Saturday 23 April 2016

LIVE: Neverlnd launch gig at JDP Music Building (22/4/16)

I had a great time last night at my fourth gig of the week, seeing local lads Neverlnd play the stunning (and pretty well hidden) Jacqueline du Pré Music Building in the grounds of St Hilda's College. The show was to relaunch the band, who recently renamed themselves (they used to be Balloon Ascents) and the setlist was awash with their well loved tunes, their two recently released tracks Where Do I Start and We Don't Talk Like We Used To, and a few completely new tracks.

22/4/16
Neverlnd brought their new 'Dot Dot Dot' theme to JDP... 
Support for the show came from Lewis & Leigh, a duo I saw open for Dreaming Spires back in January (and thought that they stole the show, to be honest!) Their stunning harmonies had the crowd mesmerised, and a particular highlight for me was their track Devil's In The Detail, which you can listen to in their Missing Years EP below. 



After a short break, out came Neverlnd. Every time I see these guys play, they impress me more and more, and the experience always feels really communal, with a lot of the band's family, friends, and the Oxford Sofar crew attending the shows. The band continue to get more and more polished with each performance, and the new tracks match the calibre of the old stuff. Judging by what people were saying afterwards, everyone really enjoyed their performance of Aberration, and Cutout remains a favourite of mine (that bass!!) - and No was pretty beautiful, as always (check out a performance of the track at a Sofar Sounds in Reading here.) Also a special shoutout has to go to Ben, who joined the guys onstage playing keys, and did a pretty splendid job.

I took my camera along to the show but, rather amusingly, there was somewhat of a small crowd of photographers hovering in front of the stage, so after some lens issues, I gave in after a while and watched. While a big proportion of my photos are a blurry mess, I've salvaged some and put them in an album on my Flickr here.

22/4/16
Frontman Thomas right at home on the piano
If you're in Oxford, you can catch Neverlnd at the upcoming BBC Introducing 'Uprising' show at O2 Academy Oxford on 20th May (Jonny Payne & The Thunder are also on the line-up!). Information about that show and tickets for it here.

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