THE Christmas mini-festival Welliestocking at Wellington Rugby Club on Friday night sold out in seven minutes in September, so music fans knew the quality that would appear on stage in front of them.

Starting with the Dub-Reggae sound of Datura, the audience knew this was going to be a special night for music in the town. The band performed a 40-minute set solely of their own material. The band, with one of the tightest rhythm sections in the country, had the audience mesmerised within their first few songs.

The Mod-inspired Hundred Faces have built a fierce reputation having appeared several times at community music event Welliestock and performed at several local music venues. They treated the audience to a wealth of classic tunes that had many heading for the dance floor, singing along to a band that not only mixes up a variety of influences in their sound but also features four of the most down-to-earth musicians in the South-West.

The sound that Rushwood and Co bring to a festival is an acoustic flavour in the style of Mumford and Sons with heavy influences from modern and classic artists of the past few decades. The band, with the double guitar sound and the three-part harmonies broken up sometimes with added banjo, harmonica or guest saxophonist, were quickly into their stride and showing why they are such firm favourites on the music scene. A rousing encore saw them throw a little sneaky teaser of ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless into their set.

Local band and festival favourites FILTA used most of their set for a number of new tracks and turned up the heat with a performance aimed at keeping the audience moving to classic dance songs and medleys. Slowing the set down only once with a touching version of ‘Purple Rain’, the band quickly moved into their ‘arms in the air’ dance medley that possibly had the foundations of the rugby club moving along to the beat with the packed out audience inside.

Welliestock and Welliestocking organiser Huw Weston thanked the audience for their continued support and announced that more than £600 had been raised on the night for the Wellington Minis and Junior rugby teams.

The Welliestock team were delighted with their second successful event of 2017 and are now looking forward to the Welliestock launch party on January 6. Tickets for Welliestock 2018 will be available from Mad Dog Clothing, Wellington, from 9.30am on Monday, January 8.