All over the UK, from Brighton to Cardiff, Liverpool to Edinburgh there are venues, bars, and clubs that are not just good, but the best. So The New Current is going to be showing you the best places in the UK for music.
We thought we would have a look back at some of our favourite shows and gigs that we have been lucky enough to see around Brighton and London and Jay Brown, supporting VV Brown in November last year was stunning, simply stunning! Jay Brown is not just the sister of V V Brown but a breathtaking female singer/songwriter in her own right!
Sometimes when you do this job you come across an artist that blows your mind. Standing on stage Jay Brown, who supported V. V Brown at Concorde 2 last night, doesn’t come across as the powerful singer songwriter she is, she looks too innocent and then she does sing. Holding her guitar Jay seems to embody all the greatest qualities of the best female singer/songwriters and does something more.
It’s hard to think of her as being unsigned and the recordings that are on her myspace are sweet and feel homemade and yet they only give you a very small indication of what she is like live on stage. The way Jay plays on stage is constant leaving very little time between tracks and I have only ever seen one other artist be able to do that as convincingly as Jay did and that was Springsteen at this years Glastonbury Festival. Playing her songs in quick succession and there wasn’t really the banter that you might have thought would have come from an artist at C2, but that didn’t matter much, the more she sang the more you respected and loved the sound she creates.
Her voice is strong, determined and mature way past her age. There are not enough singer songwriters who have a blues twang to their performance and this makes Jay Brown stand out tenfold! Lyrically Jay’s music moves fast and her theme seems to include love, friends, relationships, and magazines.
When she left the stage she let out a little wave and was gone. Am not sure why she ran, later on before the main show she was in the bar with three very happy fans talking away (she would later be selling t-shirts and the same three fans would be happily handing over their cash). If she had stayed I think the place would have been more the better for it.
The UK music scene has few people that have the skill, ability, and talent that Jay Brown has. I have no doubt at all in my mind that in a years time she is going to be one of the most talked about singer/songwriters of her generation and I am telling you now if you have the chance to see her live do it, go, listen, and smile safe in the fact that even with all these talent shows and manufactured tripe a real singer can emerge brilliantly.
Jay Brown has two more shows this year both in London: 23rd November ULU & 3rd December Troy Bar and January 11th 2010 she will be playing The Old Queens Head in London.
This morning, around about 5am I think, my phone started to flash which meant one of two things, either someone was in trouble or I had gotten a email. It being the latter I started to read the message from our great friends at Concorde 2 and was stunned to find that tomorrow was going to be Brighton Carnival Day 2010!
You need to be here for some great food, incredible music and some of the best carnival entertainment that the South can give you, with Roots Garden and Nations Vibrations sound system. This is going to be one hell of a day for for little over 5 hours Brighton is going to be letting out some great sounds, don’t miss this, I mean, what else can you do better than spend the day dancing, eating, playing, and singing!
There are going be two stages this year, one on Maderia Drive itself and the other inside Brighton’s iconic venue Concorde2, line up for both stages have now been confirmed as follow:
The Outside Stage – Maderia Drive
Rachel Hayward – Steel Pan “Europe’s Top Pan Woman”
Salsa Piemente – Dance Performance & Workshop
BD4U
Brighton School of Samba Refugee and Asylum Seekers Project
Art Action, Creative Industry Workshops
Hollingdean Youth Carnival Project “Expression”
Brighton School of Singing
T21
Culture Club – Dragon Puppets
Sunshine Crew
Maracatu
The Concorde 2 Stage – Inside
Sunshine Crew DJs
T21 –Dance and Dance workshop Hollingdean Youth Carnival Project “Expression” Rachel Hayward
Culture Club 15 mins Refugee and Asylum Seekers Project Salsa Piemente – Dance Performance & Workshop Brighton School of Singing & Brighton School of Samba
This is an amazing celebration of all the things that make Carnivals the best events you could ever want to take part in, but Brighton seems to have gone one further they have managed to ensure that this not only is fun but is also a local event that includes many local projects.
There is also going to be an after-party at Concorde 2 7pm-1am! What more can we say hey?
Ahh the 70s. The decade of bell-bottoms and beards. Those were the days. Not that I’d know of course, it was 20 years prior to my birth. But listening to ‘Old Fangs’ by Black Mountain, I could very well be back in time, in the age of the platform shoe.
Don’t go thinking that these Canadian psychedelic rockers are old news though. Oh no. Their mighty riffs have something to offer fans young and old. Imagine Queens Of The Stone Age jamming with Black Sabbath and you wouldn’t be far off.
‘Old Fangs’ is a track from the band’s third studio album Wilderness Heart, due to be released on 13th September, and can be downloaded for free as a little taster of things to come. It also has an incredibly trippy video which couldn’t be more suited to the song if it tried.
With a supporting slot for Coldplay under their belt and one of their tracks used on the Spiderman 3 soundtrack, it’s quite clear that Black Mountain are going places.
And after selling out two dates at the Lexington in London this month the band will be returning to the capital this Autumn for their biggest UK show to date at the Shepherds Bush Empire on October 7th, where they will supported by fellow North American’s The Black Angels.
The show will mark the end of the band’s UK tour which will feature support from Ladyhawk.
Dates are as follows:
SEPTEMBER
4th | Oxford | Academy
5th | Birmingham | Hare & Hounds 8th | Brighton | Concorde 10th | Isle of Wight | Bestival
11th | Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset | End Of The Road Festival
12th | Leeds | TJs Woodhouse Club
14th | Glasgow | Oran Mor
15th | Manchester | Academy 3
16th | Nottingham |Rescue Rooms
It has been too long since we reviewed at our second home Concorde 2 and so we thought it was high time we came back, and what better time to be back in the bossom of our greatest venue than the next few shows. Elliot Minor – playing this week 26th June, Breakestra on the 27th, Bassekou Kouyate the 1st.
These are going to be some kick arse shows and we can wait, but rather than leave it there we thought we would do a little show and tell as to why these four groups are some of the best live acts you are going to see, bar none!
These northern boys (they come from the great city of York) have made serious waves the past few years and have forged a real place for themselves in the UK music scene. Alex, Ed, Ali, Dan & Ed are busy jetting about Europe and the UK filling dates left right and centre with very little time between, that dedication mixed with their incredible style has made people take note, do not miss this show!
This show comes just a few days after the guys play this years Glastonbury and they have to be seen to be believed as nothing will come close to how perfect, beautiful, and mesmerising these guys are. As many people have commented on the past their music is the infectious kind, it slowly crawls into your head then takes over your whole body, and live these guys don’t just deliver they give a performance that will make you glad you made the trip.
This ten piece LA funk orchestra are going to do more than make you feel great they are going to show you that music, their passion, and their love of sound is very much a live and well!
Mali has produced some of the worlds greatest instrumental musicians and have become a very real centre of both traditional and modern African music. Bassekou bring his traditional sound to Concorde 2 1st July and if you have never seen or heard much African Music before then this show is going to be the bet introduction you could ever want. Bassekou will also be at this years Glastonbury Festival.
