A Few Pottles And A Lot Of Blues

Beeston micropub A Pottle of Blues held it's first music night tonight, and of course I went along to support it.

Ralph the landlord is a blues guitarist and entertained us for around two hours with a wide range of blues songs. Darren the barman played bass on a song or two. He was a bit nervous, as he hadn't picked one up in a while. But he needn't have worried, as he was very good, and the audience enjoyed every note.

The pub has been opened about a month now  They've recently added a few more music themed artefacts, and with a regular change of beers, the pub has become quite a favourite amongst the locals. And so may it continue.

The Bonny Lads

Back in November a new record shop opened in the city centre. A branch of Rough Trade no less.

Besides selling albums, CDs and books they also have a snack bar and have recently been having live in-store gigs by up and coming bands.

I saw one such band today at lunchtime, who go by the name of The Little Comets, an indie rock group from the North East of England.  I'd not heard of them before, even though they have been going since 2008.

They played for about half an hour to a receptive audience, who had packed the upstairs cafe area. They weren't bad considering it's not really my kind of music. They also have a bass player, who I sadly didn't manage to get in the shot, so here he is, in a portrait of  his own.

It's A Midnight Special

I had a busy day with my photography yesterday, with most of the day spent recording Beeston's Carnival. Then I went to a 50th birthday party, and finally I went to a local pub to see two friends of mine, who are musicians in their own right, and also perform as the duo Midnight Special.

Joe loves the blues, while Emma is a folkie, but together they are quite impressive with a mix of the two styles. The Hop Pole was busy, as they have quite a following across the area, as they are really very good and should be snapped up by a record company very soon.

Rockin' The Night Away

This is Tim Boynton, singer and ace guitarist with local band The Outriders.

He was playing solo tonight at the Lincolnshire Poacher pub on Mansfield Road.

Our main objective was to see our great friend and talented folk singer Dave Mitchell, who was doing a turn, so seeing Tim as well was a bonus.

Music Makes The World Go Round

As you can imagine, being a very keen photographer and practically shooting every day for the past seven years or so, I have built up quite a very large collection of images.  So many in fact, that my Mac's hard drive is now almost full.

So to make some space, I have been partially deleting lots and exporting others to an external hard drive.  It's a long job, but one that desperately needs doing.

As I have been working away through the many folders, I came across this photo that I took last year of  Geordie band The Jar Family. They were playing in Beeston Square as part of the Oxfam music festival, which aims to raise money for Oxfam.

It's quite fortuate me coming across the photo, as it's just been announced by my friends at Oxjam that they will be playing in Beeston again this year, along with about 50 other acts scattered across various pubs, cafes in Beeston and Chilwell, and of course in Beeston Square.

EB-J

This is Emma Bladon-Jones, a local singer/songwriter. And a very good one too. I have featured her before, but you can never have enough of a good thing.

She was playing at a local pub; The Hop Pole in Chilwell, so I had to go and see her. Plus a drop of real ale wouldn't go amiss either.

Emma played two sets, an electric one, and an acoustic one, with a small break in between, during which I said hello and bought one of her CDs which features four of her terrific songs.

The 'N' Factor

                                                                                                                                                 1Girl 1Boy

    Band Of Jackals                                                                                                                   

Music was definitely in the air tonight as Alice Cooper was playing a concert at the Royal Centre. I thought about going, but the tickets were £36, and besides a couple of songs, I don't really know any of his back catalogue.

So instead I went to see the final of 'Notts Factor', a talent contest for local musicians. It was free entry, but contributions of £3 for Framework were encouraged. I happily paid that, as the charity helps homeless people.

There were ten acts all vying for the winners position. The prizes included £500 cash, an interview on local radio, a photoshoot and help with recording their songs.

There was a good selection of artists; several acoustic guitarists, folk band that included a cello, and a couple of rock bands. The acts had the opportunity of playing two songs each, and were then judged by a panel of four people, which included one of the bosses of the Playhouse and another local musician.

In the end the judges found it impossible to pick one artist, so they decided to award a second place prize. This went to Band of Jackals; a high energy rock band, and my favourite of the night, as they worked well together and the guitarist on the left was amazing.

1Girl 1Boy won after much deliberation. They sounded a bit like Portished. Quite melodic, but dark songs. it will be interesting to see how all the acts fair in the near future.

Jammin For Oxfam

Beeston was taken over by music and musicians of all kinds today, all in the name of charity.

The town hosted the second Oxjam event; a countrywide celebration of music, with the aim of raising lots of money for Oxfam.

Things kicked off at lunchtime with a gig by The Jar Family in the Square. A band clearly influenced by groups like Oasis and the Stone Roses. And very good they were too. Melodic, and all original tunes as far as I can tell.

The crowd loved them, and people kept popping coins into the collecting buckets. I put some in too, as they were worth it.

Music fans have been invited to buy a wristband for £5. For this they could visit all the locations and see all the bands that were appearing during the day and evening. The locations include cafes, pubs and Barton's, which presently are showing an art exhibition.

Back to the 1960s

A Saturday morning in Beeston during August can only mean one thing; music in the Square.

This week it was the turn of a band called 60s.R.Us, who played a number of classic songs from the 1960s by the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Hollies. And very good they were too.

The audience thought so too, as they sang and danced along to the five piece. I don't think you can beat songs from the sixties to get an audience going; no matter what their ages.

Whatever happens to music styles in the future, I predict that we'll still appreciate and enjoy the songs of that era. And quite rightly too, as the tunes were wonderful; just like the band themselves.