... Zap fills the gap A MAJOR redevelopment prog ramme costing almost £400,000 has meant a new venue for live enter tainment in Brighton. Just five months ago The Zap was an overcrowded seafront club until theatre architect Mark Foley designer of the Almeida, The Place and Riverside Studios in London was called in. Now it has a capacity for over 400 people. The cost of the redevelopment was funded ...

... In for a dizzy spell THE DIZZY GILLESPIE United Nation All-Star Orchestra is to play one date only at the Royal Festival Hall on June 10 towards the end of a European tour. There will be two other June dates in Britain, at Edin burgh on June 2 and Bath the following night. The 15-piece band includes such notable as Flora Purim and her hus band Airto Moreira, James Moody, Slide Hampton, Steve ...

... Organising a UK tour ORGANIST Jimmy McGriff and tenor saxist Hank Crawford are front ing a quartet completed by Wayne Boyd on guitar and Vance James on drums which begins a tour at the Bierkeller, Bristol on May 18. Continuing until May 28, the tour includes dates at Brighton, the 100 Club in Oxford Street, Liverpool, the Wag in Wardour Street, Eastleigh, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and ...

... Beam me up, says Palace boss HI-TECH lasers could be back on beam for Blackpool Illuminations if the town's Palace Nightspot has its way. The Central Promenade venue is applying to Blackpool Council for permission to install a laser show as its contribution to this year's Illumina tions package. Long range lasers first joined tradi tional light bulbs for the 50th anniversary Illuminations in ...

... The empire strikes back By ROBIN DUKE FIRST Leisure Corporation esti mates that it will have spent £40 million on its Blackpool empire before the mid 1990s. Chief execu tive Mr John Conlan stressed the company's confidence in the town and claimed its continuing invest ment would bury the popular misconception that British seaside resorts were dead. Blackpool's future has never been brighter ...

... Guts and garters JAMES GREEN on Britain's gutsy lady of Jazz Beryl bryden, Britain's big and bouncy Queen of Jazz, is a remarkable woman who on May 11 next year is to celebrate her 70th birthday and 45 years of belting out the blues. On the home and foreign main stream jazz scene Norfolk-born Bryden is a legendary name. The 100 Club are putting on a party for my birthday, she said with a ...

... Santas get in the swing By BILL ASHTON I'D HAVE laughed if you'd told me that anyone could persuade 24 fairly hard-bitten young jazz musicians to stand around in Father Christmas costumes for a photo call on a baking hot summer's day. Modern jazz musicians tend to be extremely disparaging about dressing up, or indeed 'showbiz' generally. The sight of a funny hat or ornamental waistcoat is ...

... Cabaret Koff Club comes to Liverpool TWO Liverpool performers were celebrating last week after their new alternative cabaret club proved an immediate hit, and now looks set to become a leading North West venue. City centre venture, The Koff Club, was a sell-out on the first night and hordes of cabaret fans had to be turned away at the door. Organisers Liz Moscrop and Tracey O'Conor, alias ...

... Farewell to Benjamin LOUIS Benjamin, who rose from office boy to president, was given an emotional farewell by Stoll Moss Theatres at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, last week. But as Roger Filer, managing direc tor of Stoll Moss, pointed out, while it was farewell after 52 years it was not goodbye. Benjamin had no intention of retiring completely and would still be involved with show ...

... Female magician wins through YOUNG Yorkshire magician Helen Whitehouse has struck a blow for female magicians, barred from the Magic Circle, by proving she can not only keep trade secrets, but wield them impressively to beat top male rivals. The Driffield 22-year-old scooped the Craig Trophy for the best female performer and the Theo Speaker Cup as overall runner-up at the 53rd annual ...

... Pulling strings for Live Aid EVER SINCE the emergence of Live Aid, people of all shapes, sizes colours and professions have been raising money for third world countries all over Britain. Now it is the turn of the 'little people' as Punch and Judy and all their friends get together for the first ever Puppet Aid to raise money for evacuees in Mozambique Organiser Platypus of Platypus and the ...

... Clampdown on seaside wreckers A GET TOUGH policy on nightclub troublemakers has been praised by Blackpool Palace Nighspot boss Martin Baird. The operations director of the re sort's biggest nightclub said he hoped the heavy sentences meted out last week were the shape of things to come rather than a one off. Seventeen men were jailed for a total of 29 years at Liverpool Crown Court for ...