We were asked to provide the sound re-inforcement for this acoustic gig at the University's stage 2. There were 5 acts on giving a range of self penned songs to timeless standards.

First up was Beasty!

Reasonably competent on the guitar, Beasty did most of his set solo, although he did have some friends on stage later on. Beasty covered songs from Razorlight, Idlewild, Greenday, Bob Dylan which was a nice selection. However, I think nerves got the better of him at times and his singing was a bit off key. He really shone when he was helped out by his friend Neil who had a good gravelly voice and later with a young lass (sorry, I didn't catch her name) whom he also did a couple of songs with.

The second act was Mikey.

Mikey was good - he oozed confidence and put on a good show playing a set mainly of self penned songs (listen out for jumping in bins, You didn't knock or ring). Unfortunately, he broke a string half way through, but professionally finished off the song with 5 strings and after a couple of minutes break, was back up and running.

Maddy and Phil are a father and daughter act who are well worth going to see if you can. Phil is an accomplished guitarist and Maddy has an absolutely beautiful voice. This worked especially well when Phil harmonised with Maddy filling out the sound nicely.

In the set, we heard their versions of songs such as Mini Rippertons Loving you, Guns n Roses Sweet Child of Mine amongst some other country & western / jazz / folk standards.

Robson and Headly were another 2 part act with one giving us the rhythm and vocals and the other giving us the twiddly bits. These lads got the audience going with songs such as Sweet Home Alabama, a bit of Oasis, and some of their own songs (Yellow Pages, Silver Sky) finishing with a bit of blues improvisation. Nice set lads.

The night ended with Afnan & Joel or Back Seat Angel as they are known to many. The lads gave out a free cd on the night to those who wanted one and although home made, it does give an insight to Afnans powerful vocals and what the act are all about.  

Amongst the songs we heard from the lads were, Another Chance, 7 Weeks and Newcastle. Look out for their free cd.