Gig Reports
The Landmarc, Bournemouth - 1st July 2007
Sunday 1st July, the Landmarc, an incredibly talented singer/songwriter and an amazing band. Put them together and you get one hell of a great night out!
Ben Mills made a very welcome return to the Landmarc in Bournemouth, only this time he was accompanied by his band, Benzego. Ben on his own really is something special, but with the band up on the stage with him, he is nothing short of outstanding and I was so glad of the opportunity to be there to see them perform together.
The evening's entertainment got underway with local lad James Murray, a young singer/songwriter who treated us to a number of his own compositions. He was well received by the audience and certainly set the mood for what was about to come.
The guys from Benzego took their places and, with excitement and anticipation growing, Ben was announced. He took up position on a stool, centre stage, and explained that the guitar he was about the play belonged to James Murray. His own, he went on to say, had had a run-in with the bad weather at Totally Wild the day before and blew up!
An awesome rendition of "All Along The Watchtower" got the set underway, followed by "Maggie May" and "Brown Eyed Girl" which gave everybody's vocal chords a good workout! Something else that got a good workout was James' guitar, resulting in a broken string and a "Sorry James" from Ben!
Onto the keyboards next, and watching Ben here was mesmerising. There was such an incredible rapport between him and the band and you couldn't help but get the impression that he was loving every minute of it. In their own imitable style, they kept the audience enthralled with "Try A Little Tenderness", "I Got A Woman", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "Rockin' Robin", "Ain't No Sunshine", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "Last To Fall" and "Like A Rolling Stone", which ended the first half of their set.
After a short smoke break Ben returned to the stage alone. During the break James had re-strung his guitar so that Ben could accompany himself on it during "Nothing But The Truth" and the "Redemption Song". After this, Ben passed comment about how the band had abandoned him and he was subsequently joined on stage by sax player Tony Rico. Ben moved back over to the keyboards and it was "goosebumps & shivers down the spine" time. Yep, you guessed it - "Smile".
Cue the rest of the band and the rest of the second half, which as usual seemed to pass way too quickly! The set continued with "Bring It On Home To Me", "Long Train Running" and the first public performance by Ben together with Benzego of "Love Waits For Me". It was at this point that, for some of us, the urge to dance became too strong to resist, so we got to our feet and made our way to one side!
Conscious of the fact that we were blocking the view of those sat in the booths behind us (ooops!) we returned to our seats after just one song but that didn't stop us enjoying what was left of the evening. How could it with songs like "Superstition", "Pull Up To The Bumper", "Play That Funky Music", "Funky Nassau", "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" with Ben doing his usual walkabout and finally "Beside You".
And so it was over but the memory of that night lives on - it was FANTASTIC! These guys gel together so well and sound so good. I'm sure that if they were to do an impromptu session, with the audience shouting out songs at random for them to perform, they would sound like they had been planned from the outset.
We would like to say a huge "Thank You" to the Landmarc for booking Ben a second time and an even bigger "Thank You" for having Benzego there too.
Finally, we say a MASSIVE "Thank You" to Ben and Benzego for giving us such a memorable night.
Benzego are:
Drums - Steve Washington
Sax - Tony Rico
Trumpet - Justin Mitchell
Guitar - Steve Higgs
Bass - Dan Mount
Report by Saara - Webmaster & Co-Admin
Photographs by Glenn - Site Owner / Administrator