WATCH: King Charles performs 'Beating Hearts' at Oval Space (18/2/16)

I saw the magnificent King Charles again on Thursday night, playing the last show of his UK tour at London's Oval Space. After the superb set last Saturday in Southampton (write-up here) I had high expectations and the show was (of course!) just as good - a triumphant hometown return, even if the venue did seem to be trying to blind us with an awful lot of smoke machine action (here's what Ryan O'Reilly's support set looked like.) The show was my 12th time seeing Charles live and 10th gig of the year - and probably my favourite so far! Talking of favourites, the more I listen, the more I fall in love with Charles' record Gamble For A Rose which came out 4 weeks ago today - it's certainly got album of the year potential, so take a listen if you haven't yet!

A definite highlight of the show for me is the start of the encore, with Charles returning to the stage and performing a solo version of Beating Hearts, which I got a video of last night (above). Another, far more loud and energetic highlight of the show, as I mentioned in my write-up of Southampton, is the new guitar shredding interlude of Brightest Lights, which I recorded in its beautiful 5 minute entirety and you can see here - seriously insane experiencing that live. 

Everyone in Charles' band and team are absolute legends and it always overwhelms me how welcoming they are towards me, so it was lovely staying around backstage at the show - even if I lost track of time and had to run for the last tube, and then, once I'd caught it, noticed my hand was somehow covered in blood (no idea?!) Bring on the next run of shows - I imagine they'll be doing a few festivals! 

WATCH: Baio - 'The Names'

I'd been meaning to post this new video for the title track of Baio's LP The Names but I think I was at a gig when I first saw it, and only just remembered when I was taking a listen to his album - having a fun look back at some of my favourite records from last year that I haven't listened to for a little while. The video sees him walk around areas of London dressed fairly dapper and carrying a skull - what more incentive could you need to take a watch? The tracks pretty good too. 

It's quite different to most of the other music I'm listening to at the moment, but I love the album and would definitely recommend giving it a try. I'm listening to try to persuade myself that I should go to his show in London a week today (25th) - it's working at the moment but I've got a gig the night before and lectures all day on Thurs, making getting to London on time difficult!

Dates and tickets for Baio's upcoming European shows are on his site here.

WATCH: Ryan O'Reilly - 'Your New Man'

Really enjoyed Ryan O'Reilly's support set at the King Charles show on Saturday night in Southampton. After a bit of confusion over the door times a lot of us were waiting for quite a while so after the wait in the venue Ryan's set was a welcome surprise - and I wasn't the only one loving it, the whole crowd were applauding really loudly. That might've been helped along by the fact that Ryan told anecdotes of his youth in Southampton! A highlight of his set was a funny track called Your New Man which, he explained, is about stalking your ex and their new partner on Facebook. The lyrics (as you'll hear if you watch the session performance above) were pretty amusing and it went down a treat! Looking forward to seeing Ryan again on Thursday at Charles' London show.

LIVE: King Charles at Engine Rooms, Southampton (13/2/16)

Last night saw my 8th gig of the year - the first of which I've paid for, in fact... totally worth every penny. As it was the third night of the King Charles tour, I'd seen some great tweets above the previous two shows in Manchester and Sheffield, and was quite excited to see the new live set. Support came from Ryan O'Reilly, whose set I loved - I'll share a session video of him tomorrow! 

King Charles and his band performing St Peter's Gate

Having seen Charles and his band 6 times last year, the new songs were all cemented in my brain but this was the first show I've seen since the release of his second record, Gamble For A Rose, so to hear other people singing the new songs was pretty fun. The crowd were fairly vocal and a highlight of the night was when Charles returned to the stage for an encore, starting with a solo performance of first album track Beating Hearts - hearing the whole room sing the lyrics back to Charles had me on the verge of tears!

One track I was eagerly anticipating was New Orleans, the only track off of the new album which I hadn't heard before either live or on a session video. I love the album version and was interested to see what the live performance of the track would be like, I've posted a video of the track here. After this finished they performed St Peter's Gate so I carried on filming (video below), the track was a bonus acoustic track on the last album, but there's a revamped full-band version on the new record so it was the first time seeing the track performed this way, and I loved it!

Probably the highlight of the whole show however, which can't escape mention, was the extended version of first album track Brightest Lights, which is something like 9 minutes long. There's an interlude of guitar shredding which created an incredible atmosphere. Sometimes when that kind of thing happens it can feel like the band is dragging out a track unnecessarily, but it glued together so well and blew me away entirely. A snippet of it is below.. 

Basically - I could go and see Charles and his band live all the time and not get bored. Last night was such a fun show and I can't wait to see the guys again on Thursday in London. It's so great to see Charles loving the shows as much as he seems to be too, and that really reflects in the crowd's enjoyment of the show! Also I've got to mention this product, earplugs from Alpine Hearing - as I go to so many shows I decided getting some earplugs was probably a good decision to protect my hearing, and last night was the first big show where I've used them. Taking them out during a track makes it so clear how much of a difference they make, and makes it actually worrying quite how loud a show can be, particularly when you're at the front. It was the first time I'd used them for a show where I was seeing a favourite band of mine, and while you might worry that they'd affect your enjoyment by changing the sound, by reducing the noise of people talking around you etc (and a bunch of technical stuff I won't pretend to understand) they actually make the music clearer to an extent. I definitely recommend looking for a pair of earplugs if you get to a lot of shows like I do!

