A mediocre 0 – 0 draw in the World Cup qualifier against the Ukraine edges England towards next summer’s showpiece in Brazil, Scotland fare better in a last gasp win against Macedonia and the news that Lord Hill is crumbling in Shrewsbury (the statue that is) may be front page news in the national and local press but as ever Newport Open Mic makes centrefold (or thereabouts) in the Newport Advertiser every week. The reason being is that there is always a band of willing folk and talented musician who make it happen on a Tuesday night 50 weeks of the year.

Starting off the night this week was young Jobe Spencer who treated us to a classic instrumental written by one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival, Davey Graham who at the age of 19 wrote Angi. Graham was inspirational to many practitioners of fingerstyle acoustic guitar including Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page and pioneered the DADGAD tuning, later widely adopted by acoustic guitarists. Jobe at only 15 did a wonderful interpretation of Angi, a difficult choice and only learned by him in the past week. His friend Robbie Pilgrim then joined him on stage at the Navy Club for an acoustic instrumental jam session. This twosome gel really well together. I have to smile however as I remember Robbie stripped naked and on the scales at the baby clinic 15 years ago (I did check to make sure that he wouldn’t mind me revealing that fact and not sure that he quite made the 50^th centile in those days).

Now a regular at Open Mic, Steve Davis opened his set with a lesser known song by the prog rock band Family.  My Friend the Sun from the 1972 album Bandstand with Roger Chapman’s distinctive vocals was covered beautifully by Steve who then sang one of his own songs, Dusty Road followed by All I Want to Do written by drummer Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and then Ride On made famous by Irish folksinger Christy Moore. A great set demonstrating Steve’s exceptional vocal range.

Newcomer to Newport Open Mic, Helen Brown from Telford, took us back to the sixties with Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, unbelievably written over 50 years ago and still sounding as good as ever. Meet Me on the Corner, a Lindisfarne classic was next and then a song called Run by Dublin born singer/songwriter Edwina Hayes who now lives in Yorkshire. A lovely gentle voice from Helen accompanying herself on guitar who will no doubt be back at Open Mic very soon completing her set with a classic from Neil Young Heart of Gold.

The talented Ben Garrott was spotted in the corner with his tenor saxophone and was persuaded to make up the Olly Flavell Combo with Jobe on drums and just let the music flow.....purely ad libbing but great stuff from this trio. Olly continued with an excellent bluesy soul set which included Alison Krauss’s When You Say Nothing At All finishing with a new song for him, Adele’s to Make You Feel My Love. A reminder that Olly’s next Open Mic Session at the Bridge Inn in Newport is on Thursday 26^th September starting at 8.30pm.

Always good to see newcomers at Open Mic and the second one of the evening was 15 year old Cameron Forrest from Loggerheads. Up until December last year he had been doing karaoke but since then has taken up the guitar and is now through to the regional finals of Open Mic UK in Manchester on 6^th October for which there have been 12,000 entrants! Covering songs by Jake Bugg, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, Passenger and Bastille he is a young man of considerable talent and maturity and proud dad from Glasgow is obviously his number one fan.

A scratch band to finish an evening of great music at the Royal Naval Association in Bellman’s Yard with Steve Davis, this time on drums, Andy Wynn on bass and Rory Forster vocals and guitar performing Naive by the Kooks and a great version of U2’s One Love. The highlight of the set however was a song written by Rory 3 years ago called Suicide.

Thanks as always to all those who help on the night and looking forward to the return of our European correspondent so that I can get to bed before 2am on Wednesday mornings.