A triumph in the face of adversity...

You know, sometimes in life we make mistakes, sometimes we suffer bad luck and sometimes we're just in the wrong place at the wrong time and we get treated badly. But when the chips are down and everything seems to be going against us, it's how we respond and the level of resolve we show that defines our character; and over the past 2 weeks the 4 guys of Strange Folks / Roy Rieck and The Medley Band who were let into the country have shown the most amazing fortitude to overcome an almost fatal blow.

Losing two guitarists (Emmanuel and Joseph), a lead vocalist and harmonica (Roy Rieck) would be pretty much impossible to contend with but four hard working and outrageously talented musicians stuck their heads above the parapet, walked the line (I just realised I might rename this blog post - "The cliche post") and produced a string of amazing performances culminating in a rousing, brilliant and spell-binding show last night at The Slaughtered Lamb.

I'm never short of a superlative for the guys anyway but to so quickly adapt enough songs to make a set and make them sound great let alone the bravery to add in two new brilliant songs in "Running Away and "Girls" with such important parts of the band missing, shows the most incredible depth of musical talent.



And if bravery hadn't been shown enough, when challenged by a small but raucous awe-struck crowd to an encore (twice) and after a quick discussion where the words uttered included "what should we play?" and "we haven't practiced any more songs" two more exceptional efforts were delivered which included a rare live outing of Jungle Man (a track from Idan Rabinovici's solo album, a song which I adore).

So with this mini-tour over all too quickly for my liking, the guys are heading back to Israel before playing a few shows in Paris next month and then hopefully (immigration permitting) they'll be back in full force come January.

I've now seen the guys in different guises play seven shows since July and you know what, I am not in the slightest bit bored of my favourite musical discovery of this year and I truly doubt I ever will be!

Have a great day people xx

A week of silence...ended with a jaw dropper!

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry...I actually can't believe I've been so quiet for nearly a week, you'd have thought I could have found something amazing to talk about in a week - there is stuff, I promise you but stuff that's bubbling away just nicely at the moment and it's all pretty damn exciting and that's really why I've been so amazingly quiet, it's that immense that trying to comprehend it all is almost ripping my mind wide open. That big research project for that big and insightful blog post...oh yeah, it's still not done, but rest assured I now need to do that research urgently so it will be done.

So anyways with the apology out of the way and now we've made up and you realise I still love you all, I want to quickly before I head to bed tonight pop together an ultra quick recommendation.

Last night I headed over to The Bedford in Balham, South London (to see the London homecoming of my brilliant Israeli friends Strange Folks - yep folks...they're back - hooray!!!). The Bedford is awesome, one of the two best small live venues I've been to in London (along with the Slaughtered Lamb)...just totally amazing. The vibe is brilliant, the quality of the acoustics and the sound technicians is second to none and the attitude to music is so ridiculously commendable that I wanted to marry the place, it's a shining example of what ALL music venues should be like (big or small).

Anyways I digress and I wanted to keep it short so on with the music. First up last night and my sole focus of tonight was a girl (I never know if I should say woman or lady and if girl is disrespectful, sorry if it is) who absolutely mesmerised the entire room for about 40 minutes the astonishing, Ragz Nordset.



Originally from Norway but now living in Liverpool, Ragz is a singer/songwriter of unbelievable quality. Throughout her set you could hear not a pin drop in the room, in fact the only sound I heard was within about 15 seconds of the first song when the entire audience's jaws hit the floor in amazement all at the same time - audience captivation was taken to a completely new level last night.



I just cannot quickly in words sum up how utterly brilliant Ragz is, as I said to her afterwards "wow...just wow". Judge for yourself from the videos I shot. Oh and I have two Ragz EP's which I'll cover in due course but for tonight my work here is done. Be wowed, be totally and utterly wowed! Oh and pop a cushion on the floor first before you hit the play button, your jaw will thank you for it!



Nite all xxx

Marking the first landmark....50th blog post!

Does anyone celebrate such a thing? I think we should, why not and I intend to right here, right now and I want to do it with a bit of a personal insight into this whole mission of mine, so please bear with what might be a bit of a personal indulgent blog tonight.


I started this whole thing off back in late June as a way of writing down my muscial thoughts and recommendations with the world in the hope that it might spread the love of the music I enjoy not just with my native UK but to every corner of our amazing little planet. I wanted to help promote unsigned or unheard of artists a little so that they become more well known or at least build up enough of a following to provide them with the income and inspiration to keep them doing what they do best...producing amazing music.

