The Blacksmiths Arms, St Albans

As one of the fortysomethings �murdering� an Elvis Costello song back in February 2011 in the opinion of an earlier poster, I just thought it was my humanitarian duty to defend the pub�s fortnightly Thursday �bandaoke� night from the perspective of those who do and those who might enjoy it!
Tuning might well have been a bit off for �Oliver�s Army�, but I think it�s a little unfortunate to have based an entire review of a pub around it. I constantly play paid gigs with numerous bands, and problems with monitoring & other momentary factors (mechanical and human) often prevent things from sounding exactly �spot on�.
That�s part of the �danger� of live music (as opposed to listening to an MP3 or CD) and of course, potentially its downside.
I�ve learnt that you can never be all things to all men (& women), and that there�s no point in trying to convert everybody, but the evening has proved to be very popular with many customers since beginning in November 2010.
For those that don�t know what bandaoke is, think along the lines of a sensible karaoke, but backed by a live band. It gives keen amateur singers (NOT �stag� or �hen� night guests!) a chance to have a go at a song of their choice in front of a live audience, sometimes with pre-arranged live backings, but very often with spur-of-the-moment suggestions that the musicians do their very best to back (often with great success).
Most of the members of the house band (myself included) play with other acts with more pre-planned and consistent arrangements (that have less to go �wrong� as such), but we�ve discovered some truly entertaining vocal performers in our 8 months so far and many of our growing regular audiences enjoy the slightly unpredictable nature of the evening. For me too, it�s a highly enjoyable contrast from the more predictable musical gig evenings I involve myself in too.
Whether or not the original poster has been reassured by my points above, I hope it�s explained what the evening is all about. I hope it also urges some people (the original poster included naturally!) to reassess more positively the impression they have about this, either first-hand or from what they�ve previously read here.

27 Jul 2011 16:26