15/04/19 - Mike Lovell writes, "Just a quick note to tell you I’m leaving for Cornwall tomorrow, and to thank you for all your support and friendship over the years, it has really been appreciated. I will miss all the ‘stuff’ I’ve been involved with but I’m looking forward to a new adventure (I’ve already got a reeds player and piano/baritone uke player, interested in getting something going down in the West Country). Plenty of venues to explore. I will thank them all personally of course, but a big thank you to most of the musicians I’ve had the pleasure of playing with over the years. It’s been nice and has been a privilege to lead and play in a 1920s/30s jazz band, SIX IN A BAR, a Great American Song Book Band, CAFE JAZZ QUINTET, a fun trio, STICKY ROCK THREE and all the other bits in between" .

22/06/19 - Following the departure of Mike Lovell, who has now moved down to the South Coast, Anthony Mason tells me that "the band members have decided to change the name of the previous '6 in a bar classic jazz band' to 'The North Euston Orpheans' in deference to the Savoy Orpheans.

 14th May 2018 - Dear Mike, Chris, Colin, Willie, Andy and John  

What a wonderful evening of delightful music and entertainment last night at Todwick Jazz Supper Club 12 May 2018.
Please accept my  and the club members grateful thanks for all your efforts.
Lots of lovely comments received...... everyone very impressed with all your expertise.
 Hope you all got home safely. - Sheila

THE BAND

For some 25 years, not playing in bands and running large hotels and entertainment complexes for the Ladbroke and Rank organisations, I moved from London to Blackpool to take over the running of the Metropole Hotel. As I was to take early retirement soon I started to visit and listen to other bands in the area.

As they all had trombone players already, the only way I was going to play again, was to start my own band.

When I eventually retired I started a mainstream band . Mike Lovell Allstars . with some great musicians such as Frank Flynn on piano, Peter Fielding on double bass, Jimmy Scaife on drums. I started to get asked to play Dixieland tunes and the only way to give justice to the early jazz genre, was to start a 20s/30s classic jazz band.

So 6-IN-A-BAR was born and I decided, as with the other band, to get the very best musicians around me. Now some 8 years on and with the very best musicians of early jazz in the North West, we are entertaining audiences all over the North and beyond…Willy Entwistle of the Temperence Seven, reeds & arrangements - John Smith, percussion - Chris Howse, banjo, tenor guitar and vocals . Colin Turner, bass saxophone & double Bb tuba, along with Phil Lucas, trumpet & Flugelhorn…all top players in their field.

6-IN-A-BAR has a very full diary, playing at most of the jazz clubs in the North, Midlands and Wales…Porthmadog, Boston Spa, Preston, Carlisle, Kendal, Eagley, Rochdale, Burton on Trent, Solihull, Barnsley, Sheffield, Newcastle to name but a few, along with jazz festivals and jazz weekends in Keswick, Kirkcudbright, Bude, Ambleside, Isle of Man, Blackpool and Germany and a live performance on BBC Radio Lancashire.

On occasions we have some internationally famous musicians guesting with us…Keith Nichols, Alan Barnes, Enrico Tomasso and Tom ‘Spats’ Langham, to name but a few.

6-IN-A-BAR also play at Country Fairs, Corporate Events, Hotel, Pubs, Anniversaries, etc. etc.

Mike has had the invaluable assistance from many jazz lovers, one of them being Fred Burnett who has in Mike’s opinion, the UK’s best jazz web site. www.jazznorthwest.co.uk 

MIKE LOVELL…leader, trombone and vocals

Born in Brighton and moving to London at an early age, Mike started playing at the age of 12 in his school’s brass band. He then went on to play with the Essex Youth Orchestra and subsequently the National Youth Orchestra. At 16 he formed his first jazz band, playing in many venues in and around London. After playing in dubious ‘joints’ in Soho and famous jazz clubs such as the 100 Club in Oxford Street and Ronnie Scotts, Mike joined a famous American jazz/rock band and toured Scandinavia, Europe and West Africa living and based in Brussels, Belgium. He then came out of the business for several years and went into the management of casinos, night clubs, and hotels.

WILLY ENTWISTLE…reeds, violin and flageolet

Willy started his musical career in 1966, playing cornet with the Vintage Syncopators, a comedy jazz band. He was there at the birth of Mick Burns’ Rhythm Kings. Taking up saxophone, Willy returned to the Vintage Syncopators in 1973, subsequently joining a comedy act, Laughing Stock. In the ‘80s he went into country music, which ultimately caused him some hearing problems. Returning to jazz in 1998, Willy joined the Temperance Seven and took up clarinet, having depped with them on alto saxophone for several years. Willy is a brilliant and versatile musician and great arranger.

Phil Lucas Trumpet & Vocals

As a music student Phil studied at the Liverpool Hope University on trumpet and attained his music degree training in orchestral trumpet techniques and later becoming a brass specialist teacher for the Liverpool Music Support Service.    Phil's earliest experiences as a jazz musician were spent with the Wirrorleans Jazz Band playing in Ma Boyles Pub in Liverpool. He then started to dep. with other Dixieland bands.    As a qualified music teacher Phil then moved down to Worcester for a couple of years and was soon being sought after by a succession of quality musicians and bands, such as, Richard Leach, Martin Vasey, Perdido Street Jazz Band and many more, appearing at Jazz Festivals such as Keswick, Upton upon Severn and Pershore, which included four years with the American Piano player Jeff Barnhart and his 18-30 Band at the Keswick Jazz Festival. Recently Phil moved back to the Liverpool area with his wife and baby Isabelle where he now teaches in a primary school in the Old Swan District of Liverpool.    We are really pleased that Phil has agreed to join SIX IN A BAR Classic Jazz Band and already we have played at the Rochdale Jazz Club and become "Band Of The Year 2016", also the Boston Spa Jazz Club where we also had a very successful evening.

COLIN TURNER…bass saxophone and double Bb tuba

Colin first played jazz on tuba with Wigan’s legendary Vintage Syncopators in 1967 and was a founder member of Mick Burns’ Rhythm Kings, now better known as the Harlem Hot Stompers. He left jazz in 1975 but retuned to it in 1985 to join Bozo Butterworth’s Hot Potatoes, from which sprang the 1920s style quartet, the Harmony Hounds. Apart from the Hounds, Colin also plays with the Quayside Hot Stompers and Ged Hone, and has also appeared in bands featuring Keith Nichols, Bent Persson, Norman Field and Spats Langham. Colin started doubling on bass saxophone in 1988.

CHRIS HOWSE…banjo, guitar and vocals

Chris, for many years, has been a key member of the Harmony Hounds playing banjo and guitar. He has great feel for the 20s and 30s and his singing voice lends itself beautifully to the period. For many years Chris was also a song writer at Warner Basart and certainly knows how to put lyrics across.

JOHN SMITH - Drums

John started his career with a Skiffle Group when was still at school. When at Blackpool Technical College, student jazz band was formed for ‘Rag Day 1962’. John joined the band and they became the Louisville Stompers, playing across Lancashire and Yorkshire. They eventually disbanded in 1966.  Since then John has played with... Bob Crosbies Crown Jazzmen, Savannah Jazz Band (Fylde version), Jazz Aces and Wyre Levee Stompers. John loves all styles of music but his main interest is Jazz (and golf).

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