PREVIEW: Citadel Festival 2019

Ridiculously excited to share that I'll be heading to this year's Citadel Festival next Sunday (July 14th) to watch some of my favourite bands and write about it for the blog. One of the coolest blog related perks to date. It's my first time at the festival, a single day event in Gunnersbury Park in West London which started back in 2015 with the particularly impressive co-headliners Bombay Bicycle Club and Ben Howard. The likes of Foals and Tame Impala have since headed line-ups full to the brim with a programme of live music, talks, workshops and even a spot of yoga. Fun and educational for all the family. With Catfish and the Bottlemen heading up a very strong line-up this year I am very much looking forward to it and keeping my fingers crossed for good weather on the day!

Testament to the quality of the line-up, I'm probably most excited about the artists playing (and headlining) one of the smaller stages this year, as Communion Music (that indie label that I ramble about quite a lot) are curating the secondary stage. MarthaGunn and Banfi kick off proceedings, before Cleopatrick, The Teskey Brothers, Matthew and The Atlas and recent Bushstock Festival headliner Matt Corby. The stage's headliners (and some of my favourite chaps in the world) are Bear's Den, returning to the UK for a huge hometown set after a pretty much non-stop run of touring across Europe and the US since the release of their album So that you might hear me back in April. The latest Communion Presents on Radio X show is worth a listen - Maz was joined by Davie from Bear's Den for a Citadel takeover with music from acts playing across the festival - listen here.

You could in all honestly stay at the Communion Music stage all day and go home feeling that you've got your money's worth.  Personally, I'll be tearing myself away from the barrier there and heading to the main stage to catch another of my absolute favourite bands, Friendly Fires. I've been a big fan of the band for years and finally got to see them live last April at their comeback O2 Brixton show - lead singer Ed's dancing was as infectious as I'd expected and if you're heading to the festival these really should not be missed. With their last album released back in 2011, they'll be playing tracks from upcoming record Inflorescent, due for release in August.

They'll be followed up by Bastille - a brilliant live act who's stage set up at Glastonbury (currently catching up on the iPlayer) was on another level. The festival happens to coincide with lead singer Dan Smith's birthday (Bastille Day) so it's bound to be a bit of a riot! Welsh indie-rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen bring proceedings on the main stage to a close, with tracks from their recent album The Balance which reached number two in the album charts back in May. I've not seen them live before so I'm intrigued to catch their set as I know a lot of people who have a lot of love for the band and their shows!

The likes of DMA's, Tinariwen, Dream Wife, Fontaines DC and Talos complete the music line-up across a few stages, while a range of workshops, talks, quizzes and other events take place during the day - Peppa Pig is even making an appearance. Not to mention a bunch of London's best street food outlets to choose from.

Between Friendly Fires, Bear's Den and more I'm excited to see some of my favourite artists and to hopefully discover some new bands next weekend. Tickets for the festival are available here and you can download the official Citadel app to check out timings and other info on the day.

PREVIEW: Little Brother Eli release album 'Cold Tales'

One of my favourite music discoveries over the couple of years I've been studying in Oxford is Little Brother Eli, who release their debut album, Cold Tales, this weekend. The album is out on Friday and you can hear it live on Saturday at The Bullingdon, with support from Neverlnd (another of my favourite Oxford bands!) and Nine Miles South. They're also playing an acoustic set before the show over the road at Truck - having seen them play acoustic at Sofar Sounds Oxford I'd definitely recommend getting along to that!

Performing live, the band's tracks are bluesy, loud and catchy, drawing recommendations to the likes of The Black Keys, and the album manages to replicate this wonderfully. Lead vocalist Alex Grew's range always manages to surprise me, as well as his contagious energy onstage. The album features tracks such as Beautiful, Who Do You, Dreams and Gold (below) which go down pretty well at live shows.

Forming in early 2013 with Grew and bassist Josh Rigal, the band were joined by guitarist Adam Stowe and drummer Benji Page, sharing their wide mix of musical influences along with lap steel specialist Tom Williams. Jamming together they created their own blend of bluesy garage rock, a combination of Grew's soulful vocals and growling guitars. Over the past couple of years, as well as playing in over 100 different venues around the country, the band have started to acquire a loyal local following, so the show on Saturday should have a really fun atmosphere - wish I was in town for it!

To pre-order the album, head to the band's site here. Tickets for this Saturday's show are available here - if you can't make it, come along to their Tigmus headline show upstairs at the O2 in October, more info here.

PREVIEW: James Walker - 'Modern Medicine'

If you're from Oxford, you might recognise James Walker from the Adam Barnes band, as he plays keys for Adam, having just been on a European tour with him. He's also a vlogger, has over a thousand subscribers and recently celebrated his 1st anniversary on Youtube, you can see his vlogs here. Now - he's venturing into the world of solo music, and his debut EP, Modern Medicine, is being released by Wild Native Records on 11th April.

EP artwork for Modern Medicine

I've been sent a link to listen to the EP before next week - and listen I have, three times in a row... The EP is a beautiful collection of tracks, well produced and performed, a stunning first release from James that I'm really impressed by. Having only heard James sing backing vocals and play keyboard for Adam, I wasn't sure what to expect but anything that I did expect has been surpassed. If you're a fan of stripped back acoustic music then the EP is for you, for sure, but the EP is so much more than that - beautifully hitting the mark between intimate acoustic music and a much bigger sound, particularly in the latter half of the title track, Modern Medicine. A highlight for me is the slightly more upbeat Right Person Wrong Time with some great intricate guitar playing, but I'm a big fan of the whole EP and heartily recommend a listen next Monday when it's released!  

My photo of James, playing with Adam Barnes at Sofar Sounds Oxford last year

James heads out on a tour with Kira and August Is Ours in April and May with a few dates in the UK and several further afield in Germany and the Netherlands.