Emmy the Great

I saw her last night and she was really amazing :) She signed my copy of the album too and she nearly stole my pen


The venue was far from full but fuller than I expected seen as it was a sunday night and Stoke is like 10 years behind everyone else so I didn't think that anyone would know Emmy the Great but there was an alright crowd, which was nice :)
First on was some fella called M.S. Thomasson, he was ok, he got better as the set went on, it was meant to be Exlovers on first but they were off supporting Pete Doherty in London which was a shame cos I'd have loved to have seen them again (I saw them support pete and the pirates), they're really good.
Second were Young Husband who were actually really good and performed with Emmy during her set, I bought their EP at the end, 'The Judas Cow', I like it, their music is quite uplifting. During their set Emmy and her keyboard guy held paper plates up from the balcony which said 'emo' and stuff on, it's was rather amusing, some kind of private joke I'm guessing.







Emmy came on stage to lots of cheers and her set went something like this:

We almost had a baby
Dylan
Easter Parade
Gabriel (she caught me singing along and smiled at me, it was quite embarrasing)
First Love (I love this song a lot!)
War
Museum Island (A place in Berlin apparently)
Short Country Song (although on the set list it is abbreviated to 'short cunt' which makes me giggle)
End of the world
MIA
Lost in Austin (about getting lost at SXSW)
Absentee
We are safe (one of my favourites off the album)
Everything reminds me of you (She dedicated it to Exlovers because they weren't there)

And then when Emmy came back on stage to get her plectrum (is that even how you spell it? I really should know seen as I play guitar :S ) people thought that she was going back on stage to perform more songs so they started clapping and cheering and she was like "ermmmmmmmmm....I only came back to get my plectrum" and this crazy man behind me demanded she played more songs. She then asked whether there were any requests and everyone requested 'Canopies and grapes', one of my personal favourites which I was pretty happy about, so she ended with that :)

I'm sorry about the briefness of this (I'm tired and have french and spanish revision to do) but I think I've covered everything, this blog also probably sounds like a 2 year old has written it and is swarming with grammatical errors but have mercy on me, I've just done my Mock AS english exam!


Anyway, here are some pictures and videos: and haha my phone makes a beeping noise when it records a video and Emmy heard it and was like "What's that beeping noise?" and her guitarist just pointed right at me and said "it was her" which was yet another embarrassing moment :S I had to record them too cos I told my friend Lizzie I would because she couldn't go!





The Hypnotists son (wait a minute, this wasn't in the setlist! I can't remember when she did this, I think it might have been near the end. oh yh and sorry about the water mark, I used a free trial version thing to edit the video)



Dylan (the zooms a bit dodgey at the beginning sorry :S )




Canopies and Grapes (I apologise for my terrible background singing, I'd just drunk a can of beer and ate a bag of haribo horror mix which were actually months old, they were really hard :S not that that matters )



bisous,

Katie
xxxxx

The New Flamboyant Bella Single

is amazzzzzinnnnnnnnnnnng! It's called Abbi, listen to it here: http://www.flamboyantbella.com/

over and out,

Katie
x

Heya, sorry I haven't wrote a while here's a long one to make up for it:



Gig review- Shockwaves NME Tour b'ham
Current mood: lazy
Category: Music

I went to Birmingham last night for the NME Tour, something which I'd been looking forward to for a long time, I booked it ages ago, as soon as I saw the amazing line-up I ran into the living room to mum like -"Mum, I have to go to Birmingham on the 4th Febuary!"

First all can I say, the Birmingham Academy or the O2 academy or whatever it is called now a days is awesome, I love the oldness of it! The local venue in stoke is all metal and looks like a strip club and doesn't really have a proper bar, it's rubbish really but it's what I'm used to so I was pleasantly suprised by the authenticness of the venue, although the toilets were a bit crap cus they had no toilet roll

Anyway, firstly- Florence and the Machine!
I can't believe that she was on first really cus she's the best, words cannot describe how incredible she is. The set was exactly how I imagined it, although in a dream I had the other night there were real life trees surrounding her and expressive dancers, oh and my english teacher was there, pretty bizaare dream to be honest. There were loads of cheers when she came on with her lovely band, which I was pretty glad about, she came on wearing a absolutely gorgeous long black dress, I'd love to know where she found it, it was amazing! Her set was outstanding, the howling/wearwolfy song being a highlight (I'll find out the real name soon) her new sounds are sounding awesome, I'm uber excited for the album!! And of course the singles were wicked, as well as My Boy builds coffins and Birdsong :D In Kiss with a Fist she crowd surfed into the audience haha, I knew she'd do something crazy by the end of the set! They were all so energetic it was just insane, especially the keyboarding girl with the pretty flower in her hair. I loved every minute of it, it felt like another one of my wierd dreams. Although the wierd, dancing groping man behind me and Beth was a bit annoying!

