A tired looking public house on the Gosport Road may not appear, at first glance, to be Fareham's premier live venue but The Bird In Hand, with its fading paintwork out front and inside walls held firm with load-bearing dust, has over the years gained a reputation for regularly hosting an eclectic selection of live music.
The pub itself is much-loved, dog-eared even, with a grubby charm that's found all too rarely these days; visiting is not like stepping into a generic chained pub, no Wetherspoon or Hungry Horse this and, if those are the kind of hostelries you prefer, The Bird won't be for you.
There's
no stage to speak of, the Pool table is shunted to aside to make room
for a band to set up in a corner of the main bar, and bands regularly
find themselves coming into very close contact with the music-loving
regulars, and that's what makes a gig at The Bird such an experience.
The venue has an open booking policy, welcoming cover acts, new bands who want to gain live experience and artists from further afield, and all forthcoming attractions are chalked on the wall so everyone knows who's playing and when (there's also a well subscribed Facebook group too).
Blues-rock trio Hungry and The Hunted bill themselves as "the last Rock & Roll band", describing their sound as "an unholy product of Joe Strummer and Lemmy gatecrashing a Deep Purple rehearsal, armed with a pile of STAX & CHESS records", and a listen to songs from either of their two albums shows that this is not immodest chest-beating. There's a rawness, there's groove, there's honesty, and the band are not shy about who they've been influenced by.
Hungry and The Hunted play The Bird this Sunday, 7th April, and I can think of few better ways of seeing out the weekend then with two hours of "demolition Blues and outlaw Rock & Roll". Entry is FREE, music from 1800.
Several years ago, following an admittedly confusing conversation regarding the name of the musical act a chum had cajoled me into seeing, I found myself standing in the compact and bijou confines of The Cellars (RIP) watching a behatted Canadian make melody and rhythm via a collection of microphones, harmonicas and pedals (to jaw-dropping effect). The cat in the hat was Benjamin Darvill, one-time harp & mandolin player for the Crash Test Dummies, who performs beat-box powered Blues under the moniker Son of Dave (the name causing my initial confusion that I was being dragged along to an Andrew Ridgeley covers band). So good was Son of Dave that night I plundered the Merch Desk for a CD, delighting at the collaboration with Martina Topley-Bird that featured upon it. Son of Dave has been ploughing his Blues furrow for a while now, becoming a near staple at Bestivalin the process, but he's finally done what all good artists do at this time of year; he's made a Christmas song. Send Them Something Nice For Christmas is a beautifully melancholic tale, sprinkled with brass and sounding not unlike something Randy Newman might serve up (which is no bad thing at all). It's dour yet heart-warming, a last slow dance at the office Xmas party, a sad card to family far away, and sends apologies for missing another Turkey dinner but wants to be remembered for next year's festivities.
Gosport trio Hooliget
their show on the road next month, taking their mellifluous blend of
indie-blues to four venues across the south. The three-piece have got good word of mouth on the live outings, scoring a good review of their Winchestival set from the excellent Mix It All Up blog. You can catch Hooli at the
following venues in September.. Latest Music Bar, Brighton - 10th SeptemberCANCELLED The Jolly Sailor, Portsmouth - 11th September BBC Introducing LIVE @ The Purple Turtle, Reading - 12th September Madding Crowd, Bournemouth - 13th September
..and be sure to check out their latest release, Cider Sue, via the Spotify embed:
Mud Morganfield, the eldest son of Blues legend Muddy Waters, returns to Portsmouth tomorrow night. Fresh from touring the globe Mud returns to The Cellars with his band The Dirty Aces (featuring guitarist Ronni Buysack-Boysen, Ian Jennings on Double Bass, Mike Hellier on drums and harmonica player West Weston) for a damn fine evening of Chicago Blues.
Tickets are available via the venue's website, priced £14 in advance, or £15 on the door. For a taste of what to expect check out the YouTube clip below:
Delta Blues guitarist Kent DuChaine will pay a rare visit to Portsmouth this week when his current tour rolls into town. The Minnesota native, who bizarrely found his way to the Blues via the liner notes on an Eric Clapton LP, will be ably supported by his classic 1934National Steel guitar, Leadbessie, when he plays The Golden Eagle in Southsea this Friday, 2nd September.
Over the years Kent has backed up or supported such Blues greats as Boogie Woogie Red, Eddie Burns, Luther Tucker, Albert Collins and Howlin' Wolf; in 1989 he met legendary Bluesman Johnny Shines and, over the next three years, played over 200 shows together before Shines' death in 1992. Since then Kent has travelled the four corners, armed with Leadbessie, playing the music he loves to appreciative audiences around the globe.
