Mellowtone

Heart and Soul, Mount Pleasant
20th July 2006

Reviewed by Alicia Rose

Continuous cutting edge entertainment is always on offer at a Mellowtone gig; it’s a club night that basks under a summer umbrella of ‘Another Late Night’ promotions, a seemingly sleek vehicle that swipes up all that is live, artistic and potentially pioneering and then pops it onto a stage and gives it ‘ampage’ to flourish. The venue for this trend-setting event was upstairs at the Heart and Soul in Mount Pleasant, where seating sold out and only a clutch of standing room was left available.

The live show was a melting pot of comedy, dj vinyl and acoustic sets with compere capers from Sam Avery. DJ Jonnie O’Hare set a ‘pro’ ambience with his fashionista grooves. The first half was all about comedy and newcomer Emma Bowley led the pack. This woman’s witty confidence belied the fact it was her third ever live stand up performance. Having always ‘wanted to do it’, Bowley was giving it her best and was well received for her smart slant on schooling and some under-achieving youths.

In hot pursuit was smiley Stephanie Davies (pictured), bringing forth her merry new material, which had punters chuckling, laughing and tittering the whole way. Davies is a supersmart chick with a Performing Arts degree that has led her to write courses called ‘Stand Up’ and ‘Funny Business’, which she headlines into businesses and schools, promoting laughter and ensuring everyone is having fun, fun, fun. She also addresses the public through ‘laughter yoga’, which is a sure-fire original edge to embracing us all into a world of smiles. She has written comedy sketches for Radio 4 and is currently looking into writing for the BBC.

Third in line was home-grown ‘batty’ comedian Phil James, who conjured laughter with a methodical dead-pan daftness and ‘air’ of risible extraordinariness. Back in January of this year he won the ‘Tongue in Cheek’ competition (www.tongueincheekcomedy.com), springboarding himself into a newly packaged and readily charged comic prepared to hit the dizzy heights of the calling comedy circuits.

Suitably laughed out, the crowd were then further entertained with torrid acoustic music from Stephen Langstaff (check out review of his album ‘Sunbeams’), followed by Sarah Dickson (and accompanment) with her diamond-cut voice and intricate word patterns, which drew the night to a pinnacle close (www.sarahdickson.co.uk).