Jimi Riddlez and Apex of Asylum Seekas. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0905429)

THE tragedy that shook Haiti last week has seen people from all over the world come together in this hour of need.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $1m., Simon Cowell is getting a group of artists together to release a single and the US military forces are currently searching for survivors among the rubble that was left after an earthquake devastated the republic.

Meanwhile, islanders have been donating money and organising fund-raisers to help the beleaguered victims. And music is playing its part too. On Thursday night 13 local acts took to the Townhouse stage to help out.

It didn’t take long for the place to be packed out after the door opened at 8pm. Kicking things off was organiser Lucy Hill and guitarist Claire Mockett. They kept things chilled with a vibrant acoustic set covering the likes of Amy Winehouse, Justin Timberlake and Florence and the Machine’s version of You’ve got The Love.

Rob Hunter picked up a guitar next and belted out a blend of originals and a couple of covers.

He has a mixed bag of flavours in his style and voice. The hippy, upbeat tracks have a Paolo Nutini vibe to them, whereas the down-tempo songs have the moodiness of Bob Dylan. At the same time, his voice has a Jamie Cullum jazzesque sound to it.

I could watch Nessi G perform all day long and not get bored. I know I always harp on about how great she is, but it is because she really is that great. She has a raw talent, sort of rough diamond in the bunch, not quite polished, but that what makes her so good.

Placebo, The Smiths, Radiohead and Tears for Fears were a few of some of the pounding covers singer/guitarist Andy Sauvage performed.

‘Who is this guy?,’ asked my friend

‘Don’t you know? It’s Andy, he used to be in the Jessica Question.’

Remember that band? They were great and sorely missed, so it’s always a pleasure to see Andy play.

We were treated to a little reggae-infused number from MC Deemus Jay with Parched’s Jacques Evans.

Then band of the moment The Raffle played a couple of tracks minus their bass player, Matt. Drummer Ben had taken to the tambourine, while Seb and Will stuck to acoustic guitars. Although it wasn’t the normal set-up, the songs still sounded as full-bodied as they always do. The tongue-in-cheek charactistics of frontman Will made the performance colourful.

The particular highlight was drummer Ben’s backing vocals, which moulded the whole thing together.

What can I say about Jamie-Lee without feeding his ego? Nothing really, as he was nothing short of incredible on Thursday.

The audience could not take their eyes off his hands, which were moving all around his guitar. His instrumental technique and style is a gift and I could see on the faces of fellow guitarists on the audience the look the says: ‘How does he do that?’.

Pushang – an acoustic band consisting of local music genius Mike Meinke, Lucy Hill, Jull-Z and bongo player Stuart Ogier. This band is proof that with the right idea people from very different musical tastes and backgrounds can combine their styles and make it work. Blending hip-hop, RnB and the blues, Pushang had the audience pumped.

I was humming their track Sexy Lady on the way home. Pretty catchy, since this was the first time I have seen them perform.

Asylum Seekas smashing it in the Townhouse was worth staying up late on a work night for. Straight in, no messing, the lads got down to the nitty gritty from the get-go. Again, with the audience comfortably in the palm of their hands within the first five minutes, the hip-hop outfit fed local references into the lyrics.

What I loved about this gig was the intimacy of it. Having seen the Seekas take to the stage at a handful of big gigs last year, it was refreshing to have a one-to-one type session with them. They’ve kept a fairly low profile over the last couple of months, but certainly proved once again why they have been doing this for so long – because they are very good at it.

Mark Guillou on sound made a huge difference to the gig’s success, and in some respects he was the best performer of the night.

The money raised will go to Haiti, along with Bridge 2 Sri Lanka’s Sarah Griffith and Josh Le Moignan, who will today fly out to offer aid where needed.

* At the time of going to press it was estimated that £1,500 had been raised.