The other day I posted the video for the excellent “Behind the Door” from Leeds-based folkster Gary Stewart’s new album, “Boy Cries Wolf”.
He’s a busy lad, our Gary, and quite disgustingly talented at all sorts of musical endeavours… not least drumming, which he does for Leeds band Hope and Social.
I stumbled onto Emily French’s blog the other day, and spotted something I knew had taken place, but had no idea was released – and SO GOOD.
So, here’s a video for Hope & Social, which should fill you with a warm Friday fuzzy feeling.
Wondering around, Jon, Gordy and I needed a bite to eat quickly, and we popped by Viva. Wondering if we had enough time to get a bowl of pasta, Gordy asked very nicely if they could rush us through as we had a gig to play… Quick as a flash we were sat down, some very nice bruchetta was brought out and, what seemed a couple of minutes after we’d ordered, a plate of very tasty pasta.
We were in and out in 20 minutes, had some really great food at a great price, and left (being waved and hand-shaken by pretty much the entire staff) really happy that this is somewhere like Viva in Leeds. Proper Italian hospitality.
If the true measure of a place is how they deal with out-of-the-ordinary requests, Viva has to be one of the greatest examples of customer service in Leeds right now.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the local music scene, and as soon as I’d posted it there were about 20 bands and acts I was kicking myself for not mentioning.
One of these acts is the hugely talented Gary Stewart – a fellow scot living in Leeds he’s been pretty big on the local folk scene. I feel cruel using words like “big” and “hugely” because he is, in fact, only around 4 foot tall. This might be a small exaggeration.
His début album – Boy Cries Wolf – comes out in a few weeks, till then check out this video from him featuring Ellen (from Ellen and the Escapades) Smith for Behind the Door.
I am a privacy advocate. I don’t buy the “if you’ve got nothing to hide then you’ve got nothing to worry about” argument, and the data protection act is one of the better laws we have.
In this case, some people seem to be mistaking this story for a privacy one. Mainly due to the tone that Yorkshire Evening Post are using. Others think this is an unwise way to spend taxes.
How are the council meant to know how well the recycling programmes area going, or how much money to put into waste management, unless they know what’s being thrown away?
This wasn’t “spying” on *people*, it was finding out how much they needed to focus on recycling efforts. They didn’t write down “mr so-and-so from number 58 threw away bananas…” they were working out percentages of whole neighbourhoods.
As a result of this, with less data to hand, the council will now have to guess how much to spend on refuse. And, through no fault of their own, will probably get it wrong, leaving taxpayers out of pocket and frustrated at the bin collections not being the right frequency.
Poorly reported into creating a sensational story where there isn’t one, this is irresponsible fear-mongering journalism that leaves the taxpayer unknowingly shouting to be worse off.
Well. I must be the last person who went to Latitude to blog about it, but sometimes things need to settle in your mind, eh?
This was my second trip Latitude, and after last year I was expecting to be disappointed – the truth is that while some points weren’t quite as good as last year, a lot of things were better. Either way there was no disappointment other than wondering why the three days went SO quickly.
The Good
Far too many to list here, but right at the start of weekend Kurran and the Wolfnotes brought the tent down. Literally, after they walked off stage the tent fell down. The first band we got to see were a really pleasant surprise, proper americana with real melodies – you’ll be singing this one for a while after you listen to it…
I was expecting to be disappointed by Laura Marling, however she turned out a really heartfelt performance that sounded just great, and put the new album into a much more positive light for me. Someone holding up a sign saying “I want to be your lover and I want to be your peer” while she sung Alas I Cannot Swim brought a tear to the eye.
Crystal Castles were bonkers. I was told they were like nothing else before, but with the bleepy backing, and screamy vocals, it reminded me a bit of Bis in their heyday. I loved Bis. I even saw Manda Rin in a pub once, but was too scared to go up and say hello. Yes, Alice punched someone, and cleared off 20 mins early to boos from the crowd. At Leeds/Reading or V Fest this would be fairly standard, but it was rather odd ahead of the sublime Belle and Sebastian.
