Heebie Jeebies is bringing back family-friendly courtyard sessions with free music and BBQ

Heebie Jeebies is bringing back its much-loved courtyard sessions, with free live music and free BBQ food.

The sessions at Heebie Jeebies were really popular for years as a showcase for local musicians but stopped with the pandemic.

Now Liverpool musician and event manager Paul Nazole is relaunching them every Saturday afternoon and early evening through summer.

He says it’s a great opportunity for artists and audience to get together and create a sense of community – and introduce the next generation to the city’s fantastic live music scene.

“I think Liverpool is definitely seeing a revival in live music which is great. After Covid we lost so many places which had acted as hubs so the city landscape started to look and feel like a very different place.

“Now that’s coming back, there’s a bit of a rebirth, and something like these courtyard sessions will bring an eclectic mix of different types of music and people from all over the scene.

Heebie Jeebie's courtyard sessions - pic by Sean Dagnall @ichbingen — Picture – Sean Dagnall/ @ichbingen

“Historically Heebie Jeebies was always a live music place so it’s part of the continuum of the city’s music history even though over the years it’s had to adapt.

“The courtyard is lovely, it’s got a great bar and it’s a little suntrap, plus it’s big and central enough to be perfect for something like this.

“And it’s nice that families can come along for the early part of the day as well because I think a lot of people I grew up playing with have now got kids and often they struggle to have somewhere to take them to see music.”

The original courtyard sessions were hosted by Johnny Sands and pulled in regular crowds before the enforced break.

“They ran for a few years and people talk really fondly about them,” says Paul, who was previously general manager at Parr Street Studio2.

“When Johnny wasn’t able to come back they asked me and I feel very grateful to have been trusted with relaunching the event and hopefully creating something really special this summer.”

Sessions are starting off as open mic but as it grows Paul anticipates bringing in a booking process so musicians can pre-book time slots.

The programme will run from 3pm to 8pm, and each artist will perform three songs.

“Acoustic, or maybe stripped-back bands, give you a nice quick change-over so we can probably get up to 20 different people on over the five hours. At the moment it’s an open session so you can just come along on the day and if we’ve got space we’ll get you on but as it moves forward over the next few weeks I think it might turn into something where I’m asking people to book in advance depending on how busy it is.

“I like the open mic element and that little bit of spontaneity though because sometimes you’ll get someone who’s really good who’ll tell me that they happen to be free that afternoon and they’re going to pop in so it’s good to have that possibility.

“Last week, for our first session, we had a guy called Jonny Taylor who’s a great local musician. He doesn’t typically do open mic but he does a great La’s tribute show and he came so we ended up with three musicians getting up together and all playing some tunes by The La’s. You wouldn’t typically get that at an open mic so it was a nice little one-off.”

With free BBQ food and free music, Paul predicts Heebie’s courtyard is going to be one of the hottest places in the city to be on summer Saturday afternoons.

“I think some people are put off coming into town at night for whatever reason so this is a nice thing to have in the city in the daytime.

“Music is essential to Liverpool’s identity – every other person plays guitar – and I think we’ll get some really talented people coming so it’ll be a real mix of a show and hopefully there’ll be lots more things like this popping up as the city fully recovers.”