White Lies- These were even better than I thought they were going to be, despite having seen them twice before hand, I think it was because pretty much all of the crowd knew who they were and had listened to the album (which is good by the way) so sang along and danced a lot, moshed, crowd surfed etc.
I think that apart from Unfinished buisness (ft. florence) and Death that Farewell to the Fairground was my favourite from their set simply because it's an amazing song which you can throw a fair few shapes to!
After their set we got invited for a drink by a 60 year old man (this proves just how nieve we are) and went being (almost) 17 year olds that are skint and underage. Turns out that John wasn't to bad, it was well funny, he introduced us to his friends, who were basically the the older members of the crowd all bunched together.

Friendly Fires came on just as we began drinking our pints and were busted a few moves to 'Lovesick' whilst still at the bar, the surrounding Brummys being suprisingly unjudgmental, if we'd have done the same thing in Stoke, or even worse Wolverhampton (I've been to a few gigs at the civic centre) we'd have been given evil stares, God, I love Brummys, they're so friendly and poilte! After lovesick we said goodbye to John and snaked our way through the crowd and into where everyone was dancing the most and by the time Glasvegas came on we were at the front! Friendly Fires were as good as they always are (I've seen them also twice before hand) with Ed throwing a few eccentric moves and the really good lighting, it was awesome!

After a long wait which included a girl next to us fainting and me speaking a strange language that was a mix between french and spanish (spancais?) Glasvegas finally took to the stage! They suprised me loads too cos last time I saw them I didn't think that they were amazing, but maybe that was a lack of atmostphere. So yes, they were pretty amazing and everyone sung and danced along, apart from 'the ice cream van' which I just really don't get, it's their only boring song which is slow and goes on forever! When they went off stage, instead f chanting 'we want more' the crowd started chanting to the lyrics to 'Go square go' (one of their best songs in the set), so Glasvegas came back onstage to "here we, here we, here we fucking go" There was a lovely solo moment by James and then they finished up with "Daddy's Gone" which always goes down a storm as their last song! The audience seemed to go away in very high spirits agan chanting the lyrics to 'Go Square Go.' I bought a Florence T shirt for £15, (I tried to barter with him, but he was having none of it, so I had to borrow money off Beth) it was the last black one. And they I went home because we had to shoot straight off because of the hour car journey, I was gutted I didn't get to meet Florence of Ed :( I think it was still by far the best gig that I've ever been to! It most certainly had the best line-up that I've ever seen!

Videos which I took-
Florence and the Machine- My boy builds coffins, I'm sorry that it not very zoomed in on this one it was the first time that I wanted to use the zoom button on my new phone, so I was a tad confused! But the others are better!



Girl with one eye- I love this video!



Birdsong- sorry zoom on the beggining bit is funny, I was still trying to work it out, I did in the end so it's worth watching



Glasvegas- Daddy's Gone- Amazing Finale



Check out the Photos of Florence and the Machine and Friendly Fires which I took:

Other stuff

I didn't want to put it the other blog and make it even longer!! haha so, other gigs I've been to apart from Flambo=

Underground Heroes- Suprisingly good, they sound so average on their recordings put they're really good live!

Pete and the Pirates- Put on a good show, just a shame that there wasn't much of a crowd, Exlovers and Paper Heroes were the support acts, they were really, good, especially Exlovers!


White Lies- Always put on a good show, this time was no exception, I had a nice little dance :)


What I'm listening to a lot at the moment: Flamboyant Bella obv's, Florence and the Machine (buy dog days are over now on itunes!!), Animal Kingdom myspace them :) ), Pulp, The Cure, Ladyhawke, Santogold, Emmy the Great, Big and Rich (I love the song 'Rollin' featuring Cowboy Troy lol), Regina Spektor


Have a lovely week! I'll try and write sooner next time!

