The entertainment last night at the Kineton Sports and Social Club was from two local high School bands, Battered Soul (based in Shipston-on-Stour) supported by Delirium (based in Kineton).
Both bands have been together for over 3 years when some of the players were only 12/13 years old and have progressed to playing, in their own styles, to a high quality level.
Battered Soul were the creation of Shipston High School head of music David Hunt, and with 4 of the band leaving to join other schools for their A levels, he has stepped away and the group is now managed by some of the parents notably Aly Packer (mother of keyboard player Will).
On stage Battered Soul are led by charismatic lead singer and guitarist Ben Bryan, with the rest of the band being Gilbert Blocksidge (rhythm guitar), Harry Coupe (bass guitar), Will Packer (organ/piano), Tristan Hoff (drums), Sam Rawles (alto saxophone) and Hector Banks (trombone).
Battered Soul won the 2014 Kineton SSC Battle of the Bands contest in 2014.
The support act Delirium are led by the enigmatic Jonathan Cartledge (Singer and Rhythm Guitarist) along with Tom Penson (Lead Guitar), Jake Hawkins (Bass Guitar) and Harry Emerson (Drummer).
Battered Soul are, from their name, an up tempo soul & blues band, with a widening repertoire of songs.
They played two sets during the evening which in the first hand included; Hard to handle (Otis Redding), Knock on wood (Eddie Floyd), Dock of the bay (Otis Redding), Rescue me (Aretha Franklin), Superstition (Stevie Wonder), Midnight hour (Wilson Pickett), Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder), Valerie (The Zutons) and Higher and higher (Jackie Wilson).
After Battered Soul’s first set we then had the completely different Indie/Hard Rock sound from 4-piece band Delirium.
They gave us powerful renditions of Chocolate (the 1975), Smooth criminal (Michael Jackson), Pumped up kicks (Foster the people), What you know (Two door cinema club),
Their own song Monochrome, Seventh nation army (The White stripes) the classic grunge song Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) and Old yellow bricks (Arctic monkeys).
Then after a short break we had Battered Soul back on stage with some more soulful classics, as well as newer numbers including Mustang sally (Wilson Pickett), Uptown funk (Mark Ronson), Take me to the river (Al Green), Hound dog (Elvis Presley), I feel good (James Brown) Everybody needs somebody (Blues Brothers) with an encore rendition of Uptown Funk again with full audience participation for the support parts.
This was a great evening of music from young up and coming musicians, from two bands from different genres.
Hopefully we will see these bands at music festivals in the area in the summer of 2016.
