MAVIS / BOTTOM DRAW
5th July 2004
By Terry Bullen

The impossible job of reducing the twelve bands to just four was carried out by the judges and I certainly didn’t envy their task. There were so many bands who could have easily of made the last four slots, but in the end the four were announced as Bottom Draw, Decadence, Mavis and Turnstone. The semi-finals saw the judges for the first two rounds removed and these were replaced by a new batch of judges, who had never seen any of the bands previously. The first of these semi-finals saw the crowds treated to the funky sounds of Mavis and the feel good music of Bottom Draw.

Bottom Draw: Bottom Draw are the ideal crowd pleasing band, as they have a clever mix of songs that appeal to most peoples musical taste buds. They’re also one of the most musically talented bands in this year’s competition, as the bass playing duties swapped hands on occasions and there were vocals from every member of the band. The band also maintained their lovely full sound that we’ve all become used to hearing throughout this year’s competition.

The bands selection of covers was very well thought out and allowed them to grab the attention of the majority of the people in the crowd. The covers ranged from the soothing sounds of the Coldplay song “Clocks”, right through to the upbeat and damn right brilliant sound of “Hey Ya” by Outkast. For me this was one of the best covers of the competition and always left me with a smile on my face come the end of it. The band also had some high quality originals in their set, of which the best were “Too Little Too Late” and the extremely infectious “Book of Pathways”.

Bottom Draw are bursting with musical talent and every member seems more than comfortable to get involved vocally, as well as playing their instruments. The band also have the right look for their style of music and certainly know how to work a crowd over and get them moving on the dance floor. The enjoyment of performing is apparent throughout the band and every member of the five-piece lapped up the reactions of the crowd.

This band have been consistently good throughout the competition and yet again put in an impressive and enjoyable performance. They have a good mix of material and are real pros when is comes to crowd participation. The question is; will it be good enough to get them into the final? Personally speaking, I think they stand a great chance of making it and fully deserve it after tonight’s showing!

Mavis: Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances Mavis had lost their original female vocalist for this semi-final heat and as a result the band were forced into drafting a male vocalist in as a quick replacement. To be fair the replacement vocalist had a fairly decent voice and he was also energetic on the stage and conversed well with the crowd. He was never going to match the vocal supremacy of the bands original vocalist, but he did well and gave it his best shot. The only problem with this unavoidable late change is that it will go against the band with the judges and will no doubt see points docked from their final total.

The band did some good covers, with the best of them being “Blame It On The Boogie” and “Get Down On It”. Mavis also had a spattering of high quality originals in their set but they all seemed to be missing that refreshing and solid edge that the bands female vocalist gave them. As mentioned above the stand in vocalist did do well but the originals “Octofunk” and the left out classic “Rock Ballad” are the bands best self penned tracks, when delivered by the original line-up.

You have to admire the band for still turning up and fulfilling their commitment to play and congratulations have to go out to the stand in vocalist, who portrayed himself well and did a sound job. The band were yet again musically strong and showed the enjoyment and quality that we’ve come to expect from them in this competition. In saying that the band will unfortunately be penalised for the change in vocalist and at this stage of the competition those minus points could prove fatal for them. I think the original line-up would have stood a strong chance of making the final but for Mavis this could be their curtain call.

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Janistalis Wrote:
Well, a very short review this week!

Bottom Draw – I liked them a lot. Their ability to have fun on stage is a great asset and is very contagious. They filled the dance floor and even if it was with a crowd they’d brought with them, so what? It created a great atmosphere.
Technically they are quite tight, the set that they do suits their style particularly well and their originals are very good.

The sound balance was better than when I saw them in the first round and overall I think they gave a brilliant performance.
They’d be my choice for the finals…

Mavis – Well, this WASN’T Mavis and I’m not going to review a different band. For the record, the replacement vocalist was really good and I personally preferred him. Obviously there were problems with remembering the words, but he did really well standing in at the last minute.

However, I don not expect them to go through now since the judges there last night had never seen the previous Mavis, plus they had to penalise the band in some way due to the change in line up. None the less, they kept us entertained!

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