Tag: nicky davis

Seend’s own Live Aid: The Female of the Species

Creators of original music who may psychologically build a hierarchy with them atop, tribute acts on the bottom and cover bands hovering somewhere between, tend not to prioritise what’s popular, whereas pub landlords value what will get the punters drinking, viewing it differently. Neither are correct, there is no right nor wrong in this, just opinion. But to witness The Female of the Species is to find the truth worth of a covers set….

I’d wager a majority at the Community Centre at Seend last night aren’t as fortunate as me to get to grassroots venues and witness the variety within our burgeoning music scene. They’ve been looking forward to this night out, they’re buzzing with anticipation, and to let the band know how much they’re appreciated. Thus the Female of the Species will endeavour to recreate the kind of songs to flush them with nostalgia and gift them with a memorable evening. They do this with so many bells on, they ring out a local annual occasion of monumental importance, and I’ll explain why.

Starter for ten, we’re gathered here to put the “fun” into fundraising. Each year these lovely ladies vote for a charity to donate to, after eight years must’ve raised an incalculable amount for worthy causes; Mind, Young Melksham, Wiltshire Air Ambulance, Carmela’s Stand Up to Muscular Dystrophy, to name a few, and in doing so received a Civic Award in 2019.

This year’s is Alzheimer’s Support, a countywide accredited charity and one I personally can associate with. My reasoning I won’t pester you with, as I did chewing the ears off the volunteers on the night! Supporting people living with all types of dementia, their services include award-winning day clubs and one-to-one home support, with over forty community activity groups including, Music for the Mind, Movement for the Mind, memory cafes, art groups, discussion groups, nature and gardening groups, all designed to keep minds and bodies active and reduce isolation.

Secondly, the Female of the Species aren’t a regular band per-say, rather a supergroup amalgamated from female-fronted local bands who annually assemble for this unmissable one off. Jules Moreton of Trowbridge’s Train to Skaville, Nicky Davis from People Like Us and The Reason, Julia Greenland from Soulville Express, Claire Perry from Big Mamma’s Banned, Charmaigne Andrews from Siren, and the unforgettable Train to Skaville saxophonist, Karen Porter. All being amazing performers in their own right, together they’re an unsurpassable force which appears more harmonic with each year that passes, despite having obligations to their individual bands. The result is something to behold, and this year was no exception.

Eighties night, best defined last night. Though I could argue the tagline, The MTV Years is ambiguous and not forgoing American, being few here had access to MTV in said decade, though “Top of the Pops Years” would’ve been equally enigmatic! None of which matters, over the plethora of eighties pop classics sublimely delivered by the unique troupe, opening with Jules leading on Glenn Frey’s The Heat is On, followed by Nicky on Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World, to an apt finale of Sisters are Doing it for Themselves; of which they certainly were, and blowing the roof into Seend Cleeve and beyond.

Through Sledgehammer, Echo Beach, Addicted to Love, 99 Red Balloons, and every hit gen x cherished on a Now, That’s What I Call Music volume, Julia leading on Easy Lover, Claire’s Yazoo stint though dressed as Boy George, Char on Dude Looks Like a Lady, Nicky’s Cher turning back time, and a wonderful Blondie medley were among the highlights of a cooking first half alone, as the crowds realised why leg warmers at discos was a short lived trend!

Aha, the second half took on us, followed by more eighties classics than you could shake a Rubik’s Cube at, particularly adroit was The Bodysnatchers’ Do Rock Steady, Heart’s Alone, and naturally, Footloose. 

They gave Erasure respect, Nicky did a Tina Turner homage, but, wow, how Julia nailed Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody. All this sprinkled with the fancy dress and usual stage banter associated with Female of the Species, as is, if I may be so chauvinistic, akin to any group of girls on a night out, a “gaggle” being a possible collective noun I’ll sure be hammered for suggesting! Undoing all my good work now, informing you this annual occasion is unmissable, but equally as important to keeping eyes peeled for next year’s, is to go gig searching on your circuit for the relevant bands these singers perform with. 

A superb night out in Seend, then, arguably nothing so different from previous years, but if it ain’t broke….

Support this year came from Sham-Trowbridge rock covers group Legacy, of which Jules’ sister fronts. With a powerful vocal range, they surprised me, wrongly assuming it would be heavy metal-ish, they opened with Jumpin Jack Flash, and built decades with everything from the Undertones’ Teenage Kicks and Nutbush City Limits, to Pink covers and Sex on Fire, finally wrapping an energetic and enjoyable set up with Summer of 69. 

If, just as the Female of the Species did too, every tune might be perceived as cliché classic hits, Legacy belted them out amazingly with precision and passion, tipped off, I guess, to what pushes this crowd’s buttons, and making for an engaging support to this utterly brilliant supergroup.

