Yeah Jazz

"Yeah Jazz" were an English rock band from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.

Before they phased out, two musical albums were published. The first album was named "Six Lane Ends" published only in LP and tape forms and CD in Japan only with the bonus track "This is not love - Live", the second album was called Short stories and was released initially on cassette only. This was later released under the name "Big red kite" with a slightly different track listing. A CD single was released from the album entitled "April".

Another CD release was issued later on during the end of the band entitled "Songs from biscuit town" and was basically a round up of all their previously unreleased on CD tracks although a couple were missed of namely "Times change" and "Brown eyes" which were originally featured on the "Short stories" cassette. The version of "thinking about you" is a different recording to the one which appeared on the "short stories" cassette.

The song titles of "Six Lane Ends" are:

* Sharon
* Stones
* Lee Marvin
* All of My Days
* Freeland
* Step into the Light
* Heaven
* The Girl the Years Were Kind to
* Dirty Windows
* Make a Fist
* Stranger Than Fiction
* All the Stars
* This is Not Love (bonus track in some editions)

Of these, "Sharon" was released as a single. Also on Cherry Red came "Morning O'Grady", "She Said" and "This Is Not Love".

Cherry Red provides on-line download services for "Six Lane Ends" in MP3 format. Customers can download single by sincle or the whole album at different prices.

The "April" EP came out on Tubecroft Records in 1992 and also included "Rainbows" and live favourite "Lorraine & Duane". The line up of the band at this point was Kev Hand -(not Kevin "Head", as reported in some listings!)(Gtr/Vocals), Chats (Gtr), Stu (Bass), Dave Blant (Accordion / keyboards) and Fred Hopwood (Drums). It was recorded at AbbeySound Studios in Rugeley, Staffordshire and produced by Lee Beddow.

Towards the end of the life of the band, a deal was struck with the German label Scout to put out the "Short Stories" CD. However, as some music fans were confused by the "jazz" in title (but not the music!), the band became "Big Red Kite". The track listing was 1. HEY TRAY 2. APRIL 3. CATHY SMILES 4. DISTANT TRAINS 5. DON'T LET ME LEAVE 6. SPEAK SOFT 7. RAINBOWS 8. ORCHIDS BLOOM 9. HOME 10. POLKA 11. BROWN EYESMany of these tracks, again recorded by Lee at AbbeySound, were actually recorded under the Yeah Jazz name, although by now Stu had moved on and the bass duties were taken by Ben Blant.Sadly, the band did not have the success they should have. A final CD rounding up other tracks, including a track for a "Felt" tribute album, was released under the name of "Songs From Biscuit Town" - a reference to Uttoxeter's own Elkes biscuit factory. 1. BILLY COMES OF AGE 2. THE GREAT ESCAPE 3. THINKING ABOUT YOU 4. RAIN OF CRYSTAL SPIRES 5. MARTHA 6. OUR TIME WILL COME 7. MICHAEL FORGIVE ME 8. SONG FROM AN IMAGIARY FILM 9. THE BALLAD OF LORRAINE AND DUANEBoth Short Stories and Songs From Biscuit town are still available through Smalltown Records, run by Fred Hopwood & Dave Blant. They still perform& record under various monikers based on The Vice Bishops Of Uttoxeter and their last CD included a track from Kev Hand called Heaven's Gate.

There is an official site for Yeah Jazz over on myspace.

www.myspace.com/yeahjazz

Kevin Hand is now playing in a new band called "Radio Mary". For more information on Radio Mary please visit :www.myspace.com/radiomary