Show & Bournemouth Unplugged Heat 5

I’ve had a brilliant night in the studio with all 3 members of Radio Boscombe, swelled by their special guests tonight Elvis Did Not Star In This Production (EDNSITP). Phone interviews with Trevor Hill about the Dorset Music Awards, and a number of female fans of the band, one of which unfortunately thought she was talking to boy band Take That for some reason – nothing at all to do with the way they were introduced by compere for the show Gary, I’m sure 😉  The boys have a wide range of items on youtube, some of which were performed live on air. Another sketch they did is on the forthcoming Comic Relief CD of Monty Python Covers, And Now For Something Completely Similar arranged by Radio Boscombe, all proceeds from sales of which will go to Comic Relief 2011.

I quickly head up to my currently regular Wednesday Haunt – O’Neill’s – for Bournemouth Unplugged Heat 5.  Dan Rumsey is first on stage. He starts with what I think is going to be a run of the mill acoustic strummed song, when he bursts into a really high chorus on Beautiful Animal. His songs feature a range of vocal dynamics, almost matched by the guitar work with builds and fades accordingly. He chooses an unusual cover, Hushabye Mountain, which shows a different style to those songs that have gone before. He has only vague variety in his choice of styles, though I am enjoying the quality of his song writing.

Logan Carter is next, and demonstrates the gentler finger picking art of guitar playing while still able to keep a rhythm going, which impresses me. When he strums it is laid back and open, the sustain under strict control. As for Dan Rumsey, Logan demonstrates he also has a high upper point to his voice. Logan shows a knack of utilising contrasts in his performance by alternating strummed and picked, low and high songs.
His cover Billy Jean is interesting, able to play the bass line with thumb and melody with fingers – hard to do, and even harder to pull off as near perfectly as Logan does.

Boyd & Wain burst on with a bit of a flourish, a good story then straight into a country number I couldn’t repeat here using Radio Rules. I’ve recently written about the last time I saw these guys at Solid Air, they are still good with stories & anecdotes about life as well as the songs, yet not going on enough to turn this into ….an audience with…. Having a fiddler as accomplished as Benny really aids Katie as she plays on a very bright sounding guitar. The final bluegrass take on Chuck Berry’s Maybellene goes down well with the crowd, the stomp box almost being irresistible for the majority of people around me…

Joel Gregory gets to close what has become an early finish. Joel has probably been the most recognisibly visible act promoting his presence in the competitoon on facebook. Rightly so, since 45% of the results are by public vote on the night. The first couple of songs contain clever lyrics which are a little mashed by the overblown chords. This is retarded slightly in the third song which is a quieter number overall. As ever once I write the words I need to eat them – Joel’s built to a crescendo. Wonderwall is his cover, loved by the blokes in the audience, although much cliche’d on the circuit.

As ever there are many notable musos in the audience, e.g. this time The Luminaires are here supporting bandmate Joel, while Jinder is supporting bandmate Logan.

At the end I brave a very cold evening on the bike to get home, with a stopoff at the Chaplins Open Mic.  Alan the Shaolin Punk is on stage for half a number as I walk in, that was it – not really enough time to build an opinion, sorry. However, I’m told he’s worth looking out for again.