TOUR NEWS: Ferris & Sylvester (Autumn 2019)

With a sold out headline tour across the country already under their belts earlier in the year, the magical Ferris & Sylvester have just announced a 20-date UK and Ireland headline tour through September and October. They'll follow up a string of festival slots at the likes of Bushstock, Glastonbury and Boardmasters from June to August with shows in Oxford, Brighton, London, Manchester and many (many) more. 2019 is looking to be a pretty sweet year for the duo who have also taken their gorgeous blend of blues, folk and Americana to SXSW, The Great Escape, on a support tour with Billy Lockett and recently on the Under The Apple Tree tour with Wildwood Kin. Check out this stunning Maida Vale session performance of recent single Sickness to see for yourself just how superbly talented the pair are (also - that harmonica!)

UK tour dates below - check out their website for tickets (on sale today!) and a list of their upcoming festival appearances.

September

3rd: Boiler Room, Guildford

4th: The Horn, St Albans

5th: Omeara, London

16th: Hare & Hounds, Birmingham

17th: The Bullingdon, Oxford

18th: Metronome, Nottingham

19th: Green Door Store, Brighton

20th: Think Tank?, Newcastle

22nd: Stereo, Glasgow

23rd: Mash House, Edinburgh

25th: Lost Lane, Dublin  

27th: Phase One, Liverpool

29th: The Wardrobe, Leeds

30th: The Portland Arms, Cambridge

October

1st: Deaf Institute, Manchester

3rd: Forum, Tunbridge Wells

4th: Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham

6th: Sin City, Swansea (Fringe Fest)

8th: Old Bakery, Truro

9th: Phoenix, Exeter

Follow Ferris & Sylvester - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

LIVE: My week in gigs... Khamsina, Sofar Sounds, Bastille and Lucy Leave (Sep 2016)

I moved back to uni a week ago today and I've already managed a stretch of four gigs in 6 days. First up on Sunday was a Tigmus show, with local band Khamsina launching their album Everything I Am. I hadn't listened to them before the show but was pretty impressed and it was a lovely evening of folk music to ease myself back into the local scene! I took photos on the evening, a few of which are on the blog Facebook page!

Next up on Tuesday evening was my first Sofar Sounds Oxford since March - I can't believe quite how it's been so long but it's always lovely to see the crew, a really nice bunch of people! When I got the email saying where the show would be (as they're secret venues, announced a couple of days before) I could've cried out with joy as it was in the local independent cinema up the road from me. A gig in a cinema! Definitely as cool as it sounds... 

As we were squeezed in after the early evening film, we had less bands than normal, as there can sometimes be up to five acts, but the three that played, though very different in terms of genre, were received incredibly well. First up was Laurel, an acoustic singer-songwriter originally from Southampton and now based in London. She's got almost twenty thousand likes on Facebook so is clearly doing something right and we were lucky to catch her in this intimate environment. Next up were electro-visual duo Enno and Shalti who made use of the cinema screen, showing visuals alongside their set (which I think they were producing at the time using a programme they'd created.... I can't say I understand in the slightest but it was cool!) Last up were local band The Shapes, a 7-piece band who were glad to be asked to play as they reckon it's hard to get gigs if you're not an 18 year-old hipster. They might have a point. Photos from that night are up on the page here.

On Thursday night I ventured a little further to Kingston, to catch the Bastille album launch show, with Tom Speight supporting. I've been wanting to catch them live for a while and, travel stress aside (don't get me started... who's idea is it to finish shows at half 11 when we're a half hour train out of central London?!), it was a brilliant night! I went along with a friend who lives locally who'd mentioned she'd love to go to another show there so it was a great opportunity when I noticed the ticket and CD bundles on sale. As it was a show for the new album (which just got its second week at number one... no big deal) Dan was quick to say that they'd be trying to play as much of it as possible, and they premiered a lot of the tracks (setlist.fm tells me they played 6 debuts!) so that was pretty special to see, but of course it was also great for them to finish off with just a couple of tracks from the first record (Things We Lost In The Fire and Pompeii), they definitely left the crowd wanting more! Below is a little video of Power being played for the first time.

