THE BIG LIVE GIG, organised by Teesdale Community Resources, went bigger this year by becoming a day-long outdoor event.

Now into its fifth year, it showcases bands and acts developed at the TCR music facility in Barnard Castle, entertaining audiences from midday until midnight with a whole range of music, from blues to mellow acoustic ballads to full-on heavy metal.

This year's event was opened by the TCR blues band, a nine-piece group of teenagers playing pieces by BB King, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, followed by Pacific Experimental and Kirsh. The next act in the line-up was event organiser Andrew Yeadon with his unique brand of acoustic rock, featuring Owain Davies and John Marriott on piano and bass, Paul Hughes on violin and Mike Tulloch on drums.

After acoustic duo Abi Harrisson and Darren Banner were Dexter, one of TCR's most exciting new bands fronted by Chloe Thwaites, whose highly simplistic and striking songs saw that the CD stall sold out of their CDs before they had even left the stage.

But the highlight of the day was Glasgow-based Unkle Bob, featuring one of the original participants of the TCR music project Robert (Ron) Yeadon. The band have been the subject of a large amount of press coverage and were featured on the BBC's coverage of T in the Park earlier this month. Rob had the task of proving to his home crowd that all this wasn't just hype and the audience wasn't disappointed, blown away by frontman Rick Webster's striking songwriting abilities and the all-acoustic band's superbly executed dynamic performance.

Unkle Bob were followed by compere Dave Kidd and his band Easy, guest performer Richard John Thompson, The Catch, Darlington-based Fude's first performance since the departure of their frontman Jack Hardwick and, finally, the almost legendary Watty Boys playing their unique fusion of Irish Jigs, songs of love and pure, unadulterated rock.

Helped by cloudless skies, the event was a resounding success which organisers Andrew Yeadon and Keith Jones are rightly looking to expand.

* For more information about the TCR music project and the bands, call TCR on (01833) 690150.

Published: 23/07/2004