Rock Regeneration

Jul27

Velour / Rosie-Kate / Jack Dippy

on July 27th, 2024 at 19:52

Hangover hill Presents “Live & Unheard” at Lighthouse Poole

After a day enjoying a fine selection of bands at the Poole Harbour Festival, the early evening turns my mind to July’s Live & Unheard. With Si Genaro performing at Camp Bestival and Matt Black at a Festival in Portsmouth, it was my honour to be asked to host this month’s edition. As usual there are three completely different acts, all hand-picked by the Hangover Hill team to provide entertainment for the regular crowds that turn up to support this unique event.

Tonight’s audience was much bigger than I expected, what with so much going on this weekend. If you were an audience member and you are reading this, can I just say thank you and how much the team appreciate you supporting local live music. Dorset as a whole has so many talented musicians and many of them don’t get a platform to show off their talent to large audiences. I personally will keep banging the drum for the local scene until it gets the recognition it truly deserves. Right, I’ll climb back down off my soap box and get on stage to introduce the first act.

Jack Dippy is an artist I have not seen before, even though he is from right here in Poole – my wife however has seen him perform on Kingland Cres. right outside the shop that she works in. Of course local musicians and promotors have told me of his talents and tonight I finally get to see what he has to give. He’s a bright, colourful chap with long hair, a big beard and a wicked smile. With his six-string acoustic guitar, along with some effects including a loop pedal, Jack kicks off with opening number “Welcome To Why”, followed by “Little Bit of Pleasure” which is about a trip to Mexico.

His style is best described as progressive folk, with lots of twists and turns that take you on an instrumental journey. Some of it is impromptu and I expect no one Jack Dippy live performance is the same as the last. His voice has a bluesy style to it with a great range and a variety of sounds. “The Other Side” is a notable highlight with some American Indian-style chanting using a small bow, like a violin’s, but much smaller, drawn over the strings through the guitar’s sound hole to make a distinctive sound.

Jack Dippy 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9

Jack then invited his girlfriend “Amber La Bamba”, aka Amber Foster, on stage to sing a duet, with a song called “I’m The Unseen” and the couple showed off their special chemistry and totally stunned the audience with some divine instrumentation and equally beautiful vocals that sounded fantastic in the acoustically designed room. After a huge round of applause from the ecstatic audience, just when Jack has reached the end of their set, I stuck my neck out to give the couple one more song. Once again they took our breath away with a fine tune called “Shivers”, a song written by Amber and sung with yet more angelic vocals. The song ends and the couple embrace as a validation of a great evenings work and many new fans gained, including me.

Next we have a young lady called Rosie Kate, someone who I have seen perform a few times before. She is a singer songwriter and her weapon of choice is the Lighthouse’s own grand piano. Rosie’s mentor is Sirpico frontman Al who has been coaching her for over ten years, she has even written a song with the band called “Pink Squirrel”. Rosie Kate has been playing and creating music since she was 7 years old and now at 23 she is showing the fruits of her mentor and musical experiences. The lights are dimmed and the dry ice smoke machine starts up and lighting tech Sam Coombes shows off his expertise, creating a beautiful ambience from which this artist can provide her musical creations.

Rosie-Kate starts off with the sentimental “Everything Changed With You” with some really personal lyrics that radiate. This is followed by a tune called “Dynamite”, Rosie-Kate confessed beforehand that she was nervous and it takes a few numbers for her to find her stride. Once she does the true dulcet style of her voice can be heard with tracks like “Falling Deeper” and the impressive “Lost”, she has a “musicals style” voice with plenty of expression and animation.

Rosie Kate 1–2–3–4–5–6

With the Sirpico members in the audience a surprise dedication came in the form of one of their tracks “This City”. The song was dedicated to it’s writer Al and guitarist Dan who sadly passed away recently and played on this very stage in April of this year. The song is delivered with strength and in a suitably powerful way to move a few of us to tears. The set ends with a song called “Warrior”, a song where Rosie-Kate puts on her armour and shows her robustness throughout her life. The lyrics are relatable and send out a message to anyone struggling. The audience show plenty of appreciation for a fine performance and one that this artist (and her teacher) can be more than proud of.

