Monday 18th March...the day after Headsticks hosted their March 'Song Club' at Newcastle under Lyme's wonderful Old Brown Jug Venue...an extra special gathering in honour of St Patrick's Day...where the wearing of silly hats and the spilling of Guinness was the order of the day for many of the assembled thrill seekers (loose term...I admit!!!)....and I'm feeling tired and at the same time thankful that I was involved...yet was able to resist the temptation of alcohol (Although I did partake of a cheeky pint of Guinness and Coke, underated is 'baby Guiness').
So this was about 16 acts coming together, to play (mainly) original music, of a folky-acousticy-rootsy nature...to entertain the gathered masses, and in fair, it was, from start to finish a bloody good turn out...though there were some bemused faces from various punters who may well have been expecting an onslaught of plastic Paddies and would be Wild Rovers taken to an even new low...but no, all concerned resisted the temptation to inflict this on the bleary eyed public!!!!, even hosts Headsticks (whose members include half the original Jugopunch line up) weren't drawn into this one!!!!
So a gathering of musicians from about a 30 mile radius....various styles, various genres within a genre, and various interpretations of the genre within genre if that be at all possible......one common denominator though, was the obvious enjoyment,enthusiasm and even delight in having the opportunity of what was immediately looking like a special evening, and this transmitted to the punters very quickly, and each and everyone embraced the differing styles and rewarded each performer with the warmest of receptions!!! Result for all concerned.....cheers!....
The day went 100% to time, an absolute miracle considering the diversity of acts...much of this down to the superb sound engineering of our own Mr Nick Bayes, Headsticks' Bassist and all round frickin' genius: now if I am feeling jaded, well he must be dead on his little size sixes.... There was a no nonsense approach, by him and by nearly all performers involved...all primed and ready for action, all waiting like the proverbial coiled springs to unleash their talents, their wonderful talents on the gathered music lovers.
Any way, we had singer songwriters delivering their wry takes on life, the universe and everything...we had dark and sultry folk tales, satirical skiffle meets shuffle, agitational cynics of a musical stylee, lovers, fighters, dancers, swillers, hecklers (I love hecklers...bring me more!)...we had songs of the building site, of love and loss, of murder and of course the most important of all we had drinking songs....good wholesome,banging on the table,stamping of the feet, clapping of the hands drinking songs.....we had delightful harmonies, vicious attacks on the ear drums (me), melancholy utterings and heart warming serenades...oh yes we had the bloody lot and very thankful were those in attendance by the look of their faces...or maybe this black stuff had taken a hold at this point and turned everyone into grinning buffoons?
I'm not for singling any one act out here...each one was well received though fair enough to varying degrees...but ain't that the way when something so diverse, so foreign for many is being brought to a mass(ish) audience? All performed to the best of their abilities and contributed to a great evening....the beauty of this night was that so many people had stumbled into the boozer expecting high jinks from some non de script, generic Oirish band....but what they got was sheer quality from start to finish...7 hours of sheer quality....and Joe Public lapped it up with a passion...so Joe and Joanne Public (not, to my knowledge, real people) why does it take a day in honour of the patron saint of a country far, far away to get you out to a venue to listen to an eclectic offering of some of the areas (and beyond) finest.....if Britain's Got Talent was on the box, just look what you would have missed people...just look what you could of won (enter scantily clad dancing girls by the dozen pushing huge shamrock covered trailer with lepricorn hat wearing musicians 'Lauren Luca, Simon Evans with Denisa, Bryn Mitchell, Frank Cerioni, Adam French, Ben Riley, Hornswaggle, Jack Marshall, Michelle Martin and Jez, John Macleod Band, Shaun and The Special Sauce, Phil Maddocks with Nick Bayes, Milk for the Cat, Giro Junkie and Headsticks'....take a bow, and another one and, and, go on another one...milk it for all it's worth!!!!!!!)......
TBC........
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