Ho Ho Ho ST – Christmas OST @ Cinema City, Norwich, with Milly Hirst, Port Isla, Heart of a Dog, Al Southgate, Birds of Hell, Sound of Sight, Ben C. Winn, Emily Winng, Drew McDonnell, Iain Lowery, Lost Levels, Camille Davila … [et al.] 17 December 2013. Review and photos.
A packed Cinema City Bar for this special festive treat of an OST with a multitude of artists on stage and in the audience. All the acts performing a couple of songs, one original plus a Christmas cover, opened tonight by Milly Hirst with In the Bleak Midwinter (also to be performed by Birds of Hell later) and her own song being A Book or a Film. Beautiful renditions of both, as always, by this fine artist who makes any song her own and very personal and affecting.
Milly Hirst
Following Milly was Stromm, as a duo tonight, performing their own compositions “In a Room” and the especially penned for Christmas “The C Word” both of which sounded marvellous.
Stromm
Stromm
Next up was Paul Hubbard aka Sound of Sight, who performed Crumpled Clothes with Iain Lowery, and then his festive number, Little Donkey.
The Sound of Sight
Al Southgate followed with his special voice and incredibly haunting songs, his festive number was Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer!
Al Southgate
We were treated to more fine vocal and guitar performances by Drew McDonnell and Camille Davila, Camille getting the audience to join along with Silent Night.
Camille Davila
Drew Mc Donnell
Emily Winng was once again outstanding, tonight swapping percussive bin to belt out drum rhythms on a battered old suitcase. Brilliant stuff!
Emily Winng
Sam of Heart of a Dog performed with Will of Port Isla for renditions of Hoss, Railroad Man, and Snowfall, all of which were exquisite.
Heart of a Dog / Port Isla
Heart of a Dog / Port Isla
Next was Birds of Hell, dressed as some kind of brilliantly bitter old Santa, with beard, hat and sunglasses. Awesome as always, I felt settled in for a whole set of this but had to make do with just the two tracks.
Birds of Hell
Before the finale we had the treat of another fine mini-set from our compere for the evening, the excellent Ben C Winn (yet another of the Sargasso Trio in attendance tonight).
Ben C Winn
The choral rendition for the finale was stunning, even enough to get a hardened old Christmas cynic like myself into the festive spirit.
Congratulations to Iain Lowery and all the performers for a truly lovely evening at the beautiful Cinema City Bar.
Ho Ho Ho st finale
All photos (c) all rights reserved by richard shashamane 2013
@RShashamane
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Norwich: Music City, UK 