The National Day Concert

The National Day Rock concert this year kicked off with an acoustic set from a new band, the ND Acoustic House Band.  

It was a refreshingly different set from a talented bunch of guys jointly led by Bevan Goz and Nicky Borda with a guitarist and percussionist supporting, and featured Paul Simon’s classic Diamonds on the soles of her Shoes as their first song and which immediately endeared them to the receptive Casemates. 

The vocals were neat and the repertoire well chosen. 

Their cool vibe was refreshing to enjoy and I, for one, look forward to seeing them again in the future as a collective. They left a very good impression on everyone. 

The second act, Nikolai Celecia, has a small legion of fans who follow him to gigs and this concert was to be no exception. Here, his band featured keyboards, slide guitar, banjo, bass, viola, sax, mandolin, electric guitar and drums.  

A mixture of indie folk music and a score of well-executed original songs from a prolific writer who has struggled with mental health issues and uses his songwriting as a tool to get over them, it has proved to be the ticket which had earned Nikolai the right to be on that stage. 

His excellent vocals are haunting and his songs are emotive. I have musician friends who came down specifically to hear him play a ten-song set which was well paced and which built up to slightly heavier content near the end. The seven-piece band got very generous acclaim from the Casemates crowd.  

Of the local talent, I would put him at the top of my list to see again in action. 

TCB and Guests were to provide the longest set of the concert, with a bunch of covers to suit most tastes. For this occasion, they were supported by guest vocalists and musicians adding talent to this experienced power trio.  

TCB have become the ‘kings of covers’ band who frequent our live music stages and functions throughout the year. 

Led by multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Bugeja, we were treated to rock classics from The Beatles to The Police, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Amy Winehouse among many others.  

There really was something for everyone to enjoy and dance to among the selection which ticked off the minutes before the concert headliners GibFloyd took to the stage. 

Our talented Pink Floyd tribute band, led by Chris Cavilla, have earned themselves high esteem in our music fraternity because, quite frankly, no-one has ever come close to the quality of performing the profound music of Pink Floyd to such a high standard of execution, which also includes synced film backdrops which all add to the Floydian experience. 

They kicked off their set with The Wall, and followed with Time from the Dark Side of the Moon album. 

One of their top renditions followed, the compelling Wish you Were Here, where the crowds always sing the choruses at the top of their voices.  

That night, GibFloyd premiered their epic Floydian-tinged composition, Who We Are, which is about the struggles of the evacuation of Gibraltarians when WW2 broke out. 

The song, and the film in black and white, also deals with the fight that the local population had to put up for years after the war, to get their folk repatriated.  

A very emotive cheer went up from the crowd after this epic and profound performance from our GibFloyd.  

The climax of the concert could now only be the biggest Floyd classic of all - Comfortably Numb, with its two iconic guitar solos reaching out and embracing the crowd with the best live music that any Casemates rock concert can provide. 

Hats off to the technical crew, to all the musicians, and to Jensen Callejon for putting this concert together for another year in which many faithful fans always turned up to support local music after a long day of National Day celebrations. 

Gallery by Johnny Bugeja