February 23rd, 2022 by Steve

Concert review 22nd Feb 2022 Andrew Nix

Coming to us direct from a weekend event in Eastbourne, Andrew Nix together with his Roland AT900C joined us at Mountnessing providing us with an enjoyed evening of bright and varied entertainment. His broad Yorkshire sense of humour very much in evidence throughout, we enjoyed a ‘two for the price of one’ evening with Andrew as both keyboard musician and comedian. With us all still concerned about the Covid pandemic our numbers were depleted and due to illness there was no club raffle but nothing was missing from the nights entertainment.

From the 1st half
Tenth Regiment March, Make You Feel My Love, Shadows medley, Young lovers, Wonderful land, Ghost riders in the sky, We’ve only just begun, Top of the world, Morning in Cornwall, Smile, When you’re smiling, A 60s medley, Beatles, With a little help from my friends, Do You Want To Know A Secret, How do you do what you do to me, Save the last dance for me. Save the last dance.

From the 2nd half
Telstar, Rocking all over the world, YMCA (sing along), La Mer, I want to hold your hand, Norwegian Wood, Ticket to ride, Lady Madonna, Let it be, From Russia with love, Live and let die, You only live twice, Theatre organ medley, Over the rainbow, Bring me sunshine, A Walter Donaldson medley,
Closing with a ‘Latin’ medley as his encore.

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January 10th, 2022 by Steve

Review 13th Dec 2021 Rod Pooley

It was almost Christmas and we were all looking forward to a club Christmas night. Although we tried to keep to the usual format, Covid interfered and festivities were restricted. The forty of us who attended were there to see Rod Pooley who entertained with a mixture of both Christmas and other music performed using a TRX system based on Yamaha Genos. In between the music there was of course Rod’s sense of humour. At the interval all were offered a few festive nibbles and a beverage provided on a prepared selection plate intended to limit cross contamination. Christmas; a little constrained but that was due to Covid worries. A great night from Rod, a few sing along items and an Encore of Hooked on Classics.

From the 1st half
Feeling Groovy, Hark the Herald & other carols, Morning in Cornwall, Windmills of your mind, Last Christmas, Daydream Believer, ABBA I do I do, The Blue Danube, O come all ye faithful, Once in royal David, Bad Day, Latin medley,

From the 2nd half
Silver Shiny stockings, Let it snow let it snow, Rudolf the red nose reindeer, Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Blue Bossa, Down Town, Satisfaction, When you say nothing at all, The Snowman, Walking in the rain, White Christmas, Hooked on Classics medley

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August 22nd, 2018 by Steve

Concert Review 20th August 2018 – Mike Hall

 

It was the last concert of the summer for the year and we welcomed Mike Hall who opened the evening with a Jungle Book medley. We had to agree it was some years since he had played for us, a fact that he didn’t fail to point out. Mike is an advocate of the Orla range of Instruments and with him he brought two, the GT8000 and a smaller portable keyboard the KX10. During the evening he made a point of talking about these instruments and their abilities. No doubt instruments enthusiasts appreciated the detail. His music, as we would expect included variety of style and form, this of course means you cannot please all the people all of the time. Overall it was a good evening’s entertainment. We listened to the music he produced and when Mike offered to play whichever instrument, we the audience preferred, it was obvious most of us were quite surprised by what we were hearing from the smaller portable KX10, an impressive instrument, It was called for time and again. At least two members of the audience have since gone looking for one themselves.

Some of Mike’s music included.  A jungle book medley, Take a chance on love, A big Band Gershwin Medley, a ‘Pipe’ organ medley, Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree’ ‘Eye level’ from Van der  Valk, ‘Thinking about the things we used to do’, Smokey and the bandit – eastbound and down, The Candy man, The Kyle of lochalsh, Psalm 23, Dream – Johnny Mercer,  Mack & Mabel – I won’t send roses, 76 Trombones in the hit parade, A rock and role medley, The Odd couple.

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May 22nd, 2018 by Steve

Concert review 21st May 2018 – Michael Wooldridge

Artiste’s instrument – Customised 3 tier bespoke Rolland Atelier with a Paramount Virtual pipe organ provided via his laptop.

