The very renowned ‘Uplifter’ opened the night in true Soul Cellar style with MC Tanja, a very talented reggae/dub skat style vocalist. More musical magic was brought to the stage when Boston based band ‘Boy Com’ blew the crowd away, opening their short yet mighty sweet set with ‘Come On In’, which they dedicated to the great cellar of soul and everyone who had managed to make it on the night. Boy Com are a nine piece, dub/reggae/hip-hop group, and get the party started they certainly did. It wasn’t long before the whole room was, quite literally, a sea of groove. After their part of the show they joined the fellow audience to enjoy the rest of the night and witness The Black Seeds in action.

Whilst the fireworks were exploding in every direction outside on bonfire night, they were just about to commence in the Soul Cellar. After weeks of anticipation, suspense - and agony as it turned out, for one of the audience members who had actually had the Black Seeds logo tattooed onto his chest! The pain must have been worth it because he was more than happy to show me with a grin on his face. Just for the record, I have no objections if any nice man wishes to show me his six-pack, (Well it is my job to find out about the more dedicated fans). The New Zealand band has some great characters, Barnaby is the lead singer and a guitarist. The other members all helped out with the vocals and proved they were all multi-talented. The bands instruments included bass, drums, keyboards, saxophone, bongos, wood block, tambourine and some other unidentified-flying-percussions…literally. There was also some stunning brass work going on from the trumpet corner; one of the most memorable moments was a very long sustained note that the trumpeter held impressively. Let’s just say, for example that if your average Joe was to exhale for that long that his insides would no longer be on the inside, they would have unfortunately vanished altogether. So basically, my point is that you shouldn’t try this at home, but more importantly; these guys are bloody fantastic musicians, entertainers and performers. Every song was performed effortlessly yet left us breathless. They mixed the old and the new classics. ‘Slingshot’ was brilliant, ‘Fire’ was burning, ‘Take Your Chances’ we did. I took a chance and went to see these guys live, no regrets. Cheers to the Black Seeds and their supporting acts. They came, they played, they conquered! Let’s hope they come back for more.