Charity Gig at Royal Park Cellars - 23rd Sept 2010

Starting off the night is Pippa Lloyd, who breezes onto the stage with an air of vulnerability about her. Once she starts playing she seems at ease, just her and her Takemine playing understated but beautiful songs. She has a powerful voice and her rendition of 'Feeling Good' is bittersweet and emotional. When you have such sparse acoustic music you are almost completely reliant on the vocals to the paint the picture and conjure up emotion, Pippa Llyod manages to do this in a poetic way. Her songs are full of heartbreak without being whiney, reflective without being self involved and bittersweet whilst remaining hopeful.





Next up is Amelia Orgill who is visibly quite nervous as she gets on stage, which is not surprising considering she is just starting out. As soon as she starts singing, she relaxes and starts to captivate the audience with a voice somewhere between mermaid and fairy, it has an angelic quality to it especially in the lower register when it's almost a whisper. For a couple of songs she is joined by a friend with an electric guitar, which doesn't bring as much to the performance as when she cracks out the ukulele. She does a beautiful version of Norah Jones 'Cold Cold Heart' and you get glimpses in the performance of a sex kitten waiting to come out.

If you have even been on the Briggate you will probably have heard Hannah Trigwell. She made a name for herself as the best busker on Leeds Briggate and has amassed quite a following since. Recently she has been gigging with a band but on this occasion she has left them behind to give a solo performance apart from at one point where she is joined by a fiddle player, matching her Celtic voice wonderfully. She gives a very intimate performance and her songs are well written with emotion cascading like a waterfall.

Next up are the headline act, David Henshaw and friends, who sometimes plays under the name David and Joseph. They start out very humbly but it is clear that they have put a lot of thought into their songs. The guitar player is using an ebow, normally reserved for electric guitars for infinite sustain but this time used on an acoustic for an otherworldly hum. David Henshaw's voice sounds like Damien Rice with a brave falsetto in parts. The band as a whole isn't far of Mumford and Sons or Bon Iver. The highlight of the night has to be a new song they have been working on that has yet to be named. Definitely a band to make the effort to go and see live and one to watch for the future.

The last band Oui Bee take to the stage with a bit of commotion to set up, it's not surprising as they have an interesting range of instruments with them. Between them they have an acoustic bass, a mandolin, an organ, a harmonica, a clarinet and an acoustic guitar. They have a good image and you can imagine them drinking red wine in some French cafe, several times they let us know that they have in fact been on the red wine and it's quite obvious. The music is trying to be like a female Tom Waite with a bit of euro pop but I just don't get the same kind of passion off them as I did from the other bands that played. I think I would have enjoyed more had they been drinking less wine or I had been drinking more.

As a whole the gig had a lovely atmosphere, very supportive and not at all cliquey as can be the case with some venues. The sound was great and the bands were well suited and thought-out. Great music for a great cause, (proceeds went to Leeds Women's Aids) a thoroughly enjoyable night and a chance to see some of the bands that makes Leeds a great musical city.