WATCH: King Charles - 'Ivory Road'

Nothing like a new video of King Charles performing my favourite track of his to cheer me up when I'm feeling a little under the weather and fairly unproductive when it comes to university work! He's just finished up a huge American tour, couldn't be prouder and can't wait til he next plays in London! This video is from a Chicago show Charles played last month, but dig a little deeper on Youtube and you'll find this video of him playing the track to me in a field at Cambridge Folk Festival a few years ago... classic!

LIVE: Jack Savoretti's 'Sleep No More' tour 2016

Jack Savoretti's new record Sleep No More has been out for two weeks tomorrow, and I couldn't be prouder than it reached their highest chart spot yet last week, number six! I posted recently about Jack's performance at HMV Oxford St, but I've since seen him three more times so figured it was time for another post! Last Monday Jack was on the panel for The Wright Stuff and performed a solo acoustic version of When We Were Lovers. I saw a tweet about his appearance on the show a week before and got a space in the audience... they only have about twenty people in so it's pretty intimate and was a very early wake up, but really cool to see Jack in that environment and interesting to hear him chatting about the topics of the day! 

The tour for the new record kicked off the day after the show, and I was reading some great comments about the show online, and really looking forward to his London show (last night). I pondered over it for a while and decided I'd like to go to the Southampton show on Sunday (6th) too, only it sold out. After my weekend of Dawes shows somebody got in touch with tickets to sell on Sunday afternoon, so I dropped everything, booked hotel and trains and headed down South. I'm pretty sure I was the only person in the audience for The Wright Stuff who knew who Jack was before the show, so it made a massive difference to be in the sold out 1700+ cap O2 Guildhall, packed out with Jack's fans! There were a few "oh no, they didn't play...." moments, but with five albums to pick from for the setlist, and playing every single track from the new record, that's to be expected! It was a treat to hear the entire new record live... I'm not sure I've ever seen a band touring a new record and not leaving out a couple of the slower tracks, for instance. The setlist had been meticulously planned, starting off with a run of five or six new tracks to ease us into the evening, opening with the album's title track Sleep No More (cue some pretty impressive whistling from Jack)  and playing Helpless, one of the highlights of the new record for me (video from the night here!) The band left the stage and Jack performed a couple of tracks alone, kicking off with Tight Rope, another of my favourite tracks from the new record. 

They got into a few of the hits - Home, Back Where I Belong and Catapult before heading off stage. Returning for an encore, Jack played alone on keys for the intro of Only You, a really beautiful addition to the track, before they finished up with massive hit Written In Scars, the title track of 2015's stunning album. Suddenly, I heard the first hints of third album track Knock Knock, a welcome surprise as the set was so heavily fourth/fifth album weighted! I met some lovely fans outside the venue after while we waited around to speak to Jack, and after a hug and a few moments of conversation he rushed off to the tourbus. Totally worth the last minute travel (on delayed trains!) and every single penny, I'll never tire of seeing Jack live.....

....which is lucky, as I saw him last night, playing his biggest headline show to date at London's Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith. The show fell on my mum's birthday and I got the tickets as a present, so after a lovely day out in London we queued for a couple of hours and got to the front. A few minutes later and the place was rammed, and while the set was the same as Southampton's, I feel like I got into the show a lot more... the band seemed to be putting as much in (and at both shows, you could see how happy they all were, and how amazed that so many people had turned up) but there's something about the atmosphere at big London shows. Everybody is up for a good time and I knew the new tracks that little bit better, and sang to my heart's content. They were filming the show and kept turning the camera to face the audience, so that probably egged me on a little bit too! I'm so proud of the guys for playing to such a massive crowd, and the big hits went down amazingly but a highlight for me was again the solo section of the set, including Dreamers, the first track from Jack's debut record. Watch below and you'll hopefully get the gist. Beautiful - and a perfect moment to look around at just how many people were there and feel immensely proud of Jack up on stage, putting everything into it, and putting his heart on his sleeve for us all to see.