Katie
xxxxx

I had to do a review for my performing arts c/wk

so I thought I'd share it with you :)

Be the reviewer coursework- Flamboyant Bella 5/12/08


Before Friday night, I hadn’t been to a Flamboyant Bella gig since 14th February because I was in Africa last time they played Stoke, therefore this gig was greatly anticipated, I bought my ticket way back in September! Last time was amazing and Flamboyant Bella are and probably always will be my favourite band of all time, yet, they are still unsigned, it’s crazy! They’ve self re-leased 2 EP’s and a single, I own all of these. There was a fairly big crowd, even as early as 7.30pm when we walked in, as the support band’s had managed to gather a lot of support, I’d have said that the gig would have been quite close to being a sell out. The support bands preformed well and got everyone in exactly the right frame of mind for the headliners, this was something which the Sugarmill made a mistake on last time we saw Flamboyant Bella as the support bands were shockingly awful, I can remember even sitting on the stage with my back to them and not even caring that it was a rude thing to do, I cared more about my aching feet! It was great because a lot of the crowd (including me) knew the second support band so there was a very friendly and supportive atmosphere and people started to mosh and dance.

The stage isn’t set out particularly special because Flamboyant Bella are not the kind of band that would feel they need to make the stage look different or to use a load of smoke machines or lighting effects and put up flashy banners, alls there is that give away a clue as to who the headline band are is Doreen (the drummer, no-one knows his real name)’s drum kit that have the letters ‘FB’ taped onto them and last time we saw them thy had a few balloons with the bands name on them and the lyric ‘giving you full satisfaction.’ The band walk on not long after the support bands finished (they don’t like to keep their fans waiting) to huge screams from fans, of which they have many, most of them between the ages of 14 and 21 because that’s their targeted audience. They kick things off with lots and lots of snyth and then burst into their first single, Touch (which was released on the 4th August this year). The crowd sing and dance along as they all know the song because it’s up on their myspace profile. This song has a lovely bright keyboard riff, an electro- poppy drum beat and a distinctive bass line. It’s a fierce song of teenage lust which nobody couldn’t resist dancing to. Throughout the set they do a few new songs that nobody at all is familiar with but people still move to them simply because Flamboyant Bella, with help of the support bands have created an hyperactive atmosphere that people just completely lose themselves and their inhibitions in. They manage to do this even with hangovers from the night before, Flo (the singer and guitarist) explains and they just seem to completely forget that they have hangover, Flamboyant Bella are just so in love with their fans, something which I do think is a very important quality to have as band as I’ve seem some good bands before but when I’ve met them, they’ve been miserable and it just really puts you off them, to maintain the love you have to be good to your fans and treat them well. Flamboyant Bella classics are sandwiched in between their new material and the crowd go insane, from the down beat and beautiful song, ‘Love has got me Stoned’ (which James told me he wrote when he was about 12 or 13!) to the snythy riffs of ‘Absolutely Wankered’ and ‘Crazy Cool’. The crowd are surfing, dancing, moshing and glow-sticks a-go-go, Flamboyant Bella are very, very successful in creating mass hysteria, which in my opinion is what makes a good performance. Flo’s beautiful high-pitched voiced harmonises well with James’s, the guitar riffs featured in the more guitar-based songs like ‘Sexy Beast’ and ‘My Skies’ are kept simple but effective and most of their songs are in major keys which are good in keeping the fans on a high, apart from ‘Love has Got me Stoned’ when Flo always explains to the fans before hands in her Hitchin accent that they’re “gonna take it down a notch now.”

Here are the chords to the ‘My skies’ introduction:

D add9 , A sus4 x4

The guitarist, just changes between this chords using a simple but catchy strumming pattern.

I don’t quite know where Flamboyant Bella musically get their inspiration from as they’re like nothing you’ve ever heard before, but I think their lyrics are in some ways possibly influenced by punk rock as they’re very rebellious and seem to be deliberately rebellious as if they set out to offend older people like teachers and parents. Their lyrics portray typical rebellious teenage acts such as mass alcohol consumption, sex, smoking and herbal high’s. From the lyrics we just get the impression that Flamboyant Bella are just out to enjoy themselves and that’s all that matters to them really, we see this in their song ‘Second, minute, hour’:

“Fags, beer and herbal high’s, just an aid to enjoy my life, gonna live now before I die, cos we’re a long time, dead.”

