Old and new make for a great recipe!     Words & pictures by Dave Whiteman


What a fantastic few days of entertainment we have had this week in the town, with first The Pheasant on Sunday, The Navy on Tues and finally The Lion on Thursday all playing cracking live music.

The ticket only event at the Phez was to celebrate landlord Paul Quinn’s 20 years behind the bar and featured Weasel Diesel playing their final gig in the town before disbanding. A brilliant set from this talented band left hundreds of people in the pub dancing, singing and wanting more.

As one band finishes however, a new one or two (or three) are born….The King is dead, long live the King! New bands Lost the Plot, Shot Glass Heroes and Touch too Much, are all now out gigging and for a lot of these musicians, their first tentative musical steps were made on the stage of the Newport Open Mic.

I expected Tuesday night to be very quiet, with sub zero temperatures and icy footpaths keeping people away, but by 8.30pm the board was virtually full and a crowd of around 75 eagerly awaited this week’s musical mix.

Darcy Crawford recently back from a holiday in Nashville, started us off with a polished performance including U2, Paulo Nutini and Gerry Rafferty. I was expecting lots of Country &Western, but the only evidence of his trip, was a belting pair of cowboy boots!


Malcolm Purvis is back in town and after performing four of his own songs, including an excellent ‘Drifter’, he told me that he has recently started gigging himself in his hometown of Leeds, after gaining the confidence playing at the Navy….nice to hear.

Also back from holiday, Dave Whiteman then took to the stage to sing a few favourites from Police, Springsteen and The Stones before another newcomer to the Open Mic.

Watch out for the name Brent Lee…his performance of his own compositions had the audience wanting more after listening to ‘Bite your tongue’, ‘Moses’ and a work in progress with a rough title of ‘Reds’ that was just superb.







Time now for a Scratchband, often my favourite part of the evening, where a bunch of musicians will just get on stage and jam.  A mixture of youth and experience brought together Dave Blu, Andy Clarke, Remynie Faith and Olly Flavell for a cracking blues set. Who was the youth and who was the experience? Difficult to tell after this brilliant set!

Olly remained on stage and joined by his usual playing partner, Jake, entertained us with a couple of great songs from Bill Withers and Amy Whitehouse, before our second band of the evening, Vinyl Tap. It is clear to see rehearsal paying off….this lot get tighter and tighter, with very strong vocals from Alex on ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ and ‘Don’t Marry Her’. In a new twist, they then brought multi talented Remynie Faith from the drums to the front to sing Amy Macdonald’s ‘This is the Life’…find some more material for her, ‘cos this was fantastic.


First of the two Melissa’s next on stage, 14 years old Melissa Severn brought a few new songs to an appreciative audience. We haven’t seen her in a while, probably busy with other things……like school! She has a real presence, smiley, confident and articulate and her three song set of self penned songs was brought to an end with a brand new composition, ‘Stupid Boy’. Mark my words; this girl will have a career in music.


Our second Mellissa, Walford, had a cold, had left her guitar at home and didn’t want to sing, but after a little arm twisting she plugged in her phone and wowed The Navy with songs from Alicia Keys and the best Dusty Springfield song EVER, ‘Son of a Preacher Man’.  Keep taking the medicine Mellissa, but on this evidence you don’t need it.


Just time before the lights went up for Dave Blu to assemble another Scratchband to close the evening. Dave Whiteman on vocals and Brad Taylor on bass joined the ever reliable Remynie back on drums to rock us out with Thin Lizzy, The Stones and Free.

So once again, when you least expect it, a sizeable audience enjoy another feast of fabulous live music in The Navy. Now established for over 10 years, the Open Mic is gaining the reputation as THE place to come and sing, play or just listen. Held at the Royal Naval Association every Tuesday in Bellman’s’ Yard, just off the High St, start time 8pm.  Entry just £1 including a raffle………why not come along and see what all the fuss is about?

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

Despite below freezing temperatures it is always nice to know that when
you walk through the doors of the Navy Club in Newport Shropshire, 

you will be hit with a warm welcome and warm atmosphere.  

 

Even better, every Tuesday night, as well as the ambience of the environment 

there is always an evening of good music to sit back and enjoy or to participate in. 

 

With some new faces in the audience and some new names on the board last
Tuesday was no exception, and with the equipment set up and sound checked
by 7.45 we were ready to rock. 

 

The Dave Bluez Blues Band fronted by real blues man Dave Sandford was 

joined this week by regulars Olly Flavell, Andy Clarke and Rich Thomas, 

set the standard for the evening.

Great to see Darcy Crawford back on stage and even better to know that he is bound to be a regular at Open Mic now that he has moved to Newport and lives only a stone’s throw from the Club. As the coach at Boughey Gardens Tennis Courts he easily adapts from the strings of his tennis racket to the strings of his acoustic guitar and is a very accomplished self taught musician with a lovely voice ideally suiting his choice of songs starting with Candy by Paolo Nutini as well as numbers from Greenday
and Mumford and Sons first album.

 

 

14 year old Jobe was up on next, overcoming his shyness he managed to  play a couple of instrumentals, accompanied by Robbie and Jake, they made  for a talented trio . All that talent and still only havng a combined age of less than 45 years!!, good stuff fellas.

