54 Pilgrim Street has been a mainstay music venue for decades, serving the people of Newcastle as a sanctuary for soul, a fortress for funk, and place to celebrate everything in between. In January, I sat down with its new proprietor, Michael Lavery, to talk about his musical roots and vision for the venue with a focus on the musical in-betweens (primarily jazz).
– Hoochie no more –
It’s been a number of months since Hoochie Coochie, as the venue was previously named, changed its name to Pilgrim and the memory of the old name has quickly slipped into the ether for many of us performing and attending gigs on the music scenes in Newcastle. Beyond the promise that the new branding brings, the most exciting prospect for the city centre venue lies in the vision and experience of the owner, both in music and business. As with all great musicians (no bias here at all), Michael started playing cornet around 11 before moving to guitar and forming his first band around the age of 14. With this band, he ran the gauntlet that almost all musicians must run when starting their career: performing in open mic competitions. For some, the challenge of these kinds of events often leaves a lasting and unwelcome memory; for Michael, these experiences clearly had an enduringly positive impact. He shared with a fondness how his band debuted with four original tracks on a Sunderland stage, winning him his first open mic competition. In his adult life, Michael’s continued his passion for performing by singing in various bands and performing acoustically, founding and fronting the northeast based funk and soul infused group Groovetrain in 2012, as well as working on another lesser publicised side of performing, running a venue. He is also an experienced musical director and producer, working with artists and partners from Ian Shaw at Jazz FM and Incongito’s Bluey, to Andy Taylor (Duran Duran), John Parr (St Elmo’s Fire), popstar Ella Henderson, and Sting. At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s good to know that a valued venue is being run by someone with positive experiences on numerous sides of the performance industry. The third side being as a listener. Perhaps more than anything else, Michael’s interests as an avid music listener are already impacting how Pilgrim is managed, not only in scheduling artists but in the design and aspiring culture of the space.
– The Wind Cries Pilgrim –
Wanting to know where Michael’s musical interests lie and crucially how they might inspire invitations of musical guests at the venue, I asked him to break down some of his favourite artists. It’s safe to say Pilgrim’s current ownership has an open ear to a range of musical styles. Michael’s listening comprises “…lots of soul, funk and jazz, but then there’s also the old rock stuff I used to listen to as well; the Hendrix and Cream and soulful 70’s rock stuff as well. So yeah, quite a mix”. This eclecticism appeared undeniable throughout our conversation, particularly as Lavery waxed lyrical™ about the burgeoning Scottish music scene, with artists like High-Fade, Tom McGuire and the Brassholes, and corto.alto having already played at his venue since the beginning of his ownership. The latter of whom we reviewed for their Pilgrim appearance back in November – go check that out on our site!
Following on in his perception of music scenes across the border and beyond, I was also lucky enough to hear Michael discuss some of his favourite jazz bars, venues and clubs from across the world. Just as with musicians or artists, listening to them discuss their influences not only indicates their excitement for their project but offers a glimpse into where they want to take it. I’ll let you read this bit in Michael’s words:
‘With the work that I do, I travel quite a lot, and I travel solo. So, when I’m in these different cities all over the world, I hunt out music venues just to go and enjoy some music. I’ll find an open mic night, where I’ll maybe get up, or I’ll go to a jazz night. And so I’ve been inspired by a number of places I’ve visited. Along with the other partners in the bar; we have a shared love for Brilliant Corners in London and the Jazz Cafe in Camden. The Jazz Cafe is a significant inspiration for me. I actively look at their programming and see what they’re putting on and what elements of that might travel and work up here in Newcastle and might sell here in Newcastle. I’ve reached out to them to have a conversation with them about more collaborative programming, and with Ronnie Scott’s. Of course, I spend a lot of time at Ronnie’s too when I’m down in London. I’ve seen some great bands and had some great conversations with people there, and I think there’s an intimacy in that venue and a celebration of the musicians that play there that we’d love to emulate here. Rather than Ronnie’s falling into a trap of being a kind of touristy commercial presentation of jazz, they continue to have the handwritten blackboard outside listing every member of every ensemble that’s playing there to celebrate the talent and the virtuosity of the people who play there. So, some real cues from Ronnie’s although we don’t want to be quite as conservative, or structured in terms of our stage and customer experience. We do have some fixed booth seatings here too but we’re not going to be serving steak and chips, and you know, having table lamps at every table. So, it won’t quite be as conservative as that but it’s somewhere between Ronnie’s and the Jazz Cafe, and I think it’s the eclectic programme of the Jazz Cafe that I really like. It’s Latin, it’s salsa, it’s grime, it’s hip hop, it’s soul, funk, jazz and R&B. They tread the line quite well between stuff that would appeal more commercially and the really avant-garde stuff as well. Finally, I would say Blue Note – particularly the one in Greenwich Village in New York. The Blue Note Jazz Cafe is somewhere I’ve been to a number of times. I was there on New Year’s Day last year, as I was just starting to have the conversation with the previous owner about buying this place. I think my visit there on New Year’s Day, you know, really tipped the balance to say, “I need to do this”.’