The past 4 and a half months have been totally amazing. In that time I have seen more live music than the rest of my life put together, met an abundance of people I am proud and honoured to now call friends, been blessed with unspeakable acts of human kindness and hopefully inspired a few people along the way to go and check out some amazingly talented people.

I think in this short space of time I've already achieved a lot of what I set out to do and I will keep doing it today, tomorrow, next week, next year, forever...because I passionately believe in good music and I hope that by doing what I am doing I am making a difference to someone's life somewhere in the world, be they a music lover or a musician.

So tonight, in my 50th blog post I want to thank the artists who have inspired me enough to sit down and write about them, post videos, tweet, recommend and to talk about them. You are all truly amazing talents and I hope you are reminded of this every day! If you ever for one second doubt it, pick up your music, listen to it and know that people out there love and respect what you do and are inspired and moved by it! What you do for a living matters so never give up or get dis-enchanted.

I also want to thank my great friend Dave who it is a privelege to share my musical experiences with first hand, all of you who have taken the time so far to stop by to read my blog, view the youtube videos, add me on twitter, send me emails, send me recommendations...it just makes me even more certain that what I'm doing is worthwhile and that hopefully you're finding music you can enjoy as much as I do.

Finally I'm going to leave you all with a final thanks to someone who is totally awesome, truly amazing and who doesn't believe it despite me constantly telling her. So to that end and in recognition of my 50th blog I'm making a special recommendation tonight here is a first original song from the wonderful and totally beautiful Kamila who I am honoured and blessed to have in my life...



thank you all so much, in your own ways you all inspire me xx

The milk of human kindness...

So I said I was going into hiding for a few days to do a research project and here I am reporting back some 5 days later with absolutely no research done, because I got ligitimately distracted and haven't been able to focus since.

My favourite musical finds are the ones that just fall out of the sky and hit you and this week, I had one smack me so hard it almost knocked me out. Wednesday night with all good intentions, I sat down to research this big blog post I've been talking about for a while but before I did that a signed in to Facebook. Just as I was about to sign out, I noticed something in the highlights sidebar on the home page which caught my eye.


I thought I'd be...I guess, a bit nosey...and check it out, because my friend and Strange Folks front man Idan Rabinovici had been tagged in it. The video in question is this one:-



Within 23 seconds the idle curiousity turned into absolute fascination and I sat in complete silence throughout listening to the most amazingly beautiful song. At first I was so utterly bemused by the quality of what I had seen I actually had to watch it a second time, and after that I quickly stopped everything, abandoned all research and went off in search of some more information on another Israeli talent in Omer Leshem.

This search started with MySpace where further time was spent listening to tracks on the player and then a fruitless and frustrating trip over to the iTunes and CDBaby stores. So with bedtime fast approaching I dispatched a message via MySpace in the hope of finding somewhere to buy his album "Send Yourself Away".

The next morning, whilst I was sitting at work, I had a reply from Omer directing me to 2 sites however in the end did something quite unbelievable, totally amazing and something which I will always be eternally grateful for, he uploaded the album for me to download. I was and still am totally astonished by this act of generosity and human kindness shown by Omer towards a complete stranger...it's mindblowing!

So I immediately stopped everything, booted my laptop up and downloaded the album and within an hour I was listening to a raft of beautiful songs. That night I lay in bed drifting off to sleep listening again to the album. And I guess it was then it really hit me, how good this collection of Folk/Country songs sung by a man with a rich voice is. As an album, Send Yourself Away is so warm, fuzzy and beautiful that it just seems to suit every mood you could ever possibly be in. This is your stressful drive home made better, it's your lazy summer day spent basking under hot blue skies, your red-eye flight, your candle lit bathtime chill out, your late night under the covers, your early morning wake up, your reflective gaze on life, your momentary inspiration in a mentally challenging moment, it's all those and so much more.

You just can't help but be swept away by the rich vocals and melodies throughout the album. Musically there's definite undertones of the great Neil Young along with vocals that remind me a touch of Johnny Cash meets Ray LaMontagne without quite the huskiness.

It's a truly great album and you all need to go and check Omer out, it's music that'll lift you, move you and leave you feeling better and warmer than you were before you hit the play button. Just make sure you tell Omer how amazing it is and music industry folks...give this man a record deal for goodness sake and whilst you're at it, go and take a closer look at Israel, it's clearly got some amazing talent that needs exporting to the world.

I'll leave you with the thoughts of my great friend Dave who described the video above with this brilliant analogy so beautifully...

