Between the 26th February to the 23rd December I saw 100 bands, safe to say 2015 has been a good year, here are my highlights.
New Bands
The best thing about seeing so many bands is that some you may never had heard before. Bands like Slaves (who I saw on a whim in May), Nothing But Thieves, Pretty Vicious, Wonk Unit and Arcane Roots. All fantastic, but for me 2 small, maybe unrecognised bands stood out above the rest: The Lion & The Wolf and MOK.
I saw both for the first time at Blissfields (full review
here) and they were both incrdible. MOK are a genre breaking band with elements of electronic, hip hop and rock all mashed together, a live spectacle and all round pleasing to the ears. Having featured on local BBC introducing radio shows I'm hoping 2016 will be a good year for them because they are a fantastic band.
The Lion and The Wolf are very different for MOK, I saw lead singer Tom (also at blissfields) do a solo performance in a tiny acoustic tent. It was a beautiful set incorporating songs from his first album 'Symptoms' and new material as well as a cover of Death Cab For Cutie's 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' which reduced my friend to tears. With a new album coming out this year again I'm hoping this artist has a great year,
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| The Lion and The Wolf @ Blissfields |
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| MOK @ Blissifelds |
Incredible Shows
This last year I've some absolutely incredible shows... Foals' secret at Reading Festival, Frank Turner at the tiny The Railway Inn in Winchester, a raucous Southampton show from Modern Baseball, the list goes on. By far my favourite, however, was the first of the three times I saw Slaves.
For the whole of April my friend had been bugging me to go to a gig with him, I'd never heard of the band before but I agreed to it, bought my ticket and the night on looked them up on youtube. I was blown away, Slaves blew me away. I spent all the next day buzzing for the gig, having bought the two singles I could find they'd released - "The Hunter" and "Where's Your Car Debbie" - I spent all day with them on repeat and boy did they deliver a show. To this day every time I think about this show, even as I'm writing this now, I get goosebumps. What a show, what a band and what a 2015 they've had.
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| Slaves @ Cardiff Students Union Great Hall |
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| Frank Turner @ The Railway Inn |
Amazing Festivals
This year I managed 5 Festival; Blissfields, Wickham Festival, Reading Festival, Butserfest and Dials Festival. All of which where incredible and I definitely plan on attending in 2016 as well as hopefully more!
But a special shoutout goes to Dials Festival, a small multi-venue festival in Portsmouth. A fantastic line-up with up and coming bands like Kagoule, Black Honey and Hooton Tennis Club and well deserving of their ULX festival award for Best Non-Camping Festival. (full review
here)
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| FlashFires @ Dials Festival |
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| Kagoule @ Dials Festival |
Stunning Albums
Not only has this year been an amazing year for live music for me there have been some amazing, o many I had real trouble picking our shortlist let alone the winner! Here's our nominated acts:
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| Our Album Of The Year Selection |
2016...
I am really looking forward to 2016! I have bands to see like the Temperance Movement, Neck Deep, Will Varley, The Algorithm, Front Bottoms and Wolf Alice to name but a few. As well as many festivals to go to.
Not only that we should have some mega albums this year with LCD Soundsystem, Kings Of Leon, Frightened Rabbit, Modern Baseball, Two Door Cinema Club and Moose Blood all in the studio or with albums ready to release. 2016 should be an amazing year for music.
