Pure Acoustica at The Southwestern

The first night for Pure Acoustica at The Southwestern  THE BEST PUB IN SOUTHAMPTON and what a beautiful night! After spening too long on the M3 I managed to make the short train journey to St Denys and the even shorter journey from the station to The Southwestern, about a minute.

A lovely warm summer night, I kicked off the night with a short set, I was then followed by the freshly shorn Jim Chorley who was just amazing, Steve Lowis played a fantastic set of some rocky tunes I had never heard before. Lewis MacLean enthralled all with a collection oif hithertoo unplayed original songs. After Lewis was the big suprise of the evening when the mighty Joe Hudson held all spellbound reading a selection of some of his amazing poetry. The Real Raj then did a great job of tying up the first half.

Then we went round again with everyone playing a slightly shorter second set and without Joe Hudson who had other commitments.

I ended the evening with what I hope will become a Pure Acoustica anthem "You Treat Me Mean" with the audience and some of the artists joining in.

What was nice was that we didn't have to battle with the World Cup, which was a concern. We had a good number of people moving closer to enjoy the artists and enjoyed a few of those special moments when the performers hold the attention of the whole audience, which normally takes a while.

So we give a big thumbs upo to Shona and her staff at The Southwestern for making us feel very welcome and helping create a fantastic atmosphere and long may it continue! I WOULD have had pictures of the night but unfortunately forgot my camera! Next time.....

Yes, we are back!!!

Yes, yes we are and at a new home The Southwestern in St Denys, THE BEST PUB IN SOUTHAMPTON! No probably, no perhaps not even a maybe The Southwestern in St Denys IS the best pub in Southampton, we are very lucky to be there and I couldn't be happier about it.

So on this Thursday the 17th of June, just after some football match malarky in South Africa, I shall kick off the first in a series of regular Pure Acoustica shows at The SouthWestern and what a line up!

I have the imortal Real Raj, the sublime Steve Lowis, the freshly shaved Jim Chorley and the Pure Acoustica virgin  Lewis "no mics or amps, right?" MacLean as well as my good self playing a few songs, sampling the fine ales at the bar and running the Pure Acoustica raffle (unless I can rope Carly into it again...) For those new to the raffle all you need to o to enter is write your email address on the back of your ticket. No money changes hand. The performers all donate something as the prize. The winner will be as happy as the guy who last won the raffle, see his handsome face in the post below!

To keep up to date with all the goings on with Pure Acoustica all you need do is either follow this blog, join the Facebook page by clicking the iLike button, chuck your email address in the reverbnation fan collector widget or all three!

Hope to see you for what will be a great night at THE BEST PUB IN SOUTHAMPTON!


The Southwestern is at 38-40 Adelaide Road, Southampton SO17 2HW it is about 2 minutes walk from St Denys Station.


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Pure Acoustica at the Dolphin on the 19th November

Possibly one of the best if not the best nights so far. Jim Chorley kicked us off with a cracking set, Raj as entertaining as ever despite breaking a string. The amazing Keeley Filgo made her Pure Acoustica debut and fitted right in and managed not to beat me to a pulp as I continued to get her name wrong. I'll blame the ale....
Myself and Dave Miles, who managed to drag himself down from Bristol for the night, played a few old Drunk On Logic tunes then it was straight in to The Shimmering Bees who with bazooki, hurdy-gurdy and a selection of drums, managed to keep us spellbound for the duration.
Then, in true Pure Acoustica fashion, we all played again! By this time the pub was heaving and the beautiful and marvelous Carly passed amongst the crowd exchanging raffle tickets for e-mail addresses, the prize being a selection of cds from the performers and a jar of honey from The Shimmering Bees. How happy does the winner look? He was made up!
Thanks to all involved and here's hoping that the Xmas special will be just as good or even better!

Pure Acoustica @ Winchester Mayfest Update.

Went and had a quick look around on Saturday and the place looks perfect. I want to have a chat with the manager this week just to make sure that they're expecting us and will have a nice space ready.

I managed to make some posters and have left them with them but will take over more later this week.

I also had a chat with Nick from the Coffee House across the road who will give you a free cup of coffee if you go and play a tune or two.

It's a nice shop and they do great coffee. Also he is looking to put on some music in the future so it would be an idea to go over and say hi and stuff. He plays a resonator so he's on our wavelength.

Should be one more update this before Saturday.

Pip Pip

We pop our Pure Acoustica cherry!

Well we did it! The first Pure Acoustica event, and what an event it was.

The place (The Dolphin Inn) was rammed for a Thursday night and the audience were treated to 2 and a half hours of amazing and diverse entertainment - all delivered without amps, mic and pa's.

