gigs of 2013

Gig wise, this year has been my favourite! 

Here's my year in gigs.. 

Tuesday 15th March 2013

Jake Bugg

Southend Cliffs Pavillion

Tuesday 2nd April 2013
King Charles
Colchester Arts Centre

Friday 21st June
Lewis Watson
Colchester Arts Centre

Monday 7th October 2013

Miles Kane

Norwich UEA

Friday 25th October 2013

Arctic Monkeys

Earls Court

Monday 4th November

Bastille

Southend Cliffs Pavillion

For me, this year has been amazing. I've been able to see my favourite artists: Jake Bugg and Miles Kane, and I've been able see to all these superb artists in incredible venues. Venues that should not be dismissed and forgotten about! 

I hope that 2014 brings many more gigs in many more incredible venues. I cannot wait to be doing this again next year and showing you all the amazing artists I have seen, I'm quite excited! 

My top 13 albums of 2013 blogpost can be seen here. Check it out!

And once again, see you all in 2014!!

top 13 albums of 2013

So it's come to the end of the year and I can't seriously believe how quick it's flown by!

2013 has been a very productive and somewhat wild year for the music world. And obviously, a year within the music industry does not come without controversy. 

*cough* Robin Thicke *cough* Miley Cyrus *cough* Kanye West *cough*

With the amount of album releases we've had this year, I have found it sooooo hard to decide my top 13. Also, they are not ordered from 1 to 13 simply because I couldn't find my absolute favourite within these 13 - however, they are chronologically ordered by month of release. Here it goes:

Arc - Everything Everything 

(January)

Holy Fire - Foals

(February)



The Messenger - Johnny Marr
(February)

In Love - Peace

(March)



If You Leave - Daughter
(March)

Don't Forget Who You Are - Miles Kane

(June)



Sistrionix - Deap Vally
(June)



BE - Beady Eye
(June)

Where The Heaven Are We - Swim Deep

(August)

Snapshot - The Strypes

(September)

The 1975 - The 1975
(September)

Days Are Gone - Haim

(September)

Shangri La - Jake Bugg

(November)

And there you go, my top 13 albums of this year! There have been so many other fantastic albums this year such as London Grammar's If You Wait, Toy's Join The Dots and Gabrielle Aplin's English Rain, the list is endless.. 

I all hope you have a fabulous NYE!! And I'll see you all in 2014!

Bastille @ Cliffs Pavillion, Southend

Gig: Bastille

Support: Clean Bandit + Rag N Bone Man

Date: Monday 4th November

RAG N BONE MAN

As soon as Rag N Bone Man walked on stage everyone assumed he was a rapper. But to everyone's surprise including mine, wow, he is ah-may-zeng. CHECK HIM OUT! Soulful and powerful, his voice was distinctive making it hard to believe that this voice was coming from the man stood in front of me. A brilliant artist from start to finish.

CLEAN BANDIT

To me, Clean Bandit were a familiar band. I had heard them before on Radio 1 and quite liked their way of mixing together two genres of music - classical and dance. Mozart's House was the first song I had ever listened to by them and I've loved it ever since. Now don't get me wrong, the band were brilliant, but I didn't feel that they suited the tour.. Compared to Bastille, Clean Bandit would be considered a dance artist, they were expecting the crowd to jump around and even though some were, the venue was filled with 12 year old girls waiting to scream at Dan Smith so the atmosphere wasn't as great as it could have been. Clean Bandit have also supported Disclosure on their tour, this is the perfect tour for they are both similar artists.

The tour was a great way to get them noticed and increase their popularity as they are an excellent band but to me, it just didn't fit in with the whole mysterious mood Bastille create. However, I'm sure Clean Bandit will play across many air waves soon enough as their sound is VERY distinctive.

BASTILLE

After seeing Jake Bugg, Miles Kane and Arctic Monkeys earlier this year, I was sceptical about this gig. I hadn't really been 'hyped' about Bastille for a few months because I was SO excited to see my favourite artists earlier on. 

