The sad news first! Just to let you know that our new club ‘Digby’s Place’ has had to close its doors because the Railway Hotel (our hosts) has run into bad financial trouble. We wish Dave, Danny and all their staff well. But this means that our concerts at the club - on Tuesday 9th September, Tuesday 14 October, Tuesday November 11th and December 9th - WON’T be happening! At least for now…..

But the good news is that a lot of good local friends who’ve been coming to the club are looking for NEW PREMISES so we’ll soon be back and swinging again in new surroundings! I’ll keep you all posted!

Meantime, it was great to see you all at PRIORY PARK on Sunday 3 August playing on our beautiful new bandstand!Tony Compton and I had a ball  - and special thanks to Mrs. J Bishop who wrote a lovely letter about us in the ‘Evening Echo’. Glad you liked the show Mrs B! And by the way - ssshhhh! - there’s a rumour that we may be back at the Bandstand quite soon!!

Meantime Tony and I hope to see you all at our annual concert at Southend Civic Centre Victoria Avenue at 12noon on Wednesday 17th September. Yes - it’s come round again!

As Autumn approaches we’re back on the road with the Half Dozen plus good friends Paul Jones (’Rockin’ in Rhythm’)  and Val Wiseman (’Jazz goes to the Movies’) and on October 31st I’m off to play the great Guernsey Jazz Festival with a host of jazz stars. If you fancy joining me, call Trevor Cleveland the organiser. He’s on:01481 727637…and it’s a great weekend.

BY THE WAY! Do you fancy the idea of some jazz breaks in Europe? - short holidays by coach with lots of good friends and great music? We’re planning two or three next year after a wonderful ‘long weekend’ at the Bittburg Festival this Sumer! If you’d like to be added to or mailing list let me know your E-mail - or just a good old-fashioned contact number - and we’ll let you have full details of all our exciting plans!

See you soon!

Digby!

A Paul Ripley Presentation.