5SOF review by Karolina Thomoglou

For those who were not able to make it to last 5 shades of funk gig, you missed quite a show. The night started off slowly with the shades doing a funked impression of "Little Green Bag" with the audience building up to over 200 before they knew it!

The band played for over two hours with some highlights being Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". The classic old school funk song "Jungle Boogie" as well as the sexy "Heard It Through The Grapevine". The crowd also rocked to some of the 5 Shades original grooves with Hot Rox spitting out the raps, Fraser and Vass keeping a mean beat and Neil firing out incendiary licks, Marie's soulful singing on "Santa Baby" kept everyone entranced and put us in the Christmas spirit, while Marcel's artful voice acrobatics kept us on our toes.

The room was pumping the mood was fantastic, and just when you thought you could sit down and rest, DJ Roy came in and kept everyone on their toes while the Shades took a much needed break. Before long they were back on to continue their second set, making sure the music never stopped. With drinks flowing and moods soaring the night slowly wound down with DJ Ray on the decks till closing time. All together an amazing night that won’t be forgotten any time soon. Make sure you don't miss the next big night-Keep yourselves updated by checking in regularly right at www.5shadesoffunk.com.

Photos available here

Open Mike @ Mollys - 24th November 2009

Last night we had another Open Mike Night. It started a bit quiet, but got going eventually. Sandra was ill so she wasn’t there and neither were her entourage. Luckily we had a few of the “Shades” down to help us out. Fraser and I started out with a few comfortable classics(Ziggy, Behind Blue eyes, Fat Bottomed Girls) before Marcel came and joined us and belted out Beautiful(Aguilera) and I wanna know what love is(Foreigner). Marcel nailed it as always, which is surprising, because I still have no idea what the foreigner track sounds like outside of the chorus.

Marie came up to the stage next. Many thanks to Marie for showing up, she came straight from the airport and still had her suitcase with her. We took it down a notch and provided the (gradually filling) bar with Alanis Morisette’s rendition of My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas and then Karma Police by Radiohead.

After this I got a rest… Hugh(http://www.myspace.com/icosounds ) came up and as always provided us with his unique beautiful textures on an alternatively tuned guitar.

To inject a little bit of Funk back into the room, we brought Marcel back up to do I want you back, but in the style of KT Tunstall rather than the Jackson 5.

This was followed by Angela, who did Zombie, Sex on Fire and Hit the Road Jack with Fraser and I

After this we brought in the pros. Tom played a few songs with a new guy from Philadelphia called Mike and then they each played some songs on their own. After this another new guy called Allessandro gave us a Classical/Ska/Reggae/Folk set which included an extremely original version of Apache by the Shadows.

To close the show Fraser and I played Fire and Rain, tears in heaven, then brought it up a notch when Angela sang Nobody´s wife by Anouk and then we closed the show with Pokerface by Lady Gaga….

The next Open Mike night will be on the 29th of December. If you are about over the festive period then head on down. It should be a great night, as I will be on holiday and we should be able to prepare some aural delights. 

After this I got a rest… and James and his new flat mate Matthijs gave us a self written instrumental:

Marie came up to the stage next. Many thanks to Marie for showing up, she came straight from the airport and still had her suitcase with her. We took it down a notch and provided the (gradually filling) bar with Alanis Morisette’s rendition of My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas and then Karma Police by Radiohead.

Hugh came up next and as always provided us with his unique beautiful textures on an alternatively tuned guitar.

To inject a little bit of Funk back into the room, we brought Marcel back up to do I want you back, but in the style of KT Tunstall rather than the Jackson 5. This was followed by Angela, who did Zombie, Sex on Fire and Hit the Road Jack with Fraser and I.

After this we brought in the pros. Tom played a few songs with a new guy from Philadelphia called Mike and then they each played some songs on their own. After this another new guy called Allessandro gave us a Classical/Ska/Reggae/Folk set which included an extremely original version of Apache by the Shadows.

To close the show Fraser and I played Fire and Rain, tears in heaven, then brought it up a notch when Angela sang Nobody´s wife by Anouk and then we closed the show with Pokerface by Lady Gaga….

The next Open Mike night will be on the 29th of December. If you are about over the festive period then head on down. It should be a great night, as I will be on holiday and we should be able to prepare some aural delights.