Rockin’ For Nic’s Wheels – Featuring : Western Sand, Mothership, Fearne, The Push and Coke Can Jack

Bashley Village Hall

Raising money for charity by putting on gigs is nothing new, Bob Geldof perfected the art first in 1985 at Live Aid. On a much smaller scale with a similar aim caring Mother Jacqui Charge has taken it upon herself to try and raise the money required to get her son Nic a new wheelchair, to make his life just that much easier. Jacqui along with an army of close friends and family have booked the local village hall with 5 top local bands as the evenings entertainment.

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The first of these with a nice mellow laid back start is ‘Coke Can Jack’, a four piece band with a folky blues feel playing with acoustic guitars and a sit on Cajon drum. The band deliver a set full of decent harmonies with many great self composed songs including one called ‘Bad News’ which gives out a warning shot to a young girl and there was also a nice version of Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ which was done in their very own original style.

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Next up were young Bournemouth based band The Push who stepped out on to the stage with masses of confidence and launched into their first number ‘Who Do You Want’ and then bang the lead guitar went down, they had to say the line that no band want to utter from the stage “Does anyone have a guitar I can borrow?” a replacement was soon brought up and the band continued. The band performed material from their self titled debut album with the lead vocals regularly being swapped, their was lots of self indulgent guitar solos which bought some appreciation from the audience. The band ended on a high with a race through Electric Six’s ‘Gay Bar’ which brought the 1st dancers of the night on to the dance floor.

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Fearne had just performed out in the sunshine at the Christchurch Festival and had raced over from there to perform here tonight, after the bands recent victory at the Dorset Music Awards they seem to have been very busy with a host of engagements booked throughout the summer , but the felt they had to make time to play here for this worthiest of courses. The band’s kicked off with the popular ‘Different Tune’ and Alex’s voice was sounding as good as always projecting around the hall making everyone stop what they are doing to listen. They played a little game of risk tonight performing two brand new songs which we featured recently on Rock Regeneration, ‘The Coat Song’ with Adam on lead vocals which has a Jack Johnson vibe to it and the very catchy ‘Skinny Wrists’ which sounded great with the full band playing. The extended set ended unusually with a medley of covers that included numbers by Craig David, Will Smith and Jamie T which thrilled the audience who all sang along enthusiastically, the band left the stage was masses of excited applause.

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Mothership are the next to grace the stage, the band amongst their line up include three brothers and I am not sure whether this is a good or a band thing but there is certainly no bickering on stage. The band ages all range from 15-17 , however they all act and play as though they are much older with confidence and maturity. The focus of the audience is on lead singer Matt Jenkins and lead guitarist Sparky Jenkins who just have a great stage presence, they have obviously done their homework, knowing just what an audience want. The performance is just something I was not expecting, quality musicianship with some songs that really stand out such as the Haunting ‘Ghost Story’ and ‘Baby Be Mine’. The band draw influence from the world of rock/metal and by this performance we could well have found Bournemouth’s new favourite band.

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Headliners ‘Western Sand’ do exactly what they are good at rock, the band have been around for quite a while now and certainly know how to perform, performing numbers from their debut album ‘Truckload of Trouble’. They immediately produce a huge rock guitar sound that radiates to each corner of the village hall. Their songs are each around 5-7 minutes of epic rock classics performed as it should be performed at full volume with loads of guitar solos, the audience are also treated to a couple of well chosen covers ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ by ZZ Top and The Almighty’s ‘Free ‘N’ Easy’. A great end to what has been a fantastic evening showcasing the best in what local talent that Dorset and Hampshire have to offer. The news from Jacqui is that the evening raised over £2000 which is a fantastic and just shows what can be achieved when people all work together……………word is that there may well be another event soon, new as we get it.

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