Old favourites back at The Navy....Words and Pictures: Dave Whiteman

This week, the new Pontiff, Pope Francis celebrated mass on a beach in Rio in front of an estimated one million people. On the same beach, Copacabana in 2006, the Rolling Stones played to 1.5 million, and even this was half a million less than Queen when they played in Sydney in the eighties and is still the largest live concert ever......big gigs. But when you consider that Brazil, for instance has a population of around 194 million, if my maths is correct, it means that only one in 194 people or to put it another way, only 0.51% turned up. Now given that the Newport Open Mic regularly attracts an audience of around 60, that means that around 0.54% of Newport's population come down to The Navy on a Tuesday....amazing, you can prove anything with statistics.

With the ever dependable Adam Brown on the mixing desk, it all seemed set for a busy evening and that is how it turned out.  Ian Simpkins is a regular at The Navigation in Gnosall, and I am pleased to say he is now coming down to our Open Mic just as often. First on stage tonight with a quite different version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues…..more folky swing than blues,   and very nice it was too. A song from Scottish duo Gallagher & Lyle followed which showed off his great picking style…..unusual in that he uses a plectrum and not just his fingers to get that sound. Ian runs his own Open Mic at The Star, Copmere End, near Ecccleshall and you can catch him there this Sunday evening.

Olly Flavell gave us just one song tonight but it was a good ‘un. ‘When You Say Nothing at All’ is actually a country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz but when Ronan Keating had a hit with it it in 2006 it had a predictably poppy, boy band feel.  Olly has reworked it once again to give it a jazzy sound that has become his trademark and it sounds every bit as good as the originals. He stayed on stage to accompany a returning Open Mic favourite,  Dave Sanford, otherwise known as Dave Blue. He hasn’t been around for a little while and his distinctive blues riffs have been sorely missed, but with Andy Clark on bass and debutant drummer Matt Miles they jammed through a selection of familiar covers including After Midnight by JJ Cale, who sadly died this week aged 74. Crossroads finished a blistering and quite brilliant set.

Brendon Bambro and Nathan Davies played on stage together last week for the first time and reunited again to sing a couple of self penned songs. They clearly have a talent that should be encouraged and developed.‘ Unbelievable’ had a nice feel to it and was the highlight of an all too short set.

 Our first Scratchouse band assembled with Andy Conway returning on drums, Roger Clark unusually on bass, leaving the lead guitar this time to a rejuvenated Dave Blue. Vocal duties were taken by Dave Whiteman and their three covers jam had plenty of variety, with songs from The Beatles, Peter Green and even Marvin Gaye.

Jobe Spencer and Robbie Pilgrim are both aged just 15 yrs but their confidence has come on in leaps and bounds over the last few months. Still fairly reticent about singing, they played a couple of their own instrumentals before a seldom heard Stereophonics number ‘Step on The Old Size 9’s’ showed that they can sing after all….and very well!

Harry Wooley has been ‘Digging His Potatoes’ at The Navy Club for a good number of years, but we haven’t seen him in quite a while. He never has a problem persuading musicians to join him on stage, this time enticing Andy Clarke, Dave Blue and drummer Andy Conway to rattle through King Bee and then Rock me Baby.  No set from Harry would be complete, however without Harry singing his signature soon……..Digging my Potatoes. It never sounds exactly the same as before, which is why it is a song he has made his own over the years!

The Open Mic seems to run like a well oiled machine, with full PA, guitars, drums, lights and soundman…..effectively everything a band needs to just turn up and play is already on stage. It would never happen though, if a few regular volunteers didn’t turn up at 7pm to remove all the equipment from the attic, set it up and then stay till gone 11pm to pack the stuff away once again. Without these people there wouldn’t be an open Mic at all, but don’t wait to be asked…. your help would always be gratefully received!  Till next time, keep it live!