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Polly & The Billets Doux, The Ashbies + Ryan O'Reilly @ The Tower Arts Cente, Winchester, 30th May 2009.

Oh, I was looking forward to this line up tonight. The sun had been shining throughout the day, I was a little pink from sunburn but I was smiling. Let the good music sound.

The Tower Arts Center, a quaint little venue made up of part of a school is situated in a quiet area of Winchester. Inside I bought a beer from what looked like a little tuck shop. It felt wrong buying alcohol from what essentially during the day sells sweets to young children, however I got over that and purchased a pint.

Sat at the front row on a semi circular arena of steps, it was quite busy. Ryan O’Reilly was up first. The band had reduced down in size from five to three due to ‘two weddings’ nether the less this had no negative impact on the performance this evening. Ryan, Tali and Dave led the set with an array of acoustic songs, and this fitted the ambiance of the venue beautifully. The chilled out atmosphere absorbed the music as well as Ryan’s lyrics. listening to them play in a quiet peaceful room reminded me of when I first heard Ryan O’Reilly play. This was in Putney when the band were recoding a live DVD and it was fantastic.

‘Nightmares’ and ‘Gypsy Train’ were slowed down to a enchanting tempo and it was just lovely, Ryan treated the crowd to a new song which he wrote in Edinburgh only three weeks ago. For me, who has seen The Ryan O’Reilly band perform a lot, it was interesting to hear a couple of songs that my ears had not heard yet….and it was great. The only negative for me (but not everyone else) was that I couldn’t sing along. Must learn words, and that’s a note to self.

The Ashbies were up next, a four piece band from Winchester who take there influences from the likes of The Beatles, David Bowie and The Clash, just to name a few. The venue filled out when their presence graced the stage and it seems like they have built up a solid fan base.

Describing their music as alternative rock and indie they produce happy up beat tones that just make you smile and move those sunburnt limbs around ,not caring about the pain it may lead to. The band look young and most probably are, however their combined sound is mature and they sound like they have been making music for years.

With vocals and guitars that blend together to make one harmonious sound these guys were meant to play together. Will has a voice with rough edges and reminds me of Luke Pritchard (front man of The Kooks) I really like it. Occasionally a few tracks go off onto a jazz tangent and it works.

Highlight for me was ‘The Devil is gone’ and ‘Don’t hold me down’ both have punchy pop beats and the rhythm stayed in my head even after the gig had finished. These guys are impressive and for a group of young males they produce mature and well established music well above their years.

I hope these guys have the break through they deserve and hopefully with a new manager on the table this may well be a possibility. A new album is being created as we speak and I cannot wait to hear it. Just another example that the South Coast is brimming with musical talent. Let your ears have a listen: http://www.myspace.com/theashbies.

The crowd were summoned to stand for Polly & The Billets Doux and we all moved closer. The front of the stage had been showered with vases of red roses that Polly herself had put there. The four piece band produce beautiful sounds of jazz and blues, which have a hint of folk in some songs. They flitter between these sounds effortlessly and Polly’s strong powerful and soulful vocals fit in with the music genres fluently. It’s just lovely.

Guitar player and vocalist Andrew Steen has the biggest sideburns I have ever seen, not that it’s a criticism, it’s a mere observation that I just wanted people to know. I rather liked them. Anyhow back to the set.

Polly & The Billet Doux rang out song after song and I was really enjoying it, well everyone was. There was dancing in the crowd, heading bobbing and a weird man doing an array of flimsy hand and legs movements that everyone, including himself enjoyed.

Polly complained it was ‘very hot’ throughout the set and demanded that we all took our clothes off…what kind of gig is this? To be honest, with the collection of sunburn in the room the audience were just an array of human radiators. It was hot, now lets take off our clothes and listen to some Jazz!

My highlight of the set was called ‘I would ask’ Polly and Ben stayed on stage while the others gracefully retreated and sat next to me at the side of that stage. It’s a blues, jazz love song and it was charming. The song really highlighted Polly’s vocal range and I melted into the words that the duo sang. The audience really enjoyed it too. ‘Follow my feet’ was also a great track and subsequently is their new single that was released only three weeks ago.

August 10th marks their first nationwide release with Their debut album "Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies". This band are set for bigger and brighter things, with slots this year at Glastonbury Festival and Ronnie Scott’s jazz club, just to name a few, I think they are getting the credit and recognition they rightly deserve.

I hope the music industry and listeners can stretch their imagination to allow these beautiful, original sounds into the mainstream core. A band not based around commercialism and common ‘pop’ beats I wish them every success. it’s a refreshing and wonderful change to my ears and I loved every song played. Catch them at Glastonbury festival next or wait for them to return back to Winchester in August: http://www.myspace.com/pollyandtheband