Tonight’s headliners are quite different to what the usual “Live & Unheard” audiences are used to; we normally have guitar, bass and drums lined up for a full band performance. This evening we have “Velour” featuring Brandon Moss on vocals, air drumming & Dad dancing; along with Joe Grist on Synth, drum machine and Charlie Bronson serial Killer impersonations. The band take their influence from the glorious sounds of the 1980’s along with echoes of Dark Wave/Electronica.

They open with the track “1409” from their recent EP “Last Night at The Paradise Lost”, it starts with brooding synth lines; the pre-programmed drum machine then kicks in with it’s rhythmic patterns and then Brandon’s vocal injects the lyrics perfectly to proceedings. Next up is one of my favourite tracks that the band have created, it’s an epic number called “Lucia” and Brandon shows us the full capacity of his vocals and powerfully delivers to the excited crowd, which includes his number one fan; his Mum. His voice has some unique qualities and he puts everything into its delivery.

While Brandon is clearly the voice of the band, Joe is the brains behind the instrumentation; you wouldn’t believe it looking at him, but he used to play in a Metal band. His aptitude at creating these different soundscapes is fantastic, with songs like the Gothic-tinged “(To Die) As Lovers May” to the Poppy-sounding eighties style “Don’t Give Your Heart Away”. Below his synth Joe proudly displays the flag that is the flag of the Roma community. He is of Romany descent and displays its flag in solidarity of their community after Roma children were wrongfully separated from their families. A situation that he clearly feels strongly about and one certainly worth highlighting. The duo’s music really uplifts the audience here tonight and you can just feel the atmosphere growing amongst the crowd. You can see by their animated faces that there is plenty of enjoyment.

Velour 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9

As well as the enthusiastic Dad dancing and to be fair he’s better than most Dads I know, especially myself; Brandon’s air drumming is worth a mention, each time the drum machine plays a beat during a break, Brandon hits the air as the exact time, something only experience brings. The camaraderie between these two friends is obviously firm and the knowing looks that they give each other during their set, acknowledging their satisfying performance.

After another Pop-etched song “Cloudboy” that sounds reminiscent of early Depeche Mode and an epic track called “Falling From Great Heights” which includes a short medley of the bands other tunes, the band take their bows and leave the stage. The crowd just erupted with loads of noise and adulation at such a great set, many of them started shouting for more. As we were pretty much out of time again I made the call and gave the band a chance to take their plaudits and deliver one last song.

As they have played all the originals they have rehearsed, it was time to bring out an 80’s cover to end proceedings. This came in the form of a nicely reworked version of the Tears for Fears track “Everybody Wants to Rule The world” and the crowd loved it. This ended a fantastic night, I’m sorry that both Si Genaro and Matt Black had to miss out on a brilliant night, but hey they have to earn an honest living sometime.

PS. “Live & Unheard” regulars will be pleased to hear finally after a false start during the pandemic, Matt and Mel finally tied the knot at an intimate private ceremony locally in the countryside. I have worked with the two of them for many years and it fills my heart with pride to see this union finally happen. I’d like to wish them both many congratulations, I hope they spend many happy, healthy years together. Three Cheers for Mr & Mrs Black!!

Set Lists
Velour
1409
Lucia
(To Die) As Lovers May
The Invitation
(Love is) I Gave You Everything
They
Testament
Paradise Lost
Lilith
Don’t Give Your Heart Away
Cloudboy
Falling From Great Heights

Rosie-Kate
Everything Changed With You
Dynamite
Hear The Cries
Falling Deeper
No More
Anti-Clockwise
Lost
This City (Sirpico Cover)
Ignited
Warrior

Jack Dippy
Welcome To Why
Little Bit Of Pleasure
The Other Side
Back To The Earth
I’m The Unseen (Featuring Amber Foster)
Shivers (Featuring Amber Foster)

Encore
Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears For Fears Cover)

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