This song always goes down a storm and has become a ‘Flamboyant Bella anthem,’ the crowd yell back the lyrics at them, and to me, it’s a song which I find is so honest and makes a lot of sense, although I’m sure an uptight person would probably disagree.

‘Absolutely Wankered’ is a very, snythy, upbeat song about getting really drunk (the clue’s in the title), a song which I think that most teenagers can really relate to because they’ve been in similar situations themselves. It’s the final song which the band play and they chose it wisely as it’s the song which everyone just loses their minds to and it’s a clear favourite, although it isn’t mine, it’s ‘Get a reaction’ but unfortunately they couldn’t play it at the gig because it’s hard song to sing because it’s so quick but powerful also and Flo was only just recovering from a chest infection. The song ends in an array of screams and shouts for more and the band come out to meet their many fans almost straight after coming off stage, their fans just love them really for their kindness, hyper activeness (they dance around a bit on stage), honesty and rebellious appeal. They certainly attract their target audience. At the ages of 18, apart from Mitch, who’s 16, they seem to be living the life that any teenager would be jealous of and it won’t be long now before all of the teenagers in Britain are fans.










I'm seeing the kooks, mystery jets and kid harpoon tonight woop! :D I'll review probs when i get round to it:)

Katie
x

Dog Days

It's the new Florence and the Machine single and it's wicked! Here's th video, it's out on the 1st December!

Sorry it's been a while (ish)

So, I've been a pretty busy bee with all of my various jobs, college work and going to gigs and party etc.

So, I think the last gig which I went to was The King Blues + The Skints because I did merchandise for the King Blues. First of all I feel I should mention how bloody good The Skints were! They took you into a strange reggae/ska zone which is difficult to get out of (if you ever wanted to, I know I loved being in their little world), they were quite mesmerising all of them seemed to be charasmatic beings. There was a bizaare mix of people at the gig from older people, to skaters, to scensters, to indie kids but everyone seemed to really enjoy The Skints and admire their work. Despite the King Blues appearing to be a little miserable (apart from a couple of them) all night once they were on stage they let out a suprising amount of energy and put on a great show! I'd never been to a Ska gig before and was a little confused as to what to do with myself really but this was a nice experience for my first ska gig! www.myspace.com/theskints wwww.myspace.com/thekingblues

What I'm Listening to at the moment

A girl called Bella Spinks, I'm listening to her myspace player right now actually! She's a very talented young lady from Brighton, it's very heart-felt music which warms your own heart when you need it to be warmed up most in these cold, depressing months. This girls definatley worth a listen if you're a fan of: Emmy the Great, Regina Spektor, Guillemots jack Penate or Kate Nash, or even if you aren't a fan of these, still listen you maybe suprised!
www.myspace.com/bellamayspinks

Bon Iver- I've read that his debut album was written in a shed in a forest, in the middle of no-where where he lived alone,that's enough for me to like him, I respect this as I wouldn't last a day in that situation! His music's lovely and yes, yet again very wintery, I keep listening to beautiful winter music now that it's gone all cold and dark, it relaxes me. It's very raw, acousticy/folkey stuff and it's lovely. 'Skinny Love' is just genius!
www.myspace.com/boniver

Alessi's Ark- She's currently on tour with Peggy Sue again warm folk music, hard to believe it's came from an 18 year-old girl from London, you'd think it had came more from a canadian woman who lives in a remote forest. Alessi's music beckons you into a whole new world and it's wonderful.

www.myspace.com/alessisark

Slow Club- I absolutely love them, their EP is on my Christmas List and I'm looking forward to getting it, I almost decided the other day that I couldn't wait another 8 weeks for it and nearly bought it but managed to stop myself! They're a bit like Tilly and the Wall apart from there are only two of them! They're on moshi moshi also, which let's face it, is there anyone's who's on that label that isn't talented?

www.myspace.com/slowclub

And finally, please download 'Long live the queen' by Frank Turner because:

a) it's a beautiful song
and b) the fund go towards a cancer charity thankyou :)

Here's the video, you get the idea, I hope it doesn't make you cry, it's a sad song:


I'm off to some fireworks toight, waaay! :)

Katie
x