Can anybody tell me where the year has
gone? They say that time seems to go faster as you get older and I am
beginning to believe it does. Seems just a few weeks ago, snow was on
the ground and we were in the depths of winter, but now, perhaps because
Spring was so cold, it’s almost as if we have missed a season and
jumped straight in to Summer. Within a couple of weeks, the solstice
will be here and we will be having the longest day of the year….after
that, the nights start to draw in once again. Like I said where did it
go?
Fortunately though, for music fans,
there has been plenty happening over the last few weeks, with both One
o’clock Hogs and Running Wild playing live in the town last weekend and
of course the excellent Lost the Plot at the Newport carnival. If your
need of a musical ‘fix’ is more pressing, then why not get down to the
Newport Open Mic held every Tues at the Royal Naval Association in
Bellman’s Yard?
Breaking the ice this week, a welcome
return for Alan Turner, whose soft melodic vocals coupled with his
trusty Taylor guitar made for a great opener. Songs from Paul Weller
and Bonnie Raitt set the scene, but it was a nice version of ‘Holding
back the Years’ by Simply Red that won the crowd over. Olly Flavell then
brought his own compositions to the stage, and once again showed what a
great young talent he is with ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘I’m Sexy and I Know
it’.
Steve Davis was back once again with
his acoustic 12 string and his voice was perfectly suited to ‘Wasn’t
born to Follow’ and JJ Cale’s ‘Clyde’ and ‘Magnolia’, before taking
us back to the sixties with ‘San Francisco’ by Scott McKenzie.
Jobe Spencer and his Mum, Zoe, got a
super reception last week and this time they had worked out a brand new
number, ‘Let Her Go’ by Passenger, which was quite outstanding. Only one
song this time, but it was a belter!
An interesting set this week from young
Nathan Davies, who is very quickly carving out a musical niche for
himself. First of all he played a lovely duet with 15yrs old Angel Day, a
song written by Frank Turner called ‘The Road’, before a brilliant
version of ‘The Maid of the River’ by The Levellers. He then debuted a
fine song written by Open Mic regular Brendan Bambro, called ‘She
Knows’…a lovely song and well performed.
I remember Richard Thomas singing and
playing a self penned rugby song, about ten years ago when England won
the World Cup in Australia. As the Lions are touring there now he
thought it appropriate to give it a dusting down, and it was as good as
ever. As usual, he then gave us something completely different…..delving
into his dark past to sing ‘Driving with My High Hells On’, before
rocking the crowd with Tom Robinson’s ‘2 4 6 8 Motorway’.
It seemed that the audience was in the
mood for a sing song, so next up, yours truly, tested the water with a
little bit of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’……and as this seemed to be going so
well carried on with a medley of other Queen favourites including
‘Killer Queen’ and ‘Don’t stop me now’…great audience participation!
Always nice to see new faces at the
club, it shows the message is getting out there. Bryan James and Steve
Ross only travelled from Donnington, but it was a pleasure to hear solid
tuneful vocals supported by two accomplished guitarists….. a really
nice mix. ‘The Future’s a Mystery’ written by Bryan was perfectly suited
to his 12 string guitar and the second song ‘Need your Love so Bad’
showed off Steve’s bluesy solos……. I am sure we will see these guys back
down the club in the near future.
As always, another superb night of
local live music, but before the lights could come on the enormously
talented Ben Garrott assembled a Scratchouse band with Olly Flavell on
guitar, Andy Clarke on bass and Richard Morris on drums; a great rhythm
section that perfectly complemented Ben’s soulful saxophone. A brilliant
ending to a brilliant night!
Just a reminder that there are only a
few more weeks to go before the premier music event of the year, the
Newfest, held at Newport Rugby Club on the 29th June. A few
of our Open Mic members have been making sure that this year will be
even bigger and better than last, with a huge line up offering around
12hours of live music. Keep an eye out for posters and tickets ….more
information here in the next couple of weeks.
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