I introduced the evening and we kicked off with Emmy-Lee who treated us to 15 minutes of passionate, heart-wrenching glory. Next up was 3 piece Botyov 1791 who, with fiddle, bodran and guitar, really got the crowd going. As Matt (Blake) and Chris (The LCD) were running late, Cath (Botyov 1791) and Nic Bradford (Louche Manouche) gave us a couple of fiddle and guitar tunes and I filled in with a couple of my own but then The LCD played an amazing 15 minutes. We were then joined by Ben Woodward (or Wood, why don't people wear name tags!) who was an unexpected pleasure. Matt Blake stopped the show as he managed to break a string before even playing a note. After being offered a plethora of replacements, he gratefully took up Nic Bradford's offer and ripped into a most wonderful set.

I had planned to have a little interval but due to the amount of good folk wanting to play we cracked on and Emmy-Lee, Botyov 1791, The LCD and Matt Blake played another short set each.

For a first try at this Pure Acoustica event it surpassed my expectations. I had full confidence in all the acts, otherwise I wouldn't have booked them. They (you) all played wonderfully and the audience was well into it, as were the owners Sandy and Chris.

The eagle eyed amongst you would have spotted a rather sexy Sennheiser microphone sitting innocently positioned on a small table. This was connected to an equally sexy mini-disc recorder. THIS was possibly, the most important aspect of the evening. The recordings of the evening are of a very high quality and show everyone off very well. The plan is to use these recordings  to attract other venues as well as to sell at gigs and on the net.

I spent most of Saturday mixing and mastering these tracks and have loaded 10 of the best on to the Pure Acoustica Reverbnation site. They are for anyone to listen too at present but may be for fans only in the future. They are only little MP3 files, I do have sexy fat wav files too. Visit the Pure Acoustica label here to listen If you are part of Pure Acoustica then you should have a profile on reverbnation and if you haven't, why the fuck not?

So, what lessons have I learned from this?

Was it all wonderful?

Could I have done anything better?

When I arrived, Chris the landlord suggested that he hang a mic over the performing area. the Dolphin has an "ambient" kind of speaker system that allows music to reach all areas of the pub. It's not strictly a pa system as it has no volume control and there is only one mic. 

Nevertheless, I asked him not to as this would go against the whole Pure Acoustica idea.

I think this was a mistake and told him as much afterwards.  In a pub as big as The Dolphin, it would have been appropriate to use. Plus, as far as the policy of Pure Acoustica goes, I make the rules so what does it matter eh?

I could have remembered to turn the fucking mic on at the beginning of the evening and NOT miss Emmy-Lee first set!

I could have publicised it a little more. Mrs Nick (the Memsaab) usually does all that arty stuff but she has been stricken with a chest infection (slacker) so wasn't able to come up with her normal selection of pretties. 

Apart from that though, a pretty damn good start to the Pure Acoustica venture. 

So, dearly beloveds, any comments/questions?

Our First Festival!!!!

Pure Acoustica have been booked to play the Winchester MayFest on Saturday May the 16th.

Between 2 pm and 5 pm at the Discovery Centre Cafe.

I'll need to know availability as soon as possible as brochures are being printed.

The MayFest is a great festival with dozens of acts playing all over the city.

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First Pure Acoustica Gig Confirmed!

Yes indeedie. The first or dare I say "Inaugural" Pure Acoustica gig in confirmed for Thursday the 12th of February at The Dolphin Inn at St Denys which is here

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Right next to St Denys train station.

Confirmed artists so far are Emmy Lee, The LCD, Matt Blake and Tom Caulfield.

All artists with reverbnation profiles please add this date to your gig list so it will show up in the widgets. 

The Dolphin is regarded as one of the best pubs in Southampton and have quality acts there regularly. They do not pay, but pass a jug around so can't promise much but I'll be encouraging them to pass it round more than once! They serve amazing beer and there is always a friendly atmosphere. I've played down there and know that we'll all go down a storm.

The plan is to start at 8.30 and for everyone to play 2 x 15 minutes sets. That may change but stands at the moment. If acts can be at The Dolphin by 8.10 at the latest that would be fantastic.

If you are going to be late or can't make it call me as soon as you know.

If you can't commit to playing now but find you can on the night then just turn up and I'll try and fit you in or just come along and say hi.  I will introduce everyone and act as compere' for the night as well as play a few tunes. Obviously if you invite people to come along that would be great, especially if they turn up! Any questions please PLEASE PLEASE comment here and don't email me.

I am hoping to make audio and video recordings on the night if all goes to plan.

The Pure Acoustica website will be revamped once we have more content i.e. pics, video, song samples etc.

Questions anyone?

Update......

Botyov 1791 have just confirmed that they will also be playing.