Wednesday 30 December 2015

TOUR NEWS: Lucy Rose (Jan/Feb 2016)


Brilliant news - Lucy Rose (Bombay Bicycle Club collaborator) has announced a string of 8 acoustic shows in intimate venues across the UK in January and February. Posting a week ago on her Facebook page, Lucy said that "I always want to play the songs you guys want at gigs so I felt bad in Oxford on the last tour when I heard someone shouting for Nightbus, Be Alright and Gamble. So I promised the audience I would come back in January and play a small solo acoustic gig where I could play those songs." And, true to her word, she's playing a show in Chipping Norton (just North of Oxford) and in a few other places around the country, culminating at Heath Street Church in London. I'd certainly recommend getting along to a show whilst the opportunity to see Lucy in this size of venue arises as she's certainly growing a loyal fanbase and her recent album, Work It Out, has been received to high acclaim!

WATCH: Big Sixes 'Unless I'm Mistaken' for Secret Sessions


Having been busy seeing various members of my family for christmas, I haven't posted in a while and was searching for a session to share when I stumbled across this video from the Secret Sessions. It's Big Sixes, who played alongside King Charles at the Secret Sessions show I saw him play back in November at The Hospital Club. Going to the show having no idea who the other band playing was, and not knowing the band by name when someone told me that they were playing, I did the typical thing and checked if any of my friends like their page on Facebook - and yes, some friends (whose taste in music I trust!) liked their page, and I was fairly impressed by their set and this video is a recording of their track Unless I'm Mistaken, filmed during the soundcheck. 

Wednesday 16 December 2015

GIG NEWS: Fred Abbott residency at The Forge, Camden (Jan 2016)


I'm off home for Christmas today so gigs in London are a little less accessible (far more effort to get train from home than the coach from uni) but I'm hoping that I'll be able to make it to London for one of these shows. Fred Abbott, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and former guitarist/keys player for Noah & The Whale, recently released a solo record (read my review of it here), and is playing a residency at The Forge in Camden for three nights in January. Support at each show will come from Hollie Stephenson with special guests Tom Figgins, Moxie Kicks and The Villainy making appearances at one show each, on the 14th, 21st and 28th of January respectively. Guaranteed to be a fun show with cracking guitar solos aplenty, so get down to a gig if you can! 

More info and a link to buy tickets for each of the shows here.

Monday 14 December 2015

WATCH: Half Moon Run - 'I Can't Figure Out What's Going On'


Half Moon Run have just released a new video for what I think is my favourite track from their latest record, Sun Leads Me On, which was released in October, and is certainly for me one of the best records of the year. The video, filmed in the place where the track was written, a place that 'has inspired a lot of the music on both of [their] albums' is, admittedly, kind of weird, but it comes with the territory and fits well with the title of the track - I Can't Figure Out What's Going On. 

Sunday 13 December 2015

LISTEN: The Heathen and The Holy - 'On Christmas Day'

With an exam still to go (and no, of course I haven't done any Christmas shopping!) I refuse to feel festive yet, but can't resist sharing the new Christmas track from The Heathen and The Holy, aka the 'seasonal side project' of Fred Abbott and Tom Hobden from Noah & The Whale.


The follow up to last year's track Hey Merry Christmas (video featuring Fred, Tom and a bunch of their musician pals), On Christmas Day has just been released - and you can get it on iTunes here. Instantly feeling a little more festive...

Saturday 12 December 2015

WATCH: King Charles 'Gamble For A Rose' for Secret Sessions


As the end of semester draws near I've just submitted my last two essays and now have one more exam to revise for. So much to do and so little time so I haven't found a moment to post on here for a week or so, but I had to take a break to share this beautiful video. 

Its King Charles performing his latest single, Gamble For A Rose, solo for the Secret Sessions. I saw him play a brilliant solo set that evening - as far as I can work out, they film a couple of sessions during the day and the bands play in an intimate location within London's The Hospital Club that night for a bunch of music fans, many of whom have no idea of the line-up in advance. 

I saw the mighty Mumford & Sons play at the O2 Arena on Thursday and Charles was supporting with his band - who put on a superb set to the biggest crowd I've seen them play to. It was my 10th time seeing King Charles live, crazy to think the first time was in the (then) 100 capacity Portland Arms in Cambridge, now a 20, 000 capacity arena! 


Here's to many more shows to come... a few of which fall in February as Charles is touring in support of his new album (of which the above track is the title track), all the details on the album and tour are here on his site.

Friday 4 December 2015

LISTEN: Richard Walters - 'Young Folks' (Cover)

I'm realising very quickly that I need to take a listen to Richard Walters solo back catalogue, having only listened to his work with Liu Bei. He's just had a new track featured on a Polish christmas advert so I watched the advert and searched out the full track, a cover of Peter Bjorn and John's Young Folks (previously a B&Q advert song...) Absolutely loving this cover and resisting the urge to try and whistle along to it! Take a listen...