"I've been taken back to when I was a kid and my mum gave me 10p for the lucky dip. My hand dived deep in to the bucket of sawdust and i pulled out a gem of a prize.

Rich, thanks for the 10p....and thanks for being mum!

Nite all xxx

Blogged out...

A few weeks ago, I sat down to do a bit of a research project and write a blog based on my findings. Since then I've been so pre-occupied with new music that I just haven't got round to doing that research or to even thinking about how to write that post.

So unless something outrageously amazing hits me in the next few days, I'm going "under the radar" and I'm likely to be very quiet. But hopefully by the time I come back, I'll have something fascinating for you to read and hopefully it'll provide you with some insight into something that, at the moment I know very little about.

But before I go AWOL, actually MIA is a better term...here's a cheeky little Tuesday recommendation...and it comes in the form of two videos...oh yeah I've now worked out how to embed youtube in here!!!

Today, my friend and all round musical hero the mighty Greg Holden posted Part 23 of the Not My Living Room series and it's a brand new song written and performed with the great Joey Ryan. The song doesn't have a name yet but I've suggested "Don't Come Looking" and in the absence of a name, I'm using that...




It's awesome, it's a new side to Greg's music and one I truly love. Send him comments, let him know how good it is!

Right then, second recommendation tonight comes courtesy of a beautiful little ray of sunshine in Sweden (yes Kamila...I mean you). When I was a LOT younger, I grew up being swept away by British band The Verve. Back in the mid 90's these guys got huge overnight and some of their songs still rip the hairs off the back of my neck. It was a shame they never stayed together longer and now they're back together they just aren't quite as good as they once were...harsh maybe but it's just an opinion.

Anyways, this song, arguably their most famous "The Drugs Don't Work" is being sung by Terra Naomi. I have no idea YET as to who she is...but a stunningly beautiful woman and an amazingly emotive version of this song. I defy you to not sit silent in amazement for 5 minutes and to not be moved, if you're not, you're emotionally stunted...end of!



Right then, this is me potentially for a few days, signing off, so unless any of you can tempt me to listen to something mindblowing I'm going off to do some research and will report back from the field in due course.

Stay safe people xx

The UK's answer to Ryan Adams...?

Well what do you know people? Today is the sixth, yes sixth successive day I've found something exciting to sit down and write about. You'd have thought by now that I' have run out of ideas but oh no no no, we're carrying on a pace, because I haven't quite finished reviewing things from a week ago.

So tonight I'm going to begin with a quote of my own from some months ago...

"So how many of us are guilty of doing this? We book tickets to see a band or a musician we really like, we find out what time they're on and then what do we do, either turn up late or sit outside drinking beer...all the time not knowing or hearing what's going down on stage," (July 16th - "The Power of Support Acts").

Never a truer word spoken and to be fair I may have partially fulfilled this myself last week. On turning up to Koko to see Joshua Radin, we spent ages messing around waiting to put our jackets into the cloakroom and then getting the beers that we missed most of the first support act. What I did hear of this act sounded ok, but again, how much can you tell from a distance, not paying attention and trying to struggle through a noisy crowd.

So as the night ended and on the way out of Koko, I pitched up at the merch booth and decided to buy a CD from the first support act, partially as a guilty apology and also to share the wealth and make a musicians dream more of a reality. Wow that sounds so "up myself" but those of you who know me will understand I do things like that.

So Tuesday and Wednesday came and went and then on Thursday I finally added the CD in question to my iPod and since then have been swept away.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Guys and Girls, Kids, Music Lovers...I want to introduce you tonight to the incredible unsigned amd unbelievable BRITISH talent that is...THOMAS J SPEIGHT.



By now you must know I am a massive fan of good singer/songwriters, but the bar is set so high by the likes of Jay Nash, Josh Ritter, Ryan Adams, Chris Seefried and the UK's very own super talent Greg Holden that most singer/songwriters just get filtered out, that's harsh I know but the reality is that greatness stands out a mile off, so when you come across someone befitting of that illustrious company it needs sharing and Thomas is on the evidence thus far befitting of that company.

I can't comment really on his set at Koko as I only heard it from a distance (shame on me!) but what I can do is comment on his EP, This House. The 3 songs are just...amazing, nothing short of amazing and I think even that word doesn't quite do it justice. Sitting somewhere musically between Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter and Jay Nash with a hint of Eagles, CSNY and Low Stars chucked in for good measure, its scarcely believable that Thomas Speight heralds from the UK. In fact if you knew no better having listened to the EP and to Thomas' vocals, you'd assume he heralded from the US. I have no idea where the musical influence comes from and maybe in time I'll find out when I get to see Thomas play again but it certainly I doubt originates from these shores.




