Christmas Junior Open Mic
When Wizard sang 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day' it must have been because the Christmas junior open mic at The Lion Edgmond is when you can get to see so much junior talent on stage at one time! With standing room only last Thursday the night was a huge success and the junior musicians all did themselves very proud. First up on stage was rock guitarist Liam Anslow. Liam kept the audience in the festive mood with a rock version of 'Jingle Bells', the audience went wild!. Next up was Nathan Gulliver. He demonstrated the fine art of playing a melody on an acoustic guitar and was very well received. The next act was going to be hard to follow. Louise Browning had only 3 weeks ago auditioned for 'Britain's Got Talent'. She said she won't know until February if she has passed the first auditions but from what the audience heard of her tonight I think she could well win! A very hard act to follow but Quinn Cummings always comes up trumps. He did two songs one of which was 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus and he had the packed room clapping their hands with the beat. The Junior open mic nights are open to anyone under 16 and the next act was worried in case she couldn't play - as today was her 16th birthday! But we just couldn't leave out the fantastic Lisa-Jayne Frawley. Lisa is an incredible singer/songwriter and she accompanies her haunting voice on the guitar. She is currently studying GCSE music and has penned two songs for her final assessment (A+ is my guess as her final mark!). After a game of Ken's Krazy Bingo and the music quiz it was back to the performers. Josie Millar is becoming quite an asset to her music teachers at school and is always being asked to play in class. Tonight she did a song she played at school last week, '3 Wheels On My Wagon' and what a perfect job she did of it. Next up was a debut for Moorfieid School pupil Jay Harris. Jay hasn't been playing the guitar long but that didn't stop him from getting up on stage and belting out a song by top band 'Oasis'. Jay said afterwards 'I was very nervous at first but when I saw everyone singing along with me I just went into overdrive!!'. A very hard act to go on after, but Frankie Jones knows how to captivate an audience and she got them in the palm of her hand. Her finger picking style is note perfect and her reading and understanding of music is a talent she is surely proud of. The youngest performer next and what a treat to see 7 year old Megan Hardy on stage. Megan announced over the microphone that as it is Jesus' birthday this week she is going to play 'Happy Birthday' for him, and she did - note perfect! Megan attends Castle House School and is taught music and guitar by tonight's organiser Ken Evans. Ken commented afterwards 'music is a very important part of a childs education and so much can be learnt from it. Castle house have an excellent music department as can be seen from Megans performance tonight'. Next up was Alana Whittington. Alana has performed at numerous school shows and also at The Oakengates Theatre and the audience could see why. Her voice reached every pitch you could imagine and when she finished with Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas' there wasn't a dry eye in the room!. Not to be outdone by her sisters earlier performance Dayna Browning then took to the stage. Dayna, like her sister, has also entered 'Britain's Got Talent' and based on her performance tonight she will surely go into the finals. She demonstrated her vocal talent and also her unique style of acoustic guitar accompaniment . With all the prizes handed out for Ken's Kolouring Kompetition, Ken's Krazy Bingo, Shelly's quiz and with Ken's Karol singing done it was time for the finale. Liam Anslow and Jay Harris got up to finish the night off with Slade's ' Merry Christmas Everyone'. The audience went wild and I'm sure you could hear them singing back in Newport. Ken thanked everyone involved in tonight's event namely, John Hill of Edmundsons Electrical who sponsored tonight's event, Sue Jenkins, Jon Lloyd, Shelly Maddox for the sound and admin, all the mums and dads and most of all the performers.
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