Anna Pancaldi

For those of you who are unaware of the musical talent of singer/songwriter Anna Pancaldi will have missed out on her gig to promote her new E.P "Sweet Charity " at the Victoria Hotel Dalston on the 22nd March. The venue is renowned for supporting up and coming musical acts.Anna Pancaldi is from Colchester and has a very unique and infectious voice.Being at a live performance it became very clear that Anna has already built up an intimate following who appreciate her obvious musical ability.Her persona is such that she does not hide in the "comfort zone " of being on stage but during her performance "unplugged " and sang amongst those who had come to show their support. Anna is a very approachable young lady with great potential,so please, those who have not yet seen or heard Anna, check out her next venue, you won't be disappointed. Also Praise to Robbie Cavanagh who was an excellent supporting act,a young man with a bright future on the music scene.

Those are the good points, sadly I do have some security concerns about the venue the Victoria pub Dalston. The fire exit was partially blocked and having gone through the first door the second door with a push bar was stuck and needed a kick to open it, then you had to find your way to a third door through a passageway that was not illuminated! in the event of an emergency evacuation this would a recipe for disaster! Even the security staff on duty commented it was unacceptable but had no powers to act, only to advise the pubs owners, which they had done. A Fire officer would have shut it down until these points had been addressed. In the light of recent events, public safety should be taken very seriously. Finally I think it would be beneficial if not essential for an emergency evacuation announcement to be made before every performance.