Review of 2013  Open Mic    by Dave Whiteman

Almost exactly ten years ago, Mervyn Williams, Ken Evans and myself came to the Navy and started the first Open Mic. And every week since on Tuesday evenings, with very few exceptions, the Newport Open Mic has entertained thousands of live music fans. This has been a particularly busy year and as we look forward to 2014, I thought it would be fun to take a look back over the last twelve months. 


January: First appearance for New tennis coach, Darcy Crawford who would become one of the most regular and popular performers. Highlight of the month was a four piece band from Blythe Bridge, Sons of Clogger with their particular blend of Folk Rock.

February: Nice to see Richie Evans take to the stage with his Dad, Clive a keen player and live music supporter. 


Mellisa Walford made an appearance in Britains Got Talent, and her Mum & Dad turned up to watch her performance at the Navy wearing Simon & Amanda masks!



 
 
March: Carol Cartwright was becoming a Navy regular, with her lovely style of finger picking and soft melodic voice. 

Nathan Davies made his first appearance on stage accompanied by his Mum, Louise.




April  Good to see Martyn Templeton back on stage…his effortless vocals never fail to please. 

Also nice to see Dan Corcoran on a flying visit from Cork playing a vintage blues song from Mississippi John Hurt





                            
May: Vinyl Tap made an          appearance this month, opening with a fantastic instrumental, Wipeout by The Surfaris. Also memorable for the first appearance of 10 yr old Jay Harris playing songs that were written fifty years before he was born!



June      Graeme Beardmore and Sheena McDonagh from Stoke made their first appearance at the club as Rain….a very appropriate name given the weather in June. Love and Affection by Joan Armatrading was superb. From Telford came Bryan James and Steve Ross singing self penned songs including ‘The Future’s a Mystery’

July     Claire Shaw made her first appearance on stage at the Navy and soon became a regular favourite. Another debutant was 15yrs old Zac Christie playing live for only the second time. ‘English Rose’ by Paul Weller stunned the sizeable crowd in to silence. 


 




August          Ian Simpkins runs his own Open Mic at Copmere End, but also now a regular at the Navy. His soft Scottish brogue and lovely guitar style are guaranteed to entertain. 
Eighteen year old Jack Pierce played for the first time, and songs from Mumford & Sons made for a fine performance.

September    Londoner Steve Davis entertained with a great version of Traction in the Rain, by David Crosby, While Gaz & The Tones made their debut this month and I don’t think they have missed an Open Mic since.


October        One of my favourites of the year, singer songwriter Lizzie Hogan performed for the first time. She only looks about 14 but is in fact 23….a fabulous talent. Roger Clark brought his new band to the club, Enigma and rocked the house with ‘Steamy Windows’ the Tina Turner classic.




 

November   Ben Garrott usually plays keyboard and sax, but having bought his a guitar just a couple of weeks ago, he played it on stage for the first time. Graham Dabbs was making a welcome return to the club singing the Johnny Cash/June Carter number ‘It Ain’t me Babe’

December    Barry Hollyhead joined forces with his old musical partner Harry Wooley to give us some superb sixties covers. 

Open Mic Founder Mervyn Williams brought his band Bang to Rights to the club to play some blistering rock from AC/DC amongst others.

So Open Mic 2013 in words and pictures, I hope it brought back happy memories. See you next year at probably the area’s best live music evening,  The Newport Open Mic at The Navy!

 A Christmas Grand Finale at the Newport Open Mic

Words:  Dave Whiteman,  Pictures Matt Thomas and Laurence Gale

As the party season gets into full swing, Tuesday night saw the Newport Open Mic reward their loyal followers with a free evening of live music and great food. Every week for the last year, live music fans have been flocking to the Royal Naval Association in Bellmans Yard for what many regard as the finest Open Mic in the area, and the last Tues before Christmas is the day when, traditionally, everyone enters into the party spirit.

A short introduction by Chairman Pete Bunting thanked the Open Mic for their continued support of the RNA and expressed the hope that the long partnership between the Navy Club and the Open mic would continue.

Our opening act of the evening first came to the club in October, nervously strumming their own compositions. Since then, Gareth Attwood, brothers Tony & Andy Callister and Andy Clegg have been delighting the audiences each week with their brand of high octane acoustic rock. It was fitting therefore that the band, collectively known as Gaz and the Tones, should open this year’s musical extravaganza
 

Open Mic regulars are very familiar with their set list and the guys did not disappoint, including all the popular numbers, but a few well-chosen covers lifted them to a new level. Opening with favourites, ‘Sweet Lorenzo Harmony’ and Round the Sun’ the band then surprised everyone with a lively version of ‘Handle me with Care’ by The Travelling Wilburys.
 

