After a summer of seeing some of the biggest and longest-established acts in the industry it’s good to be heading out to what I love the most, new names in a grassroots venue where instead of standing amongst 5 or 6 thousand people I’m in a small room amongst around 50 or 60 folk.
I think this is my 1st trip over to Manchester centre this year. I’d been to Wythenshawe last month but not in the centre, mainly because Northern have been buggering around with train services and dropping later trains, which meant risking motorway closures on the way home, especially on both the M66 and M62, not ideal when you live around 50 miles away from Manchester and have work in the morning…
If ever there was a girl who has taken on the Adele school of songwriting, it would appear to be this young lady, opening with Cocaine Drama, a song about breaking up with an ex, as was the next. Jess even stated that she hasn’t had many major relationships, just 3, though her chat about Somewhere By The Sea could be her 4th and the prequel to another breakup song.
Her cover of Zombie was thankfully not another attempt to sing like Deloris, which so many singers swing for and usually fail drastically; instead, it turned out to be a good showcase of her vocal talents.
Next up was something of a wow moment. Entering the stage was a man who, if he hadn’t had a guitar in his hand, he’d have looked like he’d lost his way on the way back from the bogs and had somehow ended up on stage – no way I would have put the voice to the face; absolutely sensational!
Luke’s voice is one of the most effortlessly powerful, rich voices I’ve heard in a very long time, which would have easily filled the room if the speakers were switched off.
Mixed with that was a bit of quality songwriting. His 25 min set was an absolute delight to witness, and I could have easily listened to him for the rest of the night, not bad for a bloke who’s now 38 and only decided to take things seriously a couple of years ago – I’m certain that he will be someone who you’re going to hear about in the next few years. Shout out to Sam, his keyboard player too; he delivered a performance on par with Luke.
A London-based duo, so I’ll try not to hold that against them, coming up north for the friendlier people and cheaper beer than their hometown. Splitting up their play of two acoustic guitars with a keyboard and what looked like a OP-1 mini Synth/sampler/sequencer (a trick bit of kit) – the 1st I’ve seen one not only out in the wild but used on stage; it certainly added another dimension to their performance.
Another 1st was the lead singer introducing the next song from a piece of scrap paper kept in his back pocket, later described as the Miserable List; they covered subjects like mental health (Danger Zone), expectations not living up to reality (The Hague), repression (Drive Home), and those subliminal moments that creep up on you when you least expect them that make you cringe over your actions (I Could Just Kill You).
As happy as all that sounds, it wasn’t as depressing as they made things out, and their song Mountaineer has hit over 2.7 million plays on Spotify alone due to, as they put it, finding its way onto just about every cafe’s playlist, so chances are you may have heard them before without ever realizing.
Anyone who’s been to the Eagle before will know how small the stage is. Still, Emily didn’t come packing light. With 5 people on stage, it was a bit of a squeeze getting everyone on, especially when you have a drummer; however, being young and thin, they managed it – it might be a bit of a different story if, in 30 years, they do some sort of anniversary gig…
With the majority on stage, including Emily herself, fresh out of university, 2 things are of note: 1, the maturity of the songs and 2, how bloody well polished the whole setup already is.
This was her and the band’s 1st headline slot, playing to a packed room, downstairs and up, and not only was there nothing noticeable mistake-wise, but the confidence of all on stage was scarily high, though as she later name-dropped during the set, having performed to 20k at the O2 Arena at Peter Kay’s gig and previously performed in front of none other than Paul McCartney I guess performing to up to 80 people in the back room of a Salford boozer doesn’t deliver the same level of pressure.
It is also one thing to have rehearsed to death to be wholly confident but to decide to throw in a cover to celebrate the venue’s town you’re playing, having only rehearsed it the day before, She Bangs The Drums and nail it, then do a couple of new tracks that haven’t had much more practice than that one shows the level of talent this band is operating at.
In fact, pretty much the whole set was songs I was unfamiliar with, only Famous To Me (the song performed at the O2) and current single Red Button (and obvs SBTD) I’d heard before the night. The other 7, yes 7 – bear in mind Emily has literally just left Uni and is already able to deliver a full set of songs that doesn’t include the majority of her already published tracks is frankly incredible, even more so when they are of the quality performed on the night.
Personal highlights were Dopamine (the song performed to Paul), current single Red Button, and probably her best-known song thanks to the Kay gig, Famous To Me.
So that was 4 quality grassroots acts, all for way under twenty quid, which is less than a tenth of the price of a ticket I clicked on for a seat at Deacon Blues Raintown 40th anniversary tour that was announced this week- a fucking TENTH of the price! Support your local Grassroots venues people – not the overpriced arenas – because if they disappear, your next “Deacon Blue” won’t get to play at an arena because there will be nowhere for them to apply their craft to begin with.
CHECK OUT EMILYS WEBSITE HERE
ALL THE LATEST MUSIC NEWS FROM THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH OF THE UK + ABROAD