However, I underestimated them for sure. From start to finish, I loved every second! The songs were brilliant, the atmosphere was incredible and I just couldn't believe how much I had disregarded them as a live artist - I'm even slightly ashamed of myself for doing so.


The band played their debut album Bad Blood and also leaked some new songs from their upcoming album.

If you've been a fan of the 'new' Arctic Monkeys sound and the recent increase in heavy rock n roll influences on many other songs, then you'll love Bastille's new album! They have also been pulled towards the rock n roll way of life. One of the songs called Campus sounded really reallllly good, and I can assure that it's going to be a good album.

For those of you who don't know Bastille that well, before their Number 1 album Bad Blood, there were two albums called Other People's Heartache and Other People's Heartache Part 2. These albums were combinations of their songs and other artist's songs. On the tour, they performed Of The Night, which has now been released as a single. This is a remix of the hugely popular dance song Rhythm Is A Dancer.

Overall, I underestimated Bastille and I am soooo glad I have been able to see them live as they are a pretty decent live artist. (In the words of The Strypes, you can't judge a book by the cover.)

Arctic Monkeys @ Earls Court, London

Gig: Arctic Monkeys

Support: The Strypes

Date: Friday 25th October

Snapshop was a bloody brilliant debut album from The Strypes so I was just as excited to see them as I was for AM. Considering how young they are, it's great to see an up-and-coming band supporting such good artists such as Arctic Monkeys and receiving such a phenomenal response. Their vocals were mature, their stage presence was electrifying and they were overall superb. 

After a minute and a half of flashing lights and the introduction music, Alex, Nick, Matt and Jamie all walked on stage to roars of screams and applause. Everyone was prepared for the thrills of AM. The first second of Do I Wanna Know? started and every single person in Earls Court started to sing a long. From this point on, I knew that whole night was going to be electric.

The setlist was slightly changed, much to my delight. I was so happy when I Wanna Be Yours was added because that's one of the songs I was desperate to hear live, it's classic and simple yet outrageously perfect. I was also happy when Teddy Picker was performed, seeing as it's my favourite Monkeys song. (And yes, I was that person who films a whole song. I apologise, I couldn't resist it...)

My favourite thing about a concert is the way it is able bring people together through a common interest and enthusiasm for an artist. This was completely evident when Brianstorm started, the whole crowd starting singing the intro and boy was it loud! So loud in fact that you could almost not hear Alex singing (this also happened for Old Yellow Bricks). Shortly followed by Dancing Shoes and the rock 'n' roll heavy yet sexy Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair.

Surprisingly, considering the recent press surrounding this topic, Alex didn't sound that "American" at all, okay so he may not be old Sheffield Alex, but he's most definitely still British Alex for sure! 

I must admit, I wasn't impressed with their latest Jools Holland performance of Snap Out Of It - this performance made me doubt how good they'd be at Earls Court. But being the performer he is, Alex worked the crowd in the only way he knows how, complimentary. And seeing them live was SO MUCH better than the performance on Jools. 

Alex announced "this ones for the girls, this ones for the laaayyyydieeees", before entering into the hype of I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.

And finally, the encore. Mardy Bum, One For The Road and R U Mine? Brilliant. Mardy Bum had everyone singing from start to finish."I have one question for you Earls Court, R U Mine?" was the only thing needed to be said before the crowd went absolutely mental for the final time that night.

I genuinely cannot sum up this superb night in a few words.
I think that says it all.

Miles Kane @ The Nick Rayns LCR, Norwich

Gig: Miles Kane

Support: The Family Rain

Date: Monday 7th October

It wasn't until I saw Jay Sharrock and George Moran  stood outside smoking, standing only a few metres away from me that I realised I would finally be seeing Miles Kane. The man that I love so dearly. 

Support came from The Family Rain who originate from Bath. Heavy bass and guitar riffs suffused the room much to the delight of the crowd. The Family Room produced insouciant tracks which without question warmed up the crowd in preparation for the headline act.

The crowd erupted as soon as Miles arrived on stage. As expected everyone sang word perfect to every single song, proving that Miles is a significant artist to many.

Songs from 'Colour Of The Trap' and 'Don't Forget Who You Are' were sung effortlessly. 

