Packed house at The Navy!      Words: Dave Whiteman,  Pictures: Matthew Thomas

‘It was 20 years ago today, Sgt Pepper taught the band to play’ sang Paul McCartney on the album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and amazingly, it is 48 years ago this week since that iconic album was released. He must have been doing something right, as he sang it to a packed house in Birmingham last week and will be singing it to many hundreds of thousands over his current world tour. I really thought Tuesday’s Open Mic at the Navy Club was going to turn into a Beatles evening as around half a dozen songs in the first couple of hours were fab four compositions!

First up Cavan & Harry James, from Telford, who were playing at the Open Mic for the very first time, and what a debut it was. From the opening chords of ‘All my Loving’ they had the sizeable crowd in the palm of their hand.  The Navy audience loves good vocal harmonies and their set was full of them. Come back soon guys, you were terrific.

Richard Heywood made his debut only last week, singing live for the very first time but his performance was interrupted by a fault on his guitar. No such problems this week as he returned to give us a couple of crackers from the Manic Street Preachers before finishing with one of his own, ‘She only Wanted to Sing Him a Love Song’. Great stuff from this likeable youngster.

Open Mic regular John Minor is always keen to play something from his favourite band Oasis, and, this time on guitar, he delivered a super medley of some of their most popular tunes, before our second new band of the evening came to the stage.

From the name, Syatica, you can probably guess that these guys are not young…. but with maturity comes experience and they had it in bucket loads. Made up of locals Pete Lance, Paul Mettem and John Cooper, they have been friends and work colleagues for more than 25 years and with the addition of bassist Andy Plant, they have formed a nice easy listening soft rock outfit…….in fact it is fair to say they could have raided my CD collection for their set.  It was clear by now that we were in for a great evening.

We don’t see ace guitarist Roger Clark often enough, but when he turned up with collaborator Al Middleton on bass and Baz Webster on drums, the scene was set for a reunion of popular local band Robbie’s in Rehab. Despite hardly ever playing together, these guys rocked out super covers from REM, Steve Miller and of course the Beatles that had the 60 or so crowd joining in enthusiastically.

How do you follow that? Well, with Richard Thomas of course. Rich T is talented, dedicated and entirely unpredictable….you never know what you might get. A song about James Bond followed by a classic singalong….’These Boots Are Made for Walking’. Hardly anyone did singalong however…as it was done entirely in German!   Always different, always welcome!

Sixties crooner Eddie Maiden can still do the business despite being well into his seventies and a couple of crowd pleasers included the Neil Diamond gem, ‘Sweet Caroline’ which the audience loved.

Steve Davis is a great supporter of Newport Open Mic and regularly makes the journey down from Manchester to sing and play. Joining forces with Alex Ash, vocalist with Vinyl Tap, they continued the Lennon & McCartney theme with the John Lennon masterpiece ‘Imagine’ before closing with ‘I Saw Her Standing There’…….truly a  super set for Beatles fans. Steve then stayed on stage to deliver a solo performance with a terrific David Crosby number, which I think was ‘Traction in the Rain’ and deservedly quietened the room.

Just enough time to assemble a Scratch House Band for the final segment, and what a great band it turned out to be. Drummer Paul Mettem and bassist Andy Plant from Syatica joined forces with guitarist Roger Clark and ace blues harp player Ed Sullivan, needing only a vocalist to complete the line- up. Step forward Alex Ash once again and a super closing set followed. ‘Let’s Work Together’ had enough space around it for everyone to show off their individual skills and bring a great night’s entertainment to a close.

Is there really anywhere better to spend a Tuesday evening?  More than sixty people didn’t think so, given that their £1 entry including the raffle, gave them around ten live acts with everything from Sham 69 to the Beatles….surely enough variety to please even the hardest heart?

Same time next week and every week, at the Newport Open Mic held in the Royal Navy Association, Bellman’s Yard. 

Till then, keep it live!

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