MIDDLESBROUGH LIVE

Who doesn't love a good bit of live music every now and again? Especially when there is tea and cake involved.

We were lucky enough to host some amazing local acts as part of this year's Middlesbrough Live, a lovely event supported by Middlesbrough Council which showed what our town has to offer.

After a busy, busy Saturday in tea house HQ, we cleared the place of its tables and chairs to make way for the 'stage area' and 'prop room' - if you haven't already seen Bob Fischer's band Old Muggins you have got to give them a go. A kind of rockabilly act, with Bob dressed as monk, they really kicked the evening off with a bang!

I am not a music journalist or anything of the sort, and I most definitely don't have the expertise to go on about certain musical aspects but these guys were off the wall. I do know what I like and judging by the crowd, everyone else liked it too - therefore Old Muggins was a winner. It was sooo busy, you could not even get into the tea house at one point! People were actually looking in from the outside window listening in.



I am going to let the photographs speak for themselves. One thing to know is yes it was odd. It was very odd in fact, but I laughed so much that my cheeks hurt.

We had a little break where we went back into tea lady mode, making sure everyone was topped up with tea and cake before novelist Richard Milward took to the stage.

A little background on Richard... He is a Middlesbrough lad through and through. Born here in 1984, he has 3 novels under his belt: Apples which was the 1st, Ten Storey Love Song, his second and Kimberly's Capital Punishment, his third - he really is on a writing roll.

To help bring his storys to life, Richard brought along some props to give us some visuals while reading a few pieces from his books.

This guy's writing is just great. He keeps it real. Even if he does have a white wig or a block of flats on his head!

As the night was drawing to a close, Dressed Like Wolves took their place.

Now it was a tight squeeze and for one song the singer had to sing with his back to us because there was just no space or even enough plug sockets to make this work. He sang the whole song facing the wrong way, even admitting it was strange, but I guess that's sometimes thats how you have to roll.

This band are one of my favourites. Rick's voice is sooooooo good. I haven't seen these guys since the last time they played here and the whole performance welcomed the autumn in.

It was such a great evening full of amazing people sharing a love of live acts. Now we are ready for the cold cold nights ahead with a tea in one hand, a cake in the other, watching more local talent and having a blooming good time.

Happy Tuesday Tea Lover x