 

 

 

 

Following his earlier warm up slot Dave Bluez was back on stage accompanied by young Ben Pennington on saxophone for an outstanding blues jam once again with Andy C on bass and Rich T on drums. 

It is hard to believe that music of such calibre can be heard on a cold Tuesday night in a small market town. Class R & B that one would expect to hear in a smoke filled Ronnie Scott’s basement club in Soho.

Olly and Jake so much at home and relaxed at the Open Mic sessions brought us
next an excellent version of Valerie and the Bill Withers classic Ain’t No
Sunshine. 

 

By complete contrast they were followed by a solo set from Rich Thomas,
which if my ears didn’t deceive me, included a song about Spanish Bums
and the classic 80’s hit from Culture Club Karma Chameleon.

 

A new name on the board for the 10 o’clock slot was Shot Glass Heroes.  

A newly formed 5 piece band comprising of some familiar faces including  Ed Young and Jon Thompson on guitars and vocalist Ben Haynes from the Telford band Son of Zebedee. 

They covered some classic rock by The Kaiser Chiefs, Pulp, Oasis, Stereophonics and finishing with T Rex’s 20th Century Boy. 

A great tight set and the first but certainly not the last appearance from Shot Glass Heroes I suspect.

 

2 Pence Short brought Tuesday night to a close with Remynie on guitar and Ben Pennington on keyboards this time. Several people have remarked that Ben has an uncanny resemblance to keyboard player Ron Mael from the legendary 1970s American brothers band  Sparks, but there is definitely more of a twinkle in Ben’s eye than the sedentary scowl we remember from Ron! 

A great version of Greenday’s Time of Your Life and Remynie’s vocals on I’m Not a Vampire by Falling in Reverse were outstanding. 

The young pair were joined on stage by others for a great rendition of Lynyrd Skynrd’s Freebird which although didn’t quite stretch to 11 minutes
long brought the evening to a close, and sent us happily homeward with the
thought that we can have a another fix of "Live Music" at the same place, same time 

next week. 

 

Without doubt it was a great evening. Have YOU tried it yet. You should because 

indeed it is second to non, so put a note in your diary... Must visit THE NEWPORT 

OPEN MIC every Tuesday at 8pm at the Royal Naval Association, Bellman’s Yard, 

Newport.

Jude Paton

A New Year and what a start!!

2012 may have been the wettest year on record and went out like a damp squib, but the first Newport Open Mic of 2013 at the Royal Naval Association in Bellman's Yard Newport Shropshire, went up like a rocket and brought in faces both familiar and new, from as far afield as Penkridge, Market Drayton, Albrighton and and Slash's old stomping ground Stoke on Trent.

Working off those few extra pounds gained over Christmas the equipment was soon out of the loft, set up on stage and sound-checked ready for the first act to make their debut appearance at Open Mic.

Sons of Clogger, a 4 piece band from Blythe Bridge sounding every bit as professional as they looked.  With the Potteries banter, playing drums, bass, 12 string and mandolin the lads were thoroughly entertaining, performing original songs best described as folk rock which included the Ventriloquist and Green Man in their first set.

It is always good to hear so many talented young people performing knowing that many of them will go on to bigger and better things. Us oldies can reminisce in years to come saying "Do you remember Olly, Melissa, Remynie, Ben (and many others), playing in Newport when they were teenagers?" 

Some great cover songs and original material from Melissa Walford followed by Olly Flavell who has been practising over the Christmas break and delivered an exceptional version of the Robert Johnson blues classic Crossroads.

Regular Dave Sandford or Dave Blue as he is known to many, put together the Tuesday night blues band which included Olly, Andy Clark and Keith Johnson and led us through some classic 12bar rocking blues, which always goes down a treat.

The rocking blues finished it was time for a gentler type of music which this week was in the form of  a lovely acoustic set from Sharn and Alan Lane. Good stuff guys.

Dave Rolfe was next on stage with half of local band Driftwood. Without vocalist the band treated us to an excellent instrumental set with an splendid version of Duelling Banjos from the cult 70s film Deliverance played on guitar, keyboards and drums. Driftwood can be seen this Saturday at The Cosy Hall in Newport along with Will Morgan.  

Remynie and Ben as 2 Pence Short, are all round exceptional musicians, and this week held us spellbound with Remynie's haunting and highly emotive vocals and Ben playing superbly on keyboards. They were then joined on stage by Brad and Martin, Remynie this time on drums performing an Offspring classic and the Guns n Roses crowd pleaser Sweet Child O Mine. 

A great evening of live music was rounded off by an encore from Sons of Cloggers who I am sure will be back at Newport Open Mic very soon.

Thanks to the willing contingent who helped to put everything away at the end.

Live music, good company and great venue every Tuesday....that's Newport's original Open Mic, held at the Royal Naval Association, Bellman's Yard, which is just off the High Street.

A quick reminder that there is a predominately acoustic Open Mic held at the Lion in Edgmond every Thursday so pop up there if you need another live music fix before next Tuesday.

See ya.