I suspect I hear some of the cynics among you saying "Here comes Maximum Bob with another anodyne presentation". But I would reply with what I consider is my intention in writing these reviews, which is not to judge our performers too much in a negative way because I would hazard a guess that most of us have our senses dulled by the blur of modern life and all the things going on around us. Now and again, a chink opens up in this curtain of obfuscation and we can see things as they truly are. 

This is my turn, temporarily, to see things as they truly are and this is what I thought about our supporting act this evening because what we were presented with was a duo who had a lot going for them. It's so hard to be a good musician, to present something special, well Chris Simmons and Adam Mellor have managed to do this and both on acoustic guitar and vocal with Chris taking the lead vocal. Worthing and its surrounding area has produced some prodigious talent over the years, including Keith Emerson of the Nice and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the very excellent Steamhammer, Billy Idol and Leo Sayer to mention but a few and now and I've got this feeling that we may have to add The Chris Simmons Band too. 

When they started playing, my first impression was that they sounded a bit like 70s band "America" but a bit more melodic and catchy. Chris has a very strong vocal style which is both powerful and interesting and quite mature in contrast with a lot of his contemporaries. His songwriting skills are in evidence, too. Adam adds some exquisite harmonies to Chris' vocal work at times. I understand that they have both played in bands before and although they were both excellent in their own right, I could see them doing very well if backed by a band and I suspect I could listen to this kind of music all night. 

Promoter Martin did mention after their performance that if anyone deserved their careers to take off, then surely these two guys were very deserving, along with others who have been our support artists like Newton Faulkner and Andy Walker who have gone on to further success. I wholeheartedly concur. Chris and Adam, don't forget us when you're famous; playing music like this you will be, I am sure. 

After this very interesting start to the evening and a short delay because of malfunctioning audio equipment at the beginning of the evening, we welcomed back a friend who played for us about 10 months ago, Charlie Dore. Because of the delay, the soundcheck was hurried and despite these problems it didn't seem to affect the excellent quality of music one little bit. Charlie, who is an original songstress and musician and plays acoustic guitar and Indian harmonium and sings the lead vocal, has written songs that have been used by the likes of Tina Turner, Celine Dion, George Harrison, Lisa Stansfield, UB40, Jimmy Nail, Sheena Easton and Hayley Westenra. Backed up by Graham 'Crispy' (an in-joke!) Henderson on acoustic guitar, mandolin, dobro, flute and backing vocals; and sitting in for Charlie's long-time musical collaborator, Julian Littman (who is current appearing in the "Queen" musical in the West End, "We Will Rock You") was Dudley Philips with supporting backing vocals and double bass. 

They make an original sound which is a cross between folk and country but with a jazzy flavouring. Charlie was pitch perfect in her delivery and her songwriting is both interesting, delightful and with an occasionally whimsical subject. Overall the music was tight and flowing, soft one minute and powerful at another. Her latest album, "The Hula Valley Songbook" which is about to be released, has a Hawaiian flavour and this was re-created with Graham's dobro. 

Another good one, Charlie and friends, the audience thought so too. They did an encore of their tune "Maximum Bob" which she dedicated to me and it was actually Charlie who gave me that sobriquet when she last visited us. The song itself is about a redneck US judge who always doled out the maximum sentence he could. This does not obviously apply to me, but I am "maximum" in many other respects as you will no doubt realise. I am honoured.

 Maximum Bob