Open Mic 30^th April 2013

Words by Fiona Ward

Pictures by Chris Neophytou

 

The news this week that boy band JLS have split has left hundreds of teenagers devastated, but luckily for the young people of Newport, teenagers are welcome to attend and perform at Open Mic, held on Tuesday evenings at Newport’s Navy Club. Open Mic enables them to experience a whole range of different musical styles and genres and provides inspiration for budding musicians who would welcome the opportunity to develop their musical abilities in front of a relaxed audience.

Open Mic regular Carol Cartwright opened the evening, which was again well attended with around 70 people turning up. Carol began her set with The Beatles’ “Here comes the Sun” with some lovely finger plucking of the acoustic guitar, followed by an excellent rendition of “Mad World”, Tears for Fears. Carol finished her set with “I used to be a Sailor”, one of Carol’s regular numbers.

Malcolm Purvis was up next, delivering self-penned compositions with very thoughtful lyrics from his observations on the activities of the world around him, accompanied by strong rhythm guitar and a confident energy throughout his performance. Malcolm has a website www.malcompurvis.moonfruit.com if you would like to listen to his songs “Help me be Kind”, “One More Time” and “South Shore Line”.

Continuing the acoustic rhythm guitar theme was Jordan Clemmer, who has performed at Open Mic before, but we would welcome his appearance again. He played an excellent version of Herman’s Hermits’ “Something tells me I’m into something good” and Andrew Garcia’s “Crazy”.

Robbie Pilgrim (15) and Jobe (14) come to Open Mic every week and can be heard in the background practicing together on guitars, and it was fantastic this week to see them get up on stage and share their talents with the crowd. Robbie and Jobe play really well together and deliver a stunning combination of rhythm and lead guitar instrumentals.  They are a delight to listen to and should perform more often!!

Using a loop pedal, bass guitar and ukulele (all at the same time …) Rich Evans performed “Message to you Rudy” by the Specials. This was followed by “My Little Honda 50” a catchy foot-tapping number that demonstrated Rich’s ability to try different sounds and styles. The home-made instrument, “Amy Winebox” made a welcome return with its’ unique sound as Rich performed Seasick Steve’s “Walking Man” and a slow version of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody”.

The excellent Isis Sky is a fantastic vocalist, with her own unique sound and demonstrated her versatility this week, when technical difficulties caused Isis to have no backing track to sing to. (It must be said that this is an unusual occurrence for Open Mic, as Adam Brown does a fantastic job looking after the sound equipment). Rich Evans stepped in to accompany Isis on guitar as she sang Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”. Isis remained true to her own style of vocal which made the performance very much her own.

Open Mic regular Rich T. opened his set with Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” which highlighted Rich’s skills on rhythm guitar. This was followed by Neil Sedaka’s “Carol” always a good song to hear, and “Monster Mash”. Rich traded the original words of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” for his own lyrics – a Rich T. trademark.

Nathan Davies excelled himself this week, with the usual laid back style and great rhythm guitar, but demonstrated a different style of vocal to perform “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, which is a higher pitch than Nathan’s usual vocals. His performance was upbeat and confident.

Following many solo artists, this week, the club saw the only band of the evening take to the stage. “The Nameless” a five piece band, performed a great set, with a strong yet relaxed sound. Their songs included the classic “Black Magic Woman”, Jethro Tull’s “We Used to Know” and finished up with a rousing version of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”.

Darcy Crawford’s a cappella version of “Wayfaring Stranger” was again fantastic and the club fell into complete silence as everyone listened.   Darcy then played acoustic guitar to accompany himself to “Drops of Jupiter” by Train, Jason Mraz’s “Beautiful” and U2’s  ”With or Without You,” Darcy sings from the soul very naturally.

It was nearly the end of the evening when Tommy got up to play a set – confident and positive, he performed upbeat versions of Jason Mraz’s “I’m yours” and “Teardrop” by Massive Attack. His rendition of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” had everyone “Sha-la- la-ing” along with him.

The evening saw a fantastic finale as Tommy and Darcy joined together to perform a wonderful impromptu and un-rehearsed version of Paolo Nutini’s “Last Request”. It is always great when musicians join together spontaneously at Open Mic to provide these unexpected performances.

 

What a great night of live music it had been. Rest assured it will all happen again next week. Same time, same place, just different performers. See you there, Where? The Royal Naval association Club in Bellmans Yard Newport Shropshire TF10.