Trower to join Paramounts in 2005 ?

from The Southend Standard, 18 November 2005

Second Shades reunion gig

The Shades coffee bar reunion gig announced in last week’s Standard has proved such a massive hit that the promoters have now announced a second night – with a slightly different lineup.

Tickets for the December 17 gig by veteran rockers The Paramounts and The Rockerfellers have now more or less sold out.

It’ll be just about the first time ex-Procol Harum rock legends Gary Brooker and Robin Trower and veteran local drummer Mick Brownlee have played together since they plied their trade in local venues as The Paramounts in the late Fifties and early Sixties.

The remarkable reunion, scheduled for Club Riga in Westcliff, has been brought about, in part, by the incredible response of Standard readers to our Southend’s Rock’n’Roll Years nostalgia series.

Several months after we began carrying your memories stories, the letters and photos are still pouring in.

Now there’s a second chance for those who frequented the town’s classic coffee bars to meet up and enjoy good music, played by familiar faces from the past.  The night after The Paramounts gig – Sunday December 18 – Riga is now to play host to Gary Brooker and Friends.   The band will include Brooker and Brownlee, plus local musicians Dave Bronze and Mo Witham.  Opening the show will be sensational jump-jive outfit, Oceans Seven, which boasts members of leading bands Jools Holland’s orchestra among its ranks.

For tickets and other details, visit the Riga website at

www.rigamusicbar.co.uk

Photo caption:
Sensational – jump-jive band Oceans Seven will share the billing on the second Shades reunion night at Riga.  Left:  How last week’s Standard broke the news

Thanks, John; and Jill, for the typing

More about the Paramounts