Sparkle Festival Appeal

December 11, 2011 Off By Jon

Champions, Bournemouth

Putting a gig on anywhere is never easy, but arranging a Charity Festival in the middle of December where none of the acts get paid is a task very few would consider, however local Bournemouth musician Aaron Gregory decided to take on such a task giving all the proceeds of the very worthy Sparkle Appeal. The line up includes a huge amount of talent from in and around the Dorset music scene set over two stages which has never been done before in this venue.

Line Up
Kentucky Fight Club,The Paper Shades, Mischa & His Merry Men, The Luminaries, Andy Stock, Ant Lewis, Ant Henson, Krista Green, Andy Stock, Tim Somerfield, Sugar Hand, Joel Gregory, Kimari Raven, Aaron Gregory

It all started around 6 o’clock when our host and organiser for the evening Aaron Gregory took to the acoustic stage, looking a little like X Factor’s Dermot O’Leary in a striped Breton shirt. Aaron performed some numbers from his debut solo EP “Poly Lake” delivering some deep heartfelt lyrics on songs such as touching “Summer Days” sounding a little like a young Ray Davies in places. The guitar was then handed over to his brother Joel Gregory who performed a entertaining set of some of his own material along with a few impromptu covers. The place was starting to fill with a steady flow of people flowing through the doors all looking forward to a great night of entertainment.

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The music continues with Kimari Raven who is possibly on of Bournemouth’s most impressive acoustic female solo artists, Kimari has a rare natural talent, providing an insight in to each number before performing, songs such as “Monster”, the beautiful “Forgiven” and the new “Best Damn Thing I Have Ever Seen” showing off her excellent vocals, with the promise of her new album in the future she is certainly one to watch. Sugar Hand (Dave Mackenzie) was on hand to inject a bit of blues to the evening skilfully playing a silver steel guitar with some great tunes and a bit of friendly banter.

Local musical storyteller Andy Stock provides the audience with some topical songs including the hard hitting “Who’s Gonna Tap My Phone” all about the recent news international scandal. The main stage opens upstairs and the Gregory brothers are back with some sibling harmonies in their band The Luminaries, they combine acoustic and electric guitars with great effect and deliver an exciting set, which despite a few technical issues really impressed the gathered audience. The stand out track on the set was the last number “Reality Check” which sees Joel really letting rip with the electric guitar in great style. Ant Lewis follows with a set that contained a great song called “America” which was performed in his own very original style accompanied by some hula hooping dancers on the dance floor.

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Back downstairs Ant Henson performs some great self penned work with the aid of his beautiful sounding 12 string acoustic guitar, he was later joined by Krista Green for a charming duet. Local familiar face on the Bournemouth music scene Tim Somerfield was on hand to delight with some well chosen covers including Inme’s Dave McPherson’s “Summer She Puts Me In A Good Mood” and the Foo Fighter’s “Hero” along with a few of his own. Tim has a ridiculously great style to his singing and despite sporting a cut that bled over his guitar, he continued professionally delivering a set that thrilled all watching. The main stage soon was filled by the sound of Mischa & His Merry Men who treated the biggest audience of the night to a couple of new songs “The Air I Breathe” and “Come Down”. Lead singer Mischa Weston Green wears his heart on his sleeve and seemed troubled by a recent split with his girlfriend, the frustration was thoroughly put into the performance making for a powerful 20 minutes.

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The Paper Shades are a young duo who were specially selected by Aaron to perform here tonight, using two acoustic guitars with a bass drum and a cymbal to create a their unique sound. Their evenings performance was sadly marred by technical problems and I suspect a few nerves. What they did they was get plenty of respect for just carrying on regardless, when they get it together they show plenty of promise with masses of talent. Dorset’s first cowpunk super group Kentucky Fight Club were on hand to close the evening was a steady stream of country inspired numbers including a tongue in cheek cover of the Black Eyed Peas “I Got a Feeling” which got the first dancers of the night up on the floor. The band performed The Cult’s “She’s Sells Sanctuary” guitar rift on a mandolin to completely different lyrics which sounded interesting to say the very least. After a feisty 30 minutes set they bought the evening to a close, so the evening raised the profile for the worthy Sparkle Appeal and over £160. Which in these hard times is really some achievement, great efforts from all those who got involved. We were very happy to be part of it and share these great musical experiences.

Videos
Kentucky Fight Club