Top Riffs and Class Acts at Open Mic

On Bank Holiday Monday a panel of guitar music experts, made up of Radio 2 presenters, music critics and record producers were selected to pick the top 100 guitar riffs. For the purpose of the vote a guitar riff is defined as the “main hook of a song and must be played principally by guitar. It often begins the song but is repeated throughout, giving the song its distinctive voice”.

Somewhat surprisingly no Beatles or Stones featured in the top 10 but probably no surprise as to the number 1 slot which was Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” whose driving blues riff was crafted by Jimmy Page. The remaining top 10 were Guns ‘n’ Roses “ Sweet Child of Mine”, AC/DC “Back in Black”, Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water”, Derek and the Dominoes “Layla”, The Smiths “How Soon is Now”, Status Quo “Down, Down”, Dire Straits “Money For Nothing”, The Kinks “You Really Got Me” and at number 10, Pink Floyds “Money”. The guitar solo on The Kinks 1964 classic however is the source of one of the most controversial and persistent myths in rock and roll in that it was not played by Dave Davies but by the then session player Jimmy Page!  

Going back to the number one guitar riff of all time I well remember young Pippin Henderson who regularly attended Newport Open Mic playing his own extended version of “Whole Lotta Love” which always went down well. Last Tuesday’s Open Mic saw a wealth of young talent once again bringing a selection of lesser known songs to the open mic stage as well as many originals.

Telford’s Scripted Youth were back, this time as a three piece band, with Carl Johnson, Craig Cooper and Keith Hatton singing 3 part harmonies to self penned numbers, sounding beautifully like some of the wonderful Metallica ballads.

Scratch band of the evening had two 60 year olds, Dave Blu and Andy Clarke, alongside two 17 year olds, Remynie-Kiah and Olly Flavell, playing some great jazzy electric blues.  Dave and Olly both have very distinctive individual styles and complement each other well with Remynie-Kiah and Andy slipping comfortably into the mix on drums and bass. BB King’s “Thrill is Gone” was the highlight of their set tonight.

John Minor is fast becoming a regular and “Help” and “Bad Moon Rising” went down particularly well with the audience with John gaining in confidence from week to week on his keyboards.

Some lesser known songs followed from the very tall Tom Miles with “I’ll Follow You into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie before he was joined by the diminutive Harriet Sutton-Green choosing Monsters of Men’s “Little Talks”. Tom finished a very original set with the theme tune from Scrubs “I’m No Superman” and Good Charlotte’s “1979”. 

Dan Walton has an extensive catalogue of songs at his fingertips with a great choice of openers in Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and the Kinks “Substitute”. As Kate Bush was closing her 3 hour show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, her first concert in 35 years, delighting fans, Dan paid tribute to the 56 year old with “Hounds of Love”.  Once more the voice of Dylan Evans held us spellbound with Foo Fighters “Everlong” penned by Dave Grohl during his split from his first wife the highlight of Dylan’s set for me. A musical gathering followed as he was joined on stage by Joe Rose, Harriet and Tom Miles.

Another new song brought to stage was “Curse of the Currents” by Vancouver based indie rock band Said the Whale and performed by the talented Joe Rose. Some splendid young musicians and singers tonight and not least Nathan Davies following in his late father’s footsteps as a prolific young singer/songwriter with three new songs, one in particular paying tribute to his father Martyn with the line “It’s you in me that makes my true colours show”. Difficult to pull off such a highly emotive and personal song but Nathan did it beautifully – a great tribute to his dad.

Once more an evening of exceptional live music was brought to a close by Dave Blu on mandolin and Ben Garrott on vocals and not quite the 11 minute version but an unusual take on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”. 

Open Mic in Bellmans Yard in Newport is every Tuesday starting around 8.30pm so why not come along and KEEP MUSIC LIVE!!

Jude Paton

Beating the odds without a full set of digits.

 Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead lost two thirds of his middle finger at the age of 4 when his older brother accidentally chopped it off with an axe. Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt lost the use of his third and fourth fingers at the age of 18 as well as receiving serious burns over half of his body after his caravan caught fire.

 Dr. John severely injured his left ring finger at the age of 21 after intervening when his friend and bandmate was getting a pistol whipping by putting his hand over the gun barrel! He gave up playing guitar after that and concentrated on the piano instead. Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath lost the tips of two fingers at 17 on his last day working at a sheet metal factory before embarking on a musical career. Thinking he would never play again he was inspired after his factory foreman insisted that he listen to a recording made by Django Reinhardt.

 Why am I telling you all this? Because our open mic friend and musician from Manchester, Steve Davis, has just had 8 stitches in the middle finger of his left hand after an altercation with hedge cutters. A cautionary note for us gardeners. Fortunately it has not affected his unique singing style although the accident may have made his vocal range even greater temporarily.

