The Penny Black

Ellerton Road, Stockton

Every Saturday night, The Penny Black hosts some of the finest cover bands the North East has to offer. In addition to the regular Saturdays the venue is keen to get more music nights going with Open acoustic nights and Unsigned nights tried out earlier in the year and two bank holiday all day music events which have been a huge success.

The Penny Black offers a fantastic menu of fine food and a great friendly atmosphere. Next year Tom plans to bring in brand new cover bands to entertain the regular Saturday night clientelle as well as some outstanding original bands too.

Its refreshing for us to see a venue willing to pay original bands a fair fee for playing, often because they are Original these bands have to play for free as not many venues will take a chance on them. The Penny Black is different - they are looking to support local talent whether that be in playing covers or playing their own material. All in all next year looks fantastic for the Penny Black, already we are planning more bank holiday barbeques and we are also looking to put on a festival next summer which will be in support of a local charity - still to be determined. This will be a full day of live music and family fun with bouncy castles and childrens entertainment going on. Already we have a lot of bands interested in playing and we will be mixing it up with some covers and originals so there will be something for everyone! The Unsigned nights we held this year went down well although there was a lack of support so we had to discontinue them in the end. However, we will be looking to put on special nights throughout the coming months which we hope will attract more interest and kick start the Thursday nights at the Penny Black. This years Halloween will be a tremendous night - there will be live music as well as other entertainment for the kids early doors so make sure you don't miss that one. The Barbeques have possibly been the most well received. The May barbeque saw performers, Carl Eaton, Mick Merryweather, Ian Swinburne and Michael Paul followed by Death to FX, This Years Headlines, Anonymous Farewell, Radio Dynamics and The Purnells. The Travellin band finished the evening with two full sets to a packed Penny Black. The August Barbeque was no less of a success, we started off outside under a gazebo with performers Christian & Georgia, Mick Merryweather and the Mojo's, Head of Light Entertainment and Ian Swinburne. Unfortunately the weather was against us and we had to move indoors for the bands Penny Black, The Princes of Monte Carlo, Freeze Sucker! and Radio Dynamics. DVD were the evening band who rocked the Penny Black out until closing time.

This venue is one of the hidden gems of Teesside, its a great place to play and a great pub to visit although as it is in a housing estate not a lot of the music lovers outside the immediate area are aware of what entertainment is on there. We would urge you to go and pay it a visit, you won't be disappointed.

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