Sophie Henderson

Just 2 songs from ONSA newcomer Sophie tonight. This was pure quality though and a great way to start the night. The haunting and melodic 'Cry' (with guitar) and the excellent 'High Flyer' showing off Sophie's piano skills. She's a natural musician and we'll hopefully be welcoming her back soon.

Escape

ONSA has been entertained by Escape on many occasions and these guys grow in quality and performance each time. The addition of drums fills out their sound well. As well as their Snow Patrol cover, tonight's highlight was 'Waiting For Oblivion'.

Fatally Yours

This young 3-piece from Oxford were more new faces for ONSA. Great vocals, intelligently crafted and melodic song arrangements with thoughtful and exquisitely executed harmonies. These guys had great image to boot and finished off their set with a great interpretation of 'Mr Jones' (Counting Crows). Superb.

Mark and Janine

An instrumental set from the master keyboard man tonight. Accompanied by Janine on Sax we had a couple of masterpieces. The second (Jazz) piece showed Mark at his very best...which is very good indeed!

Blame It On Johnny

Featuring a massive 6-piece band (a first for ONSA I think) with full drums, twin sax plus bass, guitar and keys - this was a mighty powerful act. Highlights were 'Kodak Camera' and 'Shoeshine Day' - the latter was kind of jumping jive meets

David Doddington & Steve Grattan calling themselves 'One Night Stand'

Both established ONSA acts - these guys make a great combination. It was wall to wall classic covers tonight ('Route 66', 'Wild World' and 'Burning Love') and they were well appreciated. Briliant name of course...but don't even think about website rights!

Dai Knight

Here's a young artist going places. He's confident, has a strident delivery with a natural grasp of musical dynamics - a potent combination. 'Face Down' was good, GM's 'Faith' very good and '7 deadly Sins' awesome. All this plus his number one fan almost beside herself with delirious enthusiasm right at the front of the crowd.

Concept

Simon Williams ensures this band have charisma in spades. They knock out some great songs too, 'Carry Me Home' and notably 'Hero of My Song'. They are progressing with more confidence and indeed extra musicians and grow in appeal and popularity.

3 Mile Cross

Here's a really interesting band - new to ONSA. They played a pretty convincing version of 'Somebody To Love', plus a couple of originals including the moody, dark 'Ships'. They fuse an eclectic mix of traditional and modern influences...and when the lead singer smiles the whole world lights up! Great stuff.

Anna Crowley

Anna has played ONSA before and produces a quality vocal performance with an engaging charm. Tonight, however, we had something a bit special. In the second song we had Sanjay joining her on 'Your Dirty Secret' with a driving rap performance that really worked. Echoes of 'Dido with Eminem' perhaps? Whatever, it brought the house down...Fantastic!

****************** ACT OF THE NIGHT ******************

Nathan and Charlie (+Anna C)

We've seen Charlie at ONSA before (most notably with Nathan Ball) and this time on guitar he was the business. Nathan, however, was a revelation. His vocal performance was the best of the night. A bit of classic acoustic, a bit of reggae - totally the business. Adding Anna for the final number was the icing on the cake. On an excellent evening the deserved winner of 'Act of the Night'