BAND AGE (Cheltenham)
part of BBC Music Live

On Monday 29th May 2000 at approximately 4pm I went to Montpellier Gardens where I attended Cheltenham's BBC Music Live event which was called BAND AGE.

The first band I saw was called FIRST OFFENDER who performed covers of well known 60's and 70's tracks like JIMI HENDRIX's 'Stonefree' and THE TROGGS 'Wild Thing'. I felt that musically this band was pretty good, but that the vocals need quite a lot of work. However, I understand that this was their first gig, so they did very well.

Next up, on a different stage was a woman who sang and played the guitar. One of the songs she sang was NATALIE UMBRULIA's 'Torn'. This person's name (who was not on the actual running order) I later found out was KATIE.

Next on the main stage was ANGIE BROWNING whom had performed on 'Stars In Their Eyes' in March as BRITNEY, and it was with one of her songs 'Genie In A Bottle' that she started, before performing one other song.

Then we had the performance that I had wanted to see. This came from BELL JAR who performed four tunes starting with 'Sigh Of Relief' (something the whole country must have been doing after the weather we had been having), and ending with 'The Longer The Better'. I feel this band are getting better and they seem to me to be speeding things up.

We then had a few more tracks from KATIE before AVENUE came on stage at which point I left the proceedings.