On Sunday, Lucy and I went to see the gorgeous Michael Kiwanuka at the Old Firestation again. It was such a lovely concert, his support was called Jack Bugg who was good, a little Johnny Flynn but very shy! When Michael came on, the crowd was welcomed to a beaming smile from him and a guitarist with the COOLEST afro I've seen in a long time. His voice is so soulful and beautiful it almost made me forget how ill I was at the time! I love it when a singer sounds just as good or even better live than on their albums and he definitely didn't disappoint.
He played all of his hits and few I hadn't heard before but all were just so beautiful you could just relax into his voice. I particularly enjoyed the synchronised bobbing heads from the band, who all closed their eyes during instrumental parts and bobbed up and down in perfect synchronisation!
It was such a nice concert and a huge change from the DJ Fresh gig, Michael definitely appeals to the older audience so for both concerts last week I didn't fit into the normal age group!! If you're lucky enough to be going to a festival this year I think he's making the rounds so make sure you try to get down and watch him, he is truly worth a watch and a rightful winner of the BBC Sound of 2012! This was my favourite song from the night:
Last night was very good fun, we got to the Firestation about 8 which felt weird as usually I'm going there for a night out at midnight! As soon as we got in there we were surrounded by kids, I never realised how popular DJ Fresh is with the teenage community so the atmosphere was quite strange as we waited for the gig to start.
The concert was basically called Fresh Live which meant it was more than just a DJ playing their songs and having a little dance on stage. DJ Fresh was at the back playing the tunes and you had a male rapper and a female singer to do all of the vocal parts for each of his songs.
I thought I'd only know the songs that I posted here but every single song started to us screaming about how much we loved the song, DJ Fresh has done some classics I didn't even realise were his! The singers were so good and it felt so much more interesting than just dancing to the songs as you would if you were just clubbing.
All in all a very good gig, I think it would be even better to watch late at night in a festival tent as the atmosphere was a little young in Bournemouth! I'm off for a Pizza Express tonight and my lovely little sister comes down to Bournemouth on Sunday to see Michael Kiwanuka, this week has been full of gigs! Have a lovely weekend everyone!
This weekend has been a big old lesson in life, don't try to do everything all at once. The weekend ended up completely failing as I was so late to my friend's birthday party after the gig and I completely missed my train to Nottingham to see my best friend, Alice, for her 21st so I couldn't even see her on her birthday. I definitely now know that you need to say no sometimes as otherwise you'll just let people down, but apart from that the weekend was pretty fun! I met Lucy in London for the day and went shopping in all our favourite shops on Bond Street, nothing was purchased as usual though! We had another yummy meal at Henrys with some lovely cocktails and then we made our way over to Alexander Palace (which I stupidly thought was in Victoria!) all the way up in North London.
{Lucy looking all cute}
{Me with my martini}
The venue was gorgeous, a really lovely venue for such a brilliant gig. Unfortunately we missed Rae Morris which was a bit annoying, BUT we got to see Lianne La Havas! I'd heard of a couple of songs by her but I hadn't listened to it much, now I'm utterly obsessed! Her songs are just beautiful and she was so nice on stage, her voice really is incredible and I had a little tear in my eye when she sang Lost and Found which is her forthcoming single. Heres a vid of a full concert she did a while back so give it a listen!
Then Bombay Bicycle Club came on and they were just so so amazing, they made all of their songs really rocky and there was a lot of jumping and bobbing around. Jack Steadman's voice is so different and iconic that I think anyone could recognise a Bombay song from miles away. Shuffle at the end was just the cherry on top and Still was just spine tingling. HOWEVER, this concert told me a lot of things that I find very annoying at concerts, here's my little list of the annoying things people do: 1. They try to budge past you, as if they were going to keep going to find their friends, but no they decide that your view of the stage is pretty damn good so they'll stand right in front of you and take your view!! 2. Mega huge tall monster people who stand right at the front, and seem to choose the place to stand right in front of a group of short girls. I'm pretty tall but this guy who stood in front of us was MASSIVE and everyone's faces as he walked over were of pure disappointment that he had chosen here to stand. 3. Annoying girls who hear that it's their favourite song, turn to each other and scream, then for the rest of the song shout out the words to the song so loudly that they, or the people around them, can't hear the band's version of the song. 4. Couples kissing at concerts where everyone else is dancing about, Bombay isn't even romantic?! 5. People who dance like mad people right in front of you. I had a lovely case of this whom we named 'salmon boy' he danced and bobbed as if he was a salmon trying to get up a river. He was unfortunately pressed right up against me as if we were grinding and he almost knocked me out with his bobbing head, not cool. 6. People who shout and talk during a quiet song, some boys almost ruined Still for me but I stood by Jack and blocked them out. This list probably makes me sound like an old granny and I'm sure what I do at concerts annoys lots of people too, but do you agree with some of these?! Once the gig finished I made my way over to the trains to get myself over to Charlotte's 21st. Bearing in mind the party started at 7:30pm, the fact that I got there at 12:45am was just ridiculous. But we got to have a big old boogie at the end and sing Happy Birthday a few more times to Charlotte!
