Tom Makes a Return to His Home.

Buxton born and bred Tom “Spats” Langham makes a welcome return to his home with an appearance at the The Dove Holes Jazz Club, for a charity concert to raise monies for the Christie Hospital in Manchester.

This internationally acclaimed musician, who plays the banjo and acoustic guitar with great versatility and fluency, lived in Buxton until his mid twenties and is well known to many people in the area. After spending several years at Music College and playing local gigs, as well as those further a field, Tom moved to the Cotswolds, to be nearer the London jazz scene. The Cotswolds is still his base from which he travels, on a regular basis, to gigs all over the British Isles, Europe and other parts of the globe.

Over the years Tom has developed an awesome technique, which accompanied by his famous “megaphone” vocals, in the manner of Al Bowlly, have made him the envy of many of his contemporaries, and guarantee him a full gig diary. The likes of The Temperance Seven, The Pasadena Roof Orchestra and top Americans such as Howard Alden have enjoyed having Tom in their line-ups.

As well as the abundant talents of Tom the Dove performance will feature the other members of his “Hot Fingers Trio,” namely Danny Blyth on guitar, mandolin, and the rare, bass clarinet along with Malcolm Sked on string bass and sousaphone. An appearance by one or two guest musicians can’t be ruled out.

The concert is given as a tribute to his late father Mike, who was also a remarkable man, and a huge jazz fan and dedicated supporter of Tom’s musical career, buying him a ukulele at the age of 9. Mike will long be remembered for his interest and knowledge of the Buxton of yesteryear and his output of quality books on this subject. Before his death, almost two years ago, Mike was very appreciative of the skilled attention and nursing that he received from Christie’s hospital. Tom, along with his mother Barbara, see this show very much as an opportunity of repaying a small amount of their debt to the hospital, and trust that it will raise a tidy sum of money for the hospital. You are cordially invited to attend this rather special performance on Saturday the 4 October. For further details or tickets please ring 01298 77740.