The sizeable crowd of around a hundred were definitely in a festive mood and their reaction to this brilliant cover seemed to give the band the confidence to try out some new material before raising the roof to finish with a couple of crackers. Merry Christmas Everybody is the Slade song always played at this time of year, but Gaz & the Tones preferred instead a foot stomping ‘Gudbye 2 Jane’,  before leaving the audience wanting more with a raucous version of ‘Ghostbusters’.  Watch out for this band, they collected a few more fans tonight and I am sure they will be gigging every week, very soon.

Into the break with a fabulous curry supper, courtesy of ex-Navy chef Mark Rowley. This gave our willing helpers time to circulate waving collection tins for Severn Hospice, the Open Mic’s adopted charity, and around £160 was raised. Connections with SH go back a number of years indeed a number of our members have had loved ones cared for by the hospice, so the cause is very dear to us. 

One of the great things about the Open Mic is that every week, a couple of guitarists, a drummer and a singer will get up on stage and just ‘jam’ together; that is busk through a set without rehearsal, sometimes meeting for the first time. 

Our main band tonight, Reworx, was a ‘made up’ group making their very first live appearance….though all the musicians have played with other bands. Steve Smith and Mark Langford are ‘half’ of local rock outfit ‘Bang to Rights’, Dave Whiteman and John Freestone vocalist and drummer with ‘Robbie’s in Rehab’, Yiasmin Freestone a busy solo singer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Garrott a veteran of a number of local bands, despite his tender years!

 After just a couple of rehearsals, Reworx belted through two strong sets of popular rock and pop, from such bands as Texas, Stereophonics, Queen and Fleetwood Mac, but it was a Eurythmics song that stole the show. As soon as Ben Garrott on keyboards played the opening sequence to ‘Sweet Dreams (are made of this)’ there was a real buzz about the room and Yiasmin’s superb vocals brought the house down.

So what a way to end a fantastic year of local live music in Newport. Every Tuesday evening for the last twelve months hundreds of acts both local and from as far afield as Wolverhampton, Stafford and Birmingham have stood on the stage at the Navy Club in front of generous and appreciative audiences. Big thanks to all the people who give their time each week to set up and put away equipment, monitor the sound, sell raffle tickets and generally keep the Newport Open Mic firmly on the live music map.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all…….keep it live!

Where does Newport get this young talent?  Words: Dave Whiteman, Pictures: Laurence Gale

Did you ever watch The Old Grey Whistle Test? The programme name came from a legend that if the grey haired lift attendants at the BBC centre could whistle the tune to a song that they had just heard, then that song would likely become a hit. I was reminded of this on Tuesday night at The Navy, where a wealth of new young local talent played their own material and for a day or two afterwards, I was humming the tunes., So says Mr Dave Whiteman (to your left).

Newcomers Richochet, a duo from Trench were first on stage, with a mixture of originals and covers. Sand Kumar on guitar and Scott Thompson on bass treated us to a couple of great songs from The Libertines and Babyshambles, but it was a self- penned number, ‘Underage and Underpaid’ which caught my attention.

A couple of young rising guitar stars, Robbie Pilgrim and Jobe Spencer, followed. They could barely hold a tune a year ago, but their instrumental renditions of Radiohead’s ‘High & Dry’ and ‘Lightning Bolt’ from Jake Bugg were superb. Once again though it was as yet unnamed original that got the most applause. When are we going to hear a vocal from you two?

We pride ourselves on showcasing young musicians at The Navy, and the next band was, by far, the youngest we have ever had. Ten years old Jay Harris is well known at the Open Mic, and on Tues he assembled Charlie Parker and Jack Emerson, also both 10yrs old, to form a great three piece, ‘Born With Attitude’. Where these youngsters get their confidence from to play in front of a sixty or so audience, I cannot imagine, but they simply blew us away with Jimi Hendrix’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’, before Jay stayed on stage to give us a solo version of ‘Sweet Child Of mine. Credit to their parents for encouraging such musical passion.

Given such youth, we tend to regard some of our performers as ‘mature’ and it is easy to forget that next up, Nathan Davies, is himself only sixteen. ‘I Wanna Wake Up With You’ was the third bestselling single of 1986, by Boris Gardiner, and Nathan changed its original reggae beat into a really nice acoustic guitar song. Covers from The Wonder Stuff and The Levellers completed a fine set for this talented young man.

Another newcomer next up. Thom James, who has recently moved back to Newport after living in Sheffield for the last seventeen years, told me he wants to get involved in the local music scene and he clearly enjoyed his first outing at the club. The classic ‘Boy Named Sue’ was a great opener and songs from The Ramones and a little known tune from Bones Park Rider, ‘Up all Night’ made for a fine debut.

