2016 another fantastic HBR year. We had to drop Modz as a venue but were lucky to replace it with Four Fathoms where we would hold the first acoustic night.

It all started off in the Divers with Flame Pilots — Fields—Boxing Octopus —Dead Broke  and they all brought a large following in fact it would have been difficult to get any more people in.

We then moved on to the Prince for another rammed out night featuring Tax Return — Witchdoctor—Pandemoanium—Jake Quincey band.

The theme continued at the Angling Association with Nude Vyper—Muto— RAM—Thames Delta Memorial Society. TDMS found out the night before  that their drummer could not make the gig but up stepped Matt from Witchdoctor.

Onto the Ship and another superb night with music from  Spyplane—Ed Winchester Collective— New Old World –Jazz Duo

Then the final band night at the Rodneys where the music got progressively louder starting with Daylight Saving — Best Kept Secret— Struckdown—-Tides of Ire.

So I disappeared into a dark corner with my laptop to enter that nights scores and Dave announced the 3 finalists    WITCHDOCTOR   —-  NUDE VYPER   —-    STRUCKDOWN

The final was attended by around 250  people and WITCHDOCTOR were declared the winners after a monumental battle of music.

The acoustic nights started at the Four Fathoms where  Paul Hiley, Strawberry Blue, Meg Garner, Neil Wood, Ashley Crane and Mike and Steve entertained the biggest crowd they had ever had in fathoms even though it was incredibly hot outside.

Then it was on to the Heron for another totally brilliant night of music in yet again very hot conditions. Tonight we had Shrinking Violets, Mark Harris, Ben Wood, Alexis Zacharia, Fabulous Bakery Boy and Matt Clubb.

The winner over the 2 nights was Strawberry Blue (much to Brian’s amazement) and despite his odd coloured shoes.