A Warm welcome at the Navy guaranteed

What can you get for a quid these days? Your hard earned cash will get you around half a cup of tea, a third of a pint of beer, perhaps a loaf of bread, but the clever ones use their cash wisely at the Royal Naval Association Club, in Bellman's Yard.

On one warmest nights of the year so far, Tuesday night saw more than sixty wise spenders, enjoy around a dozen live acts performing everything from Van Morrison to Jessie J.

Richard Thomas, Martin Woodhall, Mark Langford and veteran of the open mic, Dave Whiteman, returning to Newport after more than five years living in Cambridgeshire. became the scratch band for the opening half hour, playing music from
The Stereophonics, Marc Cohn and The Eagles amongst others.

Next up, a great young talent in the form of Sam Brizuela, backed by Martin. A high intensity set had songs from Jessie J, a classic from Joan Jett and a super version of Elvis's 'Jailhouse Rock'.

Richard Thomas has been a stalwart of the local music scene for years and you can always rely on him for something different. A reggae version of 'Hotel California' anyone? Following this with a great song from Nazareth, he finished with 'Breathe in Breath out', a cover from a former local
band, The Dead Moon Society.

Rich Evans, another local favourite, is normally found fronting his band Weasel Diesel, but a varied solo set had the crowd singing along to 'Amarillo', 'Oh Carol' and an 80's classic, 'Swords of a 1000 men', by Ten Pole Tudor.

Time for a change of tempo . First a three piece band made up of Ed Young on guitar, Ben Garrott on sax and Remynie-Kiah on drums, highlight of their set was 'Laid', by James, and then Newport’s resident young rockers Andy Conway, Pippin Henderson and Dan Reynard, blistered through a high
octane set finishing with 'Whole Lotta Love'.

Zoe Churm hasn't been around for a while, but the girl with the voice widely regarded as the best in the town took to the stage with her old music collaborator, Dave Whiteman to silence the crowd with 'Gold Dust Woman',' Sweet Child of Mine' from Guns and Roses before finishing with a beautiful version of Adele's 'To Make you Feel My Love' Great stuff!

Just time for Neil Wilday, backed by the 'house' band to bring the evening to a close with foot tappers 'Mustang Sally', 'Johnny B Good' and '20th Century Boy', a lively end to a great night of local live music.

Next week, the 31st July, there will be an extended set by new young local band, Blue Tuesdays.

There will still be plenty of Open Mic slots available, but please get there early to get your name down on the board.

So how are you going to spend a quid? You could do a lot worse than enjoying a whole evening of live music, held every Tuesday at the RNA,
Bellman's Yard in Newport from 8pm...see you there!