BBC Music Sound of 2017

And the winner is London gal Ray BLK (Building, Loving Knowing) who’s been described as the British equivalent of Lauryn Hill and by going by the sound of her two singles My Hood and Chill Out f.t SG Lewis. Both are incredible and great listening pleasure. Other runners up from this year are…

2. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man

3. Raye

4. Jorja Smith

5. Nadia Rose

AJ Tracey

Anderson .Paak

Cabbage

Dave

Declan McKenna

Maggie Rogers

Stefflon Don

The Amazons

The Japanese House

Tom Grennan

Well done for getting this far in the poll and look forward to hearing from you this year. Other winners have included Sam Smith, Jessie J, Adele and Michael Kiwanuka are previous winner

Robbie Williams Rocks Big Ben Live

Not long been watching the ever-talented cheeky chappie that is Robbie Williams perform in the lead up to the Big Ben countdown to the London firework display on BBC1. Good’ol Robbie performed some of his hit tracks including Angels, Let Me Entertain You and last years’ release Party Like a Russian and Come Undone. Best of all he’s still on now if you want to watch. All that’s left to say now is

                         Goodbye 2016

               HELLO 2017!!!!

Pete Tong on The Graham Norton Show

Watched the legendary Radio 1 DJ that is non other than Pete Tong himself play and amazing set on The Graham Norton Show on BBC1 earlier (just last year). A perfect mix of dance and classical and even had the singer Cookie (guest singer from The Shapeshifters) to perform the hit ‘Lola’s Theme’. Absolutely amazing and a perfect reminder of why the songs are great and why Pete Tong’s a LEGEND!!!

 

The Singles Review

Alex Adair
“Make Me Feel Better”
No actual explanation need for this other than it’s an amazing dance tune and was released in March 2015 and still sounds great now. This is one of those songs that could easily go into your summer playlist and you’d probably not get bored of it. The video itself was made in L.A and features 3 young women dancing in front of an ever-changing screen in various locations.
Paradis
“Toi Et Moi”
This was released this year and is by French duo Paradis, is 3 minutes 42 seconds long and is sung entirely in French. It’s actually quite a good dance track which has an good ambient sound to it. The video to this uses red lighting and shows people dancing including the duo, Paradis, themselves performing in a disco setting. It’s a perfect mix of dance and ambient.
Stromae
“Alors On Danse” (Eng tran: Then We Dance)
Originally released in 2009 by Rwandan/Belgian artist/producer Stromae, is a great dance track that’s just under 4 minutes and is sung entirely in Belgian. The song itself is great and the video is done a in single-person perspective; it basically begins with a man who finishes work and goes out to forget his problems, ends up in a bar, sing before a crowd before passing out and is dragged back to work.

 

Katie Melua on The Graham Norton Show

Just watching Katie Melua perform her new single ‘The Little Swallow’ with The Gori Women’s Choir on BBC1 at the moment. Granted it starts off on a slow pace before Katie’s voice gradually seeps through, ironically it doesn’t so much as cut through and dominate the other voices but just goes alongside them. A very gospel performance and surprisingly short. The singe’s from her new album In Winter. Though she’s got a great voice can’t say I thought that much of it I’m afraid.

And everyone posed for a selfie, courtesy of Hollywood legend Will Smith at the end.

 

Christmas All Dayer @TheMaze, Nottingham 17/12/16

A review I wrote for the Christmas All Dayer festival for the Nottingham Post, courtesy of IKE Promotions. Wolves Don’t Sleep, Carcer City and The Parallax Method were some of the bands that appeared on the day. Have a read and enjoy.

http://www.nottinghampost.com/christmas-all-dayer-at-the-maze-was-a-festive-treat/story-29996946-detail/story.html

A musical feast was hosted at The Maze in Mansfield Road at the weekend, it was an all-day event which began at 3pm and went on till the early hours of Sunday morning, 2am. The Christmas All-Dayer…

 

60 Seconds With… Wolves Don’t Sleep

A small interview I did with Wolves Don’t Sleep for the Nottingham Post in the run up to the Christmas All Dayer on the 17/12/2016. For the full interview go to the Published Pieces page

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Photo by Caitlin Staley

Jack Savoretti on The Graham Norton Show

Watching Jack Savoretti perform his latest single, ‘Only You’, before the audience on The Graham Norton Show on BBC1, and I’ve completely fallen under this guy’s musical spell. This guy’s got an amazing voice which sounds a little bit throaty but when you’ve got a voice like his who actually cares. Lyric-wise the song is incredible to say the least, completely soothing and packed with folk. This new song is from his latest album Sleep No More.

