LOOKING back to the week that was June 3 to 9, five years ago...

A GRASSROOTS record label set out to return a once buzzing live music venue to its former glory, five years ago.

Goosed Records brought back live nights to Doctor Browns, in Middlesbrough, and by June 2019 was ready to open a recording studio in partnership with the venue’s new owner.

Read more: Small-scale reconstruction of D-Day landings to be staged on North East beach

The popular music venue faced a sharp downfall in 2017, after its former manager controversially banned female-fronted groups because its regular customers “did not believe women could sing rock”.

However Doctor Brown’s new owner Bernie Jenkins, along with his daughter Sarah Best, teamed up with Goosed Records to invite all local bands back to the venue.

The independent label, made up of several directors from Middlesbrough’s music scene, aimed to use the pub’s upstairs space as a studio while bringing in local bands from all genres, ages and genders to play live gigs.

David Todd, from Goosed Records, said: “We floated round the idea with a few others to start our own record label and make it a platform to help promote local bands and get a bit of a live music scene.

“And also from that start getting some recordings made so they can be released and promoted.”

Former servicemen were joined by members of the public to remember those who served on D-Day.

Among those paying their respects in June 2019 was veteran Denis Wears who was one of the fortunate soldiers to survive the assault on the Normandy beaches.

The 94-year-old, who served with the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry B Company, said he was one of the “lucky” ones who survived the campaign, which began the liberation of German-occupied France from German control.

He said: “I was the last one off the invasion barge, the lads on the front were the first ones off the boat and they were the first ones that got killed. I was lucky, I was at the back so I missed it.

“What got me was that most of the lads didn’t stand much of a chance on the first landing – they got massacred.

“Thank god that I’m out of it. At the time I was 17 and a half, the youngest lad we had was 16, he was with his brother, and they didn’t get off the beach at all.”

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A disabled duck was back on her feet after overcoming the odds two weeks after a vet told a school to euthanise her.

Jimmy the female duck battled back from pneumonia, but was left with a lame right leg and close to death – despite antibiotics and steroids from the vet.

She became part of St Stephen’s CE Primary School in Willington along with seven other Khaki Campbell and Pekin ducklings adopted by the school in March.

Jimmy was a school favourite, but when her health started to decline students and staff were devastated.

She was taken in by the school’s business manager Deborah Wilson which earned her the nickname “Mama Duck”.

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Mrs Wilson and her husband allowed the duck to live in their spare bedroom for two weeks where she received around the clock care.

Jimmy struggled to walk but Mrs Wilson – a keen crafter – created a wheelchair to allow her to join the school’s flock of ducks.

She used piping to create the frame and created a harness from an idea on Pinterest.