Posted by Dave on August 5, 2005, 6:26 pm, in reply to "4th August review (ish)" A bit weird being back at the Barn after such a long break and things have changed a little bit ... the club itself is much the same but outside appears to have turned into a creche for local teenagers. Pretty annoying as they don't give a shit about the music and are too busy trying to look like a complete arsehole in front of their friends. Nick Courtney is on holiday with his family and had asked me to MC while he's away, so they will have the pleasure of my company for the next two weeks. Anyone who thinks running a night like this is a doddle should give it a try ... We started setting up the gear at 5.30pm and finished putting it all away again at 11.45pm. And Nick does that every week! The very likeable Ade Cull was supplying the entertainment for the first hour and didn't disappoint. Ade likes to mess about with the tuning on his guitar but for some reason he doesn't like to do this 'live' as it were, so brings along lots of guitars, all tuned differently! Three on this occasion, which still didn't prove enough :-) Ade confuses me a little. In conversation he appears completely sane, but on stage suddenly takes on this strange bonkers persona, babbling on about fish and conspiracy theories about naked Russians on the moon. Performers were a little light on the ground early on so I told everyone they could do three songs instead of the usual two. I started the open mic session with 'Beautiful Lie', 'Delicate' by Damien Rice and 'He's My Dog'. Can't really say I enjoyed it much, thinking too much about how the rest of the evening was going to pan out, and it felt very mechanical to be honest. I'm not sure if the crowd picked up on my mood or not, but they didn't show it. All three songs got a good response - but then the Barn crowd are always very welcoming. Steve was joined by a very attractive young lady called Helen who treated us to a spellbinding rendition of 'Walking in the Air' with Steve providing some wonderfully atmospheric and, unusually for Steve, inconspicuous ambient guitar backing (still using backing CDs though). Andy wowed everyone with a splendid cover of Sting's 'Fields of Gold', and his friend Nick smiled his way through 'Let There Be Me'. Both these guys are accomplished vocalists and just exude confidence from every pore. Maria Syrtsz and the Pyramids of Mars made a very welcome return with some new material which in all honesty was indistinguishable from the old, but was still very popular with the crowd. I think there were quite a few people there who had never experienced Maria's brand of bonkers pop before and, as usual, they were neatly divided into those who thought he should be taken outside and shot and those who thought he should be given a knighthood :-) Dave Trott brought us neatly back to reality with a brillaint 'Riot in Cell Block number 9' and Paul Vinten - who's band 10/7 will be filling the early slot next week - had a brave attempt at Blunt's 'You're Beautiful'. Lauren was half way through singing to her backing CD before she realised she had told me to play the wrong track (but then went on to blame me for it) and followed that with a Green Day cover on guitar. Stewart was a late entry and I hadn't seen him before, so it came as a pleasant surprise when he stormed his way through two blinding original songs. Jamie whispered his way through Coldplay, Blunt, and Damien Rice covers, but had the audience enthralled despite the lack of volume, and if anything the suttle delivery worked in his favour. Maria Syrtsz agreed to finish the night off to rapturous applause. Sadly we ran out of time to include some of Terry Shulman's poetry, but I have promised him a proper slot next week :-)
195.93.21.104
4th August , Roger Courtney's Open Mic Club, Milton Arms, Fratton
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