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MR KYPS music venue at Lower Parkstone, Poole, have had to cancel the visit of
the USA’s Jerry Donahue & The Southern Rock Allstars. Instead, timeless R&B
favourites The Animals will be performing. For more details ring 01202 748945).******************************
THE village of Rowlands
Castle near Portsmouth accommodates one of Hampshire’s best kept secrets. It’s
The Fountain Inn - a music venue run by ex-Van Morrison Band guitarist Herbie
Armstrong, with the bonus of a Thai restaurant, the Mai Thai, on the premises.
Herbie runs jam sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when musicians and singers
can get up and do their thing in informal style. Tuesdays tends towards the
electric, with a more laid back acoustic feel the following day. Herbie usually
pitches in with a few songs himself at the end of each evening. There’s more
music on Fridays and Saturdays with a mix of rock, blues, reggae and folk from
bands and duos. See our Listings section for full details of live music nights
in January.
Herbie offers great Thai-style bar food in the Regency-style pub bar on weekday
lunchtimes, with traditional roast dinners on Sundays. In the evenings the Mai
Thai Restaurant across the courtyard opens up at 6pm Tuesday to Saturday and
12.30pm to 4pm on Sundays for some truly authentic Thai cuisine. The restaurant
consists of two intimate rooms decorated in colonial style with seating for 40
diners to enjoy a huge choice of spicy platters all freshly cooked with prime
ingredients by Sara the Thai chef.
A bonus of The Fountain Inn, an atmospheric former coaching inn, is the fact
that Herbie and his Swedish born wife Lisa also do accommodation. Upstairs there
are five elegant en suite bedrooms, one containing an antique four poster bed.
Music lovers and gourmets alike can enjoy bed and breakfast accommodation from
£50 per night.
The Fountain Inn is situated overlooking the village green. It’s just off the
M27via the Horndan and Emsworth exit. With easy access to both Portsmouth and
Chichester and good rail links The Fountain Inn is ideally situated. For more
details ring 02392 412291.
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BULLFROG Blues Club have
the antedote to any post-Christmas depression - a mini blues festival at South
Parade Pier, Southsea, on Thursday January 23 with Memo Gonzalez & The
Bluescasters and guitar slinger Michael Messer with Ed Genis.
Memo Gonzalez & The Bluescasters are back in the Portsmouth area by popular
demand. Harmonica player and vocalist Memo Gonzalez, originally from Texas, is
now based in Germany. The band, whose members come from Germany, Turkey and the
USA, play for fun. Their live sound is caught on their recent album "Let's All
Get Drunk and Get Tattooed"!
Michael Messer, an accomplished slide guitar player and Ed Genis first started
playing music together in 1983. Since then they have worked on many albums
together and toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom, Europe & Canada,
both as a duo and in a band format. Heavily rooted in Mississippi Delta &
Chicago blues, their sound is very much “unplugged” and relaxed.
Tickets, priced £8 are available via spiderpromos@aol.com or 02392 436267or from
the Wedgewood Rooms Box Office, Albert Rd, Southsea on 02392 863911.
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GREAT news for music fans in Hampshire. Eastleigh is to host a 6-day music festival next summer. From Tuesday July 29th to Sunday
August 3rd the main events will take place in a big top to be erected on Eastleigh Recreation Ground. Acoustic gigs will take place at The Point venue nearby with fringe events happening at the Concorde Club and many local pubs.
Peter Chegwyn, the man behind the successful Fareham and Gosport Easter Festival and Gosport Summer Festival is the festival organiser. “Eastleigh Council are fully behind the festival which will bring up to 25,000 music lovers to Eastleigh over the six days,” says Peter. “The council have put up £25,000 and we are looking for local firms and traders to help us with sponsorship and advertising to make this the biggest festival on the South Coast next summer.”
The line-up will be announced later, but Peter intimates that it will be top quality and as eclectic as the other festivals he has been involved with. Folk, world music and rock will all figure strongly.
Congratulations to Eastleigh Council for backing live music and to Peter Chegwyn for putting Eastleigh on the live music map. And shame on Southampton Council whose only contribution to live music seems to be Power In The Park, which could hardly be described as a festival!
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FOLK MUSIC fans have a
cracking festival to look forward to next month down in Gloucestershire.
Cheltenham Folk Festival runs from Thursday February 6 to Sunday February 9.
Most events take place in the impressive Edwardian Town Hall; there is plenty of
parking and a range of town centre shops and restaurants nearby.
