The horror of the Boston marathon bombings, the expected protests at Baroness Thatcher’s funeral, the 36 hour window of opportunity for Edinburgh Zoo’s giant pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, to mate this week, a win for Wolves and Arsenal held to a 0-0 draw by Everton, these are the current news and sporting topics. 

Dominating the Newport music scene is the regular Tuesday Open Mic session at the Royal Naval Association in Bellmans Yard, which kicked off at 8.15 with local celebrity “Tich“ Evans playing his Paxton and Whitfield wine and cheese box dulcimer affectionately known as Amy Winebox and performing an excellent cover of Seasick Steve’s You Say Jump, followed by the Osama Bin Laden song on electric ukulele and, by complete contrast, Mumford & Sons The Cave and U2s With or Without You.

Darcy Crawford, no longer the new boy at Open Mic, never fails to please with new material from the Kooks with the song Naive followed by the King of Pop’s Man in the Mirror and finishing with Scouting For Girls, I Skip a Heartbeat.

Seen busking in the Square last Saturday to promote Music Matters 10 year old Jay Harris made his second appearance on stage at Newport Open Mic with super confidence and watched by proud family singing and playing guitar to the recent Olly Murs hit Troublemaker followed by That’s Entertainment, probably The Jam’s best known and most acclaimed song which was in the British charts 20 years before Jay was even born.

15 year old singer songwriter Melissa Severn brings a freshness and innocence to Open Mic and this week performed 4 original songs all of which tell stories of loss, unrequited love and life to which we can all relate, no matter what age. Songs included Eyes Like a Movie, Over, Paralysed (about a celebrity crush) and a new song What You’re Looking For. Once again proud parents were in the audience.

A delight to see singer, songwriter and pianist Chris Del Manso’s name on the board, another outstandingly talented young person and what a treat to hear a track from The Beatles album A Hard Day’s Night – You Can’t Do That. It is hardly believable to think that this song was released almost 50 years ago!! Goodbye Captain America, Chris’s signature song, reflects his influence by Elton John and was followed by another self penned song Jet Propelled Bitch (in her Jimmy Choo shoes) combining all the ingredients of top hit songs. Finally Chris’s interpretation of Elton John’s Rocket Man left us spellbound.

Lisa Frawley, accompanied by Olly Flavell on guitar, is a relative newcomer to Open Mic and looked relaxed and confident on stage singing some melodic ballads and an excellent version of the Zutons Valerie.

Young Nathan Davies would have made his dad, Martin, proud had he still been with us to hear him play 2 lesser known Levellers’ songs, Maid of the River and Battle of the Beanfield with Job on drums. A poignant memory to his father and bringing a lump to my throat Nathan finished his set by singing a song his father wrote and performed frequently called I Wonder Why. It was like having Martin Davies back with us. Well done Nathan.

With nearly 70 people in the room not many performers can bring the assembled crowd to rapt silence. One person who did however was teenager Remynie opening her superb, emotionally charged set with Stay by Sugarland, X Factor winner James Arthur’s version of Impossible and Linkin Park’s Numb.

A new name on the board and time fast approaching 10.30 was Sammi Elston Gunn and Deseado Stonechat (AKA Dan Nicholas) with two songs written by Sammi. Adam Brown on the sound desk had as ever done us proud and vocals and lyrics were as clear as a bell with Don’t Fall For Me which has had some air play on Nova Radio and If You Wanna Be With Me.  

Another newcomer to the Newport stage was Claire Shaw who delighted us with one of her favourite songs and a Bob Dylan classic, again from nearly 50 years ago, It Ain’t Me Babe followed by Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice’s Rootless Tree. We’ll look forward to seeing more of Claire at Open Mic.

The audience were still buzzing so Sammi sang and played a song which she only wrote a fortnight ago called Give Me A Reason To Come Home To – another hit with everyone. Not to be upstaged by the girls Chris Neophytou put down his camera and borrowed Sammi’s guitar and transported us to the Jamaican shores with the offbeat sound of reggae and Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry followed by a reggae style version of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak completing his set with Prince’s Little Red Corvette.

Just to wind the evening up Chris Del Manso played and sang Elton John’s Your Song and Circle of Life and The Beatles Back in the USSR.....Open Mic in Newport just gets better and better and I have run out of superlatives so come and see for yourselves. Every Tuesday at the Royal Naval Association in Bellmans Yard.