Boomin’ provided one of the real highlights of this showcase last time around and their appearance this year only served to underline what a weird, wonderful and totally overwhelming live band they are. A huge noise from a traditional guitar, bass and drums line-up and the Boomin’ mode of gigging seems to be made up of picking songs out of the air and segueing them together. Boomin’ are a great fun, high energy band. A huge surge of fresh air blew through the ballroom at the Norbreck as soon as they appeared.

A cover of the great Jocelyn Brown track Somebody Else’s Guy heralded the arrival of Nina and the Bottle Rockets. Three highly competent looking musicians on guitar, bass and drums are fronted by an eye-catching blonde with one of the gutsiest and most soulful white voices I have come across. We heard a stand-out vocal performance and as a unit Nina and the Bottle Rockets are straight out of the top drawer.

Electric Dreams are a four-piece 80s genre band, featuring a female bass player plus guys on keys, drums and lead vocals. There was something fresh and likeable about this band.

Enter a four-piece live band, comprising a ballsy singing bass player, rhythm and lead guitarists with attitude and a drummer who seems to find all the fills and then some. Kings Ov Leon fills stadiums at festivals right across Europe and these guys are my current favourite tribute band.

Slingback are a three-piece, semi-live party-style attraction, with a bonny and winsome singer in the shape of Jennifer Cox. Given the scaled down line-up, this may be a band for the fee conscious, but the lively presentational skills and the punchy self-contained sound make Slingback suitable for all kinds of venues. Tracks by the Pretenders and the Stereophonics made great listening.

Next up was a four-piece semi-live band called Rocket, who gave us a version of the little heard House of Pain hit Jump Around. Clad entirely in black Rocket made all the right noises as the audience lent a collective ear to their R&B and rap dance floor fillers. A superb performance.

The Uncut are a black-shirted four piece, who have the look of the type of function band you might book for a wedding or a company do. A stand-out female singer here and the traditional back line for music and separate vocal PA suggested a band which could fit into many venues. 

I have seen and enjoyed tribute singer My Winehouse in a number of tribute showcases. It was nice to see a singer who possesses the distinctive and rich Winehouse timbre and doesn’t pursue the derisory route. The Zutons more guitar-rift laden version of Valerie was the pick of the songs and fans of the late Winehouse would not be disappointed with this living imitation of a great artist.

Two ladies performing a variety of impressions/tributes came next. Known together as Disturbia, we saw bits from the respective repertoires of Rihanna, Beyonce and Lady Gaga and the variety of stage entrances and exits made this glamorous to watch and interesting to listen to. If the ladies had been accompanied by backing dancers, we would really have seen something.

Yorkshire lass Olivia Leigh performed her tribute to Adele and it was like watching the real thing. A first-class vocalist certainly and there is demand for this most marketable of solo tributes at the moment.

Closing the show out were the Kaiser Monkey Killers. If there is a better quality indie rock-based band tribute out there, I have yet to see them. These guys are busy at tribute festivals and the more musically savvy people in the audience at the Norbreck Castle Hotel appreciated the sheer quality of what was going on out there on stage.

It was good to visit Big Foot Events boss Erica Crompton, daughter of that great comedian of yesteryear Colin Crompton. The circus skills jugglers and stilt-walkers did their part to set the scene and the point about the networking value of live showcases, as opposed to internet promotion of acts, was particularly well underlined here.

Published Friday 4 November 2011 by Mark Ritchie The Stage Reviews