Oh Aud-l-em The Reads Live

Well this was a day of firsts. First time we'd been to Audlem, never mind the Audlem Music Festival, first time my daughter had been to a music festival and first time I was going to see The Reads play live. 'Stories from the Border' had quickly become one of my favourite albums of the last 12 months after it had been recommended by Clive Summers ( @CliveSummers ) on twitter. The music was a mix of contemporary sounds like Snow Patrol, Athlete or Elbow fused with some Pink Floydesque haunting melodies and a soft northern accent to the vocals.

We pulled into the pretty village of Audlem at about 3pm The Reads were listed as being on at The Bridge Inn at 4pm so plenty of time to wander and find the venue. The sun was beating down as we walked through the center, you could here music coming from alleys, shops and the volume increased as we passed The Lord Combermere pub on the corner. We paused briefly to take in the bluesy sounds being watched from the front of the Church then carried on to The Bridge Inn.

The stage was setup around the back of the pub on the car park. Once I'd fought my way to the bar and got the drinks in we checked out the remaining songs of a covers band Gambler who were doing a great job of the U2 classic 'Where The Streets Have No Name'. We found a shaded spot under the canopy (so we didn't get sunburn rather than trying to avoid rain another first) and waited for The Reads.....

Now I have to say that normally when I've seen bands at these smaller festivals or carnival type events the sound is crap but hats off to the event organiser. There was a proper sound desk and sound engineer and when The Reads had finished directing him to get their levels the sound was great. It really struck home when they broke into Galaxy Egg with the harmonica sounds that I thought might get a bit lost in this sort of a performance. Even with the distractions of dogs, wasps  and kids I was enjoying the mellow sounds that really suited the warm Sunday afternoon. The thing that struck me most was that the band actually looked like they were having a laugh even if the audience didn't seem to be in on it at times as Stu Bennett described himself as looking like Wordy because you couldn't see his legs from the audience( I cracked up but the rest of the audience including my daughter seemed to be saying Who? which made it even funnier to me :]). The banter did seem to be breaking down the barriers though as Stu announced their return from a massive US tour while Clare shook her head in the background putting the audience in the know, he then followed this up by introducing the next song as their last US number one ;] It was all very funny to watch and he seemed to be enjoying that some of the people were going with it. The high point came for me as they played my favourite song off the album 'Nothing Bound' it really is a superb sound and deserves to be enjoyed on a warm chilled out day. As the set progressed the audience grew as did the audiences connection with the songs which was confirmed as they called for an encore after the announced final song Aud-l-em (Avalon). This seemed to throw them a bit but they finished on the wonderful Good Omens to a standing ovation (To be fair there were no seats so I might be milking that a bit).

The only thing missing from this performance was that I think Stu Bennett forgot to thank Ian ;]

Having seen The Reads live I wouldn't hesitate to go and see them again and I suggest you go check out the wonderful Stories from the Border.

If you want to find out more about The Reads and how their 2nd album is progressing here's a few links
https://www.facebook.com/The.Reads.Music#!/The.Reads.Music

http://www.pledgemusic.com/artists/the-reads

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/stories-from-the-border/id424042436

http://thereads.tumblr.com/


Just as a final note we really enjoyed the time we spent at The Audlem festival and we'll definitely be back to check out more music next year......

Kishi Bashi at Trof Fallowfield

Well I have to confess while I was looking forward to seeing the mastery of Kishi Bashi live I had dubious feelings about the venue which was not in the Center of Manchester but in the student area of Fallowfield. Pictures of noisy uninterested people talking over the music were filling my head. My thoughts were not eased as we parked up in front of a row of dank looking terraced housing with what looked like filthy sheets limply hung over the windows blocking out the remaining daylight.
We were  a 100yds or so from the venue Trof which the sign outside told us was an eating and drinking palace. We hovered at the door discussing whether to eat here or try and find somewhere else. The decision was made we were going in...

Inside was like walking through a curtain. Don't get me wrong it wasn't like walking into a salubrious restaurant but you could immediately feel the atmosphere lighten from the dingy street. This was all helped by a relaxed warm greeting from the staff behind the bar. I know this might sound counter intuitive but the place had a relaxed buzz about it, even though we could see we were by far the oldest in there we just felt chilled straight away. Alright I know this was supposed to be about the music but I just thought I should set the record straight with myself if no one else that my prejudices were totally unfounded(as most prejudices are). We had a very tasty meal and some good beer to set us up for the musical aperitif.



Once we saw a few people heading upstairs to the music venue we tentatively followed. My first impressions were that we'd been invited around to someones flat and the furniture hadn't arrived yet. It was smaller than I'd expected it had a bar on one wall and on the windowed side there was a sound desk at one end with a corner stage at the other. More friendly chatting to the bar staff and Chris the sound engineer was the lead in to the support act Francis Lung, who did a fine job of unsettling some of the young fellas at the front of the audience as he wandered off the stage and into the midst of them.

By now I was really starting to enjoy this venue the intimacy and relaxed vibe was great. Throughout the support Kishi Bashi (or K Ishibashi) had been sat at the back just behind the sound desk like he was just keeping an eye on this house party he'd thrown. One young fella walked over and pulled a violin out of a bag for Kishi Bashi to sign and he smilingly obliged I was really enjoying this vibe.

Soon enough he had moved from the back to the stage and showing some thought for his standing crowd invited people that could not see to move to places at the front obviously aware that people are just as interested to see the magic as well as hear it. From the first stroke of his violin I could feel the reflex action of a smile across my face. My ears channelling sonic bliss straight in allowed muscles to relax and mundane thoughts of everyday life to disappear while I just focused on that little corner of the room. At times you could see him hopping like a cat on hot coals as his feet worked feverishly pressing the next pedal to help build the soundscape he was creating and all the while everyone in the room was transfixed on him. It was amazing to watch as he moved from a violin run to beatboxing to singing. The set list went through quite a few of the songs on the 151a album as well as a few others I'd not heard before but thankfully included my favourite track Manchester. The night was over all too soon with the wonderful Bright Whites bringing one of my favourite music filled nights to an end.

I can honestly say I have never seen someone so talented entertain so few but I'm so glad my first experience of seeing Kishi Bashi live was at Trof Fallowfield because it really added something to the whole feel of the night. I do think the Lowry should beg Kishi Bashi to grace their venue though so his performance can be fully appreciated and he can reap the rewards of his amazing talent.

Not sure if you can tell from this but I and my wife had a fantastic night all made possible by a little gem of a venue with a great crowd a cool sound engineer by the name of Chris and not least an amazingly talented Kishi Bashi.......



For all things Kishi Bashi here's where to go
 http://www.kishibashi.com/

To check out the Eating and Drinking palace that is Trof Fallowfield and it's staff
http://www.troffallowfield.co.uk/