Perhaps even more exciting than this was hearing Michael’s enthusiasm for growth once the venue has firmly planted itself as a must-visit venue. Blue Note is a great example of how using the brand to plant venues in different cities can generate venue tourism and attract national/global audiences to the flagship location, on somewhat of a pilgrimage – in this case, our Newcastle.
– Have You Met Mr Lavery? –
One of the most refreshing elements of my chat with Michael Lavery was his attitude toward engaging with other people, particularly those who share a keen passion for the music, the venue, and the city. It’s why he accepted the offer to have a chat with us, a music magazine in its first 6 months of life. He said, ‘one of the things I’ve been doing since we bought this venue in September is just meeting and having lots of conversations with our musical community. We’ve got ideas about album listening parties, open mic and songwriter showcases, spoken word shows and more interesting stuff here.’ He also talked encouragingly about conversations he has had regarding collaborations with other Geordie venues, saying ‘we’ve been starting to talk about how we might support each other and collaborate rather than seeing each other as competitors or fighting for the same artists in some cases’. These collaborations, along with a number of London-based connections he alluded to, might welcome more musicians from abroad to Newcastle and the UK, with the promise of audiences in venues up North and down South.
Perhaps most exciting is the prospect of more diverse artists and the expansion of opening hours, with Pilgrim ‘eventually opening 5 or 6 days a week’. What better time for this than now? As Pilgrim Quarter is nearing the completion of its high-end development, I think Pilgrim (the club/café) will indubitably become a hotspot for business folk and creatives alike. Especially under the right management and with the hope of multiple offerings throughout the day at Pilgrim. Michael shared that, ‘what we might see in 12 months’ time is music workshops and clinics, and kind of outreach work happening in the venue in the morning, […] a lunch service with a jazz pianist, great wines, great coffees, […] after work drinks and a live music element – more on that jazz and fusion side – and then programming in the evening’. Homing in on the support and active relationship with local acts, Michael shared his excitement for working with Newcastle-based Jazz artists including Latin-Jazz DJ Santa Leticia who used to play at Brilliant Corners in London’ and has played the London Jazz Festival, as well as acts like Knats, SwanNek and Rivkala, expressing how he wants to be ‘celebrating the jazz culture and rather than just booking the occasional jazz act, I want to seed some jazz notes right through the menu’.
– Giant Steps –
Since the conducting of this interview, Pilgrim has already made huge leaps toward fulfilling the vision covered in our chat. The venue hosted the MOBO UnSung 2025 contest when the MOBO awards and its fringe events came to Newcastle. Most recently (by that I mean last week), Lavery met up with Gregory Porter, announcing the multi-award-winning jazz/gospel vocalist as a Patron of Pilgrim. This is an ambassadorial role that’ll see Porter engage with the promotion and celebration of the venue. This relationship, alongside the acts that have already performed at Pilgrim since the start of the year, has surely marked Pilgrim as a “venue to pay attention to” in the UK’s jazz and afro-diasporic music scenes. How they use this attention and whether their aspirations are attained, time will tell. However, if there’s two things that are not in scarce supply, its aspirations and the willpower to attain them. Pilgrim, you’ve got us excited.
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Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering what Michael’s favourite jazz/jazz-tangential record is: in his own words, ‘my go to is always Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder.’ Can’t argue with that, except maybe its claim to be “jazz” but that’s another article entirely.
Waxing Lyrical 