I only found out a few days
ago that Georgie Rose and her band were playing at Jam Café last night and made
a point of going along. She headlined with Mo Morris and Leah Sinead in that
order as support. Not as cramped as it has been in the Jam Café on occasions,
it was still a deservedly full house for the top of the bill act.
Mo Morris isn’t a name I am familiar
with, so before writing this review I attempted to look up some music from Mo
Morris and The Struggling String Band and have liked what I have heard,
although there isn’t a great deal of material on page one of Google so have
contented myself with a couple of YouTube clips of live performance. The reason
I tried to listen to the band is simply because I wasn’t too impressed with Mo
Morris opening the show as a solo artist; he has a nice voice and can play
guitar, but on his own he isn’t distinguishable from every other man with an
acoustic guitar that populates Nottingham. Nothing he did jumped out from the
stage and demanded my attention, so I am going to reserve judgment until I have
seen the band.
Leah Sinead’s band Keto were
billed to appear, I haven’t seen them yet so was looking forward to it having
listened to their Soundcloud. Sadly it wasn’t to be as during the afternoon
Leah announced that she was doing the show solo due to one of the members
having difficulty. The disappointment couldn’t last as Leah on her own can
carry a show and that is exactly what she did, her beautiful voice filling the
room and (almost) silencing those annoying people who seemingly go to gigs for
a chat.
We had already been given a
sample of Georgie during her sound check, which sounded better than some bands
do during their set. In a city of solo artists I feel that, as good as she was
that forming the band was the best move that she could have made to complete
the missing piece of the Georgie Rose jigsaw. I’ve known her a while and worked
with her on occasion and have already written that the band represents the
grown up Georgie Rose. Predictably bringing the house down with a storming set,
there was time to do something I don’t often do; hand out advice. Basically, I told
her that she needs to get out of Nottingham before she joins that all too long
list of music names pipped as the next big thing only to see it taken away
leaving them to stagnate on the local circuit. I have every confidence that she
won’t let this happen and will be able to break through the glass wall
surrounding Nottingham. Some have managed, but not everyone who should have.
Georgie plays again this
afternoon in Trinity Square. I will be there.
Listen to The Sunday
Alternative here
