The stage was a vision in red panels which glowed with the lighting rig changes, adorned in red roses for the love theme, with bird cages like Cocteau-style aerial scribbles, all surreal and hanging at different heights behind which were remarkably effective. The evening was excellent with a good turn out, great turns from the likes of Kevan Manwaring (of Awen) who was launching his latest book of poetry, and Saravian a very fine singer/songwriter who sang hauntingly of the theme. The lighting turned the backdrop from crimson to magenta, darkened the background to make everything vivid... Our own couple of sets seemed to go down well, and we had brought plenty of red fabric and pink organza for the theme!
Karen Street @Chapel Arts
24 March 2010
Karen Street
Karen Street @Chapel Arts
19/03/10
This event turned into a very memorable Friday night for more than one reason. Firstly, the multitalented and hugely versatile Karen Street and her band performing a 50 minute set of originals and covers, which would make for a very fine evening's entertainment on any occasion, and which it most certainly did. But this evening was also the official opening of the Chapel Arts Café, and between 6 and 8pm around 50 or so guests were treated to food and wine, with music provided by members of locally well known Bath folk band Inu and some of their friends, plus speeches and introductions from Chapel Arts director Phil Andrews, who shared with the audience his vision for the development of the venue as a space designed to encourage and support the creative endeavours of Bath's music and literary communities, an artistic manifesto to which all present added their enthusiastic assent.
8pm rolled around and it was time to go upstairs to the main hall to see Karen Street and her fellow musicians, and the mellow tones of both Karen's accordion and saxophone
perfectly suited the laid back, convivial mood of the event. A gifted performer and one with an extensive CV which shows her having performed as part of some of the UK's most prestigious orchestras and theatre companies, as well as jazz and funk artistes such as Ute Lemper and Grace Jones, her band's current set includes standards such as 'Bye Bye Blackbird', Tina Turner's 80s standard 'What's Love Got to Do With It', which Karen and her band render in a cocktail lounge style far removed from the anthemic tones of the best known version of the song, but most of the two part set is given over to original compositions, and vocalist Sara Colman had numerous opportunities to display the depth and timbre of her quite considerable vocal ranges. The band perform without a full drum kit; double bassist Andy Hamil adds a tabla to his instrument with which to provide percussive backing, and guitarist Fred Baker earned some appreciative applause for his inventive fretwork on more than one of the band's numbers this evening.
As a launch event for Chapel Arts new café, this evening very succesfully set the tone for what the venue intends to achieve, and the audience reception for Karen Street and her band was both warm and generous. The café is open between 11 and 5pm Monday to Saturday, and watch the main event listings for upcoming performances and other events
Jon Gordon
From Shane (Widsith & Deor)
06 February 2010
The Garden
Just returned from Bath and Bristol, and a packed weekend. Not long after a brilliant warm-up night at the Storyclub, on Wednesday, on the Sunday, we storytellers were performing as part of Awen Publications' and Icepax Productions' Garden of Awen cabaret night at the Chapel Arts Centre in Bath. The event was beautifully decorated and the venue a really nice one. Unlike many religious buildings converted to other uses, it had intimacy and wasn't draughty. The stage area was quite high, and a nice size. Black and a few white circular bistro tables with upholstered chairs filled the rest of the space, with a bar at the back. Candles were lit on the tables which made play of the mirror-like surfaces, and the house lights were globes on the walls above, shedding a soft indirect glow.
none
The Amazing Street Cred Band
23 January 2010
I've seen a lot of live music over the years, and while I haven't seen everything, I think I can say with confidence that I've seen everything I might ever want to.Tonight was a bit different, though. I had to rake the memory bank while attempting to recall the last time I heard a selection of blues and R'n'B standards, stretching all the way back to the days of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith, performed live, anywhere. So I was more interested than I've been for a while in what the Amazing Street Cred Band might've had up their sleeves on this Saturday evening, and was I disappointed? No indeed I wasn't.
Founder member Richard Ingham is slightly vague as to exactly when the Street Cred band actually formed, although a quick look at their set list will reveal exactly the vintage of the bands material, if not actually of it's members. The emphasis is on 50s blues and 60s R'n'B, from both US and UK sources, and the 5 piece band do much more than just perform a set of cover versions. Taking some well and lesser known songs from artistes such as The Animals, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Carl Perkins and what are today more obscure delta blues numbers from the likes of Howling Wolf, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and a host of others, and the emphasis is very firmly on entertainment. The Amazing Street Cred Band very definitely want you to enjoy yourself in their company and are more than capable of putting their own spin onto songs that are perhaps less well known than they should.
So an appreciative audience got to hear a selection of, not exactly oldies, but a musical history tour that took in blues sounds from Missisipi and Chicago, plus rock 'n' roll originally performed by some of the actual legends of the 1950s, and a few more modern tracks from the 1960s, including on this occasion two songs originally performed by The Animals, including a sharply accurate take on 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place'. And as the evening progressed, more than a few of the Chapel Arts audience left their seats to dance around the front of the stage, such was the level of enthusiasm Richard Ingham and his mates were able to inspire. Catch the Amazing Street Cred Band's show whenever you can, chances are they'll get you dancing the night away.
Jon Gordon