Cavern Jazz man retires after 60 years
A musician who played with his band on the opening night of the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool has retired after a career spanning more than 60 years.
Trumpeter Tommy Jones, founder of The Wall City Jazzmen, served with the RAF and returned to Chester in the 1950’s.
Tommy founded the Jazzmen, who first played at the Old Clemences Restaurant in Northgate Street, Chester before being approached by Gordon Vickers in 1954 to be the resident band at the newly opened Wall City Jazz Club at Quaintways, next door to their old venue. Tommy, who is 80 this month, now lives off Garden Lane, Chester.
Tommy’s band played on the opening night of the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool in 1957, as well as appearing on TV when playing in well known jazz clubs in Manchester and London. The Cavern Club, where The Beatles made their name in the early ‘60s, opened as a jazz club. The Wall City Jazzmen’s name is on the Cavern Club’s Wall of Fame, as is also Pat Fields (or Trish Fields as she prefers) who joined the Wall City Jazzmen at 15 years of age in 1958.
Co-owner of the Mill Hotel & Spa Destination, Gordon Vickers, has managed the Wall City Jazzmen since the ’50s. The Wall City Jazzmen, who played with many jazz musicians from the UK and America, started Monday night sessions at the Mill Hotel & Spa Destination, in the early ’90s and continue to play at the Milton Street, Chester based Hotel on Monday nights.
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Tommy Jones and Gorden Vickers, co-owner of the Mill Hotel and Spa Destination
Alan Birdall, of the Black & White Minstrels, Irene Martin, a singer with the Wall City Jazz Band, Trish Fields, Terry Jones and Gorden Vickers, co-owner of The Mill Hotel and Spa Destination and former agent
Retirement presentation for Tommy Jones (second left), with Paul Blake (left), Trish Fields and former agent Gorden Vickers of the Mill Hotel
Tommy Jones, who has retired from the City Wall Jazz Band after a career spanning more than 60 years
Situated on an historic Roman site in the middle of the City of Chester, the Mill Hotel and Spa Destination was opened by its present owners in 1987. The original Griffiths Cornmill building dates from 1830 and great care has been taken to sympathetically incorporate many of the original architectural features during the conversion into a hotel.
The Mill has been extended in recent years with the addition of the impressive south wing, linked to the original building via a glass walled bridge over the Shropshire Union Canal reminiscent of the City of Venice.
The hotel can rightly say it is Chester’s complete hotel and leisure destination with 129 en-suite bedrooms, Free Wi FI Internet, extensive dining and restaurant options, conferencing facilities, and unrivalled leisure facilities including Beauty Spa, Nail Bar, Hair Salon and unrivalled leisure facilities including a Technogym Gymnasium, Kinesis Studio, Pool, Sauna and Steam Room. It has the highest occupancy figures of any Chester hotel.
Dining options include the Canaletto and the Flambé Steak restaurants, the Restaurant Cruiser, Peppermill Trattoria and Real Ale Bar and Deli Counter.
For more information visit: www.millhotel.com Contact: Emma Ratchford, Gordon Vickers or Maretta Williams, The Mill Hotel & Spa Destination, Tel: 01244 350035
For press information call: Phil Brotherhood, Marketing Projects Tel: 01244 330000 Mobile: 07884 493370 phil@marketingprojects.co.uk
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