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