LIVE: Dawes at Islington Assembly Hall (4/11/19)

It's been exactly three years since Dawes were last over in the UK, playing a trio of shows to promote fifth album We're All Gonna Die. I saw them at the Islington Assembly Hall at the time, and found out during the show that they were playing an acoustic set at Rough Trade the following afternoon. Cue a spontaneous decision to travel back to London the next day, obviously. I also found out about a Sofar Sounds show they were playing and somehow managed to get into that too, and it became a really dreamy couple of days following a band I love around London. I've spent much of the time since eagerly awaiting their return, particularly after they released Passwords last Summer. Fast forward three years and I find myself in the exact same venue, watching them exactly three years to the day - I approve of the synchronicity. I wasn't planning to review the show, and spent much of the evening in a combined state of sleepy (I'd travelled to the gig straight from work) and in awe, but considering the rarity of a London show for the band, a write-up feels deserved. 

With ten years as a band under their belts, what always excites me about seeing Dawes live is how much they are genuinely enjoying themselves up on the stage. You most certainly should not go to a Dawes gig if you're hoping to watch them play their albums exactly as they are on record. Instead, expect SO much more. Enigmatic and endearing frontman Taylor Goldsmith provides vocal variations to keep the audience on their toes, and a procession of wild guitar solos as he jams with bassist Wylie Gelber, drummer Griffin Goldsmith and Lee Pardini on keys. As somebody with very little musical skill myself, it's impossible not to be in awe of the band through these instrumental sections, skirting the line between it seeming completely effortless, and as if they are giving the performance every ounce of energy. 

Beyond the music itself, the lyrics of Dawes, mostly the work of frontman Taylor, are pieces of poetical wonder. He manages to blend sadness and humour beautifully, drawing from real life experiences, relatable scenarios and contemporary issues. While quite simple, one of the lyrical highlights for me is the closing track All Your Favorite Bands, where the crowd prove their worth with a powerful singalong. The title track to album four, it's a kind of romantic ode to a lover, a friend, anybody that you care about, exploring various ways in which you could tell them just that, and settling on "may all your favourite bands stay together." I absolutely adore the sentiment.

Elsewhere in the set, the crowd singalong throughout, but most fervently for the likes of When My Time Comes, Somewhere Along The Way and A Little Bit Of Everything. With six albums to choose from, the setlist (which changes between shows, offering the band the opportunity to cycle through rarely played tracks alongside the favourites) actually manages to touch fairly equally on all albums, giving fans a real snapshot of the progression of the last ten years. Even without my favourite track (I Can't Think About It Now - I simply adore the instrumental section in it, it's one of my favourite tracks ever because of it) it was probably my favourite Dawes set that I've seen. A completely magnificent return to London. Now, perhaps not a three year wait for the next one? Fingers crossed!

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LIVE: Bear's Den at Rock City (9/4/19)

I'm sitting in a coffee shop tasked with writing a review of Tuesday night's Bear's Den show at Nottingham's Rock City. My first thought is to simply paste the word 'wow' a few hundred times, because I am completely in awe of this band and struggling to find the right words to explain just how magical they are - but for the sake of a more interesting post I'll give it a go...

The show in Nottingham followed a short run of shows in Europe and marked the start of the band's first UK tour in a couple of years. After seeing them seven times in just under a year from 2016 to 2017 it has been a long wait - and I am so glad that they are back playing live and with lots of brilliant new music in tow. Soundtracking my review writing is the band's new album So that you might hear me - it's not released until 26th April but I've been treated to an early stream - I'll be posting a review soon but I can promise fans that it is a gorgeous record and you're going to adore it.

Bear's Den live at Rock City, Nottingham

Opening the night was Tusks, AKA Londoner Emily Underhill. I have a lot of respect for an artist (particularly the opening act) who can bring a crowd to near silence with just an electric guitar for company on stage (she usually has the backing of a four-piece band, but joked to the crowd about having run out of money to pay them after the European dates of the tour.) I went to the show armed only with the knowledge of the support act's name, so had no idea what to expect and was - as I think the 2000 strong crowd were too - watching in quiet admiration for the duration of her set. A personal highlight was a stunningly understated cover of London Thunder by Foals which I've shared below.

