It’s at the Victoria, in aid of Cancer Research UK, on Thursday 2nd September.
Tickets are £5.
Headlining are Karma Suite.
Supporting are We Writers, Jackpike, 4 Questions About What? and Carrie-Anne McNally.
We’re giving you brilliant music in a brilliant venue for a brilliant cause!
Gotta be worth a fiver, surely…?
If you can not attend – or you just wish to make an extra donation – you can donate by clicking here.
It’s all over and I am still tired; poor Jon has had to work, so he’ll be even more tired… at least I got to take the day off yesterday!
So, what happened?
Thursday, 22nd July
VENUE: Scruffy Murphy’s
CHARLIE CAN’T SURF
The Dirty Knecks
Eat Y’Self Pretty
Ricardo Thompson
The Imaginistas
The Imaginistas came in as a late cover for Island Three, so thanks to them for that. Ricardo Thompson is fast becoming one of our favourite acoustic artists, and did a great job for the second time in 5 days (he also played our acoustic night on July 18th) despite having a sore throat. He’s a good lad! Eat Y’Self Pretty had a nice début with us and got the upbeat atmosphere going after the chilled out acoustic vibe; we followed that with The Dirty Knecks who knocked out their excellent cover of ‘Voodoo Chile’ by Jimi Hendrix – one of my desert island discs! – surrounded by their own very good tunes. Finally, we had Charlie Can’t Surf; a Silent Filter favourite and a band that are super reliable when it comes to expecting a great performance!
Verdict: The two rock bands went down well with the Scruffy’s crowd, while both Eat Y’Self Pretty and Ricardo Thompson provided entertaining alternatives to the standard rock vibe. A very pleasing opening night.
Friday, 23rd July
VENUE: Island Bar
BROKEN WITT REBELS
The Lucky 27’s
Bolshie
Seventh Syndicate
Dean James
Dean James is one of the best acoustic artists I have EVER seen and I am sure he will go very far. Brilliant start to the night. Seventh Syndicate are a good bunch and their set went down very well; Bolshie were like the home team with the most people and, in my opinion, have improved with their new guitarist. The Lucky 27’s had their first Silent Filter appearance and we absolutely love them! Brilliant band, and good lads. Finally, we had Broken Witt Rebels… as always, there is nothing predictable about the Rebels and this was no exception. Unfortunately a few people had left by then (the curse of the headline spot) but they were still trying to entertain, and the poor mic stand took a bashing!
Verdict: Special mention to Acoustic Brew for doing the sound; much love to them, and we look forward to working with them again. It was an entertaining night, the only thing that does my head in at the Island Bar is that where I sit, I am not really involved with the action. At least people come over to speak to me though! Another good night, and a nice set-up for the all-dayers.
Saturday, 24th July
VENUE: Wagon & Horses
MAIN STAGE
THE FORES
Greenwood Park
The Coyotes
Dakesis
LoveKate KillGeorge
Sons of Beaches
Naked Remedy
ACOUSTIC STAGE
KEVIN JAMES HADLEY
The Tones
Brains For Breakfast
Becky Rose
Mother’s Jam
Andy Jones
Stunts
MAIN STAGE: We needed a good band to kick off that stage; as it is, we got a great band! Naked Remedy certainly blew away any cobwebs that people had on that Saturday afternoon. We then had FOUR consecutive début appearances on a Silent Filter stage; Sons of Beaches, LoveKate KillGeorge, Dakesis and The Coyotes all put in well received performances. Special mention to both Dakesis and The Coyotes, as they both come in as late replacements for Undue and The Black Acid Band (No hard feelings whatsoever – but certainly sympathy – to Undue over their withdrawal; unfortunately The Black Acid Band’s withdrawal was less amicable but whatever, screw ’em) and they both did great and added versatility to the bill. Two Silent Filter favourites – Greenwood Park and The Fores – finished the night off, and sandwiched in-between them was our own Kevin James Hadley (aka Sparrow) as The Tones unfortunately played to almost no-one upstairs. Greenwood Park were, as always, excellent; our heart goes out to Dale over the death of his car… Another mention for Dale; brilliant hair. Absolutely brilliant. Kevin James Hadley did well as the acoustic act to appear on a stage full of rock, but hey, he’s good enough to pull it off! Sadly we were running late and The Fores didn’t play to anywhere near as many people as they should but they were still excellent, despite Liam’s problems with his amp! Overall, the outside stage was great fun.
