Bearwood Shuffle #3 Review

Music reviewer extraordinaire and our favourite dapper chap The Baron has done a great review of Bearwood Shuffle#3.  Have a read fellow Shufflers!

The rain stayed away (just) but thankfully the crowds didn’t and the relocated Bearwood Shuffle(moved from Lightwoods Park bandstand to St Mary’s Church Hall...thanks to the threat of rain, rain and more rain) saw an excellent turn out.

With five great local bands and nearly a dozen local stalls this Shuffle had something for pretty much everyone.

Musically all ears were catered for. Singer songwriter Conor Rabone kicked things off withsome surprisingly mature self penned stuff and gorgeous four part harmonies with his band The SemiTones. Save yourself a fortune this summer and go and see this lot instead of the Beach Boys.

Less For Murder’s musings on life, love and relationships were hugely enjoyable, darkly humorous in places their take on marriage, kids and getting older fills a gap in the musical landscape. It’s not just de yoot that get’s pissed off with stuff.

With a member of UB40, Pop Will Eat Itself and Broadcast in the line up The Peaky Blinders qualify as a bone fide Brum Supergroup and, suitably enough, their set plucked jazz, soul and bosse nova classics from the archives receiving a rapturous reception from a packed hall. If Brian Travers (UB40’s sax symbol) ever decides to give up music a career in stand up surely beckons...

Another newcomer now and Rob Bushell brought things right up to date with a set that flirted with pop, R&B, hip hop (in a Jay Sean/JLS stylee...yep...stylee) and street beats.

Finally The Stacks closed the whole show by almost literally blowing the roof off the place. Indie rockers with nods towards the Arctic Monkeys and The Enemy they’ve got the kind of energy that could power a small town. There...that’s the energy crisis sorted then.

Away from the music the stall holders were filling wardrobes and bellies in equal measure with tasty treats and cool clobber...I picked up a particularly neat cravat...trust me...cravats...the next big thing. Possibly.

So for the third time the people of Bearwood (and further afield...there were visitors from such exotic places as Harborne and Digbeth!) came together for a chilled out afternoon of Shuffling. What’s next? Watch this space!

PS: Thanks to all involved, Bearwood Promoters, the stallholders, the bands, the bands’ families, St Mary’s Church...but most of all to everyone who came out...blimey, this is starting to sound like an acceptance speech! But yeah, ta everyone!