GIG NEWS: Little Mammoths (24th Feb)

As part of my degree, I'm completing a placement this semester with Tigmus (This Is Good Music), a gig company co-founded by Oli from Stornoway. I'm really enjoying it so far and have been working on various promotional and admin tasks for shows. I'm so excited to announce that I've booked a show myself - I'm bringing rock n roll band Little Mammoths to Cowley Road's The Library for their first ever Oxford gig. You may have seen my posts about them before - they're fronted by the bassist of Noah & The Whale, Matt Owens, and they're going on a UK tour with a hometown show at London's Cargo on the 18th Feb to play tracks from their upcoming album. 

Poster credit: Tigmus

Support for the show comes from Roberto y Juan - loved their EP launch last week so much that I asked them to support and I am very much looking forward to seeing them again. Read my post about that show here - I can't stop listening to the Monster Love EP itself, some of the best new music I've heard so far this year.

Advance tickets for the show are £6 through Tigmus here, or its £10 on the door. I would love to see some of you there supporting the bands (and me, in a way!) - it's going to be a great show!

WATCH: King Charles plays 'Gamble For A Rose' for Rockstone Sessions

I recently realised I ramble about King Charles a fair bit on here, but it's been almost a month since the last post about him - a suitable gap?! Absolutely love this session he played for Rockstone Sessions back in January on the day of his album release (his album Gamble For A Rose if you're not already aware, which happens to be a beautiful record and comes highly recommended by me....)

If you want to see Charles live, he's playing a UK tour which kicks off in a couple of days in Manchester, and finishes up at London's Oval Space on the 18th, taking in Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds and more in between. The full band set up live never ceases to amaze me, I saw the guys play six times last year and could probably never get bored of seeing them! Support for the tour comes from Ryan O'Reilly, check out the video for his track Northern Lights.

Tickets and the rest of the dates are here.

WATCH: Jonny Payne - 'Calling Out to the Sea'

Last week I ran the door for a small show at Oxford venue The Library, where Jonny Payne & the Thunder were headlining, with support from Sylva Kay and Dan Rawle. As it was an intimate show, I was able to create a rapport with the audience and had a really fun evening chatting to the people who came down to the show - it was interesting to see a show from this perspective! The artists were all lovely people too - I was new to Jonny's music but checked out some videos online before the show and really enjoyed his set (which I could just about see through the packed out room, see pic of my view here), I'm loving this video of him performing 'Calling Out to the Sea' at an abandoned greenhouse.

If you like what you hear, check out another video from these sessions here, with Jonny performing the track 'Across the Brooklyn Bridge at Night'.

LIVE: Roberto y Juan EP launch at Art Jericho (5/2/16)

Since coming back to Oxford I've already been to some great gigs and last night was no exception. Roberto y Juan (side project of Robin and Jonny of Balloon Ascents) have just released a new EP entitled Monster Love, which you can listen to above and buy digitally through their Bandcamp here for a mere £3 - last night they played a launch show at Art Jericho in Oxford, with Stornoway's Oli Steadman supporting under the moniker of Count Drachma. I'd really been looking forward to seeing Oli perform as Count Drachma, a band which usually consists of his brother too; born and raised in South Africa, they play traditional South African music as well as other tracks translated into Zulu, bringing a refreshing and new style of music to an English audience (you can listen to some of their demos here.)

Count Drachma (Oli Steadman)

Roberto y Juan

The audience was pretty mesmerised for Oli's set, and by the time Robin and Jonny (joined by George of Homeplanetearth, whose single I recently posted about) took to the stage, the room was packed - there was a really nice communal atmosphere with members of various Oxford bands, family and friends waiting in anticipation, a few who I knew already (predominantly through Sofar Sounds Oxford shows), and others who I met for the first time and were all lovely folk! The guys played a fantastic set to showcase their new EP Monster Love, which I am enjoying an awful lot - it is some of the best new music I've heard so far this year! Below is a video of them performing I Used To Relax, from which I've had the "Where did you go?" "I don't know.." refrain stuck in my head for days.

I took my camera along to the show, take a look at more of my photos here.

LISTEN: Homeplanetearth - 'Phat Phil'

I've just started a placement with Tigmus as a module for my course at uni (very cool!) and one of the first things I did was set up an event page for an upcoming show that Homeplanetearth are playing. On the coach to London a couple of days ago I took a listen to their debut single 'Phat Phil' out of interest, and I've been struggling to get it out of my head since! 

A fairly local band (to me), hailing from rural Oxfordshire, its made up of a brother and sister lead vocals combo who create some lovely harmonies, and three other guys, who all bring varying influences to the band. With some pretty nice guitar riffs layered on top of synth sounds, the track "discusses the struggle to find the things about yourself that you like and to hold on to them, whilst discarding the things that hinder your journey through life." It was released last month and Robin of Balloon Ascents (who I saw on Saturday for Independent Venue Week - they get better every time!) produced and played bass on the track. 

The show I mentioned above is at The Birdcage in Norwich on 11th March, and tickets are on sale here - £3 for 3 bands, absolute bargain! 

WATCH: Tom Figgins performs 'Giants Played In Woods Like These'

Having just returned to university I've been a little busy (though not with uni work yet as I've only had one lecture - have been to 3 gigs and play this week and started a placement with the lovely folks at Tigmus) - I've been out of the flat a lot since I got back so haven't had a chance to share anything on here, but I'm just catching up with some new videos. I recently shared another video of Tom Figgins playing the very same track, but I can't resist sharing this Ont Sofa' session of performance of Giants Played In Woods Like These. Having seem Tom live a few times over the past year I'm really fond of his music and love this track - and this is a beautifully filmed session!