The first Young Musicians’ Showcase was held at the Crown Hotel on 12th April. Organised by Stone singer-songwriter Ben Owen, the events are designed to give young people a platform to show off their musical talents. The showcases will be held on the second Friday of each month, £2.50 entry, with all proceeds going to Stone Music Festival. Thanks to Andy Macdonald for this review and great video of the first showcase. The next event is on Friday 10th May. There are links to the musicians’ music HERE
It’s proving quite a momentous year for our messy-mopped muso Ben Owen. The lad is riding high, with exciting new material on the way (have you got your You+Me = <3 t shirt yet, to coincide with his latest funktastic release of the same name?), a headline gig at Hanley’s celebrated Sugarmill venue back in March under his belt…
As if that wasn’t enough, in addition to his Monday evening youth club involvement and of course, his established open mic at the Star on Wednesdays, Ben is compering a singer songwriter showcase on the second Friday of each month at the Crown Hotel (upstairs in the ballroom), in the run up to this year’s Music and Arts Festival in July. He hosted a similar event during the finale weekend of last year’s, which proved immensely popular, a major highlight of the event, featuring a diverse range of young performers, some of whom he performs impressive collaborations with over on his YouTube channel, jamminowen, and are also familiar faces at his open mic.
The Crown’s swanky ballroom provided the perfect backdrop for the cornucopia of exceptionally gifted acts, each introduced by Ben. To paraphrase Darius (remember him?) how much talent was there in the room?! Greg Lawson opened the show with a couple of gorgeous self-penned compositions, an instrumental and a track called Fly. He was then joined by Ben for a faithful reproduction of the dreamy Lewis Watson track Bones.
There’s a video showing some of the performances from the night here:
https://youtu.be/utHaDd72z04
Next up, Emma Corbett-Usher tickled the ivories, and her sweet vocals provided the perfect accompaniment to her flawless piano playing. She conveyed so much emotion it was as though she cried every line. Think Vanessa Carlton or Beverley Craven.
Emma was joined by Maddy Storm, tiny in stature but with a big voice. She took to the stage alone later on for a solo spot , and even encouraged audience participation with her short but sweet track Feel The Love.
Open mic regular Carl “Mossy” Moss, having recently performed a successful solo gig at The Labour in Vain, paid homage to Blink 182, and the Gallaghers and also treated us to one of his own crafted compositions, Yesterday Has Already Gone. Shut your eyes and it was as though Noel himself was present, uncanny vocal resemblance.
Ethereal acoustic duo Steal the Stars brought the evening to a close with some quietly executed gorgeous tunes, which met with contrasting deserved rapturous applause, not just for them but all the acts who’d entertained us throughout the course of the evening, and all for a donation of £2.50 (though obviously guests can contribute more if they wish, all proceeds donated to the Music and Arts Festival for development of musical events for young people)
Ben proved an excellent host, adding another string to his entertainment bow, warm, friendly and professional in manner throughout. Whether you were there and crave more of the same (well, not quite, there are different acts each month, but you know what I mean!), or missed this one and are curious to check out the outstanding talent Stone has to offer, make a note in your diaries for the next showcase event. And don’t forget the similarly styled rhythm and blues evenings on the first Friday of each month either!
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