Ragwormers / Cez / Peggy Venton

Hangover Hill Presents Live & Unheard at the Lighthouse, Poole

After a short winter hiatus and a trip to Wimborne’s Allendale Centre for the Original Music Awards, Hangover Hill Presents returns to the Lighthouse Poole with its monthly music showcase Live & Unheard. Tonight the venue is handling a couple of events and upstairs the main hall hosts Mike Oldfield’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of Tubular Bells. In the Sheling studio on the ground floor, we have three local acts laid on, who all are performing at this prestigious venue for the first time.

The first of these is introduced enthusiastically by tonight’s host, local legend and former contestant of The voice Si Genaro as “Peggy from Puddletown”; who is singer/songwriting Nurse Peggy Venton. Peggy has recently recorded a charity single “Army of Hope” for Ukraine at the Hangover Hill studio with the help on Matt Black. Tonight things kick off with a topical tune for February “Valentine”, a simple love song with a warm sentiment. Peggy sings the song with a glint in her eye and a few glances towards her beloved partner sitting in the audience. There are clearly a few nerves and she takes a few numbers to really settle down and find her stride. The studio can be a little intimidating for the performer playing here for the first time, it’s like a small amphitheatre with the audience looking down on you from three sides.

Peggy Venton 1–2–3

“Dependency” is one of her first great songs, which she wrote while training at college to be a nurse. It has some impressive lyrical content and is sung passionately from the heart. She uses just a six-string acoustic guitar, her voice, and a warm personality to entertain. Her lyrics are honest and relatable, with the audience warming to her musical style more and more as the evening goes on. Tracks like “Enjoy The Ride” about troublesome relationships and “In My Car” about spending quality time on your own are followed by the highlight of the Charity single. “Army Of Hope’s” lyrical content is emotive and powerful and gives a resilient message to the oppressors. The track can be purchased here: (https://peggyventon.bandcamp.com/track/army-of-hope) with all proceeds going to the Ukraine Relief fund.

Next up is Cez, a young lady from North Dorset who really impressed me when I first met her at a local music competition I ran last year. I put her forward for a place at this event and thankfully Matt & Mel trusted my judgement. Tonight she is here with colourful guitarist Neil Bailey and they both kick off with opening number “Wired & Tired”. From the first few notes of her voice radiating around this acoustic space, I knew that we had something really special on our hands. It sounds even better than when I first heard her performing on her own in a pub. Swapping between acoustic guitar and Piano Cez showed her loveable quirky personality with engaging chats about each number.

Cez 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8

Neil provided some wondrous, atmospheric accompaniment on his effect-fed guitars. Tracks like “Undone” and “Home is Where the Heart Is” with their powerful lyrical content, all really hit the spot. Think of solo singer/songwriters like Alanis Morissette and Suzanne Vega who have the power to move you with their voices, Cez has very similar abilities and musicianship. For the final number the original penned track “Addicted To Love” features singer/guitarist Alex Bayross, who joins the duo for a wonderful finale that includes much adulation from the audience as the trio completes the number.

Tonight’s final act is the Ragwormers, a bunch of friends who formed a band to make music just for fun and to share the journey with a host of their friends. After a few gigs this escalated and the band now regularly put on their own festival “Rag City”, openly supporting other local acts. This is the first gig they have played in a theatre setting such as this. Frontman Glen confesses that they have never before played a gig this sober. The five-piece feature Glen Salmon on Lead Vocals/Guitar, Rob Walters Guitar, Maxwell Durling on Drums, latest member George Payne on Bass and Stuart Walker on Saxophone.

Ragwormers 1–2–3–4

Kicking off with “Sunny Sunday Morning” the band’s two guitars meander with a beautiful unison, while their infectious rhythms make you want to move; add to this the sweet melodies of the saxophone. Their unique sound comes from a wide variety of places and not one of their songs sound remote alike. Tracks like the progressive “Space Traveller” the reggae-laced “Busy Body” and the anthemic “No One Needs To Know” show that the band have an army of songs full of great influences without sounding like anyone in particular.

A few little observations; they could be a little more organized with their song order and have prepared set-lists, rather than fumbling about on a mobile phone and Glen should try to shrug off his shy demeanour to address the audience more. Those points aside they are a great entertaining outfit, that shows plenty of talent with a host of great tunes. They end their set with “Don’t Wanna Be Low”, a fine upbeat tune that has some glorious melodies along with some more fine sounding saxophone accompaniment. This ends yet another great evening of the “Live & Unheard” local music showcase.

Set Lists
Ragowrmers
Sunny Sunday Morning
Space Traveller
Busy Body
Save You
No One Needs To Know
Risko Disko
1990
Green Trees
Sally
Get High
Don’t Wanna Be Low
Cez
Wired & Tired
I’ll Hold on To You
Chances (Trees)
Undone
Down To The Earth
Home is Where The Heart Is
Addicted To Love

Peggy Venton
Valentine
Red Sandals
A Place Called Limbo
Second Song
Dependancy
Enjoy The Ride
Woman
In My Car
Army Of Hope

Videos

Links
https://www.facebook.com/PeggyVmusic
https://www.facebook.com/CezMusicOfficial
https://www.facebook.com/theragwormers

Next Month’s “Live & Unheard” features The Roughcuts, Masau’u & Kitty Stewart on 9th March. Tickets are just £12.38 and can be purchased here.

Words & Media by David Chinery
Photographs by Lynn Frances Photography