Mike Sanchez

MIKE SANCHEZ

Guildhall 26th June 2025

Thursday night Leicester historical Leicester Guildhall hosted one of the great gigs when Mike Sanchez and his band delivered a fabulous set of old time boogie woogie rock'n'roll with his superb band. This gig was a memory of old times.. the very good ones... and was a total breath of fresh air... no nonsense, just high class playing and singing on a host of familiar and less familiar numbers.

From the moment the band hit the stage, Mike looked into the audience and greeted us and in that instant had everyone in the palm of his handafter an introductory little speech Mike hit the keyboard and the rocking boogie woogie rhythms filled the room... backed by Nick on upright slap bass, Tom on guitar and Mark on drums the band rocked from start to finish....song followed hard on the heels of song, leaving little time to applaud beforethe next one started... when the band did pause between songs Mike's banter was always fun and upbeat...

Early on Mike said he didn't have a set list and they freewheeled through the set including a number of pieces that had apparently not been rehearsed or seen the light of day for a while... yet they all flowed with power and great energy and joy... though ending the pieces was often a voyage of discovery for the band, and I suspect Mike himself

The band were superb... Marks drums and Nicks bass pounding out the rhythm while Tom played superb guitar, at times through some guitar wizardry making it sound like a wailing sax...

The focus of the gig was on good time rocvking boogie woogie... delivered with brilliant musicianship... humour a great joy as the band appeared to be having a ball on stage and the audience to an audience memeber loving every moment...

An absolute joy of a good time gig... simply wonderful from start to finish

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues

Kick in the Bits/Dada Women/Rai Waddingham/Chris Cottis Allan

KICK IN THE BITS/DADA WOMEN/RAI WADDINGHAM/CHRIS COTTIS-ALLAN

Duffys 22nd June 2025

Another Sunday, and another "Up the Duffy's" and as always Chris put together a terrific bill to give us a terrific evening of music...

First up was Chris Cottis-Allan who kicked off as the audience was coming in, and eventually was playing to a large crowd who were thoroughly loving his great set. Chris has a presence on stage... relaxed and comfortable with a real warmth. Very much about the song, which are all good and lyrically excellent... a really warm and highly enjoyable set which was rightly warmly received by the audience

Next up was Rai Waddingham, for me the highlight of the evening. Beautiful voice, great singer and writer of superb powerful songs... hugely assured and warm performance loved by the audience... superb set... absolutely loved it... what more can i say?

Next up were Dada Women, representing the Riotous collective who were well represented as ever in the audience. I have never seen this band play better... full of power and energy they delivered a really cracking set of their great original material with real energy, commitment and assurance.. a terrific set that got toes a-tapping and dancers a-dancing... loved it!

To end the evening, up stepped A Kick In The Bits... they seemed to take a while to set up but once they did they announced themselves in an explosion of sound and power which was sustained throughout the set. The band have elements of Rock, Punk, Two-Tone and Reggae as they blow through their set of high powered exciting hooligan music...The songs sounded pretty good but the overall power of the sound meant i wan't concentrating on the lyrical content, though there was a strong political element... The band are a real breath of fresh air, led generally by exuberant trombone and rocking like fury throughout... the band clearly have a ball playing.. and so do the listening audience... a powerful, exciting and great fun end to what was a superb evening of music.

If you haven't been to one of these shindigs you are missing out... consistently high quality music, great friendly vibes and a knowledgable audience who are there to meet greet and socialise but always stay quiet and really listen to and appreciate the artists performing...

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues and artists. 

Noise Makes Guild/Simon Clements

NOISE MAKERS GUILD/SIMON CLEMENTS

Firebug 20th June 2025

After a gap, another gig, this time at Firebug... and to be honest a disappointment as the headliner, Ryan Chrys, was stuck in New York with his band due to their flight having to turn back... however we still had a hugely enjoyable gig, and huge credit to Calder and Noise Makers Guild for going ahead and playing for free and making it another fine night of music...

First up was Simon Clements, However he proved to be a fine singer/songwriter, delivering a number of his own songs, starting as he said with the upbeat ones before switching to the more sombre stuff... In both forms he sang well, a fine voice and delivering the songs with assurance and quality accompanied by some pretty good guitar playing throughout...

Fines songs and a thoroughly accomplished performance... thoroughly enjoyed it

After came the NOISE MAKERS GUILD who are supporting Ryan throughout the tour... they clearly disappointed that Ryan wasn't able to be there, but nonetheless delivered a fine mixed bag of a set.

Before the show they said that style-wise they were all over the place with a variety of styles in there... and it showed in the set!... Some quite poppy pieces, 90's jangly bits, rock, ballad, americana and blues... mainly original material with a couple of covers included towards the end, one an REM song which I didn't know, the other a number by a southern rock outfit (i think the River Dogs?).

For me the highlight was the excellent blues work out they ended the set with... a damn fine piece it was too!!

Another highly accomplished performance highlighted by some really great guitar work throughout... including both lovely lyrical passages as well as some rather fierce more rocky passages... all supported by some rock steady bass and drums and led by a singer with a strong clear voice.

All in all, a hugely enjoyable evening and again many thanks to the artists and Firebug for going ahead with a free show and providing such a good evening

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues