From the start, it’s abundantly clear that the listener is going on a frenetic journey through a myriad of musical styles of rock and roll, rockabilly, swing, and ragtime blues. Hailing not from Mississippi, but Newcastle Upon Tyne, the Tea Pad Orchestra infuse all the aforementioned music styles with healthy does of Northern humour to deliver what they themselves have described as “Geordie Swing”.
Across twelve tight songs, an eclectic mix of subjects is tackled. Soul Of My City looks at problems facing many small arts communities engaged in area regeneration and how they are almost always the ones who lose out to the town planners when the developers show them the money. Or as Heron puts it:
For a dirty Pound.
The modern music industry gets a knock on the 1950s sounding Let’s Go Back In Time, Man. Social issues, most notably, poverty in the 21st century is the subject of both There’s A Hole (Where My Pocket Used To Be) and Lonely Boy on the Dole Queue.
Humour abounds on Life’s A Drag and Double Meaning, Double Entendre, which both show the broad range Heron’s songwriting skills.
As a band, The Tea Pad Orchestra are a well-travelled, tight ensemble who’ve been together for seven years and in that time have played festivals across the UK and Europe and can count Marc Riley and Huey Morgan among their fans. Their infectious brand of “Geordie Swing” encapsulating so many musical styles delivers good old-fashioned toe-tapping vibrant tunes that could redefine the meaning of Northern Soul.