This was updated on 16 July 2025 and hearty congratulations to Sunderland for being awarded Music City status! I have now added a Music City page to this site. The Year of Music started on 21 June and ,so far, seems to have been a huge success. On a personal front – at 76 I am becoming less and less proactive. However I have not given up being re-active and if you have visited my site and have seen where my skills and interests lie please get in touch. I am still game to be involved in projects or to do public performances if I can find time and gather up the energy and enthusiasm. You can find out the latest by looking me up in the education, musician and covers directories of Sunderland’s Music City web site –
musiccity.uk
Recent focus has been on an album of mining ballads released by friend Barry Hyde. Details of my involvement can be found on any search engine – “Barry Hyde” “Keith Gregson”. This excellent article went online in April
–Interview: Barry Hyde – Songwriting Magazine
Barry will be performing works from the album as part of a festival in Durham on 14 July.
Chris Cordner at the Sunderland Echo ( with whom I have worked on and off for years) asked if I would do a podcast with him about self and life in Sunderland. If you have a spare 20 minutes or so here it is –
Keith Gregson – teacher, musician, historian and more! – Wearside Echoes | Acast
At the moment it would be hard to ignore the buzz in the North East of England as a result of the recent success of two of its football teams. This brought my attention to something related which somebody has downloaded to a sport research site. Go to
Sport and Song Go Together – Keith Gregson | Blog | Sporting Heritage
and watch the YouTube video
Friends suggest that the following videos are best to get some idea of my musical contributions –
Live at the Bunker – Keith Gregson – Live at The Bunker
Live at the Dun Cow Keith Gregson – Live at the Dun Cow, Sunderland.
Here Lies Alice – Keith Gregson – Here Lies Alice at Sunderland Minster
Playa Joyel Playa Joyel
Taing of Houss TAING OF HOUSS
Last year I put out a booklet celebrating the 150th anniversary of Sunderland (Rugby) Football Club and also the discovery of what may be the world’s oldest complete set of club rugby kit. I am working with the World Rugby Museum to explore the history of the kit further. As a result of this work we have secured a £1500 grant to digitize the club’s invaluable records ( which also contain material relating to other sports played at Ashbrooke Sports Club, Sunderland). The club’s heritage site is back up and running at
Our Heritage | Ashbrooke Sports Club
Some 20 articles by me on various aspects of rugby history can be found by scrolling through
Revisit Historic Matches From The Vaults – World Rugby Museum
I have also reworked a booklet on Olympic Cricket which came out in summer 2024 and has validity up to the re-introduction of cricket to the Olympics in 2028. Did you know that England ( and specifically England) are current Olympic Cricket champions? If interested to find out more go to;.
https://www.max-books.co.uk/home/olympic-cricket-story-so-far.html
or contact me to purchase a copy.
During the pandemic I was very proactive in putting work ( much of it music related and for adults and youngsters alike) on my YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22keith+gregson%22
The pandemic saw a re-awakening of my interest in our family’s links with the Shetland Isles – (my maternal grandmother’s roots were entirely from Burra Isle, Shetland). To this end I have opened up a Shetland page on this site. I will be updating here constantly so if you are going to join in with me in some form or another, a big hello.
If you are still not getting out much or bored, explore my site and get back on anything of mutual interest we can follow up. For latest publications go to Update at the bottom of the Academic page and other activities in current
Contact me by e-mail – keith.gregson@talk21.com or ring/text to 0791 035 1272
Keith G
Sunderland July 2025
I think the site is now up to date after it has gone ‘under new ownership’. Please get in touch if there are any problems with it. It is meant to be simple and not ‘all singing and dancing’ so not interested in paying for ‘improvements’.