Future Of The Left

Monday 30th November 2009, Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

'Where is everybody?' shouts an excitable Future of the Left fan three songs into their set, noticeably unimpressed with the show's devastatingly low turnout.

This random outburst thrown from the crowd reassuringly broke the ice of what began as an intensely wooden atmosphere.

From that moment on the comedic banter, for which FOTL are renowned for, was able to flow freely until mocking rowdy audience members (and drummer Jack Egglestone – a fan of Pompey FC) became almost mandatory between songs.

“We're here”, shouts another fanatic, “So are we” replies Andy Faulkous, (keyboard/guitar) “we travelled further than you, all the way from Oxford.”

Formed from the ashes of previous cult bands McClusky and Jarcrew, Future of the Left's quick wit transfers into eccentric, seamlessly overlapping lyrical chants about wizards, elves, sausages and pussycats, serving to soften their often biting satirical narratives, all spat out fiercely by front-men Kelson Mathias and Andy Falkous.

Beneath the light-hearted references, odd song titles and bouts of synthetic keyboard noise lie incendiary guitar bursts, driven by heavy, pounding bass riffs. This is true of their latest offering You Need Satan More Than He Needs You, from the album Travels With Myself and Another, which is made all the less sinister by it's comedic performance.

This dynamic Cardiff trio deserve to be heard.

http://www.futureoftheleft.com

Photo by Ben Walker, http://www.flickr.com/photos/liveandloud/

Hundred Reasons

Thursday 12th November, Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Touring isn't something Hundred Reasons do a lot of these days and despite dwindling numbers, the group took to the Wedgewood Rooms stage as if they never left the scene.

The band celebrated their return by ploughing through old school material, noticeably evoking some intense emotions amongst the crowd, as lead singer, Colin Doran, explains, this is the band's tenth year performing together.

Doran exemplified his strong vocal capability as he belted out tracks from the band's back catalogue, with hard-hitting rock riffs from Kill Your Own interspersed with the epic sing-a-longs Silver and If I Could echoing the days of their debut album; Ideas Above Our Station.

A new release isn't expected from the Surrey-based 5-piece any time soon, and given their unfortunate luck with record labels in the past, it is perhaps not surprising. However, this tour brought with it the fourth rendition of the band's 'Singles club', a long-running tradition whereby new tracks are available in a split-EP format, alongside their energetic tour support; Scholars and Canterbury.

Longevity is key in the music industry and rumour has it Hundred Reasons are taking their time over new material, which is set to be 'worth the wait'.


View on The News website

BBC Blast on Tour 2009

I am currently working voluntarily on two BBC Blast Tour events in Brighton and on the IOW.

Blast offers creative, exciting and free workshops for 13 - 19 year olds across the UK.

My first stop is Brighton...to teach young people how to create a short film! I will upload a review, pics and content when the placement is complete!

In the mean time, check out the Blast website and the IOW e-flyer below to find out more:

Working with the Student Radio Association

I Love Student Radio Campaign

The I Love Student Radio campaign aims to promote the activities of student radio across the UK, highlighting the variety, diversity and quality of what is surely one of the most vibrant and interesting sectors of the UK media landscape.

I was involved in organising and promoting the launch event in London on October 21st at Westminister University and got the chance to mingle with industry professionals; including interviewing Radio 1's Greg James and David Garrido.

To find out more about the project go to the I Love Student Radio website - my interviews will be up on the site shortly!

Interviewing David Garrido - picture by Barry Carlyon

Filming at Glade Festival!

Southampton Solent University students were given the exciting opportunity to be a part of Glade, the electronic dance music festival for the third year running. The festival, a spin off from the larger Glastonbury festival, has been attracting an eclectic mix of open minded individuals since it first blasted out its electro beats four years ago.


After working for the festival in 2007 as part of the Solent Glade programme sellers, I managed to make it onto the backstage media crew, as a roaming reporter. I interviewed festival organisers, bands and DJs (including; Dreadzone, The Orb & SubGiant) and punters to find out what Glade is all about, as well as practice my video skills by filming live on the Main Stage.

The footage was used by the Glade artists and uploaded to the Solent University website.

To read more about the project click here. To view the highlight footage click here.

View the slideshow from Glade 2007.

Reporting from Glastonbury festival!

In 2008 I was part of the documentary team, reporting from across the site to create a feature about the festival's Green Issues.

You can view the video on the Solent University 'Gogglebox'

About the project:

The Solent at Glastonbury experience was organised by Southampton Solent University's very own Glastonbury veteran Dave Poulton. Students from the Faculty of Technology's Media Technology course and from the Faculty of Media Arts and Society's Film and Television Production course supplied coverage of the Dance East stage whose line up included Roisin Murphy and Fat Boy Slim.

The students created highlight packages for major news agencies including Reuters, Associated Press and ITV.

As well as covering Dance East a documentary team, commissioned by the festival, created 6 short documentaries on green issues surrounding the festival, including one on the Jazz of the World Stage and the Dance Village. A documentary on ecology was also filmed.

The festival, who work closely with environmental charities such as Greenpeace and WaterAid, saw the green police out on the beat once again.

The documentary team, led by Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Production Tony Steyger, used the latest HD cameras.

Read more on the Solent website

Ad-Hoc Music Reviews...featuring Jay-Z.

Jay Z - Run This Town

I'll admit that I am not a huge rap/urban music fan but I like to think that I can appreciate a good song when I hear it and let's face it, most if not all of us have at one time or another danced/sung along to '99 Problems', but this? Mister Jay-Z what WERE you thinking?

As a comeback track this is a poor effort. Rhianna's nasally vocals grate on the ears, Kanye's input goes pretty much unnoticed and Jay-Z just sounds as if he's talking about a certain American hospital drama.

It just goes to show that even a collaboration of supposedly great pop stars doesn't always produce a successful sound.

Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind

This is a prime example of how much more effective a track can be when you select the right vocalist.

Alicia Keys would beat Rhianna in a vocal match any day - why this tune wasn't chosen as the first single I have no idea. Perhaps Jay-Z just has a soft spot for working with 'hip' young artists but in my eyes Rhianna is over hyped. Alicia at least has some soul.

It's a fairly typical lyrical choice - rap about one of the most famous capitals in the world and you'll excite people. You wouldn't, possibly, get the same sense of glamour if they'd chosen to sing about Essex.