Published Work 2011 Catherine Elliott
Contents Preview – Ben Howard Preview – Twin Atlantic Preview – Life in Film
Festival review – Lovebox Preview – The Pigeon Detectives Live review – Bombay Bicycle Club Interview – You Me at Six
News piece – screenshot News piece – screenshot News piece – screenshot Nightlife review – ‘Where you at Southampton’ (published in the print edition)
Double page spread: ‘Top 10 albums of 2012’
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
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Lovebox Festival 15th - 17th July Victoria Park, London Words: Catherine Elliott Lovebox is in its ninth year, situated in Victoria Park, East London. It boasts an eclectic mix of music, vintage boutiques, fancy dress and flamboyant artwork, but unfortunately typically English bad weather. Lovebox is known to be a creative-led event and the stages were elaborate, there were tons of bars and eating areas and plenty of things to experience. Friday gave the best weather, but the poorest line-up. The first act worth watching were the up and coming beat boxing/folk singing/incredibly likable, Ed Sheeran. Hundreds flocked to see him, alas he was given a measly 20 minute slot, and many fans left disappointed. Synth pop band Metronomy provided some comfort with their summer infused beats; their extraordinary new song ‘The Bay’ made the crowd wild. Example followed with his irritatingly cocky stage presence, but undoubtedly catchy music. Liverpool based indie rock band The Wombats headlined the day, but all in all, Friday was an anti climax, it was the only day that hadn’t sold out leaving the atmosphere quite stale. Saturday was much more exhilarating, and L.A based Foster the People kicked off the day, having been highly acclaimed by the U.K musicpress and even being named “The new MGMT”. They gave a short and sweet performance but the atmosphere was electric despite the torrential downpours that lasted the day. The bars were packed and the vibe was good, a strong contrast with Friday. Welsh trio Joy Formiddable played an incredible set, followed by indie favourite, The Drums. They played some exciting new material, but everyone had one thing on their minds: Snoop Dogg. He was to take the main stage, performing the 1993 album Doggy Style, front to back as well as other anthems. Snoop finished the day perfectly with his iconic stage presence. The Sunday at Lovebox is always themed, and this year it was “out and proud gay”. It poured, but this didn’t make any difference to the flamboyantly, fancy dressed crowd. True to herself, Beth Ditto performed in her underwear, which kept the crowd entertained, alas her music did not. Blondie followed, and of course, didn’t fail to impress, with three decades worth of amazing music to choose from, she chose brilliantly. Scissor Sisters were surely the perfect choice to headline the “out and proud gay” themed day, but the sound quality of their performance wasn’t great, and neither was their new material. However, Robyn’s euro-pop beats finished the day beautifully. Lovebox is said to have improved year on year by the critics, and is slowly becoming one of the U.K’s biggest music festivals. After this year’s event, you can expect it to become huge, it had everything you could possibly want from a city music festival.
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Preview: The Pigeon Detectives Where? Southampton University When? 20th November How much? £15.00 Words: Catherine Elliott With two top five albums and three top 20 singles under their belts, The Pigeon Detectives are finally back. They’ve supported Dirty Pretty Things and fellow Leeds based band Kaiser Chiefs, even being likened to indie giants The Cribs.
They’ve had huge support from Radio One DJ’s Steve Lemaq and Jo Whiley. “The Pigeon Detectives are actually following one of pop’s wisest rules: if it ain’t broke, don’t add a bloody string quartet.” Ian England, NME writer praised their simplicity. Wholesome indie pop is back, and bringing Southampton their trademark Yorkshire man twang.
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Live Review: Bombay Bicycle Club The Guildhall, Southampton - 16th October 2011 Words: Catherine Elliott Bombay Bicycle Club are an indie/folk/acoustic sensation from London. They’ve won the hearts of millions with their wonderfully eclectic and heart felt music. They met at school at the age of 15 and have been making beautiful music ever since. Four years, three albums and ten singles later they are now touring with their third album: A Different Kind Of Fix. After playing all the major festivals this year including Glastonbury these boys are absolutely killing it, being named by NME “The hottest band to come from London for quite some time.” There was mass hysteria at the Guildhall as excited fans queued in their hundreds. Supporting was Lucy Rosewho played a quaint yet beautiful set, even admitting that she has never played to such a big audience. Lucy, who has sung backing vocals on their second album Flaws and their new album, is currently working on her own solo career and has recently released two singles: ‘Middle of the bed’ and ‘Scar’, which have both received huge support from Radio One. Dry the River, a fleet foxes-esque band also supported. They played with such passion; alt rock meets gospel and even a violin thrown into the mix playing a hell of a set. Bombay opened with ‘Shuffle’, a single from their third album; it was received by the crowd as if it were a classic, which is impressive for a song that was released only a couple of months ago. They merged all the crowd pleasers such as the massive ‘Dust on the Ground’ and ‘Open house’, (which they haven’t played in years), alongside new album tracks which kept the crowd involved. They sailed through tracks, constantly swapping from electric to acoustic guitars. Their diversity not only kept things interesting, but was admirable, their lyrics are bottled vulnerability and innocence that just can’t be faked or manufactured, that’s why their unusual juxtapositions of musical genres works so well.
