'Don't Ever Let It End!' - Spector, Oakford Social Club

In between Fred Macpherson's 'fuck you' banter and a terrifying 'pushing pit' that made me fear for my life, Spector's gig at the (trendy-Wendy) Oakford Social Club in Reading on Saturday night was pretty swell.

Missing out on getting to see these guys at Gathering Festival last year was one of the major bummers of the night, so I was excited to get to see them again. They had a little bit of making up to do after their awesome set at Reading Festival last year preceded congratulations to those who'd just received their GSCE results (*weeps*) so it was pretty good to see them in a setting where that was unlikely to happen.




I wasn't overly impressed with their support, Pale, they were a little depressing; the lead singer's voice was beautiful so they could have just looked a little less sad about it. I also didn't like the fact he was wearing a jumper, it was so hot in there, just take it off. We weren't 100% on the support anyway as we had anticipated SWIMDEEP, then thought it might be Jaws, but it turned out to be neither, weird.







Spector were very much on-point, aside from the bizarre freeze-frame 'shh' bit during Grim Reefer, a la The Hives, but not as cool. They sounded just as good as the CD and even threw in some new material from their 'difficult second album'. With 'Friday Night', (the scary when live) 'Chevvy Thunder' and finishing up with 'Never Fade Away', easily one of my favourites - I like most things that involve clapping - I definitely think they won Moon over who was less than impressed that I'd got the tickets in the first place.




I really liked the venue too, I was a little apprehensive after being advised by colleagues that it was a little rough around the edges but it seems like my kind of place. I love a pretentious pub with boardgames and VHS tapes! Jokes aside, their food looks amazing and with a fun-sounding craft fair on the first Sunday of the month and a weekly pub quiz, I can see myself visiting it at least one more time - if only to showcase a snippet more of Reading to my friend Laura who just moved here last month.

Come out of your cave walking on your hands.

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Doing anything on a weeknight is borderline exhausting nowadays thanks to a combination of a long day at work and sheer laziness. Saying that, seeing Mumford & Sons in as small a venue as Portsmouth Guildhall on Thursday night was more than worth it.

I've seen them at their tiniest, supporting The Maccabees at Southampton University Union, and one of their highest heights so far as second headliners of Glastonbury's Other Stage, I have a lot of love for them and every time I think I'm over them, they draw me back in. I wasn't even that excited to see them at the beginning of the week, I take that all back though and will pretend I never even mentioned it.



They were as beautiful as always, absolutely perfect without a hair out of place and their support was great - something that's always good when seeing live music. It's easy to forget that they only have two albums because they had such a long break between 'Sigh No More' and 'Babel', but this smaller back-catalogue meant they played basically everything from old favourites to soon to be new favourites. I often feel like listening to new songs after loving an album for such a long time can be like making new friends, after seeing them live properly after so long, I think I'm finally ready to let songs from 'Babel' into the fold.


Dawes.





As I mentioