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Best Folk / Roots: Bemis
Gareth Howells and Ritchie Leo, both on guitar and vocals, make up Bemis.
The two friends that have pooled their collective experience to bring their own take to the acoustic duo format, their friendship and commitment making their vocal harmonies tight and expressive.
In their live sets, alongside songs they have written themselves, they play covers from a range of acts and music genres, including Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, Prince, Peter Gabriel, David Gray, John Denver and Tracy Chapman.
Gareth says: 'It was a fantastic night. We were pleased just to be nominated and share a bill with such great artists, so we were completely shocked when we won.
'When our category came up, I was just trying to calm down my seven-year-old son who was saying: "Dad, you're on next". I told him "No, I'm not".
'It was nice to have been given the award by Steve Pitt, who has given us a lot of support and knows the work we put into what we do.
'And it was great to see Dave and Dennis come on as Reet Petite.
They don't play so much nowadays and we often crossed paths when I first started at the Railway back in the 1990s.
'It was a seriously amazing and pleasantly shocking night with a great atmosphere. I had good fun with my kids too. We were totally entertained by the acts that played between the awards.
'Thanks a million to all the people who voted for us.'
Runner-up: The B of the Bang. This is a band in the loosest sense of the word. Linchpin Chris Whitear explains: 'We are more of a collective of musicians from different bands in the area.'
With an ever-changing line-up of multi-instrumentalists, revolving around Chris as frontman and songwriter, The B of the Bang's gigs involve 'whoever is around at the time'. Jack Malpas-Coker and James Dennison joined Chris on stage to collect the award.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: -4 C to 4 C
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