I just knew this band was going to be something special as soon as I pushed open the doors and entered the Brewery. The venue was packed to the rafters well before the first set, and this is something we are seeing less and less of these days as so many new bands vie for our attention.
Obviously, the Lee Vasey reputation preceded them!
Glancing through the notes we took on the night, I see my colleague has scrawled in the margin of one page "The most professional band I've seen on a local circuit.". I could almost stop right there and leave you hanging on that tantalising thought, but then this would certainly qualify as one of the shortest reviews of all time...
The term "big band", in my experience, usually refers to Trad Jazz. Well, lets throw that misconception straight out the window to start with - what you can expect from this talented group is actually a superb mix of songs from the last twenty years, all given the Lee Vasey update treatment. There seemed to be a giant magnet buried under the dance floor, and by the second song it was impossible to move for writhing bodies or hear over the sound of a million happy punters singing along. Well, perhaps not quite a million...
There is actually very little that I can say against the Lee Vasey Big Band. They managed to keep everyone entertained for the whole evening with back-to-back numbers, never once giving the impression of becoming tired. This is the kind of enthusiasm that gets bands noticed, and I can only hope that we see much more of Lee Vasey and Co. in the future.
The performance was well organised, obviously planned and choreographed well ahead of time. The singers, a welcome mix of male and female, all had strong voices and clearly a lot of talent between them - and they obviously enjoy what they do judging by the way they grooved along to the music on stage. Why do so many other singers either stand perfectly still throughout, showing no sign of emotion at all, or go completely mental so you can't hear what they're singing?
Of course, this type of music is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. There are those who would rather bang their head against the wall to the sound of "Sid headbanger and the smash-heads" - and that's fair enough. However, judging from the sheer size of the audience Lee Vasey managed to pull in for this event, they are going to be pulling the punters in well into the twenty-first century.