‘For The Giantess’, a track from their first album, Dry the River and Lucy Rose came out and joined them. They left the stage and the crowd started chanting in unison, B.B.C, B.B.C, everyone was stamping their feet and the building was shaking. Of course, they came out for an encore, they played ‘Flaws’, the title track from their 2ndalbum. Lead singer Jack played Piano and Lucy Rose sang with her eerie but beautifully soft voice. They finished with ‘What If’. They really throw themselves into their music and performances, and it is clear that they are honestly one of the best live acts to be seen.
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Interview & Live Review You Me at Six You Me At Six @ The Guildhall, Southampton Words: Catherine Elliott Strolling up to Southampton Guildhall at half three in the afternoon, dozens of girls were already there, donned in You Me at Six t-shirts, desperate to catch a glimpse of the band. Max told us that his girlfriend is a student here in Southampton, “Yeah I love it here, I’m here half the time because of my girlfriend, so I’m always around the Polygon, lurking with the students. We’re all really excited to play tonight, we’ve played here a couple of times and it’s always been a really good show!” They are currently on a weeklong tour around the U.K, Southampton being their fifth date, “it’s a really short tour, so it’s been crazy.” Sinners Never Sleep was released earlier this month peaking at number 3 in the UK album charts last week, it even reached number 1 in the mid week charts, “Wow it was ridiculous, for a band like us that are kind of still an underground name. It’s really cool to have an album that has got so high up in the charts! It makes me really happy to think of people looking at the chart and thinking ‘who is that’? So yeah it’s really cool and we’re all really happy.” Being their third studio album, is different from their previous albums, “It’s just a general progression, I mean we’re older, we’ve been on the road for almost 5 years, so we’re constantly evolving and having new experiences. It’s awesome because we’ve finally had the chance to just do what we wanted, and for there to already be a fan base instead of trying to win over new ones with the catchy stuff. We’ve had a lot more freedom to just do what we want, and people seem to like it so it’s worked out brilliantly!” You Me At Six were set to support Blink 182 on their European tour this year, but later cancelled which was a huge blow to the band. “We were so excited, because we as a band, being this genre of music, everyone’s heroes are Blink. We were recording in America one day and got the email, I think because their album wasn’t ready they just pulled the whole tour, so they had literally cancelled on 100, 000 people. We were gutted. Our bass player Matt had a little cry. Maybe someday in the future....”.
Max then went on to tell us what the best experience they’ve had together as a band was. “Really momentous shows we’ve done in the past like getting the chance to play Reading main stage was one of them, and we always have a good time when we’re recording. We’ll be in a random place and we can just be a band, and write, without the pressure of doing shows and interviews we can literally just chill and write music. “ We then went on to discuss inspirations and who You Me At Six admire at the moment. “Probably when I was younger my favourite band was Incubus and their guitarist Mike is a seriously big deal in my world, he’s amazing. Then there are people like Tom Morello. We’ve all just been influenced by so many different styles, me and Matt are massive metal fans, Josh likes more old school pop punk, and then there’s Dan who likes club music and rap. We all merge our influences together.” Max goes on to tell us about how the band prefers to play their new material. “It’s always nice to play new songs because although the crowd don’t really know the new ones yet. It’s refreshing for us because we’ve been touring for 5 years and we’ve played some of the songs from our first album over 600 time’s y’know so to play something new and fresh is exciting for us.” Excited for their gig, they bombed on stage, guitars in hand, swapping knowing looks with each other whilst the crowd screamed hysterically, girls even crying due to their presence. It’s funny to think that they actually aren’t some manufactured X Factor phenomenon, like One Direction, they were greeted with that level of adoration. It’s admirable as they got this big purely from their own talent. They have been touring on and off for 5 years now, and whether they’ve played their music 6 or 600 times, they play each track to the utmost perfection. They played well, focusing hard on the music, ‘Save It For The Bedroom’, ‘Liquid Confidence’ and ‘Trophy Eyes’ followed, mixing their second album with their new album smoothly, but neglecting to play many of the crowd pleasers from their debut. Their stage presence was a little disappointing; they seemed, over it. For a band that is touring with a new album that has finally had commercial success, it was quite ironic. A few years back when they were touring with their debut Take Off Your Colours, it was as if you were watching a completely different band in comparison to now. But, as Max said, they are evolving; it’s not as pop punk as it once was. There is raw human emotion in each chord they play, and in each line they sing. It is from a much deeper place. Their mighty 'Stay With Me', a song from their new album sent the doe eyed crowd into frenzy. They finished with Underdog, their recent single. But all in all, this band have moved into a less mature market, making some of us old time fans feel a little too old to be there.
Online News pieces written whilst at work experience:
Online News pieces written whilst at work experience
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I wrote this nightlife review for Mixmag whilst at work experience, the piece was published in their January 2012 issue.