The atmosphere was incredible, I could feel my voice dissolving into the heaving baselines and riffs that echoed around he room. I still cannot believe I've finally seen Miles Kane live.One of my favourite songs of the night, not forgetting the brilliance of Inhaler, Kingcrawler, Better Than That and Taking Over, was the acoustic version of Out Of Control. It was sublime and truly intimate.

Ignoring the fact we were immediately removed from the venue due to the fire alarm, it was a superb gig. Luckily, we were able to re-enter the venue and see Miles perform Come Closer - which due to the longer instrumental, always sounds exceedingly better live. Finishing with Come Closer was brilliant, as it was THE song that recognised Miles as a solo artist. 

what doesn't kill you

As usual I tuned into Radio 1, only to find out that Zane Lowe was going to play a single of Jake Bugg's new album. This single happened to be 'What Doesn't Kill You'.
(No, it's not a remake of Kelly Clarkson don't worry).

"Rick Rubin is also working on Bugg's second album. After hearing the reworked version of Broken, I fear that Bugg's second album may not be as great as the first. But I shall wait until it is released to make my final decision and opinion, after all I will always love Bugg."

I can't help but be excited for the new sounding Bugg, who sounds quite punk-like, think Sham 69 and The Ramones. I really do like this new song and after also hearing 'Slumville Sunrise' (multiple times) and 'All Your Reasons', I cannot wait for Shangri La - Bugg's second album - to be released in November.

i AM disappointed

I was so so so excited to visit my local HMV and buy AM on Monday morning. I had resisted the urge to listen to the live stream and I just couldn't wait to unwrap the CD and just listen to it for hours. 



Here's where I start my rant.. 

I'm a huge Arctic Monkeys fan and the singles they had released from the album were brilliant, I loved them. But the album..

Well after my first listen, I was disappointed. Completely. 

It just wasn't what I had expected. Maybe because there was so much hype about the album, I just expected some absolutely superb album that would knock my socks off, but unfortunately it didn't. 


S I G H

So as I'm currently on a rant...

• It is VERY rock 'n' roll, but maybe not the rock and roll we're all used to.
• Matt's voice seems to be able to enter supersonic frequencies.
• Alex's voice sounds A LOT different from the other albums.
• No.1 Party Anthem is not what I expected. It sounds like something Lana Del Rey would create.
• Fireside makes me feel like I'm in Spain. 
• "shoowop shoowop" is soooo 1950s.
• For everyone who said all the songs on the album sound they same, THEY CLEARLY DON'T. 
• Snap Out Of It sounds familiar, but I can't place the song. 
• 'AM' doesn't sound like Dr Dre?

BUT after listening to it a few more times, I do quite like it and I'm sure I'll come to love it. 

I'm the first person to defend a band for 'changing' as every band has to grow up and mature. But I do feel this album isn't as great as it could have been? It just sounds.. erm... lame?  

I understand that NME really like Arctic Monkeys but they were way too over-the-top about their review of the album. 'AM' really isn't a 10/10 album at all and I think NME misjudged this so much. Maybe they just want to be BFFL's with Alex (sorry that place has already been taken by Mr Miles Kane, MILEX FOREVER)?

R U Mine?, Arabella, I Want It All, Fireside, Knee Socks and I Wanna Be Yours are, in my opinion, the best songs on the album.

Now, I may in a few weeks blog again and tell you that I'm in love with the album and that it's one of the best albums I've ever bought.. Maybe this will happen. But at the moment, this is not the case. I don't "love" the album, I simply enjoy and like the music.

Please make your own opinions on the album though as I hate to write negative things about Arctics as I do love them quite a lot. Check out the stream via iTunes.

Also check out last night's performance from The Roundhouse, London for the iTunes Festival. This wasn't their best performance, but it wasn't too shabby.

Alex tried his best to hype up the crowd who didn't seem that interested:

"wake up fuck sake"

"All the pretty visitors came and waved their arms.. why aint ya doin' it, DO IT"


On the other hand, I'm excited to see them live in October. Mwah.