Setting Stone on fire on Sunday night
Laura Vane and the Vipertones, voted best r&b newcomers on UK itunes in February 2010, treated a packed, jumping audience to a concert bursting with energy on Sunday in the legendary club Stone in the Altstadt, rounding up the sunny weekend Jazz Rally.
Laura takes time to chat with us after the soundcheck
©RhineBuzz
I met Laura during the soundcheck at Stone and afterwards asked her if she could ever imaging doing anything else. Immediately shook her mass of blonde curls and answered a definite 'no'. Then she gave this question a moment's thought and said that at some point she might have thought about taking care of sick dogs but no, not really. She grew up with music, both parents are musicians, she loves performing and so of course singing was all she'd ever wanted to do. Seeing her on stage this becomes so very obvious. She is fabulous at what she does, her voice is real, clear and very funky and in no time at all she had the crowd lapping up every moment.
The allure of Laura also comes from an attractive simplicity and friendliness about her. We talked about their performance at WOMAD in the Canary Islands last year where she appeared before an audience of 1000s without having anticipated that the crowd would be so huge and welcoming. Having experienced WOMAD myself for many years I too know how extraordinary these festivals can be.
She's realistic about how tough it is to make it in the music business without being jaded; her goals are grounded and very modest, even though she has performed with big names such as The Streets, Omar and Carleen Anderson. I do hope your wish comes true Laura. I'm sure it will!
As we left the club we heard more than one new, beaming fan exclaim that the gig had been the highlight of the weekend. I could easily see why some said this. Laura and her Dutch band just had the greatest time on stage - their joy, musicality and soul oozed effortlessly over to the crowd. They were obliged to play several encores, the keen crowd just wanted to groove on and certainly didn't want to let them go.
Let's hope that we will see more of Laura Vane and the Vipertones in Düsseldorf. They are signed to the Düsseldorf label Unique so please Henry Storch, founder of Unique, there must be a plan to bring this smiling lady from the south coast of England back to us soon ...
I gave Laura a RhineBuzz Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective postcard. She seemed very amused by it, just as many of the ladies are!
