The Hyst on Swansea's High Street hosted a
Swansea Fringe Festival event GRL PWR, featuring some of South Wales finest
female vocalists as part of a celebration of the contribution women have made
to the industry.
The list of acts appearing that evening
included;
Lorna Rees
The
Hyst was set up as per usual for the occasion
with a great sound system and technicians on hand to assist all the acts, as per usual. The stage was
bathed in a pink lighting to emphasis the female focal point of the evening.
Lorna Rees
Lorna Rees started the evening off by
singing some of her original songs. I had never encountered this performer
previously, so I was surprised not to see someone like Eleri Angharad or
Natalie Jones open the show. However, I was blown away by just how good Lorna
was. There were times during her set I almost thought I was listening to
Natalie Jones, because of the similarities their voices share with the likes of
Eva Cassidy and Adele. I was particularly impressed by just how good Lorna was
at hitting and sustaining tough high notes, then continuing the song as if it
was nothing at all. I will certainly look forward to seeing Lorna perform again
after the way she opened the show in such impressive style. The only slight
downside to Lorna's performance (this applied to all the acts) was the choice
to perform songs with a somewhat depressing theme.
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Edie Bens
Up next was Edie Bens singing a mixture of
covers and original songs. even though she appeared not have prepared a set
list, she continued professionally with only a mere hesitation. Edie's second
song was a little too long and depressing. I appreciate song writing is an
incredible talent and takes considerable skill, but I feel song selection takes
only common sense. The GRL PWR event was a celebration of female musical talent
and surely deserved more upbeat and power songs to be performed (but I
reiterate all the acts were guilty of this). Edie chose to perform the Corrs
song Dreams, which I felt she could
have performed a little faster, but can understand if she was adapting for her
ability. A song she performed which I believe to be an original of Edie’s
called 'You don't know me' almost
made her sound as if she was putting on an accent which resulted in her not
pronouncing whole words and did the song an injustice. Edie did however
acknowledge and apologise (which I admired) for performing sad songs,
explaining how they were easier to write. But at one point during a song I
swear one note Edie hit, made her sound exactly like Lulu's intro to Shout.
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Aiden Keryn
Third on the stage was Aiden Keryn who was
another act I had never seen before. I thought her opening song was a little
shaky and not the best I've heard, but perhaps this was understandable as no
one on the night was given time to warm up. The next few songs continued with
the depressing theme for the evening, which I thought also didn't really suit Aiden's voice. At times she
reminded me of Florence Welch of Florence
And The Machine so if Aiden were to write or just perform more up tempo
songs, I feel she would sound considerably better.
Interval
Emi Mcdade & Claire Edwards
A refreshing and welcome start to the
second half of the show broke the trend from a guitar playing soloist with a
duo who chose different instruments. Emi Mcdade on keyboard and Claire Edwards
on violin. This was a nice way to
restart the gig but unfortunately not so welcome was that the sad songs continued.
However, the combination of keyboard, violin and Emi's singing made for some
soulful calming music. Both performers were excellent and complimented each
other really well. Their music reminded me of chill-out spa music. Emi did
mention that unfortunately her original songs did have a sad theme, which is
disappointing, because that girl can hit one hell of a high note again and
again.
Eleri Angharad
Next into the spotlight was Swansea
songstress Eleri Angharad, I was eager to see Eleri perform as I saw her
perform recently at another gig, but the sound system wasn't great. So I
eagerly awaited her performance on the night because I'd heard very good things
about her. At this point in the evening the number of people present had
reduced greatly in size (perhaps because of the dismal tone of the evening). Even
though there were fewer people Eleri had great stage presence interacting
easily with the audience. She brought
them into her world by explaining her original songs and a little about herself
even suggesting she had business cards available if anybody wanted to know how
to spell her name and to blame her mother for that. Eleri is very talented and
a good singer, but there were time during the evening, I thought her voice
seemed a little fragile and for some reason felt she needed to resort to use
bad language at one point. I know most people don't seem to care too much
about, but I do like to see performers have the self confidence to rely on
their talent and avoid offending others by keeping it clean. This was
particularly an issue when she came to
discuss her song 'Stronger Stuff'.
But overall Eleri did a good set and continued to show the dwindling audience
just why Swansea has such great female singers.
Natalie Jones
The one and only Nat_Pack was up on stage next
opening with her hit ‘Sweet Poison’
and sounded fantastic. Natalie challenged herself by singing songs she had
written ten years ago, but ever the great professional she is, she nailed it.
Now performing to what was practically an empty room she still made the most of
it and rocked the place big time. In the past few gigs I've seen Natalie
perform when she's slipped up a little, however, on this night one of my
favourite local performers did herself proud delivered a set that any performer
would be proud of and I wish there had been more there to see it.
Laura Benjamin
Laura Benjamin had the job of closing the GRL PWR show, even though she was playing for what was an almost empty venue Laura did not disappoint. Laura is fast becoming a big name performer throughout South Wales and if you've seen one of her gigs before you'll know why. Laura is such a talented performer with the ability sing with a soft soulful voice as well as playing the guitar that would impress any musician. On the night Laura sang a number of original songs and showed everyone why she deserves her reputation. I can certainly see why she was chosen to close the show on a big high.
Laura Benjamin had the job of closing the GRL PWR show, even though she was playing for what was an almost empty venue Laura did not disappoint. Laura is fast becoming a big name performer throughout South Wales and if you've seen one of her gigs before you'll know why. Laura is such a talented performer with the ability sing with a soft soulful voice as well as playing the guitar that would impress any musician. On the night Laura sang a number of original songs and showed everyone why she deserves her reputation. I can certainly see why she was chosen to close the show on a big high.
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