Bastille Live At Shepard’s Bush Empire 29th March 2013

South-London High Flyers perform their debut album to a sold out crowd.

Playing two nights at a sold out Shepard’s Bush Empire were the pop charts newest success story Bastille. I managed to see them on Good Friday and believe me; the day should have been called Epic Friday. Watching the South London outfit for the third time in 9 months, it has become the norm to expect a fantastic show. But this was the first time since their album went to number one and their big hit Pompeii went to number two in the singles chart. The change was evident with a horde of screaming young fans giving deafening cries throughout the whole performance. Even the surprise appearance of Radio DJ Greg James and TV’s Russell Kane didn’t help with the fans eagerness to decrease the volume of their wailing.

Their set list has been near enough the same since the start of last year, why try and fix something when it’s not broken. Playing all the tracks off the Bad Bloods record and a few track off their EP Other People’s Heartache including Of The Night and my personal favourite, the City High cover of What Would You Do.

The one criticism I would have for Bastille’s performance is that a few of their songs start and sound very similar. When performing a similar sounding track, acts should play songs sounding similar apart so it’s not merging into what seems one long melody and they should try performing the two songs differently. Bastille didn’t do either so I was constantly thinking ‘isn’t this the same song’ and ‘is it this These Street or Icarus’.

Nonetheless, Bastille have a sustained a strong following of yearning followers and despite my nit pics, I doubt there will threaten their dominance of the charts at this moment. Finishing with their catchy hit Flaws; ironically they note how everyone has their flaws, even Bastille. Even with these drawbacks, Bastille will hopefully continue their popular trend.

Verdict: I can honestly say that nobody wanted to know how to get themselves home and so stay and watch Bastille all night.  

Latitude Festival 2012 Friday Review

In its seventh year, Latitude Festival has become into one of the big fishes in the UK festival scene and is certainly a go to event for all music lovers alike. With an array of different arenas to go see the best in poetry, spoken word, comedy, film, literacy and cabaret, Suffork’ Henham’s Park is certainly more than just a music festival. I managed to get my hands on tickets for the first night of the extravagant spectacle as I avoided the heavy rain which was forecasted across Saturday and Sunday. Yes I know, I’m a wimp.
It was my first time at Latitude festival and being a normal festival goer, you could sense a number of differences which makes this event more special and unique. For one thing, it seems very family friendly with the children’s and inbetweeners teen tents dedicated to the younger audience. You often walked around the field with parents pushing a baby’s pram in front of you. Also, there are a staggering amount of stages for not just music acts to dazzle the audience. Most of these attractions don’t get the platform they deserve but festival organisers at Latitude make sure the best in poetry, literary, spoken word and cabaret make an appearance. They also have a couple of stages in the woods for a rustic look and hippie feel.
When it came to arriving at Latitude Festival however, it was a case of so much to see but no time to do it. You need to be very selective in what you was going to do at this festival as you were either going to miss someone you really wanted to see or you will get lost in time. It’s good to mix a bit of music with another of entertainment and I chose to see a couple of high quality comedians in Josh Widdicombe and Mark Watson. Mark Watson being a veteran at Latitude, dived into the crowd (not literally) and noted at being heckled in a very middle classed fashion when a 13 year old girl shouted, ‘you said that joke on the radio’. ‘Only at Latitude’ Mark responded as the talented comedian quickly thought up some improv to entertain the fans.
Next was checking out the talented music artists at the festival with a number of trips between the main stage or the Obelisk Stage and the Word Stage. One important point to note out is how the Obelisk Stage is guarded off from the rest of the festival with trees in the way of performances. This makes the rest of the festival scene a bit quiet and chilled out but it does lose its festival feel slightly. Anyway, there were a number of talented musicians on show spreading from across the globe with African artists Fatoumata Diawara and Amadou & Mariam in attendance with Urban American stars Janelle Monaé and Lana Del Rey and Irish folk singer Glen Hansard.
For me though, the last two acts of the day Metronomy and Bon Iver were spectacular. You had the eletro pop outfit Metronomy performing their upbeat dance tracks from their Mercury Prize nominated album The English Rivera with huge results. When they started, the field was pretty bare but as there hour long set went on, the fans kept increasing in numbers. Then finally, the multi Grammy award winning Bon Iver gave a mesmerizing performance which only supports the claims that they are one of the best bands in the world right now. Though they were 20 minutes late, they more than made up for that with their 9 piece band including two drummers. The songs that were truly memorable were of course, Skinny Love with Justin Vernor by himself and his guitar, Holocene and Perth as they both included powerfully gripping performances from all members of the band.
With news breaking out now that Latitude plans to increase its capacity next year to above 35,000 people, it’s no surprise with the kind of impact the festival has on all forms of entertainment. Without sounding repetitive, this unique festival has something for everyone. It’s no doubt that in possible another 5-10 years, they could gather the same reputation as the prestigious Glastonbury Festival.

Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three

Playing their second show in a week at Shepard's Bush's very own Bush Hall, the young Country Blues singer Pokey LaFarge brought along the South City Three for a show which was hotter than a 2 dollar pistol.

Coming off the back of a sterdy warm up performance of the Ouse Valley Three, delivering a host of classics from Johnny Cash's (I Was There When It Happened & Big River) and Jimmy Hendrix's (Easy Rider) impressive catalogue of hits and set a blue grass tone, old southern American feel for the whole evening. Plenty of cowboy enthusiased turned up as a rare performance from the Illonois star loomed ever closer.