Once Tusks' set finished, the stage was readied for Bear's Den, with an almost immeasurable number of guitars both on and off the stage, and a beautiful backdrop made from hundreds of feathers, paying homage to the artwork for the new record. 9pm arrived and the lights went down (ten points for perfect timekeeping) and the anticipation in the room became quickly apparent, it's safe to say Nottingham had missed them. The band took to the stage, a six-piece live ensemble, and opened the set with Fuel On The Fire, the first taste of the new record which they dropped back in January. Consider the bar set for the rest of the evening.

Performing a mixture of tracks from all three records, there was huge variety throughout in terms of both volume and tempo. Updated arrangements of older tracks refreshed the set, and despite it being my eighth Bear's Den show it felt like seeing them for the very first time again (a thought which leads to much fond reminiscing of their headline slot at Bushstock in 2015.) What better way to be reminded just how brilliant the band are in a live setting than with two tracks performed without any amplification or microphones. First, early track Sophie performed from the front of the stage and, during the encore, new album single Blankets Of Sorrow played within the crowd. It's pretty mesmerising to see a band perform to a crowd of that size entirely unplugged, creating an intimacy you wouldn't usually expect from that size of show. Sophie in particular left me totally in awe, it encompassed a power that I really couldn't wrap my head around at the time. (Chuffed to find that somebody has uploaded a video of that particular track here.)



As well as Fuel On The Fire and Blankets Of Sorrow the band played four more tracks from the new record - recent single Laurel Wreath and unreleased tracks Fossils, Crow and my personal favourite from the new record, Hiding Bottles (at the moment I'm adoring the lyric "yeah I'm keeping it together but you don't know the half of it, it's starting to show, no I'm not on top of this.") The new tracks were received superbly, but the crowd was probably most excited for an impromptu cover of (the chorus of) Nelly Furtado's I'm Like A Bird, which was as simultaneously crazy and wonderful as it sounds. That'll teach Davie not to joke on stage about being so rock and roll that they'd been singing her songs backstage - cue the entire crowd yelling at them to play it - "you've gotta sing along otherwise we're fucked [...] I can't believe this is happening."

So well loved are the band that it felt as if the majority of tracks they played were fan favourites, each receiving cheers of excitement from the very first notes. Testament to just how many brilliant songs they have, my personal favourite Magdalene is sadly not on the setlist at the moment, but I think I can forgive them. Bringing out the electric guitars and synths from the second record, the likes of Auld Wives, Emeralds and title track Red Earth & Pouring Rain received a rapturous welcome and got the crowd singing along, but nowhere are the audience louder (I think) at a Bear's Den show than during first album track Isaac. The track features the lyric "I'm gonna give all my love to you" - it was lovely to see how happy, and in a way shocked, the guys were to hear the crowd singing this back to them so loudly at this point - I love a band that doesn't take that level of fan interaction for granted!

A huge highlight of the set for me was another first album track, When You Break, which contrasted enormously with the unplugged segments of the show as the band descend into a jamming, drum-pounding and strobe-light infused outro which left me in a complete state of amazement. This level of variety in between tracks is one of the things that makes a Bear's Den show so exciting. As the show neared its end, Above The Clouds of Pompeii and closing track Agape, both from the first album, offered the crowd a last opportunity to exercise their lungs and show some love for the band - and they did!

As you've probably guessed, I loved the show and I really really love this band. A few dates are sold out, but they have a few UK shows still to come, including two nights at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, followed by a US tour in May and June - all the dates and ticket info are here - I hugely recommend getting along to a show if you can.

I'm really excited for what the year has in store for the band, they're on the cusp of releasing a brilliant record and deserve every ounce of success it brings - from previous shows and chatting to them after the gig on Tuesday I can attest to Davie and Kev being two of the sweetest, kindhearted and humble people I've had the joy of meeting and my heart is currently swelling with pride for them. Now: buy a ticket and pre-order the incredible new record So that you might hear me here, you can thank me later.

Follow Bear's Den - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Follow Tusks - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

LIVE: Low Island & Friends at Corsica Studios (8/11/17)

"We don't usually do an encore, but this is a special occasion." The truest words ever spoken, which were met with raucous applause at the first of Low Island's back to back sold out shows at Corsica Studios on Wednesday. It's been just over a year since the band put out their first track Anywhere, which was at the time celebrated with a sold out show at Sebright Arms. Fast forward to this April and a sold out night at Electrowerkz, and you start to see the impressive trajectory the band have taken in such a short space of time. With a couple of EPs released along the way and sets at various festivals this Summer (including The Great Escape where I finally caught them live), this all built up to the Low Island and Friends tour.

Doing just what it says on the tin the tour has been an opportunity for the band to collaborate with various creatives in the towns that they've been visiting - and for the lucky London crowd on Wednesday evening, this meant not only two support bands (Ilk and Our Mother) but two unique performance pieces. The band wrote that "working with people from across the artistic spectrum for this tour has been an incredibly fun and eye-opening experience for us. For the Corsica Studios shows next week, we've collaborated with the designer Shawn Soh, movement director Sara Green and dancers Hae Yon Lim, Aishwarya Raut, Chloe Brazinskas and Sara Kaspersen on a piece that explores the difficulties of growing up in the digital age. There's also going to be a fantastic performance art piece called 'Outburst', devised by Gary Stevens." The different performances, some of which took place within the crowd, kept us on our toes and prepared us for what was to come!

Moments after taking to the stage and beginning their first track, the volume of the bass caused a power cut. As technical difficulties go, it's pretty rock and roll. After a lot of switching on and off again all was sorted, and the band started the first song from the beginning as if nothing had happened - I'm not sure anyone would have any complaints about hearing the first half of the song again! They quickly got into the swing of things, delivering a set full of incredible tunes that make even the worst dancers among us want to bust out some moves. They treated us to tunes from the In This Room EP including the brilliant tracks That Kind Of Love, Holding It Down, as well as recent single The Lines, and they even let us in on some entirely new tunes which got just as fantastic a reception from the audience. Throughout the set it was clear just how happy  the band were to be playing for us, and how grateful and surprised they were that we were all there, which always makes for a lovely atmosphere at a show! As well as being pretty wonderful musically, they're four lovely chaps who deserve all the superb opportunities which will continue to be created for them - since the show, they've been announced as BBC Introducing in Oxford's 'Act of the Year 2017' - an amazing achievement!

Low Island have just announced an Oxford headline show at The Cellar for local promoters Future Perfect on 27th Jan - find all the info and ticket links here!

LIVE: Public Service Broadcasting at Hammersmith Apollo (27/10/17)

On Thursday night I headed to Hammersmith Apollo for the closing night of the Public Service Broadcasting UK tour, promoting their latest record Every Valley. Based on a short set I saw them play for the Music Venues Trust last year at the Roundhouse, their Live In Brixton album and my extensive listening of all three studio records I had pretty high expectations and they certainly delivered. Alongside The Maccabees at Alexandra Palace in June, the Stornoway farewell shows in March, The Hoosiers anniversary gigs this month and Bear's Den at the Apollo back in April the gig has certainly made it's mark as one of my favourites of the year! 

After a delay getting into the venue I missed some of the opening set from Londoners Palace who released their debut album So Long Forever last year (listen here) but I enjoyed what I did manage to catch! It may be because I was seated and not thrown into the set as I would normally be from the front of the crowd, but it felt fairly relaxed and not quite as full on as support sets can so easily become, and I was able to actually listen to the lyrics and they proved a lovely warm-up for what was to come!

After a quick turn around the Public Service Broadcasting chaps took to the stage (but not before a friendly reminder to only use mobile phones with respect to those around you - which could certainly do with being said at most gigs!) Opening up with the first two tracks of the latest record I was instantly bowled over and reminded why I love the band so much. If you're new to them, their bio reads that "J. Willgoose, Esq. and Wrigglesworth sample old public information films and archive material and set them to new music. Live, the films are screened simultaneously as laptops are fiddled with, drums are pounded, theremins are wafted at, guitars are bashed and banjos furiously plucked. Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future." 

As the band took us through a set of tracks from all three records (including fan favourites Gagarin, GO! and Spitfire) it struck me just how well thought out (and executed) each element of the show was. The light show was really impressive and the stunning visuals elevated the tunes to a whole other level. Keys player Mr. B, who doubles up as the band's set designer and 'visuals chap' is in charge of the visuals and did a cracking job, with screens across the stage showing a mix of handheld live shots of the band and archive footage (often that from which the audio for the tracks has been taken.)

In the absence of vocals on the most part, the focus is on the musical capabilities of the band much more than in the majority of concerts, and each member of the band proved to be a total genius - each taking on multiple instruments and contributing to a truly impressive sound. They were helped along for most tracks by their brass ensemble The Brassy Gents who brought yet more cheer to the evening while helping to make it sound even better too. With their latest record being the first to feature collaborations with vocalists, they also called on various artists to help on particular tracks. Instrumental trio Haiku Salut joined them for They Gave Me A Lamp and delivered some beautiful harmonies, and in a particularly noteworthy moment of the show, Lisa Jên Brown joined them to perform You + Me, a track which she duets on with PSB's J. Willgoose Esq. Despite his anxieties about playing a quieter track to kick off the encore, the crowd were entirely behind him as he delivered both a beautifully delicate (and rare) vocal and a more beautiful still guitar solo.


As if all of that weren't enough, after promising two more tracks, thanking the various members of the band and performing first album hit Everest (confetti cannons included) the band welcomed the Beaufort Male Choir to the stage to perform Take Me Home, the closing track of Every Valley. With the various members of PSB jumping off stage to watch from the barrier it was a really emotional and fitting moment to close the final night of the UK tour, and the choir got one of the biggest cheers I've probably ever heard at a concert of that size. Absolutely crazy and beautiful scenes which were thankfully captured by a member of the crowd here!

To summarise - long may Public Service Broadcasting reign. Since being introduced to their first album by a friend back in 2014 I've been fairly besotted with their tunes and they certainly do not disappoint in the live environment. Reflecting on the show to write this review I've become instantly desperate to see the band again so I hope that it's not long before they're back touring the UK! I've also realised a new life goal of being pals with the band and getting to witness some of what goes into making their records as my admiration and fascination towards them has increased massively!

LIVE: Banfi at The Lexington (12/9/17)

I've been a little bit in love with Banfi since catching them live for the first time back in November at their residency of free gigs at Old Blue Last and upon meeting the guys for the first time supporting Bear's Den in Oxford back in March. In the relatively short amount of time that has passed since those shows, things have been going incredibly well for the band - as well as touring the UK and Europe with Bear's Den and no doubt gaining countless fans in the process, they've been busy recording, releasing some cracking new music and playing many brilliant festivals. One of the first of those was Communion's Bushstock at the start of Summer, the last time I caught them live before this week, when I caught the London date of their first headline tour.

Banfi at The Lexington

Opening up the night was Bryde, with Joe explaining that the band had seen her performing at a festival this Summer and asked her along to support on the tour, and she said yes! With a drummer and bassist in tow she delivered an impressive set, commandeering the crowd into near silence from the first notes! Spiralling between loud, punchy tracks and slower, sadder numbers, the set flowed by quickly - a sign of a brilliant support act (with the other end of the spectrum being never-ending tracks when you're waiting for the headliner!) Check out a live video of the tune Less below, which I've added to the CMAT playlist this week - check that out on Spotify here!

Once Bryde finished up it wasn't long before Banfi took to the stage, by which point the room was totally packed out. Selling out a show is always a huge achievement and never to be snuffed at, and on stage it was clear how surprised the band were that so many had decided to spend their evening listening to their beautiful tunes! With the crowd singing back the refrains of Happy When You Go and Rosedale House you could feel the happiness radiating from the guys, writing of the show after that it was "absolutely MENTAL ... If you saw us at any point after you probably noticed us beaming from ear to ear. Big up yourselves for making that our greatest show to date!" A highlight for all has to be their latest single June, for which they shared the music video on Friday, once again directed by the über talented Jake Dypka, and which is a totally beautiful piece - get watching below!

If you're in Birmingham, Nottingham or Leeds you're in luck as the Banfi tour is still to take in your lovely cities - last few tickets for the shows here. I for one hugely recommend getting along to see them perform if you get the chance... not only do they give a fantastic live performance of their wonderful tunes, but they're lovely chaps too who will always be down for a chat at the merch stand! Now to carry on waiting for a full record of Banfi tunes... 

LIVE: Luke Sital-Singh at Union Chapel (23/5/17)

I'm partial to a sad song or two, and last night's show with Luke Sital-Singh and support act Ciaran Lavery did not disappoint in that department. The show took place at London's stunning Union Chapel, a venue I've been desperate to catch a show in for a while, and the perfect setting for an evening of sad songs, with Luke touring his new record Time Is A Riddle. I caught Luke play a secret set at last year's Bushstock to a tiny audience in a wine bar so was pretty excited to see him perform to a much bigger crowd last night.

Luke Sital-Singh at Union Chapel

Listening to Ciaran Lavery's support set it struck me that the pairing was all kinds of clever - they have pretty similar voices (so anyone who is a fan of Luke should just about fall in love with Ciaran through the course of his set) and both have great banter and comic timing on stage, a sort of unintentional hilarity. Opening with a track where he played the guitar percussively and finishing up with a track without the guitar, his vocals carried beautifully around the venue and he had the audience in silence for the entire set, not easy for a support act to do! One of the highlights of his set was the track Shame, and there's a lovely session performance of that below...

Luke has deemed the tour the "magical misery tour" and I'm not going to disagree with that sentiment, but who doesn't love some sad acoustic songs? His second record Time Is A Riddle has been out for just under a fortnight and features the tracks Hunger and Killing Me, and the set took us right through many of the new album tracks alongside the biggest tracks of album one, including Nothing Stays The Same and Bottled Up Tight. A couple of tracks in to his set Luke asked the audience to clap and cheer louder after new tracks so that he'd get the sense that things were improving (again - the stage banter was great), but we hardly needed asking as each song was met with rapturous applause. With some people commenting that the venue has the best acoustics in London it was the perfect setting and I really felt like I was part of something special! Here's an acoustic performance (with some great reverb) of the new track Innocence performed for Bee Happy Sessions.

The tour carries on to Brighton tonight and Exeter on Friday evening before a handful of European shows, check all the shows and grab the record on his site here!

LIVE: Stornoway at New Theatre Oxford (12/03/17)

I shared a post about Friday's Stornoway London gig a couple of days ago which took the blog over thirty thousand all time views (yikes!) A couple of days later I caught the band's final farewell show in Oxford, the place where the band met and started playing together, had their biggest breaks and played to some of the biggest venues, including being the first non-classical act to play a concert at The Sheldonian. I was only introduced to their music in my first year of university after meeting bassist Oli Steadman through Sofar Sounds Oxford, but the band have been making music in the city for just over a decade. Since then I've seen the band a few times and their music has become pretty special to me - so it's a huge shame to see them part (difficult to play down just how much crying was done at the two shows...) but they did so in a hugely triumphant manner, playing to a 2000 strong London crowd and to Oxford's largest theatre, the 1800 capacity New Theatre. 

As Oli and the band's trumpet (and axe?) player Tom Hodgson self-promoted the Oxford show via Tigmus, I was incredibly lucky to get to be at the venue from the afternoon, sorting out guest lists, meeting the rest of the band, watching them soundcheck from the stage and generally hanging around backstage. It's worth pointing out that the entire band and crew are some of the kindest, friendliest people I've had the pleasure of meeting! 

After rushing off for a meal with friends, I got back to the venue once the doors had opened and the previously empty theatre was full of people, many local but also many who had travelled far and wide to catch the final show, and the room was full of anticipation - it was also lovely spotting so many people from the local music scene, all there to send off one of the city's most beloved bands. I took my seat in the furthest corner of the room to catch the support band Brasstronaut play again, however compared to Friday night when I had been at the barrier, I didn't feel quite as connected with the set but enjoyed it just as much, and have since been listening to their recent self titled record on repeat - Raveshadow (official video here) is such a tune!

Similarly, being so far from Stornoway once they took to the stage I felt a little less part of the show but it was lovely to watch how much the music meant to the rest of the audience, who clapped, sang, mexican waved and even stage invaded their way through the performance. While I'm gutted I didn't get to hear The Ones We Hurt The Most live, it's probably for the best as there were enough tears without it... although the set was a wonderfully organised mix of joyous and sad tracks, and it felt like  each time I felt sad the crowd were uplifted with a track like I Saw You Blink or You Take Me As I Am - Tom's energy on stage was also pretty contagious! 

A highlight of the show, again, was an unplugged section in the middle, the same tracks as Friday (a solo November Song from Briggs followed by Get Low and Josephine) and just as beautiful. A little later during the set, lead singer Brian Briggs gave a heartfelt note of thanks to the crowd and the local music scene, saying that "we never dreamed we'd achieve what we've achieved [...] it gives us so much pride and happiness that our music has found its way into your lives [...] thank you for the memories, which we will treasure forever." If I wasn't crying before this point this definitely set me off, but soon after the band were playing their hugely fun cover of Don't You (Forget About Me) and it was a party again! Leaving the crowd with the hit Zorbing, the band responded to the raucous applause with a second encore, performing a track I hadn't heard until the soundcheck, The Old Blind Man, and ended on We Are The Battery Human with a pretty crazy stage invasion (for Stornoway, at least - and especially considering the several foot drop at the front of the stage!)

Once the performance finished I was ushered along with to the venue's back exit with the rest of the crowd, and (rather excitingly) came back into the venue, witnessing the moments after the band came off stage into the green room. Emotions (and champagne) were flowing and it was such a beautiful moment to share with the band, who then attended a signing session, meeting fans and saying some really heartfelt goodbyes which were also pretty beautiful and emotional to witness as I became a sort of unofficial photographer for fans before getting my own photo with 3/4 of the band. 

After the meet and greet, we took to the afterparty, where it was lovely to catch up with some friends, admittedly mostly from Sofar Sounds Oxford - a lovely bunch of people! Taking a taxi home with the Steadmans, Oli and Rob's parents, was somehow the most fitting way to end what was honestly one of the coolest days of my life, a show which I'm really proud to have been just a small part of. Being my first farewell shows I'm fairly surprised by just how much they moved me, isn't music a magical and wonderful thing?! A quick adjustment back to reality now as I carry on with dissertation rewriting before next Friday's deadline...

LIVE: Bel Esprit at The Bullingdon (28/2/16)

Enjoyed another gig at Oxford's The Bullingdon last night - but firstly, I want to extend a massive thanks to anyone reading this (particularly if you read my posts regularly, the idea of which is pretty insane), I just reached 200 likes on the Facebook page for the blog (find it here) which you can like to stay up to date when I write a post. Last night was my 15th gig of the year, with Southampton lads Bel Esprit playing a headline gig with support from Elixir, homeplanetearth and Haze.

First up were Haze, who might need some pointers in choosing a setlist to fit 30 minutes as half way through, they noted that they'd played most of their set. They had quite a nice vibe to open the show with, and, noting down some thoughts on my phone during the set to feel like a proper music-journo, I look back now to find little more than 'dancy', which, while it isn't really a word and doesn't help me in writing about their set - does provide a nice summary of their music and the audience's response. Adding in a track to fill up the extra time, which I'm sure was called Bent, I felt a real Arctic Monkeys sound coming through - you can listen to some of their tunes here on Soundcloud, and catch them supporting ALXNDR at the O2 in Oxford on 16th April with the second support from last night, homeplanetearth.

Haze

Having been introduced to homeplanetearth through my placement at Tigmus, who they've played shows for, I was really keen to see them play live. I'd only heard the track Phat Phil (which I love and wrote about here) so I didn't really know what to expect from the set but any expectations I did have were totally surpassed, with Josephine singing some stunning lead vocals (usually takes a lot for female artists to impress me so that's probably quite a compliment!) Following on the trend Haze had set with slowing down time, they also found some extra time in their set for Josephine's brother Thomas to surprise the rest of the band with a track they hadn't planned to play. The track was a chance to hear Thomas's vocals more clearly as it opened with just his guitar and vocals, before the rest of the band joined later, and featured some beautiful harmonies with Josephine (his sister). The show's crowd were mostly friends of the four bands, and there was definitely a lot of love for homeplanetearth during their set! 

homeplanetearth

homeplanetearth

The third support set came from Elixir, who kicked off their set as they meant to go on - loudly. It was interspersed with some nice guitar solos and while the style wasn't really for me, I can't knock the confidence that was oozing off stage! 

