Open Mic night at the Grey Horse (23 April 14)

This is the last time (at least for a while)that I'll be writing about the Open Mic nights at the Grey Horse. Not because I am not going to them any more but because I now go so often that they have stopped being something sufficiently remarkable to write about. I don't write about the Sunday night Pub Quiz at the Willoughby Arms for the same reason.

I was a little earlier this week as I was at a meeting in the nearby Canbury Arms that finished around 8:30 so I was in the Grey Horse before my usual 9pm. It was a little quieter then but it did mean that I could hear some acts that I do not normally see.

The programme was much the same as usual but there were some new performers and the regular ones sang some new songs so it was still a fresh and vibrant evening.

This week's honourable mention goes to Vickie Kempson, pictured at the top. This was her return to live performance after a long gap and she was very nervous, and told us so. But she should not have worried. She settled in to the mood quickly and played a couple of nice gentle songs that I genuinely liked. I hope to see her there again.

As always the social part of the evening was as important as the music, if not more so.

It was Tony's birthday and here he is celebrating by blowing bubbles over his Hoaxwind colleagues Phil and Eugene. Also there were Pete, Anna, Julian and others.

I was the exception in being not involved in a band in any way and this preponderance of musicians in the audience as well as performing meant that most of our conversations were about music and future gigs. In particular, we were all looking forward to the Hoaxwind gig on 2 May.

The music ended suddenly at 11;30, Richard was doing his mandolin thing at the time and just stopped when the time came. He ends his songs abruptly anyway so this just meant that we got less of his music than usual, which was a small shame in a good evening.

I called it a day then and walked happily home.