Last up this week I ran the door for the last night and homecoming show of the Lucy Leave Tigmus tour on Friday night at The Cellar, with three other locals bands on the line-up, Slate Hearts, Holy Moments and Kancho, all of whom were lovely and it made for a grungy, rock-y evening loved by all who came (as displayed by the crazy head banging and dancing.) Of course they had to end on the title track of their recent Fighter Pilot EP, but they squeezed in Carry just before (video below), inviting the Slate Hearts lads to play with them, as they'd toured with them as main support for all dates. It was especially lovely seeing how much fun they were all having up there, and seeing the various bands watching each other's sets throughout the night!

A very busy (but fantastic) week and while I haven't currently got anything planned next week, October is looking very busy which should make up for that (also uni starts up this week so that should probably take some priority...)

LIVE: My weekend in gigs (20th/21st Feb 2016)

Since I started my second year at university, I've set up a new Twitter account for local music venue The Bullingdon, a perk of which is getting into all the show there for free - which became quite lucrative this weekend! First up on Saturday was Blossoms, where the show was opened with a recorded Viola Beach set, as they should've been supporting on the night - it sounded great and was a really moving touch to the band. The Vryll Society played a great support set, and certainly set the standard for crazy hairstyles - they've just been named in Gigwise's '13 rising, underdog bands to own festival season' - so remember the name! I hadn't listened much to Blossoms before the night but had been receiving tweets all day looking for spare tickets so knew they were pretty well loved, and though their set was, understandably, fairly short, the crowd loved it. There was so much love in the room when the band dedicated the last track of their set to their friends in Viola Beach and their manager Craig Tarry. I'm loving the track Blown Rose which you can see below performed at last years SXSW for BBC Introducing.

Next up, on Sunday, was Eliza & The Bear. I arrived late and missed the first support, but what I caught of Slowlights' set was fun, even if, as they said "I can guarantee none of you have ever heard of us". The show was originally meant to be at the end of January on a Saturday night and had been rescheduled to a Sunday, which happened to be the night before the school term started back up, but you wouldn't have known - the crowd were enjoying it a lot. As with Blossoms I'm not really familiar with the band's music but had been hearing about them both being played on Radio 1 and getting festival slots and the like - however I did know the below track Friends, and I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard it as it was featured on an advert for Bulmers Cider recently.

With four gigs, last week was pretty great for live music and this week is looking good too - with the Little Mammoths gig I'm putting on on Wednesday which I'm very excited about, and homeplanetearth supporting a local band Bel Esprit in Oxford on Sunday night (also at The Bullingdon). I also just won tickets to see Leo Stannard tomorrow night playing a show for Mahogany, where Tom Figgins is supporting, so I'm looking forward to that!

LIVE: My week in gigs (23rd - 29th November)

A little overwhelmed with uni work at the minute but I've somehow found time to get to a few shows this week (arguably my priorities aren't in the right place exactly but the shows have all been pretty great!) 

First up was Communion's New Faces tour on Monday at The Bullingdon, a venue I've been running the Twitter for for a couple of months - but I haven't got to a show at the venue since then, so I spent most of the evening chatting to the manager and missed all but Jack Watts' set (which I really enjoyed), but hearing (just not seeing) the rest they all sounded cool which is a given with them having the backing of Communion! 

Second up was a Secret Sessions show on Tuesday at The Hospital Club in London, with Big Sixes and King Charles on the line-up. I hadn't listened to Big Sixes before and it struck me the set was a little more stripped back than they usually play but I really enjoyed it, the stage banter was great as were the beautiful harmonies! Likewise, as my sixth King Charles set of the year it was the first solo one, with Charles playing predominantly tracks from his upcoming record (out 22nd Jan!) Below is a snippet of Gamble For A Rose, the latest single - lovely to see this performed in this style!

What a beautiful night seeing King Charles play a solo set for #SecretSessions. So excited for the new album it's unreal

A video posted by Megan Seekings (@meg_seekings) on Nov 25, 2015 at 1:45am PST

Skip to Thursday, and the lovely Oli from Stornoway got me a photo-pass for the second night of their two shows at St John the Evangelist Church in Oxford, just a 20 min walk from my flat. Opening up their set on the balcony to perform an unplugged version of Josephine, a track from their latest album Bonxie, they set the tone for what was to be a really beautiful evening.

Here's one of my photos from the evening, a few more are on my Flickr here.

Last up was the ever wonderful Mumford & Sons last night at Capital FM Arena Nottingham. Having only seen them once before at the same venue (but standing that time) it was a little bittersweet to be seated but we had quite a good view and a great view of the stunning light show put on by Mumford's lighting designer Ed Warren. This photo doesn't do the lights justice but there's a gallery of Ed's work on his site here.

Mumford & Sons.

Jack Garratt was in support, and it was clear that Mumford knew their luck in getting him along for the tour as he's certainly going places, having just been announced as the winner of the Brit Awards Critics Choice, for instance. The band invited him back onstage to play a cover of Eurythmics (which they played on Radio 2 earlier in the year) which I recorded a snippet of - watch that here. 

Mumford are a favourite band of mine so it was great to see them play live again and to hear most of the tracks from the brilliant third album Wilder Mind, which were accepted by the crowd just as well as the more folk-y tracks of their first two records. An added bonus to their live show is the addition of Noah & The Whale's Tom Hobden, accompanying them with fiddle, guitar and keys for most of the set. His playing during Ghosts That We Knew (below) pretty much had me in tears - so stunning! Having met Tom a few times this year (at far smaller shows!), it was superb to be able to chat at side of stage for a part of Jack's set about the likes of Mumford, Noah and King Charles - he's a lovely guy and one of my favourite musicians, Mumford are lucky to have him playing alongside them! 

What a wonderful week of gigs - sadly I don't have any (as of yet) planned for this week as I've got a couple of essays to write and an exam to start revising for. After last night's wonderful show however - I've been all but persuaded to try and get a ticket to Mumford & Sons' show at O2 Arena on 10th December as King Charles is supporting and it'd be incredible to see him play to such a huge crowd!

LIVE: My week in gigs (5th - 11th October)

Last week saw my gig tally for the year reach 45 as I took in three shows, first Oxford Sofar Sounds, then Festifeel, and Everything Everything at Under The Bridge.

Always a pleasure to attend and to photograph, this month's Sofar Sounds show in Oxford was a wonderful evening of live music and brilliant company. Held in a primary school hall just out of central Oxford that the team managed to make feel really special - we had Lail Arad, Hattie Briggs and Òkina, alongside Adam Barnes (the first act I've seen at a Sofar show that I've been a fan of beforehand - really loved getting to see him play again, he and his band are incredible artists) and Chris Ayer, who has been playing alongside Adam on his UK tour. Some of my shots from the evening are in the Flickr album below - take a look!

If you're interested in attending a Sofar Sounds show in Oxford (or closer to you - they're held in around 160 cities) get more information and sign up to be informed of shows here, they're really special nights and I'd definitely recommend it!

The second gig of the weekend was Festifeel, a festival curated by Fearne Cotton and in aid of CoppaFeel! (info), a breast cancer awareness charity which has a focus upon encouraging young girls to check their breasts regularly, promoting early detection of the cancer. The festival was held at House Of Vans in London, where I spent a fairly chilled out afternoon with one of my flatmates watching a documentary about the charity's founder, Kris, who discovered she had breast cancer too late and set up the charity to promote awareness - seeing her around on the day was pretty inspiring. We also saw some live comedy and watched some other festival attendees learning to skate, before getting into the midst of the crowd and catching sets from Lucy Rose, Slaves and Everything Everything. Whilst the crowd was quite the opposite of the seated and captive audience of Thursday's Sofar show, and minutes in I was soaked with beer, and being shoved around during Slaves set (hadn't listened to them before but was impressed and knew to expect a rough crowd..) it was a fun evening and Everything Everything blew me away, cue some terrible quality phone photos..

Lucy Rose

Slaves

Everything Everything

On Sunday evening I was lucky enough to see Everything Everything again at an intimate and free show for Q Awards at Under The Bridge, a really lovely venue with great sound snuck away under  Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. Playing a slightly longer set than Saturday night's festival set, and even coming out for an unplanned encore of first album track My Kz, Ur Bf - it was clear that the band were having as great a time as the audience, all beaming with pride to hear the audience singing back tracks from all three of their albums (no mean feat as their lyrics are inherently difficult to grasp.) I've been listening to them for a couple of years now and loved their second record, Arc, but I believe their latest record Get To Heaven is probably one of the top five albums I've ever heard. You can vote for it in the Q Awards category for best album here. 

Up close and personal with Everything Everything last night.

Overall a really fun week of shows, looking forward to seeing The Hoosiers twice this week as well as (as long as I don't get inundated with university work..) Little Mammoths, Frances and Oxjam in Reading or Oxford on Saturday!