All in all I've had a pretty cracking time seeing Jack over the last couple of weeks... the tour is still going and while Manchester is sold out, they've still got Nottingham, Glasgow and Newcastle shows coming up too - tickets and dates here. I hugely recommend putting your confidence in Jack to deliver a superb evening, and if those shows aren't close to you, check out the new record and keep an eye out for the next tour! 

LIVE: Dawes at Islington Assembly Hall, Rough Trade West and Sofar Sounds (4/5 Nov 2016)

Since seeing them in Hackney last August I've been desperate to see Dawes again, so when they announced a mini UK tour for November a couple of months ago I was over the moon. I quickly grabbed a ticket and spent October listening to the record and getting excited... the show was on Friday in the beautiful surroundings of Islington Assembly Hall, my first show in the venue! Arriving expecting a queue I found only a couple of people waiting outside, and once we'd been let in I got chatting with two lovely girls at the barrier. The atmosphere was lovely and the show kicked off beautifully with a support set from Lily & Madeleine who recently released their record Keep It Together... definitely worth taking a listen to! Check out this live session of their track Nothing.

Lily & Madeleine

While chatting away to the girls at the front, they'd asked if I was going to the signing and acoustic performance the next day. There'd apparently been an announcement on Facebook for a show at Rough Trade West which I'd somehow missed... so I decided to see how I felt after the show, knowing I'd probably be heading back to London the following day for it. Dawes came on and played something like an eighteen song set, particularly impressive when so many of their songs are quite long! I got to hear tracks from the new album for the first time as well as tracks from the previous four, the show was full of incredible instrumental sections, solos, amazing crowd sing-alongs and a couple of stunning acoustic tracks, I was pretty overwhelmed - it was everything I'd hoped for and so much more. I recorded a couple of videos which I'll stick below... first up my favourite track from the new record, Roll With The Punches, and then I Can't Think About It Now, which is my favourite track from the previous album (All Your Favourite Bands) and, I think, one of my favourite tracks of all time, so hearing it live was really special (apparently they played it at Hackney too, but the track certainly didn't mean so much to me then!)

After hanging around at the merch stall, I left the venue and found a little group of people waiting to see if the band would come out. They're one of my favourite bands and their music means an awful lot to me, so I figured I'd stick around too. Their lovely tour manager took some of the other guys' stuff up to get signed, and they mentioned the Rough Trade set to him, at which point he said they were also playing a Sofar show after it. I've only ever been to Sofar in Oxford, where we have one or two shows a month - in London this month alone there are 92, so when I checked online I found there were three shows last night. Luckily, after hanging around a little longer, Taylor, the lead singer and guitarist of the band came out. Meeting him was pretty special and he kindly checked which show it was they were playing. Suddenly one Dawes show had turned into a couple of days of following them around for three shows. I headed back on the coach to Oxford, getting back at 2am and heading back to London to meet a friend eight hours later... tired but pretty happy! After a little shopping we headed to Rough Trade West for the instore, where we met with Christine, one of the lovely girls I'd met the night before. Crammed into the tiny store (which I also hadn't been to before, only the East London shop, and Nottingham) Taylor opened the show with a solo performance of For No Good Reason before Lee and Griff joined him for Million Dollar Bill and Roll With The Punches (which I filmed a tiny bit of), after which, deciding how to fill the last few minutes of the set because "all my songs have too many words", he played Now That It's Too Late, Maria ("it's like a song and a half"), the track which closes their fourth record. After a quick album signing we headed to the tube, and after saying goodbye to my friend, Christine and I travelled over to Farringdon, arriving a little early at the venue for Sofar Sounds, the iMakr studio, the world's largest 3D printing store.

Dawes at Rough Trade West

Opening up the night was Bruce O'Yates and his band... amusingly (and rather cool) he'd been to the store before to have his face 3D printed for his album cover - you can see it just behind him to the right on the pic below! I really enjoyed his set, check out his track Helen here. Next up was Natalie Wildgoose playing a solo keyboard set of jazzy tunes!

Bruce O'Yates

Up last, and finishing off a brilliant couple of days were the Dawes guys, this time with Taylor, Lee and guitarist Trevor. They played a different set to the earlier one as they knew a handful of us were going to be at both, opening with Taylor playing Moon In The Water solo before (not sure of the order) Something In Common, Picture of A Man and Somewhere Along The Way (little video of that here). Luckily the rest of the audience enjoyed it as much as us and requested an encore, and crikey, did they deliver... in the form of a song "we've never played for anybody", entitled My Greatest Invention. It was a little emotional and a beautiful way to finish off the little trio of shows!

Dawes at iMakr Store for Sofar Sounds

After a little chat with Taylor and Jerry, their tour manager, I headed back to get the coach back to Oxford. An emotional coach journey reflecting on what had just happened - seeing a band I've admired for a few years up close and personal like that in such a raw, stripped back environment where you can really appreciate their musicianship and Taylor's fantastic songwriting was truly special! Wishing them safe travels back to LA and hoping that it isn't too long until they're back in the UK! Also if you've made it to the bottom of the post and you're not already a Dawes fan... get listening to them - there are five fantastic records for you to choose from, and so many incredible tracks!

TOUR NEWS: Dawes (2nd - 4th Nov)

I've already rambled on about Dawes touring the UK before (post from September) however if you missed it.... they're coming over here to play in Glasgow, Manchester and London this week on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively, and I wholeheartedly recommend you get along to one of the shows! Since seeing them support Mumford & Sons back in 2012 I was really struck by their music, and I'd probably go so far as to say they're my favourite American band. I was totally amazed to see them headline London (in amazing style) last August and I've been waiting for a follow up to that show for a long time and finally it's almost arrived! Their 2015 record All Your Favourite Bands is one of my favourites of all time, and this mini-tour is in support of its successor, We're All Gonna Die. From that record, Roll With The Punches is certainly one of my favourite tracks - watch the guys performing it live for Charlie Rose below! With five brilliant records worth of tunes to choose from, it's hard to guess what the set will look like, aside from plenty of new tracks, but live highlights definitely include From A Window Seat, When My Time Comes and the beautiful All Your Favourite Bands, and I'm pretty excited to hear more new tracks, including One Of Us. 

Honestly: take a listen, fall in love and come and join me at their Islington Assembly Hall show on Friday. You'll find me down the front yelling out the songs and having a jolly good time! Tickets and all the details for the three shows are on the Dawes site here.

LISTEN: October 2016 playlist!

Since coming back to university it's been a really busy time, doing lots of work for the lovely Tigmus guys, including towards our huge show at The Sheldonian Theatre a couple of weeks ago with The Fusion Project, and I've been to gigs all over the place. Possibly the most I've been to in a month before - definitely the most intense with four and then five back to back shows! I've made a playlist for the month, featuring tracks from a few of the artists I've seen live over the month and a handful of new releases and new discoveries for me!

1. Jack Savoretti Helpless - one of only a couple of entirely new tracks on the playlist this month, this is taken from Jack's new record Sleep No More, and is one of my favourite tracks on it! It's the follow up to his brilliant 2015 record Written In Scars, and he's kicking off a UK tour in support of the record tomorrow night in Leeds. 

2. King Charles Find A Way - another exciting new release this month, a surprise new track from Charles while he is busy touring in the US on a support tour with Allen Stone. Really proud to see Charles playing to crowds of excited American fans, but also can't wait for him to return to the UK and hopefully play us a little show!

3. Bear's Den Dew on the Vine - one of the most exciting live shows I saw this month was an intimate unplugged set from these guys, and I'm loving the video for this track which is their latest single!

4. Richard Walters July Bones - during last week I ran the door for a few shows, the first of which was Richard's homecoming at The Library, the first time I ran the door for anything but a Tigmus show (traitor!) Had a blast and met some lovely people, and most importantly listened to some cracking music, like this track taken from Richard's album A.M which was released this month. 

5. Public Service Broadcasting The Other Side - since a friend introduced me to these guys on a train journey a couple of years ago I've been keen to see them live, and narrowly missed them headlining Audioscope in 2014 as I was working on the day of the show. I was very glad to finally catch them live at Music Venue Trust's 'Fightback' show this month. They didn't play this track but it's one of my favourites from the latest record, and they released a beautiful version of it for this year's RSD.

6. Stornoway Lost Youth (Acoustic) - sad music news this months comes in the form of the lovely Stornoway guys announcing that after ten glorious years they're parting ways (as much as a group of really good friends and two brothers can part ways). Fear not, it's not over quite yet: they're playing a farewell tour up and down the UK in March but tickets are already shifting rather speedily so hurry!

7. Biffy Clyro Howl - certainly the show I'd been waiting for for the longest time since buying the ticket, this month I was lucky enough to see Biffy play an acoustic show in a Kingston theatre. Playing two separate shows, they had different setlists and unfortunately (because I love the acoustic version of this track which they performed on Radio 1's Live Lounge) they didn't play this at the show I was at, but aside from that, pretty incredible stuff!

8. The Fusion Project I See Fire - as mentioned above a big highlight of the month definitely has to be seeing this group of musicians sell out the massive and iconic Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, a show I was looking after for Tigmus. When the first Hobbit film was released I was pretty mad about this Ed Sheeran track from it and absolutely adore their cover of it!

9. Everything Everything Spring/Sun/Winter/Dread - headlining the Fightback show alongside Public Service Broadcasting were these guys, who finished off the night, and their year of touring, in total style!

10. Boat To Row Time and Time Again - last week we had Michael, frontman of Boat To Row, playing a solo set as support at a Tigmus gig with local band Case Hardin. I'd heard of BTR before, what felt like years ago, but hadn't given them a listen - more fool me! Mike's set was my highlight of the evening and I've since checked out (and enjoyed!) I Found You Here, the record this track is taken from. With the full band comprising of six members I definitely need to get along to a proper show somewhere along the line!

11. Waylor Silver & Gold - supporting Richard Walters at his show on Wednesday was Waylor, aka Matt Taylor, guitarist of one of my favourite bands of the last few years, Dry The River. They were the first band I saw (twice in one day) when I moved to Oxford so it was nice and nostalgic to see Matt, and while I don't think he played this track on the night (it was a solo set and I'm not sure how well it would translate without the drums) I'm really enjoying being reintroduced to it after it was released almost a year ago.

12. The Eskies Fever - another of the Tigmus shows I ran the door for this month was The Eskies, a Dublin band playing 'sea soaked gypsy folk'. While my highlight of the show was the absolutely hilarious onstage banter, the music was pretty fun too, mostly taken from their 2015 record After the Sherry Went Round.  

13. Two Door Cinema Club Bad Decisions - after what seems like forever, Two Door are finally back and while I'm a little ashamed to say I haven't listened to the record more than once or twice (yet), this track is pretty funky.  

14. The Travelling Band Passing Ships - these guys have been going for ten years and just finished off their ten year anniversary tour with an Oxford show for Tigmus to an adoring crowd of family and friends. I hadn't had chance to listen to them before the show but I was sold at seeing a violinist on stage, and this track encouraged a great sing-along!

15. Liu Bei Infatuation - listening to Richard Walters, both live and with the release of his new record, inspired me to return to some of his band Liu Bei's back catalogue, including this corker!

16. Little Brother Eli Roll Away - although it feels like a world away now, near the start of the month Tigmus ran a cracking and fairly busy show upstairs at the O2 in Oxford with these guys headlining and a line-up of three more great local bands. Really inspiring to see so much love for local music!

17. Public Service Broadcasting Spitfire - the PSB guys did play this track at Fightback and it was just about as exciting as I could've hoped for. Absolute tune! I can't help but associate it with when I was at an airshow in Eastbourne over summer, and they played the track following a flyover by a Spitfire - made my day!

18. Biffy Clyro God & Satan - while they didn't play Howl at the early show, Biffy did play this, probably my favourite track from Only Revolutions and obviously perfectly suited to the atmosphere of an acoustic show. Video from the night here!

19. Jake Isaac Home - playing an early set at the Fightback show, my friend and I were struck by Jake's infectious energy, and this was probably the standout track of his set for me!

20. Richard Walters Young Folks - while I don't want the playlist to become too much of a Richard Walters appreciation post... I can't resist but include this stunning cover of the Peter Bjorn and John track (in my head it's called "the whistling song") which I was really glad to hear Richard play on Wednesday! 

21. Rob Heron & the Tea Pad Orchestra Devil Wears a Blue Tie - Rob and his band played a cracking show for Tigmus on Thursday night but the highlight for me was definitely this track they played for the encore... one of the first political tracks I've totally identified with, worth a listen!

22. Everything Everything No Reptiles - I remember hearing this track when I saw EE live for the first time last April and being struck by the pretty unusual lyrics... it's been a live favourite since then and went down smashingly at Fightback!

23. Jack Savoretti Tight Rope - one of the more stripped back songs from Jack's album (particularly compared to Helpless as featured at the start of the playlist!) this is a real chance to appreciate to his vocals and songwriting. Highly recommend a listen of the new record, and getting along to see him on his tour if you can, he's an incredible musician surrounded by a brilliant band!

24. Stornoway The End of the Movie - with the news of these guys splitting up it feels fitting to feature this beautiful track from their 2010 record Beachcomber's Windowsill as the close of this months playlist. Having only known of them since moving to Oxford and meeting bassist Oli through Sofar Sounds, I don't feel like I have the right (?) to be as sad as much of Oxford (and music fans in the rest of the country) are at the moment, but after spending Sunday listening to their stunning back catalogue while essay writing, I'm definitely feeling fairly mournful! It's really heartwarming seeing how many people in Oxford and further afield have been affected by the news, showing just how many people their music has reached over the years. Looking forward to the fairly emotional final show of the tour in Oxford, gonna need the tissues!

LIVE: Jack Savoretti at HMV Oxford St (25/10/16)

Last February, after being a fan of his music since 2012, I finally got to see Jack Savoretti perform live at a HMV instore celebrating the release of his album Written In Scars, where I also got to meet him. The album has since done incredibly well and blown him into a level of superstardom, and so it was great to go back to where I first caught him live last night, at an intimate show debuting tracks from his new album, Sleep No More. It's been streaming exclusively on Apple Music for a few days now before its official release this Friday, and after many, many listens, it's blowing me away time after time.

A standout track on the album is I'm Yours, a slow burner which I recorded last night and you can watch below... other highlights for me are the album's first single, When We Were Lovers, the totally funky Helpless and the stripped back Tight Rope (which for me, takes us back to a track like his recent release Catapult), but the more I listen, the more I'm struggling to focus in on a favourite track. It's not just a bias towards Jack as one of my favourite artists talking, I really do think the record is exquisite, relatively faultless. There isn't a single track I'm not enjoying, and it's a brilliant showcase of his vocal range and songwriting skills, and the very talented group of people he's got around him.

Last night was only my third time meeting Jack, with the last time being just over a year ago at his Oxford O2 Academy show, but he greeted me like an old friend, a totally genuine display of affection and gratitude towards his fans, making the music only more beautiful! Jack recognised me from previous shows, but it was the first time he put two and two together with who I am on Twitter - hence a wonderful and pretty hilarious moment of realisation... "YOU'RE SuperMegan?! I never put the two together!!" As I'm used to always having my eyes closed in photos with musicians/actors (if you're my Facebook friend you'll probably have seen my post mocking how often this happens) I looked at my photos taken by the security guy with a little apprehension, to find they were totally fine and he'd took a bunch of us chatting. Really special photos to keep the memories alive! 

I can't wait to catch Jack live again with my mum in London at one of his biggest shows yet on 9th November as part of his UK tour... all dates and tickets here. I'm going to the show with my mum and it falls on her birthday so should be a really special evening! Currently fighting back the temptation to buy a ticket to see him in Southampton a few nights earlier as well... we'll see!

WATCH: Bear's Den 'Dew On The Vine' plus tour announcement!

Exciting double whammy of news today for Bear's Den fans... they've just released this hugely entertaining new video for Dew On The Vine, which I think probably just about captures their true rivalry at table tennis. Featuring the touring members of the band, their crew and some special guests such as Whispering Bob Harris and Communion's Maz Tuppini, the video is hilarious and well worth a watch!

It's a great track, taken from their latest record which has been out for a few months now and is gaining them lots of deserved success, not least with an upcoming run of sold out UK dates across November. I'm gutted to have missed out on London tickets now that I'm getting more and more into the music, and having seen them play two acoustic sets and headline Bushstock this year I'm keen to see a proper headline show (so if anyone's got a way in to the London gig in November... shout.) But fear not! They've just announced a run of dates to go alongside the already announced London Eventim Apollo gig in April, including (very excitingly for me) an Oxford show on 23rd March! All the dates below...

Tickets for these new shows are available from their website tomorrow morning from 10am, and they're certainly worth seeing live - check out this recent performance on Radio 1's Live Lounge.

LIVE: Three days in the life of a live music fan...

It seems that while going to lots of shows and having relatively little time to write blog posts, those things that I do get to write are a summary of a few shows at a time - so here's another of those... last Thursday I ran another show for Tigmus, this time back at The Jericho Tavern in Oxford, with Dublin's The Eskies headlining as one of the last shows on their UK tour. It wasn't as rammed as the show I did in the same venue a week before, but, being so far from home and playing in Oxford for the first time they pulled a decent crowd and put on a cracking show. The night was opened by Louis Barabbas (captain of The Bedlam Six) who played a highly enjoyable, energetic and theatrical set. When it was time for The Eskies' set, I was really glad I'd taken the time to check out their album After The Sherry Went Round before the show, as it meant a lot of the tracks were familiar to me. The tracks, like Jesus Don't Save Me (watch the entertaining video below) were great but probably stealing the show was the onstage chatter, with amusing stories and observations from the band, namely about how many grey squirrels there are in Oxford (good point!) It also helps that they were really lovely guys too, a great night in all!

Next up, a big show for Tigmus, with one of our/my favourite Oxford bands Little Brother Eli headlining upstairs at the O2 Academy. We had a brilliant line-up of local acts playing, with My Crooked Teeth opening the night with his new backing band, duo WOLFS who played such tunes as Mirror, and lastly the lovely Lucy Leave following their UK tour last month! By the time LBE came on stage the room was packed full of adoring local music fans, who enjoyed a set featuring much of their album Cold Tales as well as a few new tracks! A video I captured on the night of their great track Gold is here but watch below for a recent acoustic video! 

During the show, in between selling merch for the guys at the back of the room.... from an ironing board, I arranged (incredibly last minute) to volunteer at Oxjam Festival on Saturday, an all-day (ish) festival taking place in venues along Cowley Road with a bunch of the best bands playing sets to raise money for Oxfam. I volunteered back in 2014 a couple of months after first starting university, when the festival was in the city centre (no idea why I didn't go last year!) and was on the door of a night-club, turning away drunk Oxford Uni students... this year was a lot cooler! 

