Ampersand on the Pure Local Extra show

To start the show, Kym finally got to present the award won by Ampersand at the Love Live Music Awards in June. Ampersand won best covers band, although they’ve had to wait a little while for their trophy. During the evening, the trophies were cleverly set on a table by an open door. As a result, a gust of wind knocked all of the trophies off the table and Ampersand’s was damaged in the process. Funnily enough, this is the second year in a row that this has happened. 

As of recently, Ampersand has been in COBRA Music Studios in Newport. They went to record a demo to promote themselves. They want to get out and play more so a promotional track is exactly what is needed.

Back to the members in the studio today, Susie is involved with a choir, called Soul’d As Seen. They’ve recorded 4 brand new singles but they are releasing them 1 at a time. Their next cover is Viva La Vida by Coldplay which is out on Friday 19th September, we got an exclusive listen on the show.

The next question was a common one asked on the show, that being “Who did you listen to growing up?”. Lindsey listened to a lot of Gospel, including lots of Jim Reeves. Lindsey used to do a Sunday morning Gospel show here at Newport City Radio so you can see the influence. As for Susie, her parents were musicians, so obviously she would listen to them. One day, her friend introduced her to Micheal Jackson, specifically Thriller and it changed her life in her words.

On the show, we decided to play a game. Previously, we would play a well known song on a kazoo for listeners to try and guess. It has been a while since we have done that but it returned briefly today with a Kazoo Karaoke game brought by Susie. The game was simple, Susie had cards with songs on them and she had to  play a kazoo rendition while Lindsey, Kym and I had to guess the song. We managed to guess 7 songs in a minute!

Finally, what’s next? Ampersand is playing a gig on 24th August. They are playing St Joseph’s Club for their 60th anniversary in Cwmbran. They’ll be on at about 4:00. They’ll also be playing the food festival on the 11th of October in Newport.

You can listen to the full show here