Ventnor Blog

Looks like our Thom wasn’t that impressed with the stage presence of last weeks bands. He’s certainly honest in his reviews. Ed

The Hearing - The Studio 30 January 2008
Being ladies night at The Hearing, I was expecting a lot bigger turn out amongst the audience. I think this really hampered the first two bands on because they were playing to pretty much about half a room.

First on, were The Cups, playing a mix of originals and covers, they had little presence on stage and some members of the band seemed bored and disinterested at times.

The band delivered confident versions of Joss Stones’ ‘Super Duper Love” and the Klaxons “It’s Not Over yet”, although more was to be expected from a band that carries so much talent. Katie Jones having a voice like she has and Chris Jones on drums, potentially there is scope for so much more to be delivered throughout their performance.

Next on was the Emily Jane band (Emily Jane pictured).

This was absolutely a musician’s master class, but does that make the perfect band? With Emily Jane having a voice that reminds me of Laura Marling and Adele and being a front woman with a good collection of songs. There was a good atmosphere on stage and they were well received by the audience. Do they have they have enough good songs, to get a off the Island and take things to the next level?

With the audience levels increasing and the atmosphere becoming more excitable (possibly enticed by alcohol consumption), the next band on tonight’s line-up, also were fronted by a female, was The Hoops.

They took to the stage, appearing uninterested and with a lack of songs of any note; their performance seemed to drag on. It lacked passion from the start, and even though some were dancing they came across as very ordinary and run of the mill.

Hugo Frusslinky were the night’s headliners and I was expecting great things, after the hype that people had built up around them. They arrived on stage with the front woman (Heather McCallum) wearing pink leg warmers. They started off really well sounding like a British Be Your Own Pet, but as the set went on the songs all seemed to blend into each other, sounding samey.

The use of the flute in some of the songs was a nice surprise that worked. Did they live up to the hype that I had heard surrounding them? Probably not, but the Island so far has shown up a good mix of bands and a definitely has a healthy music scene.

It was a nice idea of the second year foundation degree students to have this ladies night, but should they do it again? It might not of worked this time, but we’ll see if they give it another go.

Newport, Review, Music