What strikes me even just as much is the level of intricacy and level of craftsmanship in each of the songs, from the lyrics right through to the music and it's most evident in the opening track This House. There's a hidden depth that means after 20 plays I'm still finding things that I haven't noticed before. It's the work of an incredibly talented artist and one who's taken meticulous care to produce songs he clearly wanted to. The other 2 tracks on the EP, Tears Of Mine and Start As We Mean To Go On, are of a rare and exceptional quality and feel like they should sit alongside any of Ryan Adams best stuff in my opinion.

I just cannot evangelise enough about how blown away by Thomas' music I am. You all will be and you all must, must, must go and check him out. How someone seemingly so young can produce such amazing music is totally beyond me. You know the only crying shame, the EP isn't on iTunes but you can buy it through Thomas' myspace page.

And that folks, finally after 6 days concludes the music action of the last week in reverse. It has been the most incredible week, I feel this musical journey I am on becomes more worthwhile by the day AND most importantly that my view some months ago when I wrote my original profile is ever more correct...Live Music is unbeatable.

From an autumnal UK...night all x

Bring on the Goodtimes...

Are you ready for a live review and 2 album reviews? Well it's Sunday so pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink and bring on the Goodtimes Goodtimes.

So there's a history behind this story. I don't want to re-type it all paragraph and verse so in short...

Went out in early August, didn't expect to see music so had no camera, came across a couple of acts (Thea Ford and a band called Goodtimes Goodtimes) who sounded quite good in a venue that wasn't acoustically very good (Bar Music Hall), came away with no videos just a couple of promo cards...and that is that...I wrote a blog about it, moved on that was that.

So now fast forward in time to October and more specifically October 5th. On arriving at Koko to see Joshua Radin I ended up by the merch stall. I don't quite know why I was drawn in that direction so early or what made me take a closer look but something out the corner of my eye caught my attention, there was something familiar about it. On closer inspection it appeared to be a promo card I already had, for Goodtimes Goodtimes. I turned around excitedly to show my mate Dave having realised they were the support act, then turned the other way to see the lead singer Francesco Cinelli looking at me like I'd gone slightly mad. He seemed taken aback that I remembered them from August and that I'd remembered that like me, he's a left-handed guitarist (although one of us is amazingly good and deserves to be on a big stage - and the other shall keep writing this blog). He explained he was playing a solo set which made me completely curious.

So we headed for a quick beer and settled in for what turned out to be a bit of a surprise. When I heard Goodtimes Goodtimes back in August I was a bit impartial because the acoustics were so bad. You couldn't tell what was good and what wasn't only that in principal it sounded good. It turns out Francesco is amazing and the music is too. Francesco played a set for I guess 30 - 40 minutes playing songs from their recently released EP Let It Begin including Let It Begin, Love and a couple of tracks from their next album which is set to be released next February.

So there's videos on my youtube channel which you can now access more easily using my new super-fantastic video player in the sidebar.

That's it review over...nothing more to see...oh no no no, don't be so silly. We're only just beginning, take a pit stop if you want, get a drink, have a smoke, hit the toilet if you need to but for goodness sake hurry up and come back you don't want to miss what's below!

So after he'd played Francesco floor walked the venue selling CDs of the album Glue (which is also available on iTunes). I naturally bought a signed copy for myself but again didn't really know what to expect given that I'd seen them as a band in a poor venue and as a solo artist in a great venue. So on Monday night when I got back to the car, I put the CD on and was blown and I mean BLOWN away, in fact elated by what I heard. It was Goodtimes Goodtimes in a third different form a slightly laid back, relaxed and acoustic.

The album begins with the beautiful Summer which reminds me more than a touch of Josh Ritter then heads on into Kids which for some reason I can envisage Paul McCartney playing. We then head a touch more back towards the modern day with three or four brilliant tracks in Sea Shantry, Temporary Freeze and Desire which feel heavily musically influenced by the 70's and maybe a bit Eagles, maybe a bit Dylan-esque (although I hate name dropping Bob Dylan because it's an easy name drop).