I’ve wanted to see Belle and Sebastian for years, and they did not disappoint. Another one of those bands where you seemingly know every song, and they turned out a great performance. The cover of Jumping Jack Flash was a real highlight, improvised as it was!
Mumford & Sons, Frightened Rabbit, The National and Spoon all exceeded already high expectations.
I had no idea what to expect from Temper Trap, Rodrigo y Gabrielle, or John Grant but was blown away by all of them. If only I could write forever, I’d tell you all about them all. But I can’t, so just go and listen to them.
Finally – the best thing-that-wasn’t-music has to be Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osbourne’s late night stories. Told by the lake every night at midnight they built a wonderful linked world with three very human, very funny stories. Just the thing to round off the night.
The Bad
There’s no doubt these are tough economic times, and belts need to be tightened. This was fairly evident at Latitude this year, with fewer acts on across the main music stages, and an extra 2,000 tickets sold in advance.
Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much extra infrastructure to accommodate this, and while it’s great that the festival is growing slowly, and still a great success, without making the venue any bigger it means things got really quite crowded.
My idea of swapping my iphone for a PAYG phone backfired completely when it ran out of battery on the 2nd day, and being an unfamiliar model the charging tent couldn’t help, so I massively screwed up meeting most of the people I meant to. Sorry everyone!
The Ugly
I really hope the two awful incidents that reportedly took place this year both don’t happen again and don’t sully the image of Latitude. You can’t help but feel a little of it’s innocence has been taken away.
At the age of 5, Latitude is coming into it’s own, and has to carefully navigate the waters ahead. If it’s to keep growing, it has a lot to learn from this year, but could easily keep going from strength to strength.
I’m back from Latitude, another year of brilliant music and smashing times. I’ll blog about that properly. Would anyone watch a video blog entry?
Anyway, One thing that stood out to cynics (like I can sometimes be) at Latitude was the sponssorship opportunities for big brands. Big Sky 3D metal tents were created, Vodaphone reps clutching iPads were trying to take details, and the only paper you could buy on site was The Times. The main stage had a fairly bizarre piece of comparing from some no-mark who could have been from The Times, or possibly Absolute radio. His main point of being on stage seemed to be that once the festival was all over we could hear about it on Absolute Radio and read about it in The Times. Totally cringeworthy, this was a brilliant opportunity to show off some of Absolute Radio’s bigger stars (see? We *ARE* a real radio station after all!) such as Dave Gorman or Frank Skinner, both of which would have breathed a bit more life into the *very* awkward link between Crystal Castles and Belle & Sebastian.
The exclusive Times deal was perhaps controversial for an audience of almost exclusive Guardian readers, but I guess the bills need paying.
Now, The Times recently erected a paywall around their site, dropping readership by 90%. I suppose this is why they need to do a bit of promotion,and so will have forked out quite a lot of money to be exclusively available to Latitude. In order to get more people to their site, and pay a subscription to make up for the loss of advertising revinue, and to pay for things like exclusivity deals at Latitude.
Anyone else think the logic machine might have just broken?
Keep Music Live / Leeds Music Promotions were nice to say “The songwriting and musicianship on show, makes it nigh on impossible for any of the bands peers to equal let alone beat this flawless CD from a very special band.”
And Americana UK gave us 9 out of 10 and a lovely review, click on the name to read it!
Thankfully we’ve only had one smelly review, but oddly enough that’s about all we’ve had back! If you would like to review it, or know of someone that would like to, then drop me a line.
Hot town, summer in the city, it’s July’s Foxes and whether the sun holds out or not we’re putting on some bands that’ll keep you feeling sunny!
This month, old friend Chris Selman will be popping back across the pennines to treat us to another heartfelt acoustic set, playing amongst other things his new single “Headlights”.
There are a distinct lack of venues, less gigs and when there is a gig the attendance is shocking.”
Now, whether he was just trolling, or genuinely thought this, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
I’ve lived and worked in cities all over the UK, and can hand-on-heart say nowhere has a music scene quite like Leeds.
Venues & Gigs
I’ve been in March of Dimes for about two years now, and in that time the places we’ve had the opportunity to play has done nothing but grow – as has the competition for other nights. Running the Foxes and Convicts night in Milo simply wouldn’t have been possible two years ago because a small venue like Milo wouldn’t be able to take the risk of a monthly night putting on local acts. look at a gig listing for this week and you’ll see small nights like ours on all over the place.
