We have always though she is a talented young lady and now Mellissa Walford is about to put herself firmly in the spotlight this weekend as she auditions for Simon Cowell. Mellissa, aged 16, will appear before the Britain’s Got Talent judges in Birmingham tomorrow, singing one of her own compositions and if this week’s ‘sneak preview’ at the Newport Open Mic is anything to go by we think she is going to knock them out.
Before that though, first on the stage is another super young talent, Olly Flavell, with a couple of crackers from Ronan Keating and Michael Jackson. Following Olly was a newcomer to the club, Carol Cartwright, who usually plays at the Navigation Open Mic in Gnosall. Her version of ‘The last thing on my mind’ had the audience enthusiastically joining in the chorus and a Joan Armatrading number ‘All the way from America’ was equally well received.
Harry Woolley and Barry Hollyhead are both individually well known, but tonight they collaborated to perform a Lonnie Donegan tribute. It was reported that Lonnie was Elvis Presley’s favourite singer and as Barry & Harry reminded us of his quality, with songs such as ‘Alabama Bound’ and ‘Hard Road Dead or Alive’ it is easy to see why he had such an influence on British popular music.
Next up Darcy Crawford had some new material and was still scribbling down lyrics as he was called to the stage. No time for rehearsal then, as he went straight into a couple of Brad Paisley numbers, ‘I’m gonna miss her’ & ‘I’m still a guy’, but you would never have guessed this was a first outing for these songs. His final choice, Toby Keith’s ‘It’s a little too late’ showed off his superb vocal range…another one to watch for the future.
A rousing reception greeted the news that Mellissa Walford was to audition for the BGT show. She has long been held in high regard for her room filling voice and her self-penned song, ‘All these days’ ...….the song she intends to perform tomorrow, was brilliant. Good luck Mellissa from everyone in the club.
It’s not often that we see Clive Evans in the Navy these days, but he made a welcome return this week to team up with his son, Open Mic stalwart Rich Evans. Playing electric guitar with Rich backing on acoustic, Clive treated us a terrific instrumental set starting with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’ and then the Shadow’s classic ‘Apache’….brilliant stuff.
Dave Whiteman had the difficult job of following them and he had the crowd singing along with a particularly topical song, given the weather, ‘Why does it always rain on me?’ before our only band of the evening took to the stage.
Last Tuesday, I think we had four live bands, but this week it was well after 10pm before our first group came on stage. Guitarist Alan Lane, Andy Clarke on bass, and the ever reliable Keith Thomson on drums backed another newcomer to the club, Anthony Cox. Our second visitor from Gnosall, Anthony quickly got the crowd on board with an excellent medley of Elvis Presley songs, highlights of which were ‘Teddy Bear’ and ‘Blue Suede Shoes’
Alan then stayed on stage to accompany the silky voiced Sharn Hodgkinson, who carried on the foot tapping theme with ‘What can I do?’ from the Corrs and a fine version of the little heard Rebecca Ferguson number ‘Glitter & gold’. Her final song, ‘Set fire to the rain’ by Adele, was, for me the pick of the bunch.
Back for an encore by popular request, Darcy Crawford made a reappearance and played a couple of favourites from Paulo Nutini, before yet another multi talented young lady took us to the finish. Remynie Faith is an accomplished drummer, keyboardist and vocalist, but tonight with just her guitar, she played and sang out the evening as the lights started to come up and people made their way home.
So once again, another fantastic evening of live local entertainment at the Newport Open Mic. The Navy Club has the deserved reputation of hosting one of the best Open Mic’s in the area if not the whole of the UK, with drum kit, guitars, amplifiers and even our own resident soundman.
Whether you want to play sing, or just listen, there is bound to be something down at The Navy Club in sunny Newport Shropshire for you. Come and see all this fabulous local musical talent for yourself!
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