Bringing on back the good times at the Navy! 

 Words: Dave Whiteman, Pictures: Laurence Gale

 

Just last month, the weekly Open Mic at the Navigation Inn,  Gnosall, finished, as the landlord and landlady Steve and Carol left for pastures new. It was a real shame, as the evening was one of the best around, but the open mic was expected to continue. Sadly, this didn’t prove to be the case and to everyone’s disappointment it stuttered to a halt. Step forward the Royal Oak, also in Gnosall and no stranger to live music. So once again, Thursday nights are Open Mic nights…and excellent they are too. I have been there for the last few weeks and the variety of acts, the quality of the music and the support of the staff have all been superb… the King is dead…long live the King.

At the Newport Open Mic, our USP, unique selling point, don’t you know, is the fact that unlike a lot of other places, our venue can cater for live bands. A full drum kit, bass amp, guitar amps, monitors, lights and even a sound man, mean that musicians can turn up, sometimes without any equipment at all, and perform in front of a sizeable and appreciative live audience.. Given that this week we had around half a dozen bands our crowd of around sixty were treated to a real live ‘bandfest’.

Mitch Brooks was hardly late when he turned up just before 8pm, but he was on the stage immediately given that the early slot was the only one available. A good mix of self- penned songs and covers followed, highlight of which was ‘This Love’ by Maroon Five…perfectly suited to Mitch’s soulful vocal.

Nice to see John Minor back on stage playing a lovely instrumental set from his favourite groups, Oasis and Queen, before our first Scratch House Band of the evening. 

Haven’t heard Dave Blue, AKA Dave Sandford for a while but the little band he put together with Olly Flavell, Jude Paton and soundman John Newton on drums was a corker. ‘Mr Bartender’ my favourite of a gutsy, bluesy set.

76 years young Eddie Maiden has only recently come back from Spain and I reckon he has been getting a bit of practice in! His crowd pleasers from Tom Jones and Neil Diamond had the crowd joining in and set the scene for later sing-alongs.

A couple of new numbers from Open Mic regulars Vinyl Tap, showed that they have been putting in some rehearsal time. Songs from Tom Petty and The Monkees preceded a great eighties anthem, ‘Tainted Love’ by Soft Cell and only encouraged audience participation even more.

Next up, a real change of direction from Perton’s Mike Collins We are used to seeing Mike alone onstage with just his acoustic guitar, but it seems he has done a ‘Dylan’ and gone electric! Recruiting son Mikey, just 14years old and a fine bass player, and slightly older Nigel Tidy on drums, he has really filled up his sound. ‘Teenage Kicks’ was apparently John Peel’s favourite song of all time and this closed a great set.

Somewhat heavier and a LITTLE bit louder nice to see Telford’s Scripted Youth making a return appearance at the club. There is real potential here. So many self-penned songs are soft ballads played in minor keys, but not this lot. Their entire set was original…..and it rocked, as evidenced by the enthusiastic reception they received after their all too short set.

Time was getting on as the busy Jude Paton made her third appearance onstage, joining singer guitarist Gaz Williams and vocalist/drummer Mike Bristow. Clearly, these guys have been around a bit as evidenced by a super set that included Rory Gallagher and Dr Feelgood, and although Jude looked a little worried at first with the unfamiliar songs, she soon found her feet.

‘You went and saved the best till last’ sang Whitney a few years back and if we are talking vocalists here, in my humble opinion, that’s what happened this week. Sam Scott from Church Aston has a remarkable talent and an even more remarkable voice. Forget all the TV wannabees, this lad would have Tom Jones et all spinning their chairs around within seconds. Sadly, with such a full board, it was quite late before he could get on, but those who had to leave missed a real treat.

One of his own songs ‘Seren’ had the remaining audience spellbound, but it then got better. Leaving the stage, he joined together with guitarist Tom Bond and our own Remynie Faith to give us an unplugged and  totally brilliant version of Ed Sheeran’s ‘I see fire’ with delicious three part harmonies….breath-taking.

SO are we back to normal now at the Open Mic? Smaller attendances after Christmas was a cause for concern, but this week saw the return of a large enthusiastic crowd, a board of around a dozen separate acts and all for a quid, including the raffle! 

 Is there really anywhere else to go on a Tuesday evening? Till next time, keep it live!