It was with great pleasure I was asked to write about this week’s Open Mic. Being a regular at The Navy Club I was pleased to help out. It was my second visit in a week as I run the newly formed Victoria Bridge Club which meets here on Monday evenings. Nestling just in Bellman’s Yard the club has great facilities and a great atmosphere. However back to the job in hand of doing the write up, it was great to see my very good friend and fellow musician John Lloyd who had been drafted in to run the sound desk which he did to his impeccably high standards.

First on tonight was Lawrence Gale who played several lovely acoustic tracks which included the classic Beatles numbers ‘Let it Be’ and ‘Here comes the sun’ accompanying these numbers Lawrence sang a classic from American singer songwriter Jackson Browne ‘Naked ride home’. To finish the set off Lawrence gave us a good rendition of  ‘Lay Down’ by the Strawbs.

Second up tonight was the irrepressible Olly Flavell. This young man has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. He runs his own biweekly open mic on a Thursday at the Bridge Inn in Newport adding to the local live music scene. While studying music at Stafford College Olly also finds time to play with his band the Brushes. I am sure we will see them gigging shortly Olly already does solo performances around Shropshire. Tonight he offered up some delights which included two of his self-penned works ‘By your side’ and ‘I don’t know why’ His wonderful jazzy style of guitar playing added to his smooth vocal style was a real treat for all to hear. He finished off his solo set with lovely renditions of Maroon 5’s ‘Sunday Morning’ and the Bill Withers hit ‘Ain’t no Sunshine’ which incidentally won the Grammy for best R&B song in 1972 and is still a crowd pleaser.

Next up was young Nathan Davis. He is no stranger to the Navy club and regularly gives great performances. His set started with a Levellers number called ‘Maid of the River’ and this was followed by ‘Ho Hey’ which was a 2012 platinum selling hit for American folk band the Lumineers. Nathan finished his set with one of his own songs ‘ I will only say’.  I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from this talented chap in the future.

Next up was a real treat for blues fans. Dave Blu who plays guitar to an amazing standard was on lead while being ably backed by Olly Flavell on rhythm guitar, Andy Clarke on Bass and young Jobe Spencer on drums. This tremendous blues jam band gave us the highest quality of music. Playing some of his self-penned songs Dave Blu gave us his usual master class and treated us with his own songs including ‘How? Why? When?’, ‘Black Country Boy’ and ‘Bar Tender Blues’. For a quartet of musicians thrown together at short notice one could not help be inspired by their fluidly and sheer ability to play to this wonderful level of musicianship. 

Stepping up next was Newport based band ‘Gaz and the tones’. The band consists of Gary on twelve string acoustic guitar while Andy plays lead electric guitar and Tony I believe plays the Bass. You may see where the band name came from? Tonight they had seconded a drummer named Tom who made a good job of backing the guys on the drums. I have had the pleasure of watching this recently formed band several times and I am becoming one of their biggest fans, I am particularly impressed with their overall sound and great song writing skills. There set tonight included all their own material with songs such as ‘ Sweet Lorenzo Harmony’ , ‘Passion’ , ‘Over’ ‘This too shall pass’ and ‘Newton Squared’. With a polished performance they have a quality no far removed from that off the ‘Beautiful South’ but with a heavier ‘Keane’ feel to it. I am sure these guys will go far and will be soon gigging in the local area. As they are both dedicated and friendly in their attitude I am sure they are possibly destined for bigger things in the future.

Last up was the amazing Darcy Crawford with his rugged looks he gave us all plenty to talk about. As one of the local tennis coaches for Boughey Gardens Tennis Club, Darcy fits his music in around his busy coaching regime. Tonight was no exception as he gave up a great vocal rendition of Ed Sheerin ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ Using a looping peddle he created a quite spellbinding cover of this song which highlighted the quality and  vocal range of this young man. Darcy followed this up with several wonderful acoustic covers which included Paulo Nutini’s ‘Last Request’ The Scripts ‘Man who can’t be moved’ and the Kings of Leon ‘ Someone like you’.

The evening was as always full of top quality entertainment and I recommend you give the Navy club a visit on a Tuesday night and enjoy the live music. Open Mic’s sessions are friendly and fun and give everyone the opportunity to showcase their material. Please come and support your local venue.

By Grahame Weir