Sandy’s Open Mic Night Clutha Vaults 20th December 2006.

I’m afraid the Clutha did not look very festive this year - the only Christmas decorations being a string of coloured fairy lights around the top of the bar area!! I did add a very small bit to the mic stand - a little ‘dancing’ Santa Claus!!
As usual Sandy Watson opened the evening with a couple of songs ; ‘Nowhere Road’ and ‘Diamond’.
First up was Harry, an occasional visitor who performed a couple of blues songs ‘Everything’s going to be alright’ and ‘The moon up above’.

After Harry came Jer McDade - who managed to break a string after only 8 seconds!! Once it was replaced he sang his own composition - ‘The sixties that never existed’.
Next up was Andy Lindsay who sang another little ditty of his own - called ‘Christmas Time’ - which as he said “if ye canna do this at Christmas time when can you do it?”
After Andy, Sandy called up Elspeth Durkin accompanied by Bob Leslie. Elspeth sang her version of Santa Baby (- the Eartha Kitt classic after waiting on Bob to get the guitar back into tune!) which was very well received by the audience - who were starting to get into the Christmas spirit!!
Bob Leslie then sang another of his compositions ‘Cordelia /Jane’. After Bob, we had a ‘group’ song from Stuart Workman who was joined by his son Scott on electric guitar and Johnny T Miller on Bass who gave us a rendition of the classic ‘First we take Manhatten ‘. Jenny, Stuart’s partner, then joined them for a spirited version of ‘Pharaoh’s Army’ with some accompanying harmonies from Willie Mathews, Elspeth Durkin and Bob Leslie in the audience!

Sandy then got Willie ‘Jukebox’ Mathews up to play with Scott and Johnny.
They performed ‘Mojo working’, with tambourine from Elspeth, and audience participation for the chorus! The bar was pretty full by this time, and several people started to dance in the small open space in front of the performers.
Next up to perform was Joe Kidd who did his song ‘Don’t talk, Listen’ closely followed by Arthur who performed ‘Know when to hold’ and then Stevie , who sang a blues song accompanied by Bob Leslie and Johnny T.

Stevie with Johnny & Bob.
Andy 'the Candy' Logan.
Next up was Andy the Candy Logan with Lucinda who sang another blues song. Then Andy sang his incomparable version of ‘The games people play’. He was followed by a couple of ‘newcomers’ Gordon and Scott

who gave us a really good rendition of the Beatles classic ‘Help’.
Followed by Chris who gave us ‘Reason to believe’.

Next up was Stuart Nugent with ‘Up the Junction’, followed by Gavin and Johnny T with ‘Please Help me’
Next up were John Fleming

followed by the “elder statesman” of the open mic - Joe Macatamy.

Following Joe came Stevie Maguire who performed ‘Hole in my soul’ . The penultimate performance was from Jerry McCue who did a wonderful gentle ballad in finger-picking style ‘The Road to Dundee’.

Final act of the evening was a combination of the heavyweights of Willie Mathews , Bob Leslie and Johnny T Miller and joined by Sandy Watson.

As usual we finished much later than expected, nut there was still time for a very short jam session whilst the equipment was dismantled and put away.

An unfortunate end to the evening was when Sandy discovered that someone had gone off with his Capo, which had been left by Jerry on the shelf at the entrance , and it was gone after Willie and the guys had finished performing. It would be nice to think it was a mistake and that someone will bring it back next week!!
We all hope that everyone has a lovely Christmas, and perhaps we will see you in 2007 at the Clutha Open Mic performances! Please leave a comment or message for the performers for 2007!