I started off volunteering around three o'clock at the East Oxford Community Centre (and aside from grabbing some food, didn't venture very far away at all.) I caught some brilliant bands but there were still so many more I didn't get chance to see, check the full line-up here. First up were Roberto y Amigos, my first time seeing them without Jonny as he's gone off to university (and as far as I know the first time they played without him, though I'm told they'll have a new guitarist, Robin's Neverlnd bandmate Henry, soon). Probably somewhat testament to Robin's skill as a bassist, I didn't feel the lack of a guitar was much of a problem, and didn't really register that it wasn't there for a few tracks! Robin's sister Cat also joined the guys to sing, and I really enjoyed the set! Next up, and no break for drummer George (drawback of being in lots of brilliant bands?) were homeplanetearth, whose set I mostly watched through the door but could hear pretty well and enjoyed - they're also fresh from a Tigmus UK tour. There were a couple more bands on in the room I was in the door for whose sets I didn't really catch, but I was able to squeeze in for Bright Works and what I could hear, squished up against a radiator, was pretty great.

Bright Works

Sadly Little Brother Eli, who had been announced as the festival's special guests only hours before, had to pull out because Alex had been feeling pretty ill the night before and wanted to rest up his voice for their show the next day, so we had a quiet hour in my venue, during which I heard the irresistible Take Me To The Green by Slate Hearts coming from the other stage in the venue. I think I knew they were playing but wasn't aware when and where so this was a pleasant surprise and I managed to go and catch their set before finishing up my shift and heading out for some food. When I came back, I stayed in the venue I'd been helping at, and caught folk trio Little Red, who I'd met at a show I did the door for but didn't catch their set at so it was really great to finally see them - they're headlining the O2 for Tigmus on 18th November. Next up was Jess Hall who I remember seeing in December 2014 opening for Adam Barnes, on the bill with Willie J Healey, and who has got a fairly beautiful voice.

Finally, finishing up the day for me and for many others as the room got pretty full, was The Fusion Project, who I caught at Sofar recently with a four-piece band, so it was cool to see them with seven members this time. I'm beginning to get really excited for their huge (enormous, no less) show this Friday at the Sheldonian Theatre for Tigmus where I reckon they'll have ten members, live dancers and some incredible tunes - if you're interested in coming (and why wouldn't you be), grab your ticket here as they're selling quickly!

The Fusion Project

Another cracking weekend of music, and it was such a great day at Oxjam, being reminded of just how many lovely people I actually know in Oxford, seeing several bands, music industry peeps and fans who I knew. The perfect celebration of our beautiful and diverse local music scene, raising a heck of a lot of money for an incredible cause. Here's to more gigs! 

LISTEN: Jack Savoretti - 'Cry Me A River' (plus HMV gig announcement!)

You wait months for a Jack Savoretti show and then two come along at once... I've had my ticket to see Jack headline the massive Hammersmith Apollo on 9th November for months now, and he recently announced a set at HMV Oxford St to play tracks from his new record Sleep No More and sign copies of the album! The show should be pretty special for me as, back in February last year, its where I first saw Jack play and met him when he was launching his last album Written In Scars - who knew how successful that was going to be?! Jack was on Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show at the weekend, performing his new single When We Were Lovers and a cover of JT's Cry Me a River as he was going to be a guest on the show - can't get enough of the cover! Listen below or click here for the full feature on the show. 

The show at HMV Oxford St is a week on Tuesday (25th) and you can secure your spot by pre-ordering a CD here. You can also catch Jack on his UK tour, kicking off at the start of November in Leeds!

LISTEN: King Charles - 'Find A Way'

In the midst of a run of probably too many shows (is there such a thing?) to be good for a university student with lots of work to do, King Charles has released a new track, just another beautiful distraction among many! I'm finally taking a chance to properly listen to it, and really digging it's upbeat vibe and the lyrics, a huge strength of Charles' artistry (see Ivory Road....), and other fans seem to be really loving it too - a lovely unexpected surprise! 

Charles is currently off playing a solo tour in the US, supporting Allen Stone and playing a handful of headline shows, so if you happen to be over there, check the dates here.