Fergus Quill Plays Xero Slingsby + Christie/Chan Duo

A jazz evening in Leeds at Wharf Chambers, where bassist and bandleader Fergus Quill leads the quintet The Works in a tribute to the Leeds alto saxophonist Xero Slingsby. The programme revisits Slingsby's music from the 1980s.

This is a tribute rather than a performance by Xero Slingsby, who died in 1988. Fergus Quill, who plays bass and leads the band, reworks material from the 2023 album "Up Yours! Fergus Quill Plays Xero Slingsby". That record draws on the only two albums Slingsby released, both made in the mid-1980s.

Slingsby became part of the Leeds jazz and experimental scenes in the late 1970s. He busked in the street, an activity that was still illegal in most British cities at the time, and was arrested and taken to court dozens of times. He often overturned those cases and became a campaigner for buskers'rights, believing street playing was a way of bringing jazz to a wider audience. In 1983 he formed the trio Xero Slingsby & The Works with bass player Louis Colan and drummer Gene Velocette, touring Britain and playing in Holland, Belgium and Germany.

The two albums, "Shove It" (1985) and "Up Down" (1986), mix free jazz, funk, television soundtracks, punk energy and English comic wit akin to Monty Python and Viv Stanshall. A 2022 film, "Shove It! The Xero Slingsby Story", was produced and released by Sally Coe. Wharf Chambers is a Leeds venue that hosts concerts and shows.