Music
Heebie Jeebies is bringing back family-friendly courtyard sessions with free music and BBQ
10 months ago
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 itâs a great opportunity for artists and audience to get together and create a sense of community â and introduce the next generation to the cityâs fantastic live music scene.
âI 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.
âNow thatâs coming back, thereâs 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.
âHistorically Heebie Jeebies was always a live music place so itâs part of the continuum of the cityâs music history even though over the years itâs had to adapt.Â
âThe courtyard is lovely, itâs got a great bar and itâs a little suntrap, plus itâs big and central enough to be perfect for something like this.
âAnd itâs 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.â
The original courtyard sessions were hosted by Johnny Sands and pulled in regular crowds before the enforced break.
âThey ran for a few years and people talk really fondly about them,â says Paul, who was previously general manager at Parr Street Studio2.
âWhen Johnny wasnât 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.â
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.
âAcoustic, 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 itâs an open session so you can just come along on the day and if weâve got space weâll get you on but as it moves forward over the next few weeks I think it might turn into something where Iâm asking people to book in advance depending on how busy it is.
âI like the open mic element and that little bit of spontaneity though because sometimes youâll get someone whoâs really good whoâll tell me that they happen to be free that afternoon and theyâre going to pop in so itâs good to have that possibility.
âLast week, for our first session, we had a guy called Jonny Taylor whoâs a great local musician. He doesnât typically do open mic but he does a great Laâs tribute show and he came so we ended up with three musicians getting up together and all playing some tunes by The Laâs. You wouldnât typically get that at an open mic so it was a nice little one-off.â
With free BBQ food and free music, Paul predicts Heebieâs courtyard is going to be one of the hottest places in the city to be on summer Saturday afternoons.
âI 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.
âMusic is essential to Liverpoolâs identity â every other person plays guitar – and I think weâll get some really talented people coming so itâll be a real mix of a show and hopefully thereâll be lots more things like this popping up as the city fully recovers.â