Hastings is home to many events and festivals. One of the newer ones, albeit one that has been growing steadily for over a decade, is Hastings Fat Tuesday. A few years ago the festival expanded to include acoustic sessions on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday. Like the main event, Fat Tuesday acoustic required musicians to play a 15 minute set, then move on to another venue.
This year, a great many musicians and venues participated across Hastings and St Leonards. I was spoilt for choice as to where I would go so I worked on the principle that I would go to see an act that I knew that I liked and watch the other acts in the same venue. That act was Elisha Edwards, who I had caught in Brighton a month before and who had impressed me then. She would be playing at several venues around St Leonards, including The Piper, a venue that I had been wanting to check out for a while.
After getting to The Piper, I met Tom Clarkson who was the first act to play there. He was a solo artist, using electronics as a backing track to his poetry. He provided an interesting and witty set before packing up and moving on.
Next up were the Twitten Revellers, five people playing folkier music. They had a penny whistle, a violin, a recorder, a banjo and a guitar. Room on the small stage was tight and I was worried that the fiddler may have taken someone’s eye out with their bow.
A change again and Martin Ledner appeared, him and his guitar. The pub had become noisy and he may have been drowned out, however he roared his way through his shanty set, hammering his guitar hard in order to be herad.
Next up were Tara Franks and Tullis Rennie. Tara played cello and Tullis played keys and electronics, weaving an interesting progressive and experimental set. With their arrival also came several young families and most of these stayed for several more acts, the children enjoying themselves thoroughly.
The moment that I had been waiting for arrived. Elisha Edwards and her keyboard player Dan arrived, complete with amplification. Elisha’s set showcased her soulful voice and included a cover of The Zuton’s Valerie (also covered by Mark Ronson and Amy Whitehouse).
With another change of pace we had another artist that I had hoped to see again, Tom Cole, assisted by Henry on violin. Tom plays and sings American influenced songs and they did a roaring cover of The Devil Went Down to Georgia, with Henry on vocals.
Following them was Charlie Austen, who played guitar and song accompanying herself with foot controlled percussion, a cymbal and some triggered drums. She sang some interesting songs and did not disappear straight away as she accompanied the next act on a couple of songs.
Pepe Belmonte and his guitarist Roger turned up with no amplification, so rather than getting lost in the hubbub, they promenaded around the pub, making sure that everyone could hear at least part of a couple of their songs. As well as providing backing vocals, Charlie also played Roger’s guitar body as a percussion instrument. For me, Pepe Belmonte was the find of the day, not only playing good music but also being a lovely person to meet. I promised that I would come to see them on Fat Tuesday proper as a full band.
Also a good find was Anna Page, who played a great singer-songwriter set on guitar, vocals and kazoo accompanied by John O’Sullivan on bass, who was also playing a gig that night in Essex.
The final set of the day was from Kay Iris and her band, who played some soft jazz and Americana, including covers of Midnight at the Oasis and Big Yellow Taxi. As well as Kay on guitar and vocals she had her co-songwriter Matt on guitar, a bass player, a cajon drummer and Mollie on Sax.
All in all, it was an afternoon to enjoy some excellent music from a selection of the huge amount of talent Hastings has to offer.