Then out of the blue comes Sunshine Sunshine which was what I recalled the band being all about when I saw them back in August so it was re-assuring to know that I hadn't lost my senses that night. The album finishes with three utterly brilliant songs in The Red Sky & The Spanish Coast, You Know Why and the wonderfully laid back lazy and warm fuzzy Every Song. All in all its around 39 minutes of pure bliss, music heralding from a time when music meant people who could play and sing songs of genuine quality full of stories, humour and emotion. There's something "lazy Sunday summer late-afternoon" about the whole album, it's the sort of thing you want to listen to whilst laying under the scorching sun.

It's an album you absolutely MUST own, I'm currently viewing it as one of my top three albums of the year and I have bought a lot of new music this year.

Now usually at this point we're done but not so today. The good people of Goodtimes Goodtimes recently released a FREE EP - Let It Begin...Yes it's FREE, so you can download it without having to spend anything. It's 4 tracks with a slightly different but still utterly brilliant vibe, perhaps slightly more modern than Glue and a bit more electric. For all you Coldplay fans out there (and I'm not one, I detest them with a passion) you'll love the final track on the EP "Love", there's something very Coldplay about it. There's no official artwork for the EP and because I'm so anal about having music on my iPod without an album artwork, I knocked this together, which you're more than welcome to use. It's not endorsed by the band but it's my ident for the EP.

So I think I'm pretty much done for today's effort, if you do nothing else and you don't go any buy the album, just do me one tiny little favour, go and download the FREE EP. Oh and for those of you in the USA, they'll be playing 3 gigs shortly.

15th October - Living Room, New York, NY
26th October - Third and Lindsley, Nashville, TN
27th October - New Faces Night @ The Basement, Nashville, TN

No excuses people...go check em out.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, whatever you do and wherever you are.

Rich x

P.S. - I ain't done yet, there'll be another musical offering tomorrow :-)

Rewinding the time with Joshua Radin

Ok last reference to the week in reverse...promise. So we're now back at Monday night, I'd say 9:30 - 11pm and Joshua Radin's gig at Koko in London.

Firstly I'll tell you a bit about the venue. I'd never been there before but its an absolutely amazing place. Koko was opened in 1900 as a theatre and over the years played host to many extremely famous names including the legendary Charlie Chaplin. Over the years it underwent subsequent name changes and many guises before closing in 2004 as Camden Palace. It re-opened in late 2004 following a multi-million pound refurbishment as Koko but has kept a lot of the original charm and decor you'd expect from a venue with a history spanning nearly 110 years with nice twists of the modern world throughout. The place itself feels vast with loads of levels to stand and watch and even chill out spaces with sofas and TV screens showing the live show for people who just want to relax.



The acoustics at Koko are second to none though, honestly some of the best acoustics I've heard anywhere to the point that no matter where you stood, you could hear the music at a great level and completely clearly at all times. It's THE place to see music with a biggish crowd.

So now onto Joshua's set. I'm thinking he played for about 90 minutes playing I'd reckon 15 songs. There were a mix of old songs, song from his most recent album Simple Times including Brand New Day, I'd Rather Be With You and One Of Those Days and a couple of songs from his next album...which has no name or completion date.

Not being anything more than a passively new Joshua Radin fan and having heard no more than 4 or 5 of his songs before the gig I was mightily impressed. Not only does this amazingly talented singer/songwriter command a stage but has the ability to capture an audience with his story telling, chatting, humour, warmth and of course music. He seems an artist truly at ease with himself and his music. For every time Joshua sang the crowd went silent - you could have at times heard a pin drop at times and you really pick that up on the videos I shot (which are on my youtube channel).

This I guess was highlighted brilliantly twice by Joshua and the band turning the gig into a 40's-style radio shack show with all five of them crowded round one microphone with the amps off. I sadly only caught Sky as the camera died but you'll see what I mean.

So Joshua's headed round Europe at the moment before heading over to Australia and then back to the US. He's certainly made one new fan here in the UK and I'm sure quite a few more.

Next time on the backwards review of the week I'm going to cover one of the two support acts from Monday who I'd seen once before and who have subsequently found a place in my heart and iPod this week.

Have a great weekend all x

Being there at the very beginning...

So I'm still in my backwards review of the week and the next on my target list is the band that preceded Thea Ford on Tuesday night, a band I now know go by the name of Empire State. That sounds like I didn't pay much attention, far from it, these guys are so new that they hadn't even settled on a name. The working title on Tuesday night, as I found out from lead singer Paul Claxton was "The Latters" which is also in my opinion a great name.

