Dan Hammond Smith(The Frequency)/Jack Martello/The Chong/Mark Betteridge(Death Of An Artist)

The Winchester,Bournmouth

It’s acoustic night at the Winchester and local promoter Dom Patience of “Chalk Inc. Promotions” has gathered together a diverse line up of acts for the evening’s entertainment. Tonight’s headliner is none other than Dan Hammond Smith of The Frequency and formerly of The Other half, this is Dan’s first excursion into solo acoustic performance, and he has promised to bring along a few guests to help him out. The Frequency are currently preparing to release their as yet unnamed debut album on the 1st June when they play Mr Kyps in Poole supporting the “Pigeon Detectives”

Mark Betteridge 1

Tonight’s 1st act is Mark Betteridge singer and guitar player with upcoming Bournemouth Post Hardcore band “Death of an Artist”. Mark also has never ventured on a stage in this way before. He has opted for a few drinks to calm his nerves, and not having his band mates alongside him must seem a little strange. The alcohol seems to have loosened Mark’s lips and he nervously chats to the audience before getting on with the job in hand. This is not acoustic screamo as you would expect, this is just a simple, with an acoustic guitar singing and playing a few songs and actually it is quite good. After the 1st couple of numbers Mark finds his stride and performs a stripped down version of “Repulser” which works quite well in this way, not a bad start to his acoustic career, we look forward to the release of the brand new “Death Of An Artist” in June along with their headline show with “Burn The Fleet” at the Old Fire Station in Bournemouth.

The Chong

Next up are covers duo “The Chong” now in all honesty I usually detest cover acts with a vengeance as I would much prefer seeing acts perform their own material, but there is something quite charming about “The Chong” that grabs my interest, lead vocalist Laura delivers their chosen songs with a supreme passion and confidence singing largely to a silent respectful venue. The chosen songs are a nice varied selection of songs that you might not usually here from cover acts such as this, including “No Diggity”, “Hotel California” and a great version of the Oasis song “The Importance of Being Idle” with some great whistling accompaniment from Laura’s side kick Sam. The highlight of the set was an emotional version of Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love” which could not have failed to move anyone in the venue tonight; I would sincerely love to hear more of this talented duo performing some of their own original material in the future.

Jack Martello 1

Jack Martello arrived unannounced on stage and just started his set with an acapella number singing the words “All we need is time” out to a stunned Winchester audience, the voice was powerful and was delivered in a confident soulful way. Jack continued his set with an acoustic guitar and before each song gave an engaging detailed account of what they were all about including “Little Boat” inspired by the recent Titanic anniversary and the slightly disturbing “Fun” about Jack’s Mum and Dad shagging!! The cheeky banter in-between songs added a largely to the entertainment during the set of all original numbers. If you do a search on You Tube you can find a big collection of Jack’s songs all delivered in the same talented personal way, I felt privileged to have seen him here tonight, let’s hope he is back on the south coast again soon.

Dan Hammond Smith 1–2

So on to tonight’s headliner Dan Hammond Smith, Dan has picked a career spanning set list which included old and brand new songs which all are performed in the way they were first written on just a simple acoustic guitar. Tonight Dan does not seem to have any nerves as he delivers an extremely confident set full of highlights including the brilliant “Steal a Phrase” along with recently written new songs “The Best in Me” and “In the Morning”. The guests arrive in the form of Michael Forbes Dan’s ex band mate from “The Other half” and they performed the 1st song they ever wrote together called “Too Late Tonight”. Dan’s current band mate in The Frequency’s Austyn Brown also gets invited up onstage to perform a live favourite “Same Old Nothing at All”, the chemistry and friendship between these two ‘Brothers for another Mother” is quite obvious, the performance has everybody in the place smiling from ear to ear. Dan ends his set with not a “Stereophonics” cover as you would expect but a version of “The Killers” “All the Things That I have Done”. Dan leaves the stage to massive applause and is ordered back onstage to perform two more numbers for the more than delighted audience.

Videos

Set List
Dan Hammond Smith
You Don’t Have To Know
Happy Now
Instructions
Steal A Phrase
The Best In Me
Too Late Tonight
Barcelona
In The Morning
Loverblind
Same Old Nothing At All(With Austin Brown )
Emergency
All These Thing That I Have Done(Killers Cover)

Band Links
http://www.facebook.com/JackMartelloMusic/
http://deathofanartistband.com/
http://www.thefrequencyuk.com/

Words, Pictures and Video by Dave Chinery (Chinners).