Haven’t seen Lizzie Hogan at the club since around October, but she once again made a terrific impact, with her fantastic keyboard and brilliant vocals. This 21 year old is another supremely talented musician who writes all her own material and listening to her songs make you think that you have heard them on the radio before. Her music is well crafted, original and at times though provoking……. I am sure songs like ‘Human’ and ‘Fill Your World’ would make great singles.

Is it only a few months ago that Gaz Attwood brought his band Gaz & the Tones to the Navy for the first time? To say they have come on in leaps and bounds is an understatement and now with new drummer Andrew Clegg on board, they really are performing well. They manage to marry a quite original 12 string acoustic rock sound, think sixties summer of love, with a driving rock beat that is bang up to date. Once again, their set was all self-penned and provided another couple of Old Grey Whistle Test numbers for me to hum for the rest of the week.

Time for Just Jimmy from Telford to bring a great evening of live music to a close. Jimmy, who at 72 managed to raise the average age of the performers by some measure, recruited Ed Young on guitar to rattle through a couple of Johnny Cash standards, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘Ring of Fire’.

So yet another brilliant evening of locally produced live music from a very talented Newport Musical Youth brought the Open Mic to a close for 2013.  Don’t forget, next Tues is the highlight of the year, the Christmas Party, with Gaz & the Tones supporting six piece band Reworx. A hot supper is provided and entry is free of charge, but please bear in mind that there will be a collection for the Open Mic charity of choice, Severn Hospice.

Back to normal at The Navy    Words: Dave Whiteman, Pictures Matt Thomas

I went to see Paul Carrack at the Robin in Bilston a short while ago and what a fabulous gig it was. I don’t understand how the guy isn’t a mega star, working as he has with many of the professions top performers. Many will recognise his distinctive vocals from bands such as Squeeze and Mike & the Mechanics, but my all-time favourite was from the early seventies, ‘How Long’ (has this been going on?) by Ace, his first ‘real’ band. Listening to the lyrics, it sounds like a question to an unfaithful girlfriend, but it is actually addressed to the bass player in the band, Terry (Tex) Comer who was being ‘courted’ by another group, Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. 

After last week’s pure acoustic evening it was back to our normal fare of blues and rock. With a full board by 8pm there were a few disappointed players and with no fewer than seven bands during the course of the evening it was time to get it all started. No ambiguity about the lyrics of our first performer tonight, Dave Sandford, AKA Dave Blu. Assembling a Scratchouse band with Olly Flavell, Mark Langford and Andy Clark, they got the evening off to a brilliant bluesy start under the watchful eyes and ears of Adam Brown at the sound desk. 

The mellow vocals of Martyn Templeton followed with a cracking version of ‘Somewhere only we Know’ the Keane classic recently recorded by Lily Allen. Martyn’s voice just seems effortless even on quite challenging songs such as this.

Founder member and organiser of the Newport Open Mic, Mervyn Williams then brought his high octane rock to the stage, with his band, Bang to Rights. His lively and tight set pleased every rock fan in the audience with covers from AC/DC, Status Quo, and the Sex Pistols among others. Don’t leave it too long next time Merv!

Dave Lowe, guitarist with local band Old’s Cool is one of the best around and he showed his versatility tonight by standing in with club favourites, Vinyl Tap.  Special mention for Alex on vocals.  Although clearly suffering, he never the less managed to battle through his ‘man flu’ to do a great job of a four song set that included Chris Rea, The Jam and Queen….what a performer!

Back to the busking, with Mark Langford once again persuaded to provide lead guitar, a solid rhythm section from Rob on bass and the brilliant Andy Conway on drums.  Dave Whiteman provided the vocals for a couple of faves from the Eagles and the Stones.

Back on stage for an energetic Dave Blu and band, with busiest performer of the evening, Mark Langford this time behind the drums.  Black Country Blues are Dave’s stock in trade and he carries this off with the kind of solos that make lesser mortals want to go home and burn their instruments. Self-penned ‘Why do You Treat me This Way’ was the highlight of an excellent performance.

Anthony Cox is normally found at the Navigation Inn in Gnosall, but it was nice to see him at the Navy with Alan Lane on guitar and Keith Johnson on drums to deliver lovely versions of ‘Sunny Afternoon’ and The Troggs ‘Love is all Around’ Anthony is a big Elvis fan, so no set would be complete without tipping his hat to ‘The King’.  ‘In The Ghetto’ is one of his lesser known songs and the trio did a fine job.

