Oh The Arrogance Of Youth

Above, The Early Cartographers - the highlight of the week- professional, lovely and a full on musical treat. We all bought their CD after and so should you....

https://www.facebook.com/earlycartographers/app_178091127385

I've had a ball this last year working in music photography. It's reopened my eyes to the world of live music which had pretty much fallen out of my life.

I love what I do and on the whole I love the people and the Musicians I meet. bands and artists are very often driven, hard working and deserve far more respect and pay than they get.

Sadly, in amongst these gems of people you get the chaff and by chaff I'm talking about younger musicians, more often male but not exclusively male, who have had some early success and a result their heads have doubled in size and suddenly the normal rules of social interaction don't seem to be for them anymore, instead they teeter on arrogant, self interested and rude.

This week I have had the misfortune to see this up close. Disappointingly a band we had a on a few weeks ago and more specifically a member of this band has shown themselves in this light....this was coupled with another run in from an artist from a separate, recent In Session live who exhibited all the same misfortunate symptoms of the arrogance of youth and this has, for some inexplicable reason, put a downer on my week. Odd.

I shall just feel blessed that I have met far more great, talented, kind artists than nasty ones and I need to accept that meeting the other types of people is just an occupational hazard.

There is nothing to be gained from bitching and this is why I leave things here. I've had my rant and I hope these boys get a reality check soon and sober up.

I have to stress that I am two weeks behind with the blog and my disappointment does not necessarily pertain to anyone in this blog or the next....and I shall reassure you that The Early Cartographers from this blog were a dream! We fell for them big time at In Session Live. They were our highlight as we'd not had them on before unlike Matt Longden and The Young Peculiar.

Matt Longden

 

Early Cartographers

 

The Young Peculiar

A fab band who always perform, bring a crowd and are lovely.

Dimonds and Toads the toast of the evenin.

So it is March and having had some really fantastic In Session Live evenings the pressure is really on to make sure our last month matches up.

I think I have enjoyed all the evenings we've put on and since I've been booking the acts I do feel more pressure that a good evening is had by all but also more pleasure when it goes really well.

You also may have noticed a few special evenings which we and I have harped on about for ages after which included:

The 18th of Nov An evening Curated by Steve 'Papa' Edwards.

The 16th of Dec- UNICEF Fundraiser In Session Live

The 20th of Jan: Vince Freeman, The Folk Remedy, Screaming Maldini

The 27th of Jan with the 48ks

and

The 17th of Feb with In Session Live favourites, The Van Susans


Well last week is going to have to be added to the list and that is thanks to an awesome mix of Dimond Ranks, Brad Dear and The Natterjacks.






Without any doubt the headliners, The Natterjacks were kings for the evening. Both the other bands loved them too. The whole of the Forum was totally into them clapping along and even dancing at the end which is, until then, unheard of at In Session Live.

Dimond Ranks were first on. 

I adore this band and their catchy upbeat tunes. Sinead, the lead singer has the voice of an Angel: sexy, strong and tuneful. I love their Eccy road ballad and I'd recommend them to anyone who hasn't had the chance to see them live. They are also lovely.

On this occasion I wasn't responsible for booking our middle band, Brad Dear and i'd not heard of them.

It was Sam, the boss who knew about them. They came all the way from Nottingham and were punctual giving a great performance. However, I feel they were kind of eclipsed but the other two bands, just slightly, on this eve.

Because of this I'd like to see them again so I can really take in their music.

 

Ok, our icing on the cake with cherry and sprinkles this evening were The Natterjacks all the way from Chester.

My god we LOVE THEM. Everyone loved them.

They have music in their souls and I need to post you a link to them playing so you can have a listen and maybe get an idea how our evening felt:

http://www.thenatterjacksofficial.co.uk/#/music/4566496443

This night was a top evening loved by us and the bands that came too. Win Win and here's to more wins as we see out In Session live in the month of March.

Music Teddybears, a Cool Cat, and our Van Halen Puppy

My Wedding photography has thrown me out on the blog front. I'm now two blogs behind. It's interesting the way I've started the last few blogs like this :) - I do feel some people are better organised than others and those people make for brilliant bloggers totally suited to the whole blogging extravaganza. Sadly, I am not one of those people. I do struggle but i still have the motivation and while I have that, you have blog my friends!

Ok, let me tell you about the In Session Live that was Matt Taylor and the Chimney Pots, Todd Dorigo and The Velcro Teddybears…..

You may be bored of me only saying good things about the artists but it's difficult not to when you really enjoy an evening. Basically, when you've booked an evening yourself, found an artist who you have high hopes for and then that actually pays off, well then shouting it from the rooftops if difficult not to do.

This is how I felt about Todd Dorigo. He was fantastic.

 

He had the look, the voice and the stage presence. You can see a bit of this from the photos but I include a video of him performing for Ont Sofa so you can hear him too and know how proud I was of myself in choosing him to come perform for us. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrZDxxsYsNs

Matt Taylor and the Chimney Potts were a whole other kind of story that I need to tell you about. I knew nothing about them, though we've had Matt himself play for us numerous times. Matt is a very talented musician and, as seems to be developing, a talented producer/manager. 

Let me set the scene- Matt comes on stage in tow with a 16yr old and a 13yr old. I'm a little uncomfortable only because I have no idea what to expect- part of me is thinking Matt has gone mad and lost all perspective.

Then they play;  Matt singing and on guitar, the 13yr old on electric guitar and the 16yr old on a drum box….. and, well, they are good. Very, very good.

……then it gets to the last song of their set and the 13yr old gets a solo moment and the room full of fashionable, cool adult men are silenced as this little guy does some guitar solo in a Slash off Guns 'n'Roses meets Hendrix moment. I wish you could have heard the applause after. 

 

That is a moment I won't forget! 

And finally our headline act were absolutely superb as we knew they would be.

The Velcro Teddybears, last year's Yorkshire Unplugged winners, bought loads of people with them and really gave our night a full on hit of fantastic music to see out that Sunday leaving me a very happy Sammi.