Date:
LCCSSC Final 2008 Performers With the LCCSSC now firmly established, it was pleasure to welcome the third official final. Once again we were at the The Jolly Brewer in Lincoln, which proved to be such an excellent venue last year. An already depleted field (c/f JBOM review 10/09) was reduced even more by the withdrawals of Jack Broadbent and Gary Rudd, leaving just six contestants. However, it was a quality line-up and with a nice balance of open mic veterans, solid singer/songwriters and up-and-coming starlets, it looked like it was going to be a hard call. To ensure maximum fairness, a panel of four judges had been selected, consisting of dance student and keyboardist Bethany Palumbo, music teacher and keyboardist Dave Mallett, highly respected Ecofest and Small World Fest organizer Susi Mulligan and JBOM cover writer Neville Arthurs. Worksop's Samantha Decarli opened the night with an impressive performance which was to set the tone for the whole evening. After the first round, Darren Halford was the poor unfortunate to fall, missing out by one solitary vote. It was packed like sardines around the bar as a second round produced five strong performances and it must have been a head-scratching nightmare for the judges to call. Promising newcomer Emma Merssemann was the unlucky one this time but surely she will be back next year. So we entered a tense final round with Chris Donnington, Jim Manser and Samantha Decarli all giving good accounts of theirselves before the last act, Andrea Ferguson, produced a breathtaking "Something Beautiful" and then it was game, set and match. Most agreed that it was just desserts for Andrea, who has supported this event from the very outset. However, all the performers should feel proud of theirselves and it may be worth recalling that Emer O'Neill, who fell at the very first hurdle in this event in 2007, went on to be invited to perform at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Fest. Final Result 1st. Andrea Ferguson A special thank you must go to our compère, Bob Cairns, who, despite all the setbacks and frustrations, carried out his role with a smile and much aplomb. Thank you also to Pete O'Hara for his customary good job on the sound desk, to the welcoming Jolly Bar Crew of Steph, Del and Ralph, and last, but by no means least, to the good landlady, Emma Chapman, for kindly providing us with the venue. Well done, everybody! |
