Lovely evening last night. Nicole’s turns out to be a nicely done out and intimate little bar and just a short walk from Jewelry Quarter landmarks The Big Peg and the Chamberlain Clock.

The evening is billed as one act plus an open mic session which you might imply the standard of the acts to be a bit average, but nothing could be further from the truth. The fact that it was a quiet evening for the club meant that co-promoter Mike Bethel ended up playing a few songs at the start which was great, cos he’s a fine musician – a top drawer guitarist with a powerful and flexible voice.

Mike Bethel

Next up fellow co-promoter Michelle Brogan took the stage offering a simple strummed guitar backing to a soothingly rich and beautiful vocal.

Andy Wicket was introduced as “legendary” which is perhaps no exaggeration at least within local musical circles not least due to his one time membership of Duran Duran and the popular theory that he actually wrote their huge single “Girls on Film”. Acoustically he has a powerful voice to accompany his dramatic songs.

Finally I was up and opened as planned with an instrumental – Gudonya – which I think went reasonably well and helped establish a mood but after that it was straight into my current set of songs which is when the performance felt like it clicked into gear. I sang “Easier for Her”, “Listen In”, “Jobbery”, “For Ali” – missing out “Your Thing” cos it didnt quite seem to fit the mood – “Sucking Up”, “Who Knew” and finishing with “Trip Diary”.

Rich Batsford at Secret Music Club

The crowd, smallish as it was, all seemed to enjoy the evening a lot and I’d very much recommend this place for a visit – its on every Wednesday so whether you are purely interested in listening or fancy chipping in a song or two, do check it out.
Xx

Music Reviews

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