Thursday 16 August 2012

Got into Leeds College of Music!

After all that doubt of wether i'd get in or not.. I'M IN! I'm going to University.. stress!

Got into Leeds College of Music!

After all that doubt of wether i'd get in or not.. I'M IN! I'm going to University.. stress!

Saturday 11 August 2012

Proud of myself!

This week I've actually got something done music-wise! Got the basic backing for a reggae track made, and I've started a cover of Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds! Got no idea where its gonna go, got nothing in mind but I'll just see what happens!


Monday 6 August 2012

Sheftival 2012: Saturday 4th August

Words cannot describe how excited I was when I was told about Sheftival. I'd never heard anything about it, then my mate said 'oi raven, Toots and the Maytals are playing sheffield in a couple of weeks'. I couldn't believe it! Toots is a bloody legend, he is credited with inventing the word Reggae in the song Do The Reggay, he's one of the pioneers of reggae. To find out he's playing not far from me for only a tenner, was amazing! Couldn't miss it. There was loooads of people on the line-up, but I only went for Toots, and The Selecter.

I was very hungover from the night before - this was the day after the Skints, and I only ended up getting a couple of hours sleep anyway - so i almost, almost considered not going. But, I put Toots + the Maytals on the stereo, and it gave me the strength to power through my hangover and get the bus into town. I met Max and Alex, and we got the best hangover cure there is:


More Beer. Which quite frankly made me feel extremely ill, along with the train shaking about. But I just about managed 2 or 3. Anyway, we arrived at Don Valley Bowl where the festival was, about 6 o clock. It was the first time i'd been to DVB since the Arctic Monkeys homecoming gig last year (which was probably the best gig of my life).

It was weird seeing The Selecter. I saw them when I was about 3 years old, and it's probably my earliest memory. I remember being held by my mum whilst they were on stage - I don't remember the music, I just remember it being them. So to see them live nearly 15 years later was pretty weird! They managed to get the crowd going pretty well - lots of old Skinheads were skanking! A couple of people were definitely off their head aswell, haha. Their set was only short, 40 minutes at the most, but It was good. James Bond was probably the highlight of the set, along with On My Radio and Too Much Pressure.

After their set, we made it over to the Juju World Music stage. Macka B was on the stage, someone i'd never heard of, but was pretty good. He sang a song about what food he liked to eat, which was bizarre but pretty funny. There was a pretty long wait between Macka B and Toots, so we sat down for a bit and chilled. When he finally came on.. it was so so so so so good. He opened with Pressure Drop, which is a beautiful song!! One of my favourite Reggae songs ever. His set included the classics Monkey Man (famously covered by the Specials), 54-46 Was My Number, Louie Louie, Funky Kingston and many more. It was a great set and i'm so happy I can now say I've seen both The Wailers and Toots + The Maytals live. Arguably the 2 biggest reggae artists ever!





Sunday 5 August 2012

Friday 3rd August: The Skints @ The Leopard

This Friday was great. I got to see one of my favourite bands perform, which is always good. But they actually performed in my home town of Doncaster, which made it even more special. Doncaster rarely sees any big names play here - you could probably count the well known bands that have played here in the past few years on one hand. I've seen The Prodigy here, and Dizzee Rascal, and I think Plan B has played. But none of them were as good as this.

We started the day the same way most of my days out start - alcohol. 20 pack of Fosters, sat in the sun, listening to Reggae - it was good :)


After this we went straight to the venue, and just sat around chatting with people, having a couple of pints. It was fun, although i am having trouble piecing together exactly what happened, because I was pretty drunk. Anyway about half 7, 8, we went upstairs for the bands. This was my first time at The Leopard, which has been around for longer than I have I think. The upstairs part where the bands perform is tiny! But I loved it.. it was such a good atmosphere! The first band that were on are called The Beaus. They're a local band, i'd heard the name but never listened to them. But i'm definitely a fan, their set was pretty enjoyable and i've listened to a couple of their songs since and they're good.



Whilst we were watching these, Marcia and Jonathan from The Skints came out and watched them! I went over and got a photo with them, talked to them for a bit and then they left.


The Skints came on about half 9, and their set was amazing. Being so close to one of my favourite bands while they played live was just incredible! They played all their best songs (apart from Live East Die Young :( thats my favourite), including Roanna's Song, Rise Up, Culture Vulture, and Rubadub. They also played brilliant cover of Bob Marley + The Wailers classic Stir It Up. And, I think they filmed something there, part of a video or something. It was a great gig - they sound brilliant live and I was dancing nonstop all the way through. I'm jealous of their talent!





Afterwards, we hung around outside the back of the venue and just chilled, talked to a few people. Then we saw Jamie Kyriakides, the drummer, just chilling with his girlfriend! So we went over and had a chat - he was one of the nicest guys i've ever met!


We also got chatting to the guys from the Beaus, who were pretty sound, and they gave me a free t-shirt, woo. Me and my cousin Aiden decided to let ourselves backstage, which looking back probably was a bit out of order and I wouldn't have done If i was sober. But, it ended up in us meeting the guys and chatting with them for quite a while! We got a photo with them, but Aiden's camera was pretty blurry, so The Skints' photographer guy took one on his posh camera, and has said he'll email it to me! :D top bloke haha. All in all it was an amazing day, and I will definitely be buying tickets to see them again! They're playing Leeds Festival, so I'll see them there. And they're playing Leeds Cockpit in october - I should be going to University there hopefully, so i'll probably go to that too. I would definitely recommend their live gigs - it was bloody brilliant!


Wednesday 1 August 2012

The Skints are my NEW FAVOURITE BAND!




On Friday Night, I go and see one of my favourite bands The Skints, then on Saturday i'm going to Sheftival, to see legendary reggae band Toots and the Maytals, and iconic ska band The Selecter. I'm too excited! Tramlines proved to me that the best day out is just one with music, your mates, and beer. That was one of my top days of the summer holidays, so i'm hoping this weekend will be just as good. I'll probably end up posting about the weekend on Sunday, or Monday if i'm hungover.

The Skints are a great band. Marcia Richards, Jonathan Doyle, Joshua Waters Rudge and Jamie Kyriakides are 4 insanely talented people. If you see their live show, Marcia can be switching between Keyboard, Saxophone + Vocals all in one song. They play Reggae/Dub/Ska music, and also a bit of Punk on their first album and first EP. They're just so cool and write so many catchy songs, if you're into reggae at all then I'm pretty sure you'll like them. One of me favourites from the new album is 'Live East Die Young' which is mainly Joshua on the vocals, but it's very catchy and very lively and i'm praying they play it live so i can skank out a bit. Having said that though, there isn't a bad song on the album - 'Ratatat', 'Ring Ring', 'Rubadub', 'Lay You Down' and new single 'Rise Up' are all amazing songs. I definitely recommend it to lovers of the genre.

Here's the new single - make sure you show it to your mates, its a tune :)



..aaaaaand here's a live performance of theirs, a cover of Stop That Train by Keith and Tex - just shows what a talented bunch they are. Check out that harmony:




Link to buy the album.. think the previews alone are enough to tempt you to buy it. http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/part-parcel/id501957297

http://www.theskints.co.uk/

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