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NEWS 15 February 2012

Live and Unpeeled makes a welcome return

Freedom Road Creative Arts has teamed up with Polar Opposites to run a monthly Open Mic Event for Under 18's at the Polar Bear on Springbank on a Sunday afternoon. Having impressed the Landlord of The Kingston Hotel during the Trinity Festival in September 2011, (Lee now also runs Polar Bear), we were asked if we wanted to run this monthly event which would provide the young people wth a regular opportunity to perform.

So on Sunday 12th February, in conjunction with Polar Opposites, the very first Live and Unpeeled event at Polar Bear took place.

Opening up the afternoon was Luke Danahar, who with the support of Lisa Billany and Jonny Calvert performed "We Collide", closely followed by Olivia Craft who performed Mumford and Son's "Little Lion Man". Both these young people have been a huge part of the Gleeks and following extra sessions with Lisa and Jonny have now started to perform solo which shows the progression they are making.

Following Luke and Olivia and making her first appearance at any of FRCA's event was Kirsty Thompson, who sang Demi Lovato's "This is Me" and "Amazing Grace". For a youing person to stand up on stage and sing in front of a crowd is very daunting, however Kirsty did a fantastic job and showed exactly why FRCA work to provide young people with these opoprtunities. Well done Kirsty!

Next up was the ever present Sammie Watson who performed what has become her signature tune, "Valerie" and Adele's "To Make You Feel My Love". Sammie was to make a return at the end of the afternoon when singing and playing the guitar, performing "Skinny Love" and The Calling's "So Lately". Sammie is now performing regularly at Open Mic nights across the City as she continues to develop her talent.

Shauna Pearce and Rose Elliott were the next to perform with brand new sets, which is another reason we decided to run this regualr event, giving the young people the opportuntiy to try out new material. Shauna's vocals are becoming stronger with each performance and her set which included Blink 182's "Always" and Christina Perry's "Thousand Years" showed how far she has come. Rose again peformed new songs which included Regina Spector's "Samson" and The Smiths' "Please Please Please" and as ever the standard of Rose's performance was outstanding.

Last up was Danielle Gray who performed some of her set from last year which included Cold Play's ""Fix You" and Britney Spears' "Everytime" and Danielle also performed for the first time Adele's "Don't you Remember" which was simply Stunning!!




A great start to Live and Unpeeled.
The next one is scheduled FOR Sunday 11th March