BBC Music Awards 2016

If you’ve been watching the BBC Music Awards 2016 tonight on BBC1 tonight hopefully you had a great night, 1 and a half hours of musical bliss and live performances from several amazing artists. The winners of this years awards are

BBC Music British Artist of the Year: Coldplay

Radio 2’s Album of the Year: Adele, 25

BBC Music  Introducing Artist of the Year: Izzy Bizu

Radio 1 Live Lounge Performance of the year: The 1975 ( One Direction cover ‘What Makes You Beautiful)

BBC Song of the Year: Hello

Congratulations to all those who won. Other live performances during the night were Zara Larrson, Emile Sande, Izzy Bizu, Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, Lucas Graham and Craig David. The musical genius that is otherwise Robbie Williams stole the show with his amazing performance.

 

Listen To This…. Vektrill

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This new trio, hailing all the way from Worthing, are probably going to be one of the biggest and amazing band’s you have ever heard of yet. For anyone who likes their progressive rock and electronic sounds with an almost tenor like range you won’t be disappointed. With fresh new songs, such as The Grey, I’ll Never Die and Cyborg these guys are practically rejuvenating the rock genre.

So, how you guys first get together as a band?
Well I (Scott) had a couple acoustic tracks that I wanted to record with some percussion.
I found out about Jordan through a friend and haven’t regretted playing with him since. This was back in, like, January 2014. After plowing through Worthing’s back catalogue of bassists, we ended up landing Carlos who was in another band at the time but loved the energy we portrayed… or something like that lol. We’ve been with him 1 and a half years now. I think we’ve settled ha-ha!
How would you describe yourselves as a band?
Erm… weird? Ha-ha. Well we love to put on a performance and wish we had all the time in the world to just write and play music. When we write we become hermits but when it’s time to play we like to play loud and proud. We like to have a lot of fun but also stay focused and true to the end game.
….. How did you style of music come about?
Through a need to reject and revolt against the puppets of corruption and their handlers, perhaps the overwhelming hidden forces that make everything rotten in life? Ha-ha jk… maybe, but we’re influenced by Several sounds that we try to combine. Crescendos from classical music, the sounds of rock from the 60’s/70’s like Hendrix and his fuzz face, all the way up to the modern, more electronic, stuff. Dust that off with a heavier sort of ‘doom metal’ edge and I think that’s what we’ve got lol
In terms of song-writing it easy putting different ideas out there?
Sometimes, I mean it’s great fun when you write something that has a fresh tone to it and people say ‘ hey I really like that new track, it’s got something I’ve not heard before and I like it!’ But with the good there’s always the bad. We’ve written and re-written many songs time and time again to get them right. Sometimes an idea can just be too whacky, or a meld of two different sounds just becomes painful to listen to.
Now the name VeKtrill, how did that come about?
Ha-ha through a rigorous process of elimination! We’ve been through an arm’s length of band names. With each name came a slightly different image and sound. This one came through a need of something completely original and different so we were like ‘shall we invent a word?’ We started with Vektrillian and figured this to be too long and a bit ‘lizard people’. So, we shortened it to VEKTRILL and came up with a meaning, which is ‘a scale in which to measure a beings understanding of the control imposed upon them’.
How was your last gig?
Our last gig was a little winter warmer in our home town of Worthing which was a nice conclusion to our two mini uk tours for our singles this year. We played our local music venue ‘Bar 42’. It’s always a great night at bar 42! The sound is top notch and we had some top bands down!
….. and where would be your dream gig?
Like on a gigantic space station with the artificial gravity turned off! Imagine the way the sound would move and reverberate in that!
Failing that there’s always Headlining the pyramid stage of Glastonbury!
How would you describe life on tour?
It’s life we wanna live ha-ha, literally no better feeling than playing a show every night in a different place!
Unless you’ve already done so would you ever play some gigs abroad?
Again, that’s the dream! Just hit the interstellar highway and play some music!
Describe your dream tour
Hmm 72 and 1/4 years long, just circling the globe, perhaps hitting up the moon or mars a couple of times, just writing new stuff, experimenting with sounds and playing the classics of course!
Have you had any songs played on the radio yet?
We have indeed! Worldwide in fact! All of our recorded tracks bar one have been played. The most popular track is ‘I’ll never die’, our first single of this year but the one that was played worldwide simultaneously was ‘the grey’ which was the second single of this year.
Final question now, where would fans be able to find more of your music?
Well you can hit up our website www.vektrill.com which details of upcoming gigs, current and old videos, bio, social media links and everything Vektrill! You can also interact with us on twitter – @vektrill or Facebook – www.facebook.com/VEKTRILL and even Instagram! Or even head to a gig we’re playing and have a chat after the show!