 |
| August and After at Ronnie's Bar
After a disappointing tapas meal near Piccadilly Circus (but a
deliciously juicy jug of Sangria) I stroll up to Ronnie Scott’s. There’s an
exciting buzz outside, with people drawing on ciggies and rickshaws spinning
through the heart of Soho within centimetres of my toes. I’m here to check out
the headline act of tonight’s bi-weekly TV Nights show - August and After.
I bustle up the bruised stairs and step into Ronnie’s Bar, a
maroon-tinged room with leopard print thrones and monochrome photos of music legends
lining the warmly-lit walls. Stylish professionals are sipping on House
cocktails like ‘Rummingbird’ or ‘Dizzy Spells’ and I’m half expecting to spot
an undercover celeb slink past.
I scour the space in search of the lads I’ve stalked briefly on Facebook
and eventually find Ned, one half of August and After, chitchatting to a pilot.
I coax him downstairs and soon after we’re joined by bandmate Vedantha on the
dirtied-white boxes out front. They tell me they met a party, (dressed as a Sex
Pistols star and Russell Crowe respectively), and made a pact to form a band
almost straightaway. The guys are chuffed to have come from frolicking around
in fancy dress to performing their folk-fuelled ballads at Ronnie Scott's for
the first time.
After a chinwag and a half, I hike back upstairs. Young and old
(grandparents included), the assembled crowd members are all thinking the same
thought - “It’s bloody boiling in here”.
The TV Nights host insists that the sweltering audience shut up or get
out; and the crowd settle down for August and After’s opening song. Quaint
guitar plucking flirts with silky strings played by the Cosmopolitan Quartet
musicians. Vedantha’s soft, deep voice meets Ned’s higher tones to form a
mellow harmony.
I’d like to see the two front men relax a bit more to let the real
meanings of the songs blossom through; but this could be the nerves of playing
such an established venue showing. “It’s a massive privilege to be breathing in
Stevie Wonder’s sweat”, Vedantha declares. And it’s on with the next few tunes…
‘The Orchard’ is one of their more reflective numbers, with a sombre
vocal melody and gorgeous bursting violin instrumental. My favourite tune of
the set is ‘The Jailbreak Song’ with its jazzy, French feel and story-telling
lyrics (“It’s freezing on the roof, ten flights of stairs and now it’s hard to
move”). The bass line bumbles along, giving a wave of energy. Slides on the
violin amuse me with their implication of a frustrated hitchhike overseas and
I’m reminded of the many misadventures I had during an inter-railing trip two
summers ago.
‘Salamander’, the final track from August and After’s debut album,
broods over the hurdles of life, which seem all the more frightening when
you’re unprepared. The slow-paced feel, warming chord sequence and delicate
vocal line from Ned has glints of Coldplay. The two guitar lines weave into
each other; higher-pitched, picked twinkles flicker in and out, making for a
stunning instrumental.
The headline performance closes with ‘Set Sail’, a sorrowful song about
leaving that has an endearing animated music video. The boys express gratitude
to the crowd for their support and give a big ‘Thank You’ to the crowd members
who took photos of them, adding in a cheeky-chappy tone, “It makes us feel
pretty cool”.
'Salamander' at The Islington
Earlier on in the evening, Ned and Vedantha joined me for an interview
underneath some scaffolding outside…
What do you guys get up to when you’re
not playing music?
Ned: One of the things Vedantha does, which I always talk about ‘cos I
think it’s really cool, is that he’s an incredible chess player. He’s played
for the UK.
We’re both getting into writing as well. Vedantha’s blogging in some
political forums online and I’m doing some music reviewing. But we both like
playing football.
(To
Vedantha) You play chess, so did you do a Maths degree…?
Vedantha: No, I didn’t (laughs)…they
often go hand in hand! I did Philosophy but the amount of people playing chess
for England went on to do a Maths degree. I think my main thing though is
the political stuff.
Is that what you want to do as a full
time career then?
Vedantha: Possibly, alongside music! At the moment I’m writing for an
online publication and I might be writing for another one soon. Political
writing is something I really want to get into, but also actually trying to
change the way the debates are framed… We learnt about logic trees in
Philosophy and you can use them to synthesize an entire debate into just one
diagram… I’m trying to see how we can apply that into more political debates.
Ned, what did you do at uni?
Ned: I did Law. And the practical application of that in my music is… I
read our contracts…and Vedantha’s still the one that understands them! But I
might end up being a music lawyer, who knows! Might be useful!
Vedantha: He does crosswords as well…
Ned: Oh yeh. I’m a mega crossword geek. I compile crosswords sometimes.
I’m making a special August and After one. But, like, a cryptic one.
When will that be released?
Ned: A few weeks from now, maybe…I’ve still got to write half the clues.
It’s a toughie!
What’s your favourite music venue?
Ned: At Latitude there’s the i Arena, which is the one in the woods and
I’ve seen some amazing bands there. I like the idea of a stage that’s in a
really weird place. We’ve done museums, churches…we played at Portobello market,
which is quite cool.
Where do you guys think you’ll be in
five years’ time?
Vedantha: If we’re being ambitious, we’d be at the level where we’re
getting a bit of buzz, getting some really good press and also doing other
things.
Vedantha: I want to be a benevolent dictator.
Ned: He wants to be Jack Johnson, basically. But without the surfing.
(And while they’re aligned with each other on stage through their
harmonies, off stage a couple of their responses to a game of ‘Would You Rather’ clash a little...)
Would you rather be surrounded by
piranhas while playing, or be surround by slugs?
Vedantha: Slugs
Ned: Piranhas definitely, ‘cos that’s so much more badass and cool and
probably fun to watch.
Vedantha: I want to live!
Ned: And when you say surrounded, I would die over my music – that’s the
difference between us! I would lay down my life for the songs…!
Would you rather the sound cut out all
the time while you were playing, or the audience heckled you?
Ned: Heckled. ‘Cos one of the big things about our stuff, which probably
should’ve been one of our (three) words, is that we love interacting.
Vedantha: Collaboration.
Ned: Yeh, collaborative is one of our three words.
Would you rather sneeze every time you
heard music that you like, or throw up every time you heard music you don’t
like?
Ned: Probably the sneezing one ‘cos that’s quite sweet, whereas the
throwing up one...there’s so much music that I would just be like ‘Uhh..’
Vedantha: That’d be so much fun! You’re in an incredible venue and then
suddenly ‘Bleurgh…I chundered everywhere’!
Would you rather you owned McDonalds, or
you owned a small, organic, vegetarian restaurant?
Simultaneously: a small, organic, vegetarian restaurant!
|
Thursday, 22 August 2013
August and After
Friday, 9 August 2013
The night I joined The Empire
 |
| The Empire at The Bedford |
I’m craving music this Tuesday night,
so I’ve rolled up to The Bedford in Balham to knock back a couple of
G&T’s and get ready for up and coming indie rock band The
Empire. Little do I know that in a couple of hours I’ll be
bursting into a back room where two of the lads are about to strip down to
their boxers (oops!).
The free show’s being streamed live
online and host Tony Moore welcomes the five-piece on stage classing them as “big,
brassy, noisy and fabulous”. My eyes spin to werewolf-esque guitarist
Matt Holt - not because of his glinting eyes, but his intriguing familiarity. I
make it my mission to find out which TV personality he is by the end of the
night.
The boys start off gently, the steady
drum beat and soft lead vocal rocking me into dream-filled melancholy with the
circling back of line ‘I’ll be there to see it all’. But then the bass arrives
- dirty, taunting and heavy. The vocal melody (‘Light the sky up, signal fire’)
sung by Glaswegian Dave Gibson surprises me with its dissonant notes. His
right-hand wrist swirls round in the air, seemingly coaxing out the anguish
buried down within the music.
I’m reminded of the muddier sounds of
Snow Patrol as the heavy rock sections interlock with softer guitar and vocal
phrases.
 |
| Lovely & likeable lead singer Dave Gibson |
Aided
by his gorgeous Scottish accent, the very likeable front man utters what sounds
like a charming collection of words - “Nice to be back making a fucking racket”.
I lean back in the candlelit carousel
room, (known as The Shakespeare Globe Theatre), and lend my ears to tracks ‘Fortune
Favors The Brave’ and ‘This Time Next Year’. When Gibson sings, the purity of
his voice and raring emotions cut through the unforgiving drums and thick
guitars like a rough-cut star punching through the foggy night’s sky.
My head clocks again towards The Empire’s bassist… ‘Is he in fact Breakfast Show host Jamie Theakston?’, I ask myself (soon before slapping my forehead at my own absurdity). But my attention swings back to the music, where the jazzy piano hook in ‘Sirens’ sets a nonchalant mood before the track turns darker.
You’ve guessed what my first questions
for drummer Rob Shaw and singer Dave Gibson is…
Is
your guitarist (Matt Holt) secretly a celeb..?
Dave: To be
honest, he might be – he’s a man of many talents. What’s happened there is you’ve
been dazzled by his beauty. You’re not the first!
Who
writes your songs?
Dave: I do,
and we all sort of contribute.
Rob: It
starts with Dave.
What
are your favourite sounds at the moment?
Dave: I love a band called Beach Party. They’re
from LA. They’re really, really amazing.
Rob: A friend of mine’s band called
Royal Blood. They’re just a two-piece but it sounds like there’s about 50 of
them on stage.
How
did you guys form?
Dave: I was
actually a solo artist before, signed under my own name and then decided to put
a band around myself and put the word out that we were looking.
Rob: I
messaged him on MySpace, that’s how I found his sounds. I was just blown away so
kind of said 'If you ever need anyone..'
Dave: And I did!
Dave: And I did!
So
what was your stuff like before? Was it the same but completely stripped?
Dave: Very
acoustic, very acoustic.
But
still with a rocky twist?
Dave: No,
not at all. I was never able to really put that sort of edge into it.
So how
did you feel about adding different stuff?
Dave: Loved
it. This is always what I wanted to do.
(Rob
starts spraying his pits with deodorant)
What
did you think when you woke up this morning?
Dave: I
actually thought, ‘We’ve got this gig tonight, we better smash it and I should
probably eat all the sandwiches before we go and perform’.
Ok…Sandwiches…?
Dave: Like
get some sandwiches.
Did
you actually have sandwiches?!
Dave: I did
eat sandwiches!
What
flavour??
Dave: Ham
and cheese (with American Mustard)
Rob: Egg
and bacon
Ham
and cheese with pickle...?
Dave: No,
American Mustard! Keeping it real!
(And
boy did they need sandwich-driven energy for that powerful performance!)
What’s
your worst festival moment, either playing or watching?
Dave: Do
you know what, in all honesty, we haven’t had one. We’ve been really happy with
the festival things, very lucky. I can’t think of anything bad I’ve seen from
any other bands except, well, just a general point - that it’s always really
awkward as a singer watching bands on stage at festivals when you know they’ve
just had a line check, they’ve not had a proper sound check and you can see
that the singer cannot hear a word of what he’s doing. That sucks.
What
are you guys drinking tonight?
Rob: All of
the beers!
Later
that night, it hits me - the bassist is the young and attractive version of
George and the Jungle's Brendan Fraser. I can go home and sleep easy...
----------------------------------------------
Photography by Sophie Ellis
Tuesday 6th August
The Bedford
Monday, 8 July 2013
Love Supreme 2013
.jpg) |
| The UK's first camping jazz festival in over 20 years: the line up! |
Today, every single person in Britain is
sweating like a beast. The sun has come out to play and flurries of people are
heading, half naked, to Brighton's seaside.
This is unlucky for me and my jazzy
piano-player chum, as the trains are packed to the brim and Sunday services are
infrequent anyway… But
eventually we arrive in Glynde, a twenty-minute train journey from
Brighton.
I step into the quaint town and
immediately feel like we're on a village walk as we trundle past some local
swings and up a hill, following a mishmash of festival-goers. There could be
more of a welcome in terms of signage and friendly t-shirted staff, but once
we’re through the entrance we become part of a community.
We’ve missed most of Soweto Kinch,
London born alto sax player and MC. But I throw down my union jack picnic mat
in time to bounce along to his rap vocals in ‘Stroke The Hippo'. He’s got
the crowd pumping their hands in the air to the big, bassy sound.
 |
| Soweto Kinch on main stage |
We wonder into ‘Hidden Charm’, an
unexposed red cabin where there are some uplifting soul mixes on the decks, a
cool Paris/Vogue vibe and fruity Grand Marnier cocktails flowing fast. The
French bar men are satisfied with the sunshine too… saucy girls in bikinis are
wiggling to the tunes. We chill on the big, rouge beanbags and feel at ease to
let our hair down.