 

Last up, and headlining the show, were Bel Esprit. I'd seen them before at one of the first shows I went to after starting university, when I was on the door for a venue at Oxjam Festival in Oxford at the end of 2014. Since then I've been to over 80 shows so couldn't really remember what the band's sound were like (and didn't get a chance to listen to them before the show) but I really enjoyed their set! Their performance was pretty tight and the crowd were loving it, singing back the choruses to tracks such as Island, Detox and Nowhere (available to listen to through Spotify on the Lose My Mind EP.) Compared to the shows I attended at the same venue last week, the crowd was pretty small, but this didn't phase the band who performed, in my opinion, just as they might to a sold out crowd - and the audience were loving every minute, dancing in the way I usually dance in my room but couldn't bring myself to do in public. They definitely brought some fun to Oxford on a school night - a great night of music!

Bel Esprit

Bel Esprit

If you like the shots I've embedded within the post, there's some more from the evening on my Flickr here.

LIVE: King Charles at Bush Hall (29/7/15)

Yesterday I ventured to London for my first gig in just over a month - and what a gig, seeing one of my favourite artists King Charles play an intimate show at Bush Hall. With a setlist spanning the hits such as Bam Bam, Loveblood, Lady Percy interspersed with tracks from the upcoming second record, and a great crowd singing at the top of their lungs, the show was superb. Then add the fact that producer of the second album, Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons, and Tom Hobden of Noah & The Whale played alongside the band for the whole set, and you've got a pretty epic show. Support came from Londoners Hidden Charms, whose music I hadn't had chance to listen to before the show but I was really impressed by their energy (and scared the stage might break) and found elements of The Black Keys in their live sound. 

A couple of weeks ago I had actually tweeted saying I hoped that Marcus and Tom would perform at the show (called it!), and these additions, as well as how much the band and crowd were enjoying the show, made it my favourite King Charles show and one of the best gigs I've been to. A particular highlight was the closing track, Lady Of The River. A 'new' song, the track really has it roots back when Charles was touring the US with Mumford, and seeing them perform it together was a great experience. 

A new version of old track Tomorrow's Fool was another highlight of the show for me, as well as a beautiful Charles and Marcus duet of Beating Hearts, performing the slower version of the track that features in some Youtube sessions (such as this) compared to the more upbeat album version. I had heard all but one of the new tracks on his recent 28 show February tour, and they were as great as I remember, with Bright Thing certainly standing out. The calibre of the new material is really high and with Marcus producing the record I only have high hopes and can't wait for it to be released, most likely some time at the beginning of next year. 

Overall the gig was fantastic and it was great to see everyone again, with Charles' band and team being some of the most welcoming people I know - and also to meet a lot of his fans who I know through social media. Always love chatting to Charles, and especially lovely meeting Marcus Mumford to top off a great evening!

LIVE: Nick Mulvey & Sivu at O2 Academy Oxford (12/10/14)

Last week I saw Nick Mulvey play to a sold out O2 Academy Oxford, with support from Sivu. It was a mixed crowd to say the least - screaming young girls to the left of me and a family with some young (8/9 year old) boys to the right. The appeal of Nick's music is clearly wide, which is never a bad thing. Furthermore, appeal is clearly quite big considering the show, and many of the others on the tour, was sold out.

Having only really taken a few listens to tracks from his debut album First Mind I wasn't exactly sure what to expect of his live show, but I knew that the Mercury Prize 2014 nomination the record received could only be a good sign. And with Sivu supporting I knew I was in for a treat regardless. His set, played solo and acoustically, was stunning and the crowd (though slightly restless from waiting over an hour after doors were opened) were respectful. Sivu, aka James Page, admitted being nervous as he usually played with a band, though these nerves didn't show in his performance.

Mulvey came out to screams, and set the tone of the evening straightaway with the atmospheric April. I found his set incredibly captivating, and was blown away by the way that he made his style of playing guitar look so effortless.

The set contained tracks mostly from the debut record, to the pleasure of the crowd, and even included a couple of solo performances. Much to the crowd's excitement the band even played their Radio 1 Live Lounge cover of Drake's Hold On, We're Going Home cover (video) igniting a loud sing along and livening up the crowd leading up to the encore and title track, First Mind. 

All in all, meeting both Sivu and Nick after the show and purchasing two fantastic CDs (that I have since been playing on repeat) and making it back to my halls easily after my first solo outing to a gig whilst at uni, I had a wonderful night.

Live dates for Nick Mulvey can be found on his website here, his UK tour continues until 31st October, with Sivu supporting throughout. Later this year, Sivu supports Bombay Bicycle Club on their UK tour.

Sivu released his debut album on the 13th, more info here.