Yesterday was my first gig of the year, helping out with the Sofar stage at Oxford's Ashmolean and running the social media. I've been living in Oxford on and off since September 2014 but it's only the second time I've visited the museum, the first time being another Sofar show almost exactly two years ago, both shows being part of the museum's Live Friday events. This time the event was Linguamania, a celebration of languages, so we had four different acts who were all born elsewhere or grew up in another country, singing us tunes in various languages.
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| Josh Savage, Anna Zed, Count Drachma and The Fusion Project |
First up, somebody who is no strange to Sofar, having set up Sofar Winchester and having played the most Sofar shows of anybody - I believe yesterday was his 49th. Josh Savage is in the midst of a living room tour at the moment, and shared some tracks in French as he grew up in Paris... check out his The Living Room Tour documentary below!
Next up was a set from Anna Zed, who was born in Athens and studied in the UK. She played with an electric guitar and sang in a mixture of Greek and English, and I really enjoyed her set, particularly the track Holiness - see a video from a London Sofar below!
Next up, Oli Steadman's project Count Drachma treat us to some Zulu Maskandi music. Oli actually set up Oxford Sofar a few years ago, and there's a video below of Count Drachma performing at a Sofar years ago with percussion, bass, and violin, but this time around there was Oli and a violinist. It's actually almost exactly a year since I started off my uni placement with Oli's company Tigmus who haven't been able to get rid of me since - the year has flown by!
Finishing up the night with a couple of sets for two separate audiences - there was a constant queue outside our gallery for the whole evening - Oxford's The Fusion Project. They fuse together Indian Classical music with Western music, performing their covers of Ed Sheeran and Adele tracks last night and performing in Arabic, Urdu, Hebrew, English (and probably more!) They sold out a Tigmus show at Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre last year and are doing so well for themselves at the moment, so it was lovely to catch them live again! Check out their most recent cover of The Chainsmokers' track Closer below.
Personally, my next gig is tonight at The Cellar in Oxford, an Independent Venue Week show with Hudson Scott (who I saw supporting Foals at the end of 2015), Catgod and Coldredlight - tickets for that here. The next Sofar Oxford in Feb is sold out, but there's a special show for International Women's Day on 8th March with a bunch of the best local female artists (apply for tickets here.)
Next up, Oli Steadman's project Count Drachma treat us to some Zulu Maskandi music. Oli actually set up Oxford Sofar a few years ago, and there's a video below of Count Drachma performing at a Sofar years ago with percussion, bass, and violin, but this time around there was Oli and a violinist. It's actually almost exactly a year since I started off my uni placement with Oli's company Tigmus who haven't been able to get rid of me since - the year has flown by!
Finishing up the night with a couple of sets for two separate audiences - there was a constant queue outside our gallery for the whole evening - Oxford's The Fusion Project. They fuse together Indian Classical music with Western music, performing their covers of Ed Sheeran and Adele tracks last night and performing in Arabic, Urdu, Hebrew, English (and probably more!) They sold out a Tigmus show at Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre last year and are doing so well for themselves at the moment, so it was lovely to catch them live again! Check out their most recent cover of The Chainsmokers' track Closer below.
Personally, my next gig is tonight at The Cellar in Oxford, an Independent Venue Week show with Hudson Scott (who I saw supporting Foals at the end of 2015), Catgod and Coldredlight - tickets for that here. The next Sofar Oxford in Feb is sold out, but there's a special show for International Women's Day on 8th March with a bunch of the best local female artists (apply for tickets here.)
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