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Monday, April 28, 2008, 09:26
The London-born musician is retiring after 54 years with the Big Chris Barber Band, in a career of some 10,000 concerts across the world.
And his appearance at Hull City Hall, this May, marks a nostalgic farewell to many of the venues of his youth.
“It's quite sad really,” he says, from the jazz band's latest stop in Desaru, eastern Germany.
“I'm not going to give up playing – it'll continue as a hobby rather than a job. But I've decided I've had my life on the road. It's time to relax a bit now – I'm approaching 80, after all.”
His farewell this summer sees the affable musician looking back with fondness on a career which has seen him meet many of the musical greats.
“One of the most memorable concerts was in the Dixie Jubilee at the Hollywood Bowl, in 1959,” he said. “We were on with Louis Armstrong and Count Basie, and I remember watching them warming up just before they went on. It was lovely to feel we were as important as they were, even if we weren't top of the bill.”
This sense of a band at the edge of things was also reflected in it's important, if unheralded, role in British rock music.
Chris Barber's love of the American blues saw him organise the first British tour of guitarist Muddy Waters – gigs avidly watched by a group of spotty teenagers who would later become The Rolling Stones.
And though Pat's own career has been slightly less high-profile, there has been a similar sense of transformation.
“When I joined the band, I was a research scientist who'd decided to play the trumpet for a year or two to get it out of my system,” he says. “Five decades later, I'm still doing it.”
The Farewell Tour Of Pat Halcox comes to Hull City Hall, Queen Victoria Square, Hull, on Wednesday, May 28, 7.30pm. Tickets cost £15.50-£17.50. Call (01482) 226655 or visit www.hullcc.gov.uk/hullcityhall and www.chrisbarber.net
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Trumpeter Pat Halcox with fellow musician Mike Henry,
Embarking on the final season at Spring Street, Hull Truck Theatre prepares to bid farewell to the place it has called home for the past 25 years.