Open Mic at the Navy on Tuesday saw all the performers ranging from 11 years old to 69 and 4’ 10” to 6’7” tall with full sets of digits and in fine musical and vocal form.

A splendid blues jam with Remynie-Kiah on drums, Andy Clark on his favourite 1968 bass, Dave Blu on lead, Harry Woolley on vocals and rhythm guitar and the multi-talented Ben Garrott on tenor sax set the tone for the evening.

Young Jay Harris at only 11 invariably brings new songs to Open Mic with many from the sixties but tonight’s set from Jay brought us right up to date with songs by Jake Bugg, Beady Eye and Conor OBerst. I like to think I am fairly up to speed with the music scene but have to confess that I had never heard of this American singer/songwriter before tonight.

 Our photographer for the night, Laurence Gale, was persuaded to put his camera down and gave us a real treat with a Beatles’ medley which met with a resounding cheer from the assembled crowd. A great set tonight from Loz.

Dave Blu doesn’t often play solo but he held us spellbound with his acoustic slide blues guitar sounding sweet on the club’s recently refurbished Epiphone. One of his own songs was followed by “Brown Sugar”, “Let’s Work Together” and Ry Cooder’s “Why Don’t You Try Me”. Such a great musician and supporter of Open Mic.

Young Dan Walton’s opening song was one to get us all in a good mood entitled “Girlfriend in a Coma” by The Smiths. Radio 1 refused to play it when it was released in 1987 and Morrissey commented, “You’re not really supposed to like those songs. They’re very depressing and not supposed to be played on radio.” Great to hear it played at an Open Mic session however. By complete contrast Dan had feet tapping with a Buddy Holly and Elvis segueway finishing with the “Ballad of John and Yoko”, the Beatles 17^th and final British number one single from 1969.

 Tuesday night’s song mix was quite outstanding and none more so that Dylan Evans’ choice with “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess, Glen Hansard’s “Mind’s Made Up” and the Ambassadors “Forever”. Everyone agreed that Dylan has a superb voice with the ultimate compliment coming from Harry saying “Even with my ears I can tell he’s good!” Harry recently had one of his hearing aids pecked from his ear by a passing seagull in Llandudno which, with the thieving of his wife’s ice cream by another seagull acting as a decoy, proved to be an expensive day out for the Woolleys. Joe Rose then joined Dylan to sing “School is Fun” before the 6’7” Tom Miles took to the stage with songs from Blink 182, Jack Johnson’s “Washing Dishes” and a jazzy version of Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness”. Even seated this young man is quite a presence on stage. Joined once again by Joe Rose the set was nicely rounded off with Take That’s “Back for Good”.

John Minor finished off a wonderful evening’s entertainment on keyboards with McGuinness Flint, Queen and The Beatles “I’ll Get You”. Instead of the usual maul into the loft the equipment was loaded into Ade Morris’s trailer and transported to the Phez for this Sunday’s musical bonanza.

Be there and KEEP MUSIC LIVE!

Jude Paton 

Open Mic goes with a bang on the Glorious 12^th!

This week’s Open Mic gave all attending a real treat with an eclectic mix of great talent. It takes a group of dedicated individuals to set up all the equipment each week and make sure the night runs smoothly. While other open mic nights in Newport may have gone by the wayside Tuesday nights at the Navy Club continue to go from strength to strength.

As I was in charge of tonight’s write up I thought it only fair I should dust down the guitar and play a few tunes. So I got the night going with some favourite covers of mine. I kicked off with a Bob Dylan track "Big Girl Now" from the Blood on the Tracks album. I then tried a little known number called "Millers Cave" by the wonderful Don Williams. My third offering was my favourite track by the Waterboys "Old England". Having managed to thankfully get through my set relatively unscathed I invited my good friend Alex Ash on stage. Alex is the lead vocalist with the popular band Vinyl Tap and he joined me to give a great rendition of "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John.

Next up was Ian Simpkins who gave us some wonderful acoustic covers. He got underway with a great version of Kate Wolf's "Across the Great Divide". Kate Wolf helped repopularise folk music in northern California in the 1970s and Ian gave us a delightful version of this classic song. He continued his set with superb covers of "Peaceful Easy Feeling" recorded by the Eagles in 1972 and written by Jack Tempchin and "Someday" by the legendary Steve Earl.

Taking to the stage next was a scratch band which included the talented regulars Dave Blu on lead guitar and vocals, Ollie Flavell rhythm guitar and vocals, Andy Clark on bass and Remynie-Kiah Faith on drums. They cooked up several spellbinding songs which included Eric Clapton’s "Crossroads" and "I Don’t Care What You Say" possibly by Sweet Thunder. There was also some wonderful jamming using the fabulous ll-V-l jazzy chord progression. I don’t propose that I really knew this, however Dave Blu, a guitarist of prodigious talent, informed me of this afterwards. They really kept us enthralled as they effortlessly poured out bluesy arrangements. 