Popularity for Pokey LeFarge & The South City Three rose over on these shores after an appearance on the legendary Late Night With Jools Holland program. The American blues man seems to be bringing a rivival to the genre, espeically on these shores. There has never been a real following for artists such as Willie Dixon and Bill Monroe in the UK, but with the young Pokey LeFarge coming through to showcase his passion, we will soon learn a lot about the American way of life.

Not only does Pokey LeFarge sing and play like an old time Southerner, but he talks like it to. Entertaining the crowd as he goes with funny anecdotes about his music and how its not a real performance until he sweats. Believe me, he was sweating by the gallon so it must have been a good show in his eyes when performing the hits 'Drinkin' Whisky Tonight' and 'La La Blues' to the packed Bush Hall audience.

What impressed me most was band member Ryan Koeing who not only had a talent for the harmonica but also brought along an old fashioned washboard and used that as a rhythmic instrument. The once upon a time invention was used in the past to wash clothes before washing machines were around and it seems with a few bells and plates attached, The South City Three have found a new lease of life for the home apparatus.

Though I was in a different environment to what I am used to, you could see the love clearly through everyone around. In my eyes, I couldn't really tell each song apart unless Pokey himself was telling us what song was next. The same instruments were used throughout the hour and a half the band were on stage and there was no real variety in their play.

Nonetheless, Pokey LeFarge & The South City Three are a breath of fresh air for a number of reasons and I minor detail can be ignored... For now anyway.

Scroobius Pip at Koko, 27th February 2012

I don’t know if your nights out usually involve blood spilling, noose wearing, hair shaving and fast rhymes all rolled into one, but when you attend a Scroobius Pip gig nowadays, that will be the norm.

Scroobius Pip’s debut solo album ‘Distraction Pieces’ follows the same depressing but real topics we know and love from the Essex lad and that’s why the fellow bearded community, some sporting facial hair nearly as impressive as the main man himself, joined Mr Pip at Koko’s on a Monday night.

After coming on stage with his back pack still on and shaving lumps of hair from the side of his head, the poet made sure everyone knew he was enjoying himself as he expressed himself by saying, ‘you know I’m glad to be here after being in France for a whole week, I fuckin’ hate Paris!’

Though we were all hoping that Scroobius would sneak in a couple of his previous acts hits in his set, perhaps a ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ or something, however what the bearded poet produced was certainly much more weirder and intense so wouldn’t have fit into his hour show. His supported act B. Dolan, who you would think is the white Cee Lo Green but with a long blonde beard when first gazing upon him, came out for their humorous track ‘Solider Boy Kill Em’ which pokes fun at the 15 minutes of fame star. He also joined him on stage for the encore along with

Scroobius Pip can certainly hold his own. The spoken word genius looks like he was born to say 300-400 words per song of real life stories every night. You wouldn’t have ever thought he was born with a stutter. With a new Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip album on the way at the end of the year, Scroobius is definitely staking a claim at being one of the best rappers the UK has ever produced.

Hurts gig review, Brixton 4th November 2011

Synth duo Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson may have only formed Hurts a couple of years ago, but after a strong debut album 'Happiness' and their highly praised live performances, they have been classed as one of the most entertaining UK acts for a number of years. One performance which really improved their stature was at this years Glastonbury. The festival which played host to the likes of U2, Coldplay and Beyoncé named Hurts' performance as the show of the festival. With this praise, I just had to see them. Luckily they announced a UK headline academy tour for the cold months of October and November. They beckoned towards the iconic 02 Brixton Academy on the 4th, and that is where I was heading.

This would be their last performance for a while since they were heading back in the recording studio to create that all important second album in the new year and they did not show signs they were already on holiday at Brixton. Playing this show like the others, with heart and passion for their music, the duo are something to savour as artists. Like the greats before them such as Blancmange and Soft Cell, Hurts obtain a great combination of soft synth simple beats and great singalong tracks to get everyone's voice bellowing across any outlet. A number of tracks including 'Blood, Tears & Gold', 'Silver Lining' and 'Wonderful Life' made the near 5,000 sell out crowd feel like a arena filled spectacle at times.

Performing tracks from the deluxe release of their debut album 'Happiness', you couldn't have expected anything else that could mark this performance as one that could be separated from any other epic display the band have show from the last two years of giging. But this night was marked with something nobody really expected or really thought was possible. It wasn't the amount of roses Theo was throwing in the crowd nor was it the steer class of the musicians Hurts got their hands on for the show, it was seeing none other than Kylie Minogue. The Aussie beauty joined Hurts on stage to sing their duet 'Devotion' one of her singles 'Confine In Me'. A roar of excitement a joy echoed throughout as one of the most powerful and stunning tracks on the album was performed the way it was supposed to.

The concert seemed like it shot by so fast that I couldn't really appreciate the volume of effort that goes into a show like this. But that always happens when you're enjoying sheer quality, no matter what you are doing in life. Though a good hour an a half would be about right for more or less any other band, Hurts certainly could go on for much longer without too many people feeling disappointed. Finishing their set with probably their biggest song 'Stay', you would expect the majority of people leave for the next train home. But only the bare minimum left before the encore ended proceedings.

One of the best gigs I have been to this year, I will certainly remember the performance for a long long time.