Although not a large audience to greet Michael he did provide an evening of solid musical entertainment enjoyed by most. Amongst the music we heard were:- Get Happy, the wind beneath my wings, A medley of Wurlitzer theatre organ music, a medley of the UK’s ‘successful’ Eurovision wins. (We had just had the 2018 event on TV) followed by yet more medleys from Gershwin, Latin America, Jazz.
After the interval we returned to 76 Trombones, and more well filled medleys from Flanagan and Allen, a classical collection, Abba (to which many sang along too) a collection of Tommy Steele hits, concluding with a medley of Glen Miller Big band sounds. In all the music we listened to was an accomplished performance it could though have been better appreciated by a larger audience to help create atmosphere.

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October 24th, 2017 by Steve

Concert Review 23rd October 2017 – Rod Pooley

 

The evenings were drawing in, how fast the year is passing. Our guest for the evening was Rod Pooley. He opened with a sense of humour that continued throughout. “It was good to be back in Essex after such a long time… and the only way is??” Of course many replied “ESSEX…” He was, he thought a young man when last he performed for us, there was a bit of friendly banter between him and our booking secretary about how he came to be overlooked for so long and then the concert began with, ‘windmills of your mind’.  Followed by “Charlie Chan”. Between each piece thereafter Rod continued with his humour which never failed to raise a laugh, he was himself the brunt of much of it. We listened to the realistic sound of ‘the big band’, ‘orchestras’ film music and much more. Some titles from the evening were, ‘O Mio Bambino Caro’, ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ ‘All I ask of you’ and ‘Home’ by Michael Bublé. The evening was very well received by all with much applause. Rod commented that he hoped he wouldn’t need to wait another 14 years to be asked back again.

 

I am informed that, for those who like to know these things…

The instrument that Rod was using was the TRX Organ system based on Yamaha Tyros 5 with Hammond pedals.

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September 30th, 2017 by Steve

Concert Review 25th September 2017 – Alex Payler

25th September and summer was over, the evenings drawing in and maybe that was why the turnout for our concert by Alex Payler was so disappointingly low. We even delayed the start of the evening hoping for a few more attendees.

Alex provided a captivating performance of live music with varied genres. He performed on his very capable Yamaha. There surely ought to have been content to please all.  The evening opened with a lively rendition of Palladio soon contrasted by the minuet from the L’arlesienne suite by Bizet. As the evening progressed we heard music from film, stage, TV and the classics. Perhaps the style of his music should described as orchestral rather than Hammond, how the listener appreciated  what they listened to would depend on their preference of style but the performance itself was absorbing, rounded and accomplished. At the end of the evening Alex was applauded and an encore requested for which he played Brazil by Ary Barroso

Alex’s instrument was the YAMAHA Electone Stagea ELS-02C. As well as being the first pro-player to import this very special instrument into the UK, he is now one of the leading exponents of this particular model in the world.

Alex’s concert content

 

PART 1 [Approx. Running Time—1:00Hr]

 

  1. Palladio (K. Jenkins)
  2. L’arlesienne Minuet (Bizet)
  3. It Don’t Mean A Thing…(Ellington)  ▼
  4. The Habanera (Bizet)
  5. The ‘Phantom Connection’ (Webber) ▼
  6. Take Five (Brubeck)
  7. Trumpet Tune (J.Clarke/Purcell)  ▼
  8. James Bond Theme (Barry)
  9. Beauty & The Beast (Menken)
  10. E.T. The Flying Theme (J.Williams)
  11. ‘Lament’ / Firedance (Whelan)

 

PART 2 [Approx. Running Time—1:00Hr]

 

  1. Thunderbirds Theme (Gray)
  2. 1492 Conquest of Paradise (Vangelis)
  3. Westside Story Overture (Bernstein) ▼
  4. Hello Dolly (Herman)
  5. Band of Brothers (Kamen)
  6. Libertango (Astor Piazzolla) ▼
  7. Lean On Me (B. Withers)
  8. Aladdin – Arabian Nights/Friend Like Me (Menken)
  9. Bolero (Ravel)

 

  1. ENCORE: Brazil (Ary Barroso)

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