Victoria Cross, Parkstone
Soulhole formed in early 2012 after being asked to provide a band for a friends wedding. This ignited a further hunger for more and after regularly rehearsing the band started to gig around the pubs and music venues of their home county.
This year the band have upped the pace and performed some higher profile gigs including headlining the Winter Stage in Bournemouth square on Christmas Eve. Tonight they play one of their last gigs of the year at the newly refurbished Victoria Cross pub in Ashley Road in Parkstone.
George Appleton
The support tonight is from a chap by the name of George Appleton who is usually found behind a drum kit. After wanting to find a new outlet for original songs he took up guitar and tried a few songs out at a local open mic night. With just an electric guitar and a microphone, George made himself heard above the usual pub noise with some delightful songs that show a nice diverse potential. He ends his set with a trippy psychedelic instrumental number than gained him some decent respect and applause from the locals.
Soulhole take to the stage at 9pm and provide the locals with a two hour set containing a mixture of popular well chosen reworked covers along with a few originals from their debut EP. There is a great version ” Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure as well as numbers by The Beatles, Bob Marley, Artic Monkey’s, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and a super version on “Break On Through” by The Doors. They take their influences from a magnitude of places with a collection of rock, funk, blues and pop seemingly put in a blender to create an individual distinctive sound that offers something that all music fans can enjoy. At this early stage of their career this young band show they have plenty of talent and ambition along with a good manager who will hopefully take them in the right direction.
Soulhole have two guitars which both take turns a being the lead with Matt Digby providing some excellent accompaniment on the keyboards. Front man Jordan with his big afro hair, purple jacket and spotty trousers not only delivers some first rate varied vocals he is also has some exceptional guitar skills coupled with some great audience interaction. Rob and Christy provide an unfailing solid rhythm section with a new special effect to add to their armoury in the form on a Christmas present of bass wah wah pedal.
Highlight of the evening was an original song called “Bag Of Fun” a sort of funky blues number which when linked up with a great keyboard led version of the Dr Who theme tune had the crowd up off their bar stools dancing. The obligatory encore was the Kaiser Chief’s “I Predict A Riot” which provided a mass sing-a-long for the alcohol fuelled audience, leaving them all happy to go home with a collection of top tunes in their heads.
Band Links
http://www.facebook.com/bournemouthsoulhole
https://soundcloud.com/soulholeband
https://www.youtube.com/user/SoulHoleBand
http://www.soulhole.co.uk
Review & Pictures By Dave “too much turkey” Chinery (Chinners)