Bigger acts get good homes here too – with dance club Creation giving way to live venue O2 Academy Leeds and checked-ben-sherman-shirt-no-trainers townie venue The Courtyard being taken over by achingly cool Nation of Shopkeepers, and even the Holy Trinity Church handing itself over to the odd band (some odder than others), it finally feels like live music in Leeds has everything in place to be one of the main forms of night out entertainment.
Of course, there are a finite number of people that are going to come to gigs. Turn a townie venue into a music venue and you’re not going to get townies realising the error of their ways, putting down their stella and stripping off their shirts, to replace them with Herman Dune t-shirts and picking up a nice cider, but the fact that there are so many venues out there, and they seem to be doing WELL, suggests that the audience is there, it just needs to be treated a bit nicer. Great though it can be to see a gig in a sweaty room with sticky floors, sometimes you want something a little less intense. Leeds now offers that.
Acts
Obviously the most amazing band in the whole of Leeds right now is March of Dimes, but that aside in running Foxes and Convicts for the past year or so I’ve been totally bowled over by the sheer number, variety and quality of bands on the scene at the moment.
Strumming, boring acts are ten a penny. They always have been and they are in every city. Especially in Manchester, oddly. But, take a wee look at what else is out there and you’ll be as stunned as I am by the incredible creativity and talent on offer.
Pairing up incredible vocalists and guitarists has given rise to people like Jack, and Gill’s Daughter:
And while it’s not strictly Leeds, Charlie Barnes is just up the road in Barnsley – and what a magnificent talent he is. If you ever get the chance to see him live, do, for one of the most intense but easy going shows you’ll see.
People are getting smarter about how to get their music out there too. Aside from the YouTube videos that more and more people are getting more and more creative with, local starlet-to-be Hannah Trigwell has been knocking out tunes on Briggate, and it sure has an impact – barely a week goes by without someone asking either on a forum or directly “Who’s that busker on Brigate?”. She’s also got the hang of web-cam bedroom broadcasts. Not like that. But hopefully that’ll bump up the search engine results for this article. Take a look here to see her in action. NOT LIKE THAT.
I could easily mention over a hundred acts that have caught my ear over the past year, but the best thing to do is tell you about…
Leeds Indie Radio
One of the most amazing things to come out of Leeds in the past 6 months is Leeds Indie Radio. Started by Adam Williams after popping along to one of our nights, he gives an opportunity for bands in Leeds to get their music heard. Any band in, or around, Leeds can get their music played on this online station, just by dropping him a line. The system is genius, giving more frequent plays to newer tracks, there’s always something great to listen to. I’m told avarage listening time is 2 hours, which shows that once you’re tuned in, people generally find something they like.
So, if you want to hear some of the amazing results of this brilliant musical environment, just tune in to Leeds Indie Radio for an hour. You will find something that makes you go “Ooh! That’s good.”
Sean Murricane is a Leeds based blogger, web marketer and musician.
So, 6 Music has been saved! Hurrah! Well done The Internet. We’ll add that one to the list of things we’ve sorted out, like the Iran elections and sending Justin Bieber to North Korea. (There. That should sort out the search engines for a couple of days)
On the plus side, this is fantastic news – showing that reasoned argument can win in the face of big corporations. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from 8 seasons of 24, it’s that if you challenge a big corporation, the head of that corporation goes mental and tries to kill you. So firstly, watch out for that, and secondly, watch out for the line “The executive should draw up an overarching strategy for digital radio. If the director general wanted to propose a different shape for the BBC’s music radio stations as part of a new strategy, the trust would consider it.”
So, although the case hasn’t been made YET for the closure of 6 music, the opportunity is there for a – perhaps bitter – Director General to still change it drastically. Perhaps we shouldn’t pack away the placards just yet then, eh?
On the other side, perhaps his diabolical plan to get more listeners to 6 Music actually worked, and now EVERYONE’S happy.
Sometimes, a place is just so nice to you, they deserve to be shouted about.
So, 