There is also The Market Alley where clothes, books, arts, crafts and musical
instuments will be on sale from a small and select variety of stalls. Good food
(and drink) is available at the Town Hall site. Cheltenham Tourism can help
festival-goers with reasonably priced B&B accommodation. Their number is 01242
522878.
The festival line-up for 2003 includes:
FAIRPORT CONVENTION
FRANKIE ARMSTRONG
ROY BAILEY & TONY BENN
BELSHAZZAR'S FEAST
MAGGIE BOYLE & GORDON TYRRALL
CLAMJAPHRY & MICK BROOKS
FOLK SOUTH-WEST
MARTIN GRAEBE
BARA GRIMSDOTTIR & CHRIS FOSTER
JOHN HARVISON & SASKIA TOMKINS
HEKETY & GORDON POTTS
HOOVER THE DOG
DAVE HUNT
LOUIS KILLEN
LAST NIGHTS FUN
LOCTUP TOGETHER
MALTHOUSE PASSAGE
OLD ROPE STRING BAND
KATHRYN ROBERTS & SEAN LAKEMAN
RYBURN 3 STEP
JOHN SPIERS & JON BODEN
RON TAYLOR & JEFF GILLETT
EDDIE UPTON
BRASS MONKEY
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BBC Radio One recently announced they'll be dedicating a week to playing tracks from unsigned musicians, DJs, producers, and bands who will be added to a specially created OneMusic Unsigned List. The OneMusic Unsigned list will run for a week from January 10, 2003. Radio One will select demos sent to the station which will then go through the same playlist process that all records get. From this debate six artists will be chosen & added to the OneMusic unsigned List where they'll each receive 5 to 6 plays a week.
Radio 1 are looking for unsigned demos of any music genres: R&B, UK garage, hip hop, drum n’ bass, dance, guitar bands, singer/songwriters - whatever music you're making, this is a good chance of getting heard on Radio One.
The OneMusic Unsigned List is the first playlist of the new year and Radio 1 want to give a lot more exposure to unsigned artists. This is going to happen several times a year, so if music doesn't make the playlist first
time round, there will be an opportunity to submit more demos.
OneMusic is part of Radio 1's website which provides the inside info from music industry players and how to's on anything in the music business you always wanted to know but didn't know who to ask. One Music: bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic.
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POWERFUL Scottish singer-songwriter Jackie Leven’s new album is released on February 14, 2003. Called “Shining Brother, Shining Sister” it’s on the Cooking Vinyl label and all tracks are self-written by the Botley-based artist. Several tracks including “Classic Northern Diversion” and “Another Man In The Old Arcade” were previewed at Talking Heads at the end of last month, and proved well up to Leven’s high standard.
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NOSTALGIA rules in The Anvil at Basingstoke’s 2003 season. Amongst the 50s & 60s acts lined up early in the new year are Marty Wilde, “Reelinandrockin” with Gerry Marsden, Mike D’Abo, Brian Poole etc, The Solid Silver 60s Show with The Searchers, Dave Dee & co, Wayne Fontana & Barry Ryan, plus the rescheduled Hollies concert. For more details see www.theanvil.org.uk
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MUSIC rules at
Wiltshire’s Salisbury City Hall right from the start of its’ Spring season when
“A Viennese Prom Spectacular” takes place on Saturday January 4. Plenty more
music during the rest of the month includes “A Night At The Proms”, “The
Nutcracker”, a Burns Night Spectacular and the ever-popular songs of Abba
performed by Voulez Vous.
February includes classics from Sarum Chamber Orchestra, pop nostalgia with
Gerry Marsden, Brian Poole, Dave Berry and many other 60s icons, and a feast of
folk with “The Big Session” collating The Oysterband, Eliza Carthy and other top
roots artists.
March offers the drama and passion of Verdi’s opera “A Masked Ball”, a veteran
of jazz, Chris Barber and his band, and the music of The Eagles gets taken to
the limit by The Illegal Eagles. The annual “Solid Silver 60s Show” returns
bringing The Searchers, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch, The Dakotas and
Wayne Fontana.
Two of the highlights during April are a visit from the superb Colin Blunstone
and Rod Argent Band and a rousing shot of soul and blues from Connie Lush and
her band. Opera gets an outing in May with “Orpheus In The Underworld”, while
rockers can enjoy “The Billy Fury Story” and The Counterfeit Stones playing the
best of the Rolling Stones.
For complete details ring 01722 327676.
