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

Anyone who knows me, or reads this column occasionally will now that I am a massive Beatles fan. This week marked the 46^th anniversary of one of the most iconic album covers….and coincidentally one of my favourite fab four releases, Abbey Road. Originally, the title of the album was to be ‘Everest’ and the plan was to take a private plane to the Himalayas to shoot the cover…how grand is that? As deadlines grew nearer however, the always sensible Paul McCartney suggested they go outside from the Abbey Road studios and take a picture of them walking across the zebra crossing, which photographer Iain Macmillan managed within the allotted ten minutes!

Down at the Newport Open Mic, we give our performers a little bit longer to find their groove and first up this week John Minor recruited Richard Heywood to give us a super opening selection of Oasis covers…with the iconic ‘Wonderwall’ closing their set and giving us a great start to the evening.

Good to see Alan Lane back on stage, this time with a lovely 12 string guitar to accompany Alex Ash on vocals and take us through a super choice of songs, including Ralph McTells ‘Streets of London’ before finishing off with a classic….’Dock of The Bay’ by Otis Redding.

I could sense it was going to be a lively evening as Perton’s Mike Collins and son Mikey got the crowd going very early on with an out and out singalong set. A different version of jungle Book’s ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ started them off, but closer ‘500 miles’ had everyone joining in….great stuff.

There is an excellent Open Mic at the Royal Oak in Gnosall, and it was very nice to welcome a couple of their regulars to sing at the Navy for the first time. Anthony Cox is actually a very good Elvis impersonator, but tonight, along with Phebe Simkins it was another singalong set from Queen and the Eagles….things were shaping up very well!

A real musical treat next as Alexandra (call me Alex) Jayne, a very talented singer/songwriter from Wheaton Aston also made her first appearance at the club. I spoke last week about having the ability to silence a room and as soon as she started her self-penned ’Clumsy Love’ that is exactly what happened. Her voice reminds me a little of Amy McDonald, but that said she is totally original, and mark my words….this girl will go far. Check out Matthew Thomas’s excellent Hey Jude’s sessions online and see if you agree.

Only one band on the board this evening and it was Vinyl Tap, warming up for their forthcoming appearance at a festival in the town later this month. This versatile five piece, with stand guitarist Steve Davis deputising for Alan Lane, also seemed to sense the playful mood of the audience as they also launched into popular singalongs ‘La Bamba’ and ‘Mustang Sally’. Catch them at the Phez on the August Bank Holiday.

Singer Alan Critchley normally uses backing tracks onstage, but this week for the very first time, he sang with just an accompanying guitarist, and I have to say Al, I enjoyed it a lot more. There is no doubt about his vocal ability, but when you are without a safety net, so to speak, it adds ‘sharpness’ to the performance! Yet another singalong ‘Can’t Take My Eyes off You’ once again had the seventy or so audience joining in every word.

I think I am right in saying that final performer of the evening, Dylan Wynford is pursuing a career in music and drama at University and that is an excellent career choice. Despite a technical problem with his own guitar, he picked up the club instrument and carried on as if nothing had happened… a real trouper. His opener, ‘Hopeless’ is the first song on his recently released first album, but it was ‘The View’ that made my ears prick up. This song is perfect for a stage musical and the way he delivers it would reach the back of any theatre, even without a microphone. Another terrific talent, we wish him well.

So this will be my final article for a little while as we are off touring Europe in our campervan for a couple of months, hopefully making it back to Newport in September without any extra passengers! Have no worry; the column will still be here in the Advertiser each week and online through the TF10 network. If you feel that you can contribute to the Newport Open Mic in any way, whether performing, humping and dumping equipment, taking photographs or even writing this column, please come and say hello! 

Till next time, as always, keep it live!