Geographically centroid to the Devizes, Melksham and Trowbridge triangle, Seend Community Centre makes for a great and spacious venue to host this, boasting a grand stage and acoustics, the bar is affordable, the staff are welcoming. Look out for forthcoming events there, including next Saturday’s beer-gulping, thigh-slapping Oktoberfest!

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Female of the Species; Deadlier in Seend!

A glass half-full or half-empty scenario, to be at Seend Community Centre. The optimist in me ponders least it’s central, bang tidy between the Sham, Vizes and Trowvegas, or even if it matters if it is a wholly Seend affair, whatever; their Community Centre sure is a village venue to be proud of.

Neither am I here to dabble in petty town council politics. What’s been held at Melksham’s Assembly Hall for so many years and raised so much wonga for apt local charities, the local all-female supergroup Female of the Species’ outing now packed out the new place last night for their annual extravaganza, and as always, it’s a beautiful, highly entertaining shebang.

This time in aid of teenage advice organisation TeenTalk, the girls were adorned in costumes in a manner superior to anything gone before. With corresponding stage decor, they were looking absolute dynamite; gothic halloweenish, to suit the theme, and they knocked a series of sublime covers out of the park.

I mean yeah, with the look of celebrity divinity they charged the stage, opened with a more Bangles’ Hazy Shade of Winter than Simon & Garfunkel’s, followed it with Sledgehammer, but stars really came out on the third tune, with saxophonist Karen Porter’s matchless riff of Baker Street. Here the penny dropped for those not-in-the-know; Seend was aching towards a party in a calibre of magnitude, though I suspect many there were fully aware and prepped, the anticipation was positively buzzing.

The lesser capacity of this hall only breathing more atmosphere into their performance than ever previously. Yet either way in either hall, the frontwomen of these local bands, Jules of Trowbridge’s Train to Skaville, Nicky Davis from People Like Us and The Reason, Julia Greenland from Soulville Express, Claire Perry from Big Mamma’s Banned, and solo artist Charmaigne Andrews, never have a Jagger and Bowie moment of Dancing in the Street. That upstaging yearning simply doesn’t compute with them, and with every year which passes sees them more harmonious and in solidarity, save perhaps the customary saucy banter! It’s the reason why it’s as firm a fixture on my calendar as Christmas.

A covers night it maybe, but one of the highest qualities, with each singer adding their own genre preference into the cauldron. The method is this combined acquaintance, the magic is in the pop diversity they nimbly execute together. An example came quickly, when Jools led a floor-filling blast of Dawn Penn’s reworked rock steady classic, No, No, No. Through slight Halloween themed Hungry like Wolf and People are Strange, each tune was building into a continuingly improving pop compilation, arriving at an apex with a breathtakingly soulful version of The Faces’ Stay with Me, verging on Aretha-level of greatness.

But none of this happened before a superb support set of originals by young Trowbridge country-pop singer-songwriter Becky Lawrence, who, donned in a tiny witch’s hat and accompanied by warlock-looking guitarist Dylan Smith (more on this chap at a later date) treated us to her crystal-clear vocals and acute observational wordsmithing. Particularly poignant was her single, Loud and 17, even if seventeen is a long-vapourised recollection for me personally! Such was the performance; both these musicians are bleeping promptly on my radar.

With the thought of Jools returning with her band, Train to Skaville for New Year’s Eve this year, as The Female of the Species blasted through their catalogue of wonderful covers, it draws a double line under Seend Community Centre as a seriously contending venue and their lively and diverse range of events. Quality night, as to be expected based on past experience, but with an added bonus of a Halloween spooky theme and in a new venue; enough for me to don some zombie slap, which promptly melted off my face in the heat of the dancefloor moment!

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Entertainment events in the county blossoming out of lockdown came to a pinnacle this weekend. We were spoiled for choice, and without cloning technology the decision would’ve been a toughy for me, if it hadn’t had been for the no-brainer; the sixth annual outing of local supergroup, The Female of the Species at Melksham’s brilliant Assembly Hall.

From the moment I was pinged the lowdown on this event my heartstrings spasmed, five band’s fantastic frontwomen in their own right united for the rare, Community Civic award-winning, fundraising bonanza which has become somewhat equal in legend around these parts as a Spice Girls reunion. And perhaps what is more, the proceeds this year were directed at another personal superheroine, Carmela Chillery-Watson.

