Knats – ‘A Great Day In Newcastle’ album review: Finding the divine in the dirt of the Tyne
With A Great Day in Newcastle, Knats push their “Geordie jazz” identity into sharper focus, layering intricate nu-jazz arrangements with spoken-word realism and sizzling punk energy to build a record steeped in working-class history, regional pride, and restless experimentation. It is a record that turns place into feeling, and feeling into something almost overwhelming in its deft familiarity.
The Skinny: What began in 2020 as a tight production duo between drummer King David-Ike Elechi and bassist Stan Woodward has since blossomed into a sprawling, multi-limbed jazz outfit. While the core ensemble has been bolstered in recent years by the arrival of trumpeter Ferg Kilsby, saxophonist George Johnson, and pianist Sandro Shar, it is the arrival of both poet Cooper Robson and producer Geordie Greep on this album that acts as its lightning rod.
On opener ‘7 Bridges to Burn’, Cooper Robson sets the tone with a vivid spoken-word vignette: “There’s a young lad down the way, a pugilist with tight fists like that meme of Arthur, lives on the type of street you wouldn’t clock on your Strava. He’s two parts child, three parts charva, a type of Billy Elliot to wear a ballet-clava.” It’s brilliantly funny and rich with character, carrying an easy familiarity for anyone who has grown up in similar spots across the North. That sense of recognition gives the opening real warmth, as Robson’s storytelling glides over a gentle flute line before the production gradually opens out, blooming into sweeping horns and a tender piano motif.
This track feels like the North’s answer to Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert – a record where poetry and orchestration operate as a single language, a full-scale mission statement in sound. But where Simz builds a richly interior portrait of life on her journey from “London-born estate girl to international sensation”, on this album, Knats turn their attention outward and northward, swapping introspective self-mythology for communal storytelling. Estate kids, football folklore, shipyard workers, and pub philosophers are sketched with warm precision, and anchored as much in joy as in hardship.
After that opening statement of intent, the album moves into the brooding, sizzling nu-jazz of ‘Gainsborough Groove,’ which arrives with a dark, uneasy rush of energy, like a jazz-inflected reimagining of ‘The View From The Afternoon‘, before settling into something looser and more joyful. In its momentum and shining production, you can feel the buzz of Newcastle on a Saturday afternoon, black-and-white shirts drifting through metro stations as history folds into the present day, one ‘Bruno G 39’ at a time.
‘Gainsborough Groove’ then segues straight into the heavy drumline and pulsing brass of ‘Wor Jackie,‘ the album’s lead single, which tells the story of footballer and miner Jackie Milburn (the greatest centre forward there ever was, my Geordie editor claims). Elsewhere, ‘Carpet Doctor‘, which also features Geordie Greep, turns its attention to life after prison, inspired by a close connection to Woodward’s family.
In the same way Billy Elliot painted a romantic picture of the North through pure grit and aspiration, A Great Day in Newcastle finds its power in that same tension: realism sharpened by affection. It is grounded, but never defeated by its subject matter. Thatcher, picket lines and industrial decline sit alongside Shearer, Craster crabs, pickled onions and the city’s beloved football fans, the Mags.
This is where Knats have evolved most clearly since their debut. The carefully placed bursts of Cooper Robson’s spoken-word musings add a layer of everyday realism to the ensemble’s already expansive jazz palette, grounding its ambition in snotty-nosed lived detail. What emerges is an album alive to the world it is describing, shifting between bright and brooding sounds, and filled with shifting time signatures, intricate arrangements, and downright danceable grooves.
Standout Track: ‘Bigg Market Scrappa‘
Verdict: “Farewell to my ancestors, born and rested, seahorse crested – you will be remembered.” These are the final words uttered on the album, and they sum up the whole thing pretty well. A Great Day in Newcastle is a triumphant celebration of regional identity; a soaring reminder that even in the shadow of industrial ghosts, new, restless, and beautiful rhythms can still emerge… especially jazzy ones.
Release date: May 1st | Producer: Geordie Greep | Label: Gearbox Records
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