{The girls looking gorgeous}
{Charlotte and her date James, Rupert Grint was so rude to not come along!}
{All the boys looking smart for once!}
{Pretty good cake there}
{Me and my boys, Andy and James}
{I still managed to get in a bit of Call me Maybe dancing with Julian}
{With the birthday girl}
We went back to stay at Charlotte's house, but I unfortunately, from missing the actual party, decided to start an after party. Needless to say I don't remember the rest of the night and woke up to find I'd missed my train up to Nottingham for Alice's. I went back home to Kent with my tail between my legs and got my Mum to look after me, I don't think my head has ever hurt that much! So, overall the weekend was very good and fun, just learn from my mistake and don't try to do too much all at once as it will inevitably be a nightmare!!
Last Friday my sister and I went to Ben Howard's gig at Shepherds Bush and it was just brilliant! We had such a lovely day wandering around the shops in Covent Garden before going to one of our favourite cocktail bars called Henry's in the middle of Covent Garden for dinner. We ordered some amazing cocktails which will most definitely be made at home now! Lucy ordered a Raspberry Tatanka which had crushed raspberries, vodka, apple juice and a dash of lime so a pretty simple cocktail but it had a sour and sweet tang to it which was delish!
I had a Bianco Spritzer which was another simple cocktail with a bit of a twist from the classic G&T, it had crushed grapes, elderflower cordial, Gordon's Gin and soda with a couple of little grapes on top! Very sweet and yummy
Then we had our dinner which was really great, good portions and the prices are about £10 a main meal (we did a little cheat where you can get £5 or 20% off the bill if you sign up to their newsletter online, well worth doing!) Lucy was craving a burger so ordered a huge beef burger with extra pancetta and cheese, what a fattie!
I ordered a more refined belly of pork with potato dauphinoise, roasted vegetables and a beef gravy, it doesn't look very pretty but it definitely tasted good!
Once we'd finished stuffing our faces we hopped on a tube to Shepherds Bush where a friendly man somehow guessed we were lost and looking for Ben Howard and helped us along our way while telling us about the 'brilliant acoustics' of the venue. We were on the top tier, right at the front and had a brilliant view. The support act were great, a band called Daughter who are unsigned and had heard a few times before. The main singer had such a beautiful voice and was a great live act. If you don't recognise the name you might recognise their album cover of a young girl at school. Here is one of my favourite songs:
{Daughter - Candles}
Then Ben Howard came on and he sang so incredibly, it was such a good gig where songs you wouldn't think to dance to had your toe tapping and your shoulders moving. He really went for it and you could tell he was so thankful to be there (he kept saying thank you for coming, he'd sold out the venue completely!!) And even better Fearne Cotton and Greg James from Radio 1 came along for the fun, sitting on a suspiciously well lit balcony! He sang a song I hadn't heard as it wasn't on his album which is fast becoming my new favourite song of his, unfortunately I think there's only live versions of the song so sorry about the quality!
{Ben Howard - Depth Over Distance}
It was a really lovely day and I hope I can see Ben Howard again, if you can see him anywhere and the tickets haven't sold out, go do it! You won't regret it!
Today my sister and I are going to see the incredible Ben Howard at Shepherds Bush Empire and we're so excited! I bought these tickets for her birthday in November so we've been waiting for this for a long while. He's just brilliant and I missed out on seeing him in Bournemouth which was supposedly brilliant so I have high hopes for tonight. We've been listening to him non stop this week in excitement for the gig, so heres a few of my favourite songs and videos from him, I wish my life was as serene as his music and videos!
{Only Love - Flash Mob gig}
{Oats in the Water Radio 1 Live Lounge - his new track of 2012}
{The Fear - Secret Sessions Video}
{Old Pine}
If you haven't heard of him before then shame on you and sprint over to iTunes and get his brilliant album!
I will post pics on Monday of the gig and the rest of the fun we had at the weekend! Have a good weekend everyone :)