A quick mention here for Harry Woolley who was aided by Dave Blu and ably ran the mixing desk for the evening and also performed some warm up blues early on in the evening. Up next were the young vibrant three piece band Ricochet who are regulars at the Open Mic and caused a real storm with their opening track "This Love" by Maroon 5. The guys, Sand Kumar on lead guitar and vocals, Scott Thompson on bass and Cameron on drums then served up two original works "The Deal" and "The Machine" which highlighted their edgy musical talent. They rounded off their set with "Modern Way" by the Kaiser Chiefs which was really good as I am reliably informed they only practiced it for 5 minutes in the car park before playing it tonight, well done guys.

Reappearing on stage next was the superbly talented Remynie-Kiah Faith. A regular at the Navy Remynie is often seen playing keyboard or drums but tonight took to stage on the acoustic guitar. She performed some wonderful covers in her own inimitable style of ‘"It Ain’t Me Babe" by Bob Dylan although in a more Johnny Cash style. She followed this up by "Radioactive" by the Imagine Dragons. At only 17 she is a remarkable talent.

Finishing up the night was John Minor on Keyboard. Another frequent visitor to the Open Mic John played some classic covers including "I Want to BreakFfree" by Queen and "Time is Tight" by Booker T & the MGs. Both were well done and showed the true nature of a truly eclectic open mic evening.

Ollie Flavell and Dave Blu jammed on stage a while longer which ended another great evening’s entertainment.

For a great nights entertainment please join us here on a Tuesday night and keep music live.

Words Grahame Weir

Photographs Laurence Gale

At the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2014, the most prestigious live event Glasgow and Scotland have ever seen, 40,000 spectators were treated to a night of entertainment from Scottish icon Rod Stewart, Britain’s Got Talent finalist Susan Boyle and singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald. Celtic Park’s entire south stand was transformed into Glasgow’s “Window on the Commonwealth” thanks to the installation of a digital LED backdrop, the largest screen of its kind ever seen in Europe. 11 days of sporting excellence, Team England topping the medals table and the closing ceremony at Hampden Park with Kylie Minogue, Lulu and Deacon Blue bringing the curtain down on what was praised by Prince Imran of Malaysia, the President of the Commonwealth Games Federation, as the “best Games ever”, adding “Glasgow – you were pure, dead brilliant.”

Tunnock’s teacakes and Irn-Bru sales have soared but fortunately not all Scots dress like numpties and hopefully not all Scots will vote “yes” to independence in September.

The headliners in Glasgow and the headliners at the V Festival this month who are the Killers and Justin Timberlake may not be to everyone’s taste but the line-up at Newport Open Mic in Bellman’s Yard in Newport every Tuesday always brings surprises and never fails to please.

Plenty of new faces in the audience and some new names on the board bode well for an evening of great live music and definitely the place to be for the most lively spot in town on a week day night  BY FAR. Singer/songwriter Malcolm Purvis from Leeds always pays us a visit when he is working in the area and after a half hour collaboration with young Jobe Spencer in the car park he invited him to join him for a great set of original songs trying out his new “vocal harmoniser”. I always like the stories behind his songs which included one about a lying bass player and another about a girl working in a fruit factory in Leeds.

The drum kit was not going to stand idle tonight as next up was a 4 piece band from Telford called Scripted Youth who play original material as well as classic rock covers. High octane stuff from these four, brothers Keith and Mike Hatton on lead guitar/vocals and drums with Craig Cooper on guitar and Carl Johnson on bass. Currently recording their first album these lads are full of enthusiasm as well as volume and would go down well at any bike rally.

Itinerant Dave Blu took to the stage with his band of “gypsies” who were musical friends Remynie-Kiah, Mark Langford and Harry Woolley. Tonight’s musical offering was not Bach’s 10 Canons but slow blues in E which of course included Harry’s signature tune “Diggin’ My Potatoes”. A great set from 4 talented and experienced musicians. 

18 year old Kim Smith from Wellington has played at Newport Open Mic two or three times before but what an outstanding performance she gave tonight opening with the Etta James blues classic first recorded in 1967, “I’d Rather Go Blind”. Two of her own songs followed which held the audience spellbound before finishing with a lesser known Amy Winehouse song which could so easily could have been her own.

