LISTEN: Josh Savage - 'Whisper In The Snow' (feat. Alice Pearl)

For my dissertation (which is due in less than 8 weeks... nobody panic!) I'm looking into why people attend gigs, comparing the motivations of those attending a 'proper' gig with a Sofar Sounds show, concluding on ways to get more people into live music (quite a big ask!) In my opinion, the whole Sofar package is something really special, bringing together a bunch of strangers into a unique environment, usually somewhere where you wouldn't normally encounter live music, and giving them an evening of acoustic music from artists of various genres and backgrounds, and offering artists a truly attentive audience.


Few people represent the success of Sofar Sounds quite as much as Josh Savage, who I had the pleasure of meeting when he played at our Oxford Sofar on Friday evening (read about the show here.) Josh set up the Winchester branch of the shows, and played his fiftieth Sofar on Saturday evening in Birmingham - the most that anybody has played, which is quite the accolade! Alongside living room shows, Sofar has enabled Josh to tour much further afield than the UK, in places such as the United States and Europe, where his current tour is taking him over the next couple of months. Years ago it would've been crazy to conceive that somebody without the backing of a major label could be touring as much as Josh, let alone somebody without 'management, publishing or record support to speak of', but things like Sofar make it possible - although of course it's massively down to Josh's talent too! Things are starting to look pretty exciting, as on Saturday Josh received his first play on BBC Radio 2, with Jo Whiley playing the new single Whisper In The Snow. The track, much like the name suggests, is a really delicate duet with Alice Pearl, and I'm loving the session video below with Susie Blankfield on cello.

If you dig the track, be sure to check out the live remix version and download the studio track on iTunes or stream on Spotify! If you want to find out more about Josh's living room shows, check out  the The Living Room Tour documentary, and finally, if you want to be kept up to date about upcoming shows, join the mailing list!

LIVE: Sofar Sounds Oxford at The Ashmolean Museum (27/01/2017)

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.

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.)