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RAW Night
The Anchor, Lincoln
12 July 2008
Review by Laura Ulyatt
Photos Adam Rhoades
Bands- Viv Murrell: Jo Hoare, James Middleton, John Henry Baker.
Suns of Banditos: Craig Pitkin, Rob Sanderson, Jim Atkinson, Alex Smith, Rhys Kirkhan.
Cardboard Box: Dexter Prior, George Shelbourn, Billy Finn, Jack Shelbourn.
Djune: Ashley Wilson, Greg Smith, Philip Wilson, Robert Patchett.
The evening started off the Anchor, looking like RAW this week was going to be fairly quiet. However first up Viv Murrell soon enticed people to make a crowd around the stage. Drawn in by her powerful soft melancholy vocals she and her band soon made their presence known, by the end of her set they’d changed to a faster version of their ever so slightly moody style. With guitarist Joe Hoare, and drummer James Middleton, exchanging playful rhythms and beats between them.
It was a shame they didn’t play with a bit more conviction from the beginning, but after they got going they’d convincingly set the audience up ready to receive the more rock like Suns of Banditos from Doncaster, who instantly started with Jimmy Hendrix style ‘wah aha wham’ chords by the lead guitarist Rob Sanderson. However the influence of guitar legends subsided as they very cleverly went into their second song with more soothing Pink Floydish bass riffs and a very steady but strong beat from drummer Alex Smith. Whilst this was going on lead singer Craig Pitkin had been providing very soft vocals so it was a great change when the rest of  their set continued with stronger faster beats, allowing him to really belt out some tunes transforming his softer side to something harder and more exciting. The band even picked up a new member ‘Steve’ who is now their new air guitarist.
Then just as you though the evening was going one way local band CardboardBox came in with youthful mix of guitars and keyboards, bringing electro pop influences to lighten up the evening and dancing round the stage. Lead singer Dexter Prior sounded very much like another Brian from Placebo at times, still managing to keep his own style which is shared with the band members, who were all very in sync with each others movements leaving a musically near prefect  performance.
To finish up a night which had already been a success, Skegness rock band Djune came onto an already satisfied audience. Although all the hard work had already been done by the previous three, they still had to keep everyone happy, and succeeded with their Editor style songs and tunes. However they did finish the night of a magnificent cover of New Order’s “Blue Heaven” with lead singer Ashley Wilson belting out the lyrics with the  bands unique take on it.
RAW was an entertaining night from the beginning, going through different complimentary styles of bands with something to please everybody at some point during the night.
More pics of the night by Adam here.
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