The Steve Hammond Scratch Band this week had Dave Blu on bass in fine form and Mark Langford on drums opening with a rip roaring “Mustang Sally”. Great vocals from Steve who then launched into the Van Morrison classic “Brown Eyed Girl”. Good to hear that Van the Man, who has elevated truculence to a fine art, performed a blistering set to close the 50^th Cambridge Folk Festival recently. A blistering set too from Steve who invited Kim Smith back up on stage with the seasoned veterans to sing George Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Wonderful stuff.

Megan Hodgkinson and Alan Lane have been absent for a while but a lovely set to suit Megan’s delightful vocals included “Jolene” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” from  Rumours, one of the best selling albums of all time.....incredibly over 40 million copies! 

16 year old Jobe Spencer brought the evening to a close with some delightful self penned instrumentals and finally Eric Clapton’s “Hey Hey”. A great night of live amongst friends. Newport – you were pure dead brilliant.  Oh and pass us another teacake. 

  

Report by Jude Paton

Report by Jude Paton

 

I recently went to see Pearl Jam at Milton Keynes National Bowl. If you haven’t been it’s definitely the best thing about Milton Keynes except you still have to negotiate the Mecca of roundabouts to get there....MK boasts over 300 and 1,000 if you include the painted bumps! As an outdoor live music venue The Bowl is superb with a capacity of 65,000. Blessed with glorious weather, a full moon to boot and a three and a half hour performance by one of Seattle’s “famous four” (Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden being the other 3) Pearl Jam brought the hardcore punk and heavy metal grunge sound to the masses in the late eighties and early nineties and to the crowd of followers in their thousands to the Home Counties in 2014. Looking round I reckon I was the oldest person there as most of the audience I would say were in the 30 to 40 age bracket! There must have been a playlist of over 30 Pearl Jam classics sung by Eddie Vedder and for the beginning of their encore they created a unique moment with son of George Harrison, Dhani, joining them for a version of the Beatle’s song “Rain”.

A more intimate evening of live music always awaits at Newport Open Mic in Bellmans Yard in Newport Shropshire, every Tuesday night, and this week names old and new appeared on the board boding well for a splendid open mic session.

 

Heidi Browne made a long overdue return and enchanted the early birds with an opening set of her own songs from her albums. “Necklining” recently at NEWfest14 and appearing for the first time at our Open  Mic in 2006 she recently won the accolade of National Open Mic winner in the over 21 category and listening to the song “Girlfriend” which won her the title it is hardly surprising.

Youngsters, Jay Harris and Liam Anslow (both 11) had Jay on the Roy Hodges bass guitar, a big Vintage for a small lad. Playing together and solo they brought songs old and new to an enthusiastic audience. 

The O’Chets were Sand Kumar and Scott Thompson cleverly using the name from their usual band Ricochet with “This Love” by Maroon 5 my favourite from their lively set.

The third duo of the evening was Skyfoil with Simon Heywood on guitar accompanying his friend Tim Cartwright on vocals. Simon’s instrument of choice is the drums but tonight nerves were jangling because this was the first time he had played his guitar “live”.  An accomplished musician and songwriter, Simon could be proud of Skyfoil’s first outing.

In Dave Whiteman’s extended absence, holidaying in Spain, Thom James and Steve Hammond were in charge of the sound desk but in time honoured tradition they got together to form a high octane scratchband together with Sand Kumar on drums. Another first as Sand has never played drums in public before. Songs from the Who, Beatles and B52s had the audience up on their feet and shouting for more.

Good to see the crowd of young people back for the second week running with Dylan Evans accompanying Harriet Sutton-Green, appropriately wearing a tartan dress for those who have been following the Commonwealth Games,  singing a Nina Nesbitt song. What a beautiful pure voice she has. Dylan sang a couple of original songs and unique a refreshing sound he has too. Tom Miles back too this week with songs by Frank Turner and post-grunge Canadian band Nickelback. A lesser known Dylan song “Blackjack Davey” was Dan Walton’s opener and his acoustic version of the Who’s “Don’t Get Fooled Again” was outstanding a complete contrast to the earlier Who numbers from The Hammond Scratch House Band. 

What a treat in store for the late stayers as singer/songwriter Chris del Mans brought the evening to a close playing keyboards and singing songs by David Bowie, Bonnie Tyler and of course his musical hero Elton John as well as a great selection of his own songs which included his signature tune “Captain America” and another inspired by his purchase of a £1 Shirley Bassey LP in a Birmingham record shop called “Shirley Saved Me”.  Time was fast approaching midnight and Elton’s “Your Song” was as good a finish to any evening of live music as was  “Alive” and  a crowd of 60,000 singing the Pearl Jam mantra “I’m Still Alive”.

60,000 at Milton Keynes or 60 at the Navy on another hot Tuesday night......  all there to keep music “LIVE”!    

See you all next Tuesday.