Oh
what a night….Another full house at The Navy
Words & pictures by Dave Whiteman and
Laurence Gale
Sometimes you just know. The Open Mic on a Tues is
always good, but sometimes….you just know it’s going to be more than that,
something very special.
From the moment that blues veteran Dave Blu assembled
the Scratchouse band with Andy Clarke on bass, Stephen Black on drums and young
Olly Flavell on guitar, and the first notes of a high voltage ‘Crossroads’
started, the atmosphere was already electric and everyone understood that we
were in for a great night.
Malcolm Purvis from Leeds always pops in when he is
in the area and his sweet (autobiographical?) urban poems put to music, set the
stall for a brilliant evening. The performer’s board was already full by 8pm and it was going to be a challenge to give everyone playing time. Telford based Jimmy Bremner, just 70 years young, followed and ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ was a perfect tune to get the crowd excited, before Dave Whiteman kept the audience involved with an energetic crowd pleaser from Simon & Garfunkel, ‘Mrs Robinson’
Our second band of the night had Ed Young joining
Dave Blu and Stephen Black on stage to raise the roof with rockers from
Hendrix, Free and Bad Company. Dave’s brilliant guitar work meshing perfectly
with a great rhythm section….difficult to believe it was the first time they
had played together.
Remynie Faith is known as one of the club’s great
young talents, and this week, joined by another multi instrumentalist Ben
Garrott, it is fair to say they brought the house down. They surprised the audience
with a ukulele driven ‘Sweet child of mine’, but the next song sent a tingle
down every spine. A gorgeous version of ‘Hallelujah’ had Remynie’s haunting
vocals backed by Ben’s superb piano and it quite rightly brought the house
down.
Always difficult to follow something like that, but
next up Vinyl Tap rose to the challenge playing one of their tightest and best performances
to date. ‘Town called Malice’ set the mood, Kraftwork’s ‘The Model’ was quite
brilliant and Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ had the audience joining in once again.
Olly & Jake are Navy regulars now and a
typically solid set once again showcased excellent guitar work with very strong
vocals.
We don’t see enough of Richard Thomas these days due
to his work commitments, but he always brings something different to the table.
‘Driving with my High Heels On’ was followed by a reworked Who classic, before
he delighted the crowd by singing the first Christmas song of the evening ‘Oh
Tannenbaum’ ….. of course in German! Nikki Millar then joined Rich for a song
about ‘Searching for Alice in Wonderland’ which had more than a hint of ‘Living
next door to Alice’. As I said, always original!
I’ve heard Sharn Hodgkinson sing Gabrilella Cilmi
before, and, accompanied by Alan Lane on guitar she gave us a great version of
‘Sweet about Me’ before yet another showstopper, this time the blues classic
‘Summertime.’
Our fourth band of the evening was Telford three piece The Dead
Vespers and as on their previous visit, they did not disappoint. ‘All Rise’
‘When the Moon bleeds Gold’ and the heart wrenching ‘Sweet Heart Lullabies’
match a confident stage performance with exceptional song writing…..I am sure
we will hear more from these young guys.
Ed Young and Ade Morris played together for the
first time in a long time last week and it was nice to see them back on stage
to play purely acoustic versions of great tunes from Crowded House and Bad
Company. Ade’s typically strong vocals and sympathetic guitar work from Ed, was
all that was needed to quieten the crowd once again.
Wow, what a night!
With more than a dozen live acts, it was quite difficult at times to
make sure everyone got stage time, and we would certainly have liked to have
heard a lot more from some, but as the clock crept towards midnight, another
superb evening of live music came to an end.
Word seems to be getting around;
Tues night at The Navy is the place to be if you are a music fan, and all for
less than the cost of a cup of tea!
Local rockers Bang to Rights are live in The Navy
tonight (Fri) supported by the excellent Jack Green. Doors open at 8pm and
entrance is only £3 so why not come along and get a flavour of the superb local
music scene in Newport?
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