Super-heroic is a term I don’t use lightly, and not out of sympathy for Carmela’s rare strain of muscular dystrophy. Over the past two years I’ve followed the progress of Carmela and her family’s fight against this muscle-wasting condition, since mum, Lucy sent Devizine a fundraising event poster and I figured I could do more, which consequently saw me take to my milk-round dressed in my Spiderman onesie! For, now at seven years old, Carmela’s zest for life and amiable charisma is an inspiration to everyone she meets. I found it rubs off on you with immediate effect, something hordes of international celebrities have also now discovered.

Bringing this celebrity herself now back home to Wiltshire for a fundraising event, I was not only delighted to meet her and her family again, but mightily impressed with her handling of fame. Carmela responds accordingly to mounting attention, never excluding or shunning any individual yet finding the time to address them all equally; a skill many a celeb could learn from.  

With a bombardment of unfortunate planning episodes, Jools of the reggae-ska band Train to Skaville confessed, “it was a nightmare trying to get this event off the ground,” it truly became a sense of it’ll be alright on the night, and the party went off with an explosive boom. The amalgamated wealth of experience, proficiency and professionalism of The Female of the Species shone through; they are deadlier than the male.

Dedication too, to overcome obstacles, apexed by performer and musical director, Nicky Davis of bands People Like Us and the Reason, who took a fall during rehearsals to personify the performance idiom, break a leg. Frustrated by her vocal restrictions slouched at the keyboard, the second half of the show proved too tempting, and Nicky manged to make it onto her feet to sing behind the keys, rather more like Jerry Lee Lewis than Elton John in style!

But we are getting ahead of ourselves now, for full credits have to be awarded to support act, Melksham-based Plan of Action. Unbeknown to me, this male trio with a female bassist took me by surprise. Based on previous FOTS supports, I was expecting soothing acoustics, yet Plan of Action done what it suggested on the tin, and executed said plan in a hard rock fashion akin to the Foo-Fighters covers they blasted with certain precision. They then beseeched their benchmark, rather than redefined their style, to cover Wilson Pickett’s Mustang Sally in hard-edged blues fashion, and finished more retro than they started with rock classics such as Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell.

Not only did they fire up the audience superbly in preparation, but their fanbase also resolved the terror of who would be first to break the dancefloor reservations. Now there was no stopping the crowd, as Female of the Species drummer, Pip Phillips of People Like Us was first to appear, foot-peddling the bass drum to build anticipation while the girls came onstage under an impressive light show.

Second tune in, Nicky Davis led them in an accomplished cover of Hotel California, and solo soul singer Julia Hanratty followed lead on Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, as is the Female of the Species code of conduct; memorable pop covers ranging the spectrums of their individual tastes. That said, we had none of the two-tone of Jools’ Train to Skaville, although she did an outstanding lead on Deacon Blue’s Real Gone Kid.

With affections towards uncompromising rock, Charmaigne Andrews’ AC/DC Highway to Hell boosted the crowd, but not before an early highlight for me; Julia’s absolutely outstanding cover of Aretha Franklin’s Respect, something I’d not advise any singer to attempt, as with Nicky last time, who gorgeously portrayed Heard it Through the Grapevine, Julia clearly knocked this one clear out of the park.

Claire Perry of Big Mama’s Banned not only brings range to the repertoire, but witty if saucy repartee to the show, unsurpassed during the break where Carmela joined her to announce raffle prize-winners. Sporting Wonder Woman headgear for the second half, they raised the roof of the Assembly Hall, as much as they raised serious funds for the cause.

Aforementioned, Nicky stood for the second half despite her plastered leg, as they played through memorable covers, dancefloor fillers, and perfected songs you’d be excused from thinking, oh my, they’re covering that? Bohemian Rhapsody, Grease Lightening, Oh, Sweet Child of Mine, and Jacko’s Beat It for examples. Jool’s cover of Kirsty MacColl’s New England, Claire’s I’ll Put a Spell on You, Charmaigne leading on Republica’s Ready to Go, the show continued past my bus time, but I could faintly hear Mr Blue Skies while I waited!

Yeah, here’s a thing I hadn’t thought of before; escaping the Devizes westwards for the evening is surprisingly possible via public transport, and it wasn’t a drunken fallout zone, like the Boot Hill All Star’s hilarious song, Night Bus, which I imagined, rather a mediocre and tranquil bus journey!

The last bus on the 273 route leaves Bath at 11:30, and gets to the Sham at ten-to-midnight; blooming marvellous, for Melksham have a real gem with the Assembly Hall. Drinks are affordable, the service well-staffed, the atmosphere is hospitable and they’re continuing to bring outstanding shows and events to the Sham.

All in all, this show was professional yet communal, absolutely fantastic and spellbindingly electric; if another comes along, I suggest you don’t miss out. But I must finish in thanking the Female of the Species and all involved for supporting such an amazing cause, and local girl; and to Carmela, you are a superstar.

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