Acoustic Sunday at Borders Bookstore

Sunday 20th July

The final day for us at Borders Bookstores and a fantastic lineup to finish this event with! The past seven weeks have been a pure pleasure whilst holding these events and we will be looking to continue with them later in the year. We want to extend our thanks once again to Borders for allowing us in there to hold our Acoustic Sundays and also thank the wonderful shoppers who have made the event the success it has been! To end this spell of Acoustic Sundays first up today were Indecision.

Indecision

This all female acapella group quite literally blew us all away today. Indecision were formed when the members began practicing together as a bit of fun. Karen Lester approached us in Borders and asked if we might be able to find a spot for them on one of our Sundays. Of course we were delighted to oblige and we were stunned to discover that today marked the ladies first ever performance.
Indecision sang an array of songs ranging from African to more contemporary and they sang every note to perfection. Unfortunately they do not as yet have a website we can direct you to but keep an eye on North East Live as we are definately having these ladies back in the future at one of our events!

Karen Lester & Bob Garrington

Up next we had a fantastic duo from Teesside in the form of Karen Lester & Bob Garrington, Karen sang right after her appearance with Indecision without missing a beat. The pair entertained Borders with a range of songs which delighted the onlookers. This lady has an amazing vocal range - and language! One song was sang entirely in French and Bob's guitar accompaniment complimented her perfectly.

We were delighted when Karen called up Indecision to join her on our stage area for the final song of their set - Parking Lot - and the girls were happy to oblige. Impromtu it may have been but to the audience it was superb! True professionals and definately ones to watch out for.

Andy Broderick

Another last minute addition to our line up for today - when Andy contacted us to see if he could join us for Acoustic Sunday we had already stopped taking on any more acts for this batch. However, having listened to his songs on his MySpace Page. we knew this one was one artist we had to get on before we ended this run. Andy played a selection of self penned and traditional folk songs in his own style that can only be described as unique. He is also a member of the Folk Band Brigits Mantle and plays frequently in and around the North East.

Andy had arrived with another group who had come along to watch him play for us today - Prince Rama of Ayodhya. These guys hail from Boston, Massachusets and are over here for a tour of the UK including a set at Stockton Fringe Festival on 2nd August. Today seemed to be the day for impromtu singalongs and again we were delighted when Prince Rama of Ayodhya joined Andy for his final song!

Altogether Andy and friends were inspiring and certainly well worth going to see play if you get chance.

Rory Duffy

Next up today we had Rory Duffy a young man from Stokesley who plays an array of instruments and sings too. Rory caught our eye when we came across his MySpace Page and we knew he was one we definately wanted to play in Borders. Accompanied today by his friend Dean (bassist in the local band Good Question) Rory treat us all to a set made up of original and covered songs. We were looking forward to hearing him play and we were not disappointed - he was everything we had hoped he would be! This young man has the makings of becoming an artist to be reckoned with and at the tender age of 16 he has plenty of time to do so. There is a lot to be said for seasoned performers but often when you come across a young man such as this who, despite his inexperience at performing live, plays like a professional it can only be described as inspirational. We wish Rory every success for the future and we know we will be hearing a lot more from him as time goes on - indeed we will be putting him on at one of our Showcases at Doctor Browns in the near future.

Josh Manyon

Our final act of the day was the one and only Josh Manyon. Josh is possibly more well known on the local circuit as the lead singer from the recently disbanded group The Rivettes and now as lead singer in local group Blackwell. Since we began these Acoustic Sunday sets Josh has been along to the majority of them showing support for all of the artists we have had play therefore it was only fitting that Josh should close our run of Acoustic Sundays for us. All we can say is that he closed it in style! Josh has a wonderful raw quality to his voice which puts many a more well known rock singer in the shade. He played us a range of covers on his guitar including one of our all time favourites Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd! A most enjoyable set ended to a thunderous and well deserved applause, you can find out more about Josh by visiting Blackwells MySpace Page and you can also catch him with Blackwell live at Doctor Browns on 30th August when they will be providing the support act for the launch of Femme Fatales new single!

Another fantastic Acoustic Sunday at Borders concluded our little string of sessions in there. We hope to return in the autumn with a host of more fantastic Acoustic artists.

For more information about Borders please visit their website Here.

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