The Musiclab Live - Session 1
The Square - Sunday 10th July 2011

The students had been working hard, the tutors had been working hard to prepare the students, the rehearsals had been sounding great and today was the day to put it all into practise and show the crowd at The Square just what The Musiclab students can do!

First up, The Labrats ripped through a short Rock & Roll set with Chuck Berry's Too Much Monkey Business with Paolo on drums, Elvis Classic Marie's The Name with some fine lead guitar work by Bob and fine train beat work on kit by Ash, Summertime Blues with Bob on kit and finally Musiclab favourite Wipeout with Bob and I taking turns to show off a bit on the kit!

The first student group took to the stage and we had a set from Paolo's Thursday 5.30 class with Joe coming into take bass duties and Rhys on vocals, the rest of the band was made up of Ben on drums and Jake and Alex (sporting a rather fetching tie) on guitars. We are treated to the boys' versions of Sex On Fire, Underdog and Rollin' In The Deep and the guys provided a fitting opening to the show and had a little surprise at the end when Paolo announced that he had his guitar turned down all through the set, so they had in fact been playing all the time without him to really show them that they can do it on their own! Great work boys!

Next up we had three classics from Danny M with Jack R on drums. Jack S came in to help on bass and not for the last time today, we saw the positive influence our older students can have on our younger students. Danny displayed some fine pickin' on Sweet Home Alabama complemented by Jack R's tight groove and understated fills. This was followed by Wild Thing and then a super version of Whole Lotta Love with Bob taking on one of the greatest rock vocals of all time!

Next up we had The Labrats in one of their many guises with Bob & Josh providing the opportunity for some of our younger drum students to play with more experienced musicians. First up was Callum on Roxanne. Callum has mastered this tricky groove and performed it accurately on the day, we also saw Toby make his live debut on guitar on this song and another great job by Bob on a difficult vocal.

This was followed by some rock-solid, punchy and powerful drumming by Harley on Times Like These.

After Harley, Alfie was up on drum kit and did a great job on Time which sounded fantastic overall with some excellent work by Bob and Josh on the vocal harmonies. Nice lead playing by Josh too!

Billy took to the stage next for his live debut on drums having started with The Musiclab only a few months ago. With a tiny bit of help, he powered through The White Stripes No Faith In Medicine and after this experience we're sure he can't wait for the next one! Well done Billy!

The Labrats finished this mini-set with a tribute to The Square's head honcho Richard, who with tongue firmly in cheek, complained at our last performance that he had heard us play songs by lots of Punk bands - The Pistols, The Ramones etc. but we had missed out his band Eddie & The Hot Rods. I felt that this needed to be redressed and after a bit of digging around on youtube, Josh and I decided on Teenage Depression. You can check out an original version here . Our version had Jamie, also making his live debut on drums and doing a great job of providing the necessary drive and energy.

Next up, we had Jay and Ani who were helped in their set by Toni on bass and Josh and Toby doing a great job in filling in on drums with hardly any preperation time (the group's drummer pulled out of the performance a week before). First up we had the classic Summer Of 69 with Jay and Ani rocking it along with some great vocals from Rhys and punchy drums from Josh. This was followed by the guys' reggae version of Brain Damage with some lovely picking work by Ani, groovy skank work by Jay and some tasty right -handed sixteenth work on the hats by Toby. The guys did really well to be on stage without their tutor too. Excellent stuff!

The Monday 4.30 guys took to the stage next for Song 2 and Seven Nation Army. With Damon lending a hand on bass and Troy leaving the comfort zone of being behind the kit to make his vocal debut, Lewis, Rebecca and Harry showed how much they have improved in the few months since the last performance.

We closed Session One with four more numbers from The Labrats starting with Harley showing his continuing improvement in confidence and ability on the kit on About A Girl. Followed by Alfie who showed his confidence and flexibilty by taking on Been A Son which he had not played before! This was followed by Jamie's drumming on Hate To Say I Told You So and I was very impressed with Jamie on this as he nailed some excellent fills and kept the song up-tempo and thumping. Finally we had Callum balsting through Red Morning Light as a fitting end to the show.

Part 2 coming soon......