A couple of cocktails later, we’re
amongst a sea of Gregory Porter supporters at the main stage. Standing tall,
with a cheerful bow tie, he captures the crowd’s attention with his soothing
deep voice. We hear a gentle rendition of his hit ‘Be Good (Lion’s Song)’, with
some soulful sax playing. There’s a bit an echo around the festival site – but
next year this could be sorted by positioning the stages better. A highlight of
his set is ‘Hey Laura’, a gorgeous bitter-sweet ballad with a cool hook that’s
pleasantly surprising at first with its ‘tak tak tak’ Jamie Cullum triplets
feel. I nip away to the ice cream van and back to catch ‘1960 What?’. The
electricity from the drummer, pianist and bassist swims into the crowd’s veins.
It gets everyone’s feet jumping (and my Twister ice-lolly dripping on a nearby
snoozing toddler).
Neil Cowley Trio are up next in the
tented arena. Their instrumentals build up and down and they groove along to
‘Gerald’, a tune “about a British telecom engineer who wore flared trousers and
a tank top jumper he bought in 1993”. Cowley, who began his career as a
classical pianist, jokes along with the crowd in between pieces. They go on to
play mischievous sounding ‘The Face of Mount Molehill’, title track of their
most recent album, before we head over to the main stage for the lady we’ve
been excited about all day.
 |
| Neil Cowley Trio |
Esperanza Spalding prowls on stage slowly, in a game
of musical statues, to join her Radio Music Society. What’s brilliant about
this festival is how easy it is to hop from stage to stage without feeling as
squished as a dinosaur in a shopping trolley on arrival. ‘Crowned & Kissed’
is first up with its head-swaying rhythm and addictive melody. Esperanza’s
sweet and stunningly controlled vocals mist over us as the skies begin to calm
for evening. The talented gang go on to perform a cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘I
Can’t Help It’ and top track on Spotify ‘I Know You Know’ from 2008’s album
‘Esperanza’. The thick texture combines brass, wind, keys, kit, bass, guitar,
and the gorgeous vocals of Chris Turner. “We could brew up a little medicine
for some healing”, Spalding says softly as they play the uplifting ‘Black Gold’.
 |
| Esperanza Spalding's Radio Music Society |
Satisfied by the set, but a little hungry, we traipse out
of the festival grounds, via the hot dog stand, towards home. We’ve sacrificed Jools
Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra for the last train home but feel pleased
with the sounds and sights we’ve experienced in this Sussex town. I’m left
hoping the calibre of artists continues at next year’s Love Supreme.
 |
| See you next year... |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photography by Sophie Ellis
Sunday 7th July
Love Supreme Festival
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
The Folky Fionn Regan
 |
| Fionn Regan at Islington Assembly Hall |
I
loiter in the long spindly queue of dimly clothed twenty-somethings outside
Islington Assembly Hall. Doors open, I grab a Red Stripe and perch on a
radiator to the side of the hall. Latticed white panels overlaying grand urns
of roses stretch alongside the proscenium arch. I begin to scorch my backside
on the heated radiator pipes so slump down to the panelled wooden floor.
A
gradual gush of people to the front is prompted by final on-stage checks from
techies. And on comes the support for tonight, London based singer songwriter
Annie Eve. Her curly locks fall beneath a dumpy grey beanie. A gorgeous double
bass, slide guitar and ethereal backing vocals bring her first piece
‘December’s Ghost’ to life.
She
announces the next song - ‘Kitten Meets World’ I hear her say. But I later find
it’s ‘Kid Meets World’. Perhaps I can attribute this mishearing to learning
earlier that my mate wants some new moggies. But as her set goes on I realise
she lacks diction. Her use of dynamics is strong though and the bassist and
guitarist bring a nice wedge of depth to the music.
 |
| Annie Eve & her talented band |
I
nibble some salt & vinegar crisps to tide me over until Fionn Regan
arrives. This is a bit of a mistake – for the rest of the night I am craving a
full-on fish and chips meal. Fionn steps on stage, harmonica in hand and opens
with ‘Hey Rabbit’. “I just bought the harmonica today”, he reveals. “I think I
was had. The only worse thing than badly played harmonica is well played
harmonica”. His Irish words soothe me into numbness. That, and the third Red
Stripe sliding down my gullet.
