The Winchester, Bournemouth
Featuring The Devils Rejects, Peace Love and Gloves, Escape From98, Yellowgroove, and Darren Hodson and The Southern Companion
The last quarter final of the Dorset Music Awards is finally upon us and the last 5 bands are here tonight to battle it out for a place at one of the two Semi-Finals at Mr Kyps in a few weeks time. The Winchester tonight is absolutely rammed and sadly there are people being turned away at the door as the venue has reached it capacity, such is the popularity of these awards. With the venue full, the atmosphere in the place is one of anticipation and excitement as the first band of the night takes to the stage.
“Darren Hodson and The Southern Companion” are a supremely tight six piece band who deliver some extremely good soulful tunes based around a country/blues style along the lines of the “Allman Brothers”, and many of the bands that you would typically hear on American radio. Tonight they are faultless, and put in a performance to be proud of, with some excellent sounds coming from Darren’s guitar along with beautiful backing harmonies.
Next up are ‘Yellowgroove’ who kick off with a rocking version of “Son Of A Working Man” and immediately the crowd warm to their twin electric and acoustic fast paced guitar blues/rock sound. The four piece band deliver an impressive 20 minute set and carry on regardless despite being constantly heckled by a very drunk ‘lady’ in the front row who could have been very distracting. The band seem to draw from a host of influences with no one particular shining through, quite possibly contenders for a place in the Semi’s.
Punk rockers “Escape From98” hit the ground running with “Punk Pop Princess”, their simple but effective tunes delivered with bags of energetic enthusiasm. Bassist Lee is an extremely likeable fellow and his warm personality shines through to the very appreciative audience. The tunes such as “Ben’s Mum” from their recently released EP “Voyeuristic Tendencies”, and new song “Secret Auntie” all show some some interesting creative song writing. They use their 20 minute slot well and should be very proud of their efforts.
“Goujon Goujon” the crowd shout before “Peace, Love and Gloves” take to the stage. These guys have as usual bought along their army of fans, known as “Gloves and Glovettes” with them for support. The atmosphere is lifted up a notch as Mark, Rikki, Bradley, Jason and honorary 5th member rapper Jordan deliver a very lively set of great songs, all written about personal experiences in their lives. “Bang Bang Bang” and “Wait” have the crowd singing along at the tops of their voices, giving the band extra incentive to deliver a great performance. The band are very laid back and show no sign of any nerves or pressure, they just do what they are really good at; entertain in a big way. The team at Rock Regeneration have seen Peace, Love and Gloves many times before and to describe their sound would be very difficult as there are certainly very original and one of a kind.
The last band of the night Swanage based “The Devils Rejects” got the whole place dancing with their very up tempo Gypsy punk/ Pirate folk rock style, as well as the usual guitars, bass and drums an electric fiddle with an accordion, which changed the whole feel of their sound, taking obvious influence from the style of the legendary Irish folksters “The Pogues”. The foot stomping songs such as “Jamaica Inn”, and “The Pirate Song” proved to be a great ending to the evening with the excited crowd demanding more. This the last of the Quarter Finals sees the end of the competition for half of the bands and the other half will progress, keep an eye out for the results on the Dorset Music Awards website, and don’t forget to log on to vote for your favourites.
Videos
Darren Hodson and The Southern Companion
Yellowgroove
Esacpe From98
Peace, Love and Gloves
The Devils Rejects
More Videos from the event can be found here.
Vote for your favourite here here.
Band Links
http://www.facebook.com/DarrenHodson.TSC
http://www.facebook.com/Escapefrom98
http://www.yellowgroove.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/Peace.Love.and.Gloves
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Devils-Rejects/235806373128836
Review, and Videos by Dave Chinery(Chinners)
Pictures (about 95% of them) by Alex Freeman
Pictures (about 5%, but not as good as Alex’s) by Jon Musselwhite.
