http://www.balhamtootingcarnival.com/index.htm

If you are local do pop in..if you aint then get on a bus and come down

ALL STAR ACOUSTIC/ELECTRIC GIG WITH VISTICS + BOBBY FORTUNE DRIVE; EMILY BREEZE; JOE VOLK; SAM BRAITHWAITE and MAYBE MORE. THIS IS GONNA BE HUGE. ARRIVE EARLY AND PAY UP FOR BRISTOL BABY!

the more chilled and acoustical side of the Vistics?…. or mebbe not… do stroll on by to find out

The JEVE and many others play a benefit for the Junction on Stokes Croft! Come on down and support one of the best venues in town!

With Simon Fowler from Ocean Colour Scene as the star turn at this songwriting showcase you may have assumed that guitar-based rock would the order of the day.

Nothing could have been further from the truth though as two of the three finalists performing, winner Vivien Cutino and runner up Rebecca Poole, were of a jazzy easy-listening bent.

Of the two, Berlin-based Vivien was easily the better, her laid-back charm, decent voice and talented band in contrast to Rebecca’s more brittle stage presence. Both provided palatable enough background noise, but were hardly impressive.

Thank the lord then for the other runner-up, Bristol’s John E Vistic Experience. Despite being sandwiched between these two wallpapery acts the band managed to inject a considerable dose of excitement into the proceedings through the good old-fashioned virtue of having brilliant songs and playing them really well.

While their natural habitat is always going to be somewhere dirtier, sweatier and much, much later, the John E Vistic Experience proved here that they could still put in an impressive performance in the slightly sterile early-evening atmosphere, effortlessly performing tracks like the Tom Waits-ish tune that caught the judges’ eyes, Cold Hearted Baby.

Many of the performers and their friends (particularly the jazz-tinged ones) clearly weren’t interested in seeing the headline act and disappeared, so remaining in the bar were a small but attentive bunch of Ocean Colour Scene faithful.

Simon took the stage and immediately confessed that he’d planned to have just a couple of drinks but in fact he’d had a lot – were we in for a shambolic, drunken disaster?

Remarkably, no, as his short set was almost flawless. With just an acoustic guitar Simon’s vocals shone and he put in a show good enough to convert any doubters, sticking to less familiar tracks like So Low and One For The Road before finishing with old favourite The Day We Caught The Train.

It was a disjointed night’s entertainment, but half of it was great.

Helen Sloan

Bristol Evening Post / Crackerjack Review

Original Review here

(NB vistic.co.uk does not own the copyright to this review . If the owner of the copyright is at all miffed by this then please get in touch and we will remove it.)