Last night there was apparently a concert at the skating rink, and nine thousand people were attending. This was seen by some as a bit of a big deal but I failed once again to see the attraction. Last night on the radio we mentioned the unusual lack of gigs around town for a Thursday night and put it down to a tactical move knowing that there was a lot of interest in this particular show.

Fresh from appearing on the show the day before, Rebecca King was among the line up appearing at Jam Café which is where I was headed for. Opening proceedings was Patrick Plunkett, who appeared on The Sunday Alternative last weekend. I wondered to myself how many people were at this gig because of either of the shows, radio is still the most effective method of promotion after all.

I arrived far too early as for some reason I still have total faith in running times and assumed that the first act would be on stage at half past eight because that’s what the Facebook event page said. There was, like always, no need to rush as Patrick Plunkett didn’t hit the stage until just after nine o’clock. (None of this is a reflection on Jam Café in particular, I have found over the years that there’s a huge difference between set times and actual performance times across the whole live music industry).

The venue hadn’t properly filled up when Patrick hit the stage, and at that point I didn’t know if it would because of the gig at the rink. Those who saw it saw a strong set though, with Patrick winning his first live appearance in Nottingham. He went down well although the section of society that we all wish were dead were in attendance; the gig talkers. The new single ‘MTV Dream’ was played, as was his last single ‘Attracting Attention’. When introducing the last single he was sweet enough to mention Trent Sound; when he appeared on The Sunday Alternative in 2011 his throat was giving out so we played the song on CD instead. He didn’t play it last weekend either, so as he announced it was the first time it had been played in Nottingham.

Patrick Plunkett: I couldn't have captured such a shot if I'd tried.

Kane Ashmore was there to do both a solo set and to accompany Rebecca King, both acoustic. His solo set was first, a very casual little set with good humour throughout. Reading his hastily written set list from his phone, he performed a few songs before realising that he couldn’t remember some of the older songs in his set and was soon calling for Rebecca to join him on stage. He cut short his set with a smile and nobody seemed to mind too much, what he did was great. Neither he nor Rebecca do a great deal of acoustic, so this was a treat and of course a worthy warm up to the EP launch on Saturday, where they will be playing a more familiar sound. Rebecca appeared nervous at first, but as soon as the crowd applauded her first song you could see the relief in her face and her nerves vanish. The rest of the set was amazing, her and Kane working together beautifully with a stripped down, back to basics set.

I had never seen the headliner before and only had her recorded music to go on, but Joy Mumford was a revelation. By now the place filled right up to almost usual Jam Café standards, with a few stragglers from the skating rink arriving to see a proper musician. With a three piece band behind her and a huge support network in front of her, the time flew by thanks to an amazing set. Her recorded output doesn’t do justice to the energy that Joy put in to this performance. She hasn’t been around for too long, but she’ll be around for years.

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