ACOUSTIC STAGE: Minus Kevin James Hadley, the headline act were essentially The Tones. They were brilliant, and I would like to apologise to them for the lack of people; if you were there and missed them – shame on you! Prior to that, we started the day off with Stunts, who always put on a good performance. Andy Jones kept things flowing nicely before Mothers Jam, who are different to other acts we have on but very entertaining. The amazing Becky Rose then joined us before Andy aka Brains For Breakfast gave us a thoroughly entertaining performance despite the heckling from Greenwood Park! Naughty!
Verdict: Really enjoyable day. Sympathy must go to the acoustic acts who were stuck indoors on such a nice day! We had a good turnout, and the main stage generally got a decent crowd. It was so nice to be able to provide an event like this for free entry, and hopefully we have improved the profile of both us and the venue. Much love to Della (Midland Music Maniacs) and Juanita (BeatleBabe) for spending the day with us.
Sunday, 25th July
VENUE: Sound Bar
THE ARCADIAN KICKS
We Writers
Karma Suite
The Cedar House Band
Where’s Strutter?
Jodie & The Jet Plane
The Country Bumkin Band
Melissa Hollick
Poor Melissa Hollick! She started off to half a dozen people, thankfully it started to get busier after her first couple of songs. She was very good though! A really enjoyable set from the Country Bumkin Band before a bit of chaos, as we had to swap Jodie & The Jet Plane around with Where’s Strutter? due to traffic issues. They were both absolutely brilliant, as were everyone else. That was probably the best I have seen the Cedar House Band and We Writers. Both Karma Suite and The Arcadian Kicks are two of the best bands I have seen, signed or otherwise.
Verdict: Overall, the quality of the event was amazing. Well done to everyone involved, and I am sure that everybody there completely and utterly enjoyed themselves. Again, being able to provide all that entertainment for free is a real pleasure, and I am still buzzing from the day!
OVERALL: Brilliant event and I would gladly do it again. When I think of some of the artists we have had on that were not on show – Joseph Hicklin, Chloe Anderton, Benjamin Blower, Circus Town, The Mannequin Republic, Tina V and more – that just goes to show the depth of local quality and that was one of our major aims. A brilliant event, and we would like to thank everybody involved.
Even Dale.
The Graham Parsnip Liquidiser Torture Think-Tank added to their line-up
Chris decided to gain some extra funding for Angry Duck
Silent Filter have certain standards at their shows
Danny & Matty got ready for another Broken Witt Rebels gig
The Cedar House Band became massive in the Orient
The morning after a Greenwood Park gig, Dale felt a bit worse for wear
Despite regular line-up changes to the Benwahs, Suzie always made sure outgoing members didn't leave empty-handed
It would appear that Silent Filter did not put proper preparation into festival parking
As the fire service display ended his set at the Lord Mayor's Show, Sparrow could not help but make a wish
On their way to their latest gig, Charlie Can't Surf stopped off for a snack
And finally, Kris decided to get serious in his Sound Bar restructure
Well it’s July and as promised, I am back! Okay it has been July for four days prior to today but doesn’t a Monday seem a good day to start?
So you can expect a lot of Silent Filter, the odd rambling about my personal life and other such nonsense, perhaps the occasional poem and most definitely the ever popular ‘News in Pictures’ – an idea that I totally nicked from a thread created by ChrisVillan (Chris Nee) on Villa Talk, it’s always nice when people say they want it to come back.
I am also returning to the Vital Villa team, albeit only in a monthly capacity.
So let’s get my pointless thought pointlessly back out there in a pointless style!
Hello everyone.
Today I did my first article for Vital Villa in quite a while. Click here to have a read.
Unfortunately, I have hardly written anything that is not to do with Silent Filter lately. But I enjoyed getting back on it today; unfortunately I do not have the time to write every week any more, but my ‘Monthly Musings’ column will be back next week. In addition, as I haven’t done my ‘Thursday Thought’s for Two Footed Tackle in a while, that will also now be a monthly column.
So there you go; I am not quite finished with my football writing just yet!
Please check out the Silent Filter link too, and also our Info Page where you can get see our gigs that you may wish to come to!
Thanks all!
Phil
The World of Sheriff Kimbo 