But sometimes a name isn't important, it's what lies beneath it that matters. So these three guys had all fallen out of other bands and come together just a few weeks ago but played like they'd been together for years. Their 5 song shortish set was eye-catching not only because of the quality of the music but the absolutely brilliant vocals of Paul Claxton. What I really enjoyed more than anything was the rawness. There's something special about the early days of a singer/songwriter or band when everything is new and not so polished because the songs are still fresh and the artist is still learning how to play them. I was totally taken with the songs and there's a few on my youtube channel just waiting for you to see.

They're playing the Ground Floor Bar in Notting Hill (London) on the 15th October and will hopefully get their myspace, etc up and running soon after that, but in the meantime go check out Paul's myspace page and keep an eye out, these guys could be headed places in my opinion and I am so happy I was there right at the start to see it...I'll be keeping a close eye on them!

Back to the youtubing, still lots more videos to come and next under the spotlight...Joshua Radin and there are at least 2 more individual and new music reviews to follow that.

Catch you all again soon, but don't go too far away! x

This week in reverse...so Thea Ford first!

Now I've come down a little bit of the excitable high of yesterday, I'm ready to blog once more and hopefully put some more calm thoughts down, but as I sit here I don't know where to start, at the beginning seems logical but I'm not always a logical guy so I'm going to start by blogging the week's music in reverse.

So here we go...

Tuesday night I went to the Road Trip to see Thea Ford. About six or seven weeks ago I saw Thea play a gig just round the corner from the Road Trip (at Bar Music Hall) having not expected to see music, so I had no camera. Bar Music Hall was a good place to drink but not to listen to music. So without camera I blogged about that night and moved on, forgot all about it, until out of the blue some weeks later Thea got in touch having found and read my blog. I was quite honoured and humbled really and promised I'd see Thea play again and bring the camera...and on Tuesday night, I followed through on that promise.

The gig was really good and Thea played a great acoustic set which personally I think showed off her voice brilliantly. In there were five of her own songs including You Got Me, 22, So Long and a cover of the Cranberries song Zombie which worked really well at both being identifiable yet fresh which is always the key to a good cover (in my opinion).

Thea also announced towards the end of the set that she'll hopefully be releasing the song Cat & Mouse as a free digital download single next week, which will mean you can all enjoy a bit of Thea's music for free although that shouldn't discourage you from going out to see her and buy her album (Monkey To The West).

I've added videos of the entire set onto YouTube so if you check out my channel you'll see what Thea's all about, go check out her MySpace page too, and show her some love!

Time to go and add some more videos on YouTube from Tuesday night...stay tuned folks, I'll be back with more pretty soon :-)

Bye for now x

The kid in the sweet shop....

Today I am like that. I have seen some truly amazing music over the past 2 days and right now I have so many things I want to blog about and I just don't know where to begin.

I have so much to say right now and so much to write about that if I sat down and did nothing but blogs till tomorrow morning I'd probably have loads to write about, in fact I am utterly convinced I could write an entire months worth of blogs in one night.

But like the little tease I am and because I have about 30 videos to encode and put on youtube (which will take forever to do), I'm going to blog sporadically over the next few days spreading out all the things I want to talk about so you can take it all in, enjoy, research and hopefully have your mind blown in the way mine has been...

And just to whet the appetite a little...

http://mrrichmuk.blogspot.com/2009/08/never-leave-home-without.html

This incomplete circle has now been completed and let's just say, something was way way way better than I remembered or thought possible...

Back to bouncing off the walls....stay tuned folks...IT IS GOING TO BE MEGA!!!!

Reporting from the field...

Ahhhhh the sweet smell (no wait that's impossible)...sound of live music. Man I've missed it so much. I actually didn't realise quite how much. The other night I popped over to the brilliant Monkey Chews for an open mic night and wasn't disappointed.

There were a few acts that were kind of indifferent, ok but not memorable and then there were three that stood out above the rest.

The first two were guys playing solo sets but part of bands "Bronze Medalists" and "Tourist". Now I think myself a good judge of music...to the point my senses are so refined I can tell the talent of a musician 85% of the time without hearing them play...I was proved right with both of these two although I wished I'd got a video of the first song sung by the guy from Bronze Medalists because it was just awesome. I followed instinct with Adam from Tourist and was proven right hence why I captured two videos.

Why only two you ask. Well that's all each act got, which I guess was the only disappointment of the night.

Finally there was a two-piece band, a guy with a keyboard and one with a bass guitar who played two songs when we weren't in view. I have not a clue what their name was BUT they too were absolutely awesome and I regret not being able to share who they are/were at this current time...but I will endeavour to find out and report back.

So in the meantime check out the new videos in the side bar and let me know if you like.

See ya! x