With so many bands playing, the changeover time can stretch a bit, so it was almost 10.45pm before last act of the evening came to the stage. Gaz & the Tones have become almost permanent fixtures at the Navy and having waited patiently all evening they recruited drummer Matt Miles to rattle through their original twelve string acoustic rock set. ‘Sweet Lorenzo Harmony’, ‘Around the Sun’ and ‘Surrender’ are now sounding very polished indeed….. radio play is surely imminent?  Gaz and the lads will be support band at the Navy Open Mic Christmas bash, on Tues 17^th Dec. Entry is free, although there will be a collection as usual for Severn Hospice, and supper is provided as a big thank you for all your support. 

Main act is six piece band ‘Reworx’ so get their early to be sure of a seat!

All Acoustic at the Navy.

Words by Jude Paton. Photos Laurence Gale

Last Tuesday was the second of the acoustic night “set ups” at the Navy Club in  Bellman’s Yard, Newport but instead of the back room it was felt that a move to the bigger room would cater better for the numbers that turned up. Making the room feel smaller and more intimate by using a backdrop to curtain off the stage and therefore bringing the musicians closer into the room proved successful and with 14 names on the board the evening very quickly settled into the comfortable feeling of being in your own front room with a drink, good friends and great music.

Barrie Hollyhead sound checked with two hits from the 50s and 60s by Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Dylan.   “We Found Love “ by Rihanna perfectly suited the voice of 16 year old Remynie who held us spellbound with the emotion she puts into her singing. Equally good was Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and once again you could hear a pin drop which prompted someone to call out at the end “It’s too quiet....it’s like a library!”

Helen Brown reminded us that Joni Mitchell turned 70 this month and delighted the crowd with two songs by her, “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Chelsea Morning”. Ian Simkiss joined her on vocal harmonies with a lovely rendition of John Prine’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”, another great singer/songwriter.

Barrie was up once more with his full set starting with Don Mclean’s “Empty Chairs” followed by Barbara Dickson’s “If You’re Right” and Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home”. Mike Batt is probably most famous for creating the pop act The Wombles but he is also a great songwriter and Barrie certainly did justice to a favourite of mine “Railway Hotel”.

15 year old Nathan Davis looked comfortable on the acoustic stool and has obviously been practising some new songs with two from Bright Eyes and a great version of “Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed” by the English folk duo Show of Hands. An excellent set from young Nathan.

10 year old Jay Harris was pleased to have finished his homework for the 9 o’clock slot and still has time to practice new material, tonight playing 68 Guns which was released 30 years ago by Welsh band The Alarm followed by a late 70s hit by the Boomtown Rats “I Don’t Like Mondays”. Well done to Jay and smiles all round from his family sitting in the corner.

Next up was Claire Shaw, who has natural stage presence, a beautiful voice and lovely smile to match. Damien Rice’s “Volcano” preceded a lovely self penned song “Heavy Heart” and, for the second time this evening, a really beautiful version of Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home” and finally “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers.

Loz was the next name on the board and of course it was our man behind the camera tonight, Laurence Gale, performing a great trio of songs “Let It Be”, “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin who I believe is Laurence’s favourite singer and ending with “The Naked Ride Home” a super Jackson Browne song.

Graham Dabbs took us back once again to the 60s with songs by Brian Hyland and Rick Nelson. “One of these Days “ by American country star Emmylou Harris was the final song from Graham whose lovely finger picking style really made the guitar ring out.

Scotsman Ian Simkiss who runs a fortnightly Sunday Open Mic at the Star Inn at Copmere End was back on stage and continued the trend of the night with some lesser known songs this time by Staffordshire singer/songwriter Paul Walker “Play Me a Love Song”. Ian paid tribute to fellow Scot, the late great Stuart Adamson from Big Country with an excellent version of “Shattered Cross” and finally a marvellous song by American band Little Feat and a classic by them “Dixie Chicken”.

Trevor Rowley had travelled from Church Stretton to delight us with superb blues bottleneck and songs by Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell. A real treat and the second time I have had the pleasure of hearing Trevor in the last fortnight.

Rich Evans borrowed Loz’s  guitar picking three songs from his huge repertoire which included “Carry You Home” by James Blunt and “For the First time “by the Script which he referred to as a “bit of a yodelling song” but he reached the high notes admirably and bore no resemblance to the Sound of Music or Frank Ifield. 11 terrific acts so far and STILL 2 more to go and multi talented Darcy Crawford never fails to please with some alternative country from Toby Keith, Hunter Hayes and Brantley Gilbert. Refreshingly new material and well worth a listen to these American country singers. 

Last but not least Pete Nihill rounded off an evening of splendid live music with a song written by an old friend, sadly no longer with us, Martyn Davis’s best remembered song “I wonder Why?” and an all time favourite of mine by John Martyn “May You Never” ideally suited to Pete’s gravelly voice and unique style on 12 string.

Great talent and live music all here in Newport every Tuesday night at the Royal Naval Association, in Bellmans Yard Newport Shropshire.

See you on Tuesday.