A POPULAR covers band with a former Barnard Castle musician as its lead singer is returning for a special gig in the town next month.
The Moobs first performed in Barney in December last year after they recruited James Brown as their lead singer.
Mr Brown and other Barney musicians, such Andrew Yeadon, Luke Jordan and Ian Swinburn, became online sensations when they started the Locked Down and Loaded series of performances during the coronavirus pandemic which raised some £15,000 for NHS charities.
It was this that led The Moobs to approach Mr Brown to join them as their lead singer David Mole was hanging up his microphone.
After performing at major festivals and clubs throughout last year, Mr Brown brought his new bandmates to Glaxo Club for a sellout gig just before Christmas last year.
He said: “My band played last year and it went down a treat.
“It’s been an amazing year where we now have played in front of thousands at festivals and headline slots.”
Among the events The Moobs headlined at was the Keswick Beer Festival over the jubilee weekend.
Mr Brown, who is a builder by trade, said: “It was fantastic. We also headlined at Volkspower 2022 at Redcar.
“We do about two gigs a month. We have the potential to go full time, but with family and our jobs it is just not possible.”
The band play a wide variety of styles, including rock, pop, dance and indie, and cover the likes of U2, The Killers, The Cult, James
Bay, Stereophonics and Queen.
The Barney gig will include acoustic duo Luke Jordan and John Rackham as well as local band The Revamps.
Mr Brown said: “Luke is one of my best friends. We have been good pals and have had regular slots at The Old Well Inn over the years so it is fantastic that he and John Rackman will be doing an acoustic performance on the night.”
Tickets for the event at Glaxo Club on Saturday, November 26, are £10 and are available at the club bar.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
