As some of you may know, Level 4 had a contributors meeting at the Railway yesterday to discuss ideas for issue 3, so after this had finished I decided to stay and watch the acoustic night going on upstairs, Shangri La. This happens every Thursday night.

Shangri La isn't an open mic night, as far as I know it's run by a guy called Lance who generally checks out all the acts before booking them to play, therefore assuring a certain level of quality. As with many nights run like this, it doesn't guarantee that you will like all the acts, it just gives you an idea that they are good at what they do.

Tonight's performers included 2 members of the Mod Cons, Simon, Steve, Fi, and Phil Burdett, all of whom were totally different from each other.

The Mod Cons guys came across a lot better than when I had seen them before in full band form, it just seemed that stripping the songs down to a bear minimum worked for them. The vocal melodies came across much stronger than previously and the singer's voice was quite powerful.

Then came Simon who performed a set of covers from 60s bands, including Cat Stevens and Simon and Garfunkel, in a pleasant soft folky kind of way.

Then came something totally different, Steve. Apparently he is a poet and was going to be doing some poetry, but opted to sing a song without any backing. There was a story behind it but unfortunately I can't really remember what it was about, but it sounded similar to one of those old folk tales you can imagine being sung around a campfire. He performed it in a very enthusiastic and dramatic fashion and definitely committed to his performance!

Next up was Fi (of Virgo Intacta), who I've never seen play solo before. Her songs were quite quirky if you listened to the lyrics and again, the performance was great, another singer totally committing to her performance.

Then finishing the evening off was Phil Burdett who seems to be a bit of a local personality. His musical performance was very professional and his very dry humour joined all the songs together nicely.

The music finished by 11 which I think is quite a nice time for a Thursday evening!

If you're interested in playing at Shangri La contact Lance at www.myspace.com/shangrilasouthend




L-R - Mod Cons, Simon, Steve, Fi and Phil Burdett

Ok, see you soon!

Debbie. x.