Next
up is ‘The Bunkhouse’ with haunting lyrics ‘We watch them carry the coffin /
From the house down to the river’. His emphasis of “silent” and “violent” in
‘At the gathering the whole room it fell silent / It heckled and grew violent’
generates a chilling echo in the room.
He
follows on with ‘100 Acres of Sycamore’, ‘Put A Penny In The Slot’ and personal
favourite ‘Dogwood Blossom’. As the set comes to an end I slink out of the hall
into the cold night, tiptoeing over two lovers sunbathing in the darkness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photography by Sophie Ellis
Tuesday 5th March 2013
Islington Assembly Hall
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Introducing the gorgeous Sophie Jamieson
 |
| At St Pancras Old Church on Friday night |
It’s bloody freezing. My legs
ache. And I’m heading down a long dark road. Am I about to get stabbed? Well I
hope not, ‘cos I’m really keen to check out half-Iranian folk singer-songwriter
Sophie Jamieson tonight.
I whizz into the small, echoing
space of St Pancras Old Church. Tea lights flicker in the darkness. I think the
coast is clear of knife-happy Londoners here. I perch on a creaky wooden chair
at the front, perfectly positioned next to the blast of a heating duct. Sophie
tunes up and apologises for her trembling nervousness.
Plucking sweetly at her acoustic
guitar she begins with ‘Waterloo’, a song she wrote when she started gigging
lots in London. “It’s about being lost in a big crowd and not feeling alone”,
she later tells me.
Light greyish-beige chords and a
navy cardigan wrap around her olive skin. And her trainers have the biggest
loops of laces I’ve ever seen. She’s modestly beautiful and the lines on her
face really reflect the words falling from her rosy lips. I’m reminded of
Daughter as she locks us in a haunting hold with her stunning vocal.
She gives an appreciative smile to
electric guitarist Liam
Hoflay, who adds atmospheric coating to her lyrically strong songs. Sophie goes
on to sooth and sting us with ‘Catch You Cry’, ‘Dinah’ and the “quite new” ‘I
don’t’.
 |
| Sophie Jamieson and electric guitarist Liam Hoflay |
After her set I sneak her up some spiral
stairs to the organ loft to find out a little more about her:
How did you find your time studying at Cambridge?
It was great. I really loved
doing history of art and Cambridge is a great place for music on both the
university and local levels. I didn’t actually discover the local music scene
until my last term. Cambridge is where I started to get a little bit of
confidence back doing music and really start enjoying doing gigs.
What’s your favourite place in London?
For a while it’s been the
Southbank. It’s one of the most beautiful parts of London. I am very much drawn
to the river, drawn to rivers in general. But I’ve also started to feel a very
intense fondness for London since running around it with a guitar for the last
year. There’s always a beautiful view from any point of that riverbank. The
fairy lights in the trees can make you feel really happy walking along there.
If you could have your portrait done by any artist, living or dead, who
would you choose?
Oh man, um… I really like early
20th century art. Maybe it would be a sculpture by Henry Moore ‘cos
then it would be really quite abstract and you wouldn’t be able to see any of
my features clearly.
Which musician do you fancy..?
At the moment I’m quite
infatuated with Matt Corby. He was actually a runner up on Australian Idol but
he’s transferred to the underground British music scene. He’s really beautiful
but he’s also an incredible musician. He has this one song called ‘Brother’.
There are loads of live versions of it on YouTube and in every single one you
can see he feels every single word he plays and it’s really sexy.
What’s your future music plan?
At the moment I’m only really
letting myself look as far as the E.P. because after that it’s quite hard to
know what’s going to happen. Things seem to move quite fast these days. I’ve
been lucky enough to get a manager recently and he knows what he’s doing and
he’s putting me on the right track. I’m applying to festivals at the moment
too.
'Waterloo' - Sophie Jamieson
Sophie Jamieson is signed to Folkroom Records and you can check out when she’s next playing on her Facebook page.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photography by Sophie Ellis
Friday 11th January 2013
St Pancras Old Church
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