his own jazz trio.

In the early 1960’s he teamed up with satirist/writer Peter Cook,  and his Dudley Moore Trio became a regular fixture playing jazz in the basement of Cook’s ‘Establishment Club’ in London’s Soho.

During these times Dudley also appeared in a few UK produced comedy films, the most notable probably being ‘The Wrong Box’ (1966) – ‘Bedazzled’(1967) – ‘Monte Carlo or Bust’ (1968) – Dudley Moore also wrote the music scores for these films.

Obviously, in later years he appeared in the Hollywood blockbuster films “Arthur” and  “10 “ – plus a few US prime time tv series……but playing jazz was always Dudley’s first love and biggest passion in his life.

Sadly – Dudley Moore died at the age of 66 as a result of a debilitating brain illness – but his music lives on, and today, quite rightly, he is recognised as being up there with the best of Britain’s greatest jazz musicians.

As mentioned earlier, the ‘Chris Ingham Trio’ have performed their “The Jazz of Dudley Moore”  for a few years now, and to great acclaim, not just from punters who have been lucky enough to get tickets for their shows, but also from the music media.

For those that are into jazz music, and those that may have a soft spot for ‘Cuddly Dudley’ and his music, then this performance is an excellent showcase of his best works.

The content of the band’s “The Jazz of Dudley Moore” set comprises of some of the most popular numbers performed and recorded by ‘Dudley Moore Trio‘, plus a few numbers from the various film scores he wrote and some covers of other jazz artists numbers that Dudley used to perform.

The one thing the Chris Ingham Trio’s ‘The Jazz of Dudley Moore’  is not, is a tribute act type of performance – it is the Chris Ingham Trio’s interpretation of the late great Dudley Moore’s unique jazz style of music – with its often complex and intricate arrangements – all of which the Trio execute and perform superbly.

Also – throughout the performance, Chris Ingham delivers a back story commentary behind every number played, which really brings to life the Dudley Moore ‘story’ and compliments this excellent set of musical entertainment.  

As mentioned earlier, the ‘Club Room’ of the Finsbury Park Picturehouse, only opened on 14^th October-two weeks ago, and I believe that the Chris Ingham Trio are the first band to play the venue. The audience certainly lapped it up, they clearly loved the music that the Trio performed – and I would guess that there will be many more appearances from the band in the not-too-distant future.

From my perspective, as a punter – I was really impressed with the small, but extremely comfortable Club Room venue – the food being dished up on the tables surrounding me, looked really good and the booze was reasonably priced too, compared to other venues – and the venue had a really good ‘vibe’ about it, ideal for listening to jazz music.

All in all, a really entertaining night out – with great music and story telling – respectfully commemorating the musical genius that was ‘Dudley Moore’ – a man who was quite possibly Britain’s greatest jazz pianist.

Do check out the Finsbury Park Picturehouse and its Club Room if you’re ever in the N4 area of North London area – you certainly wont be disappointed.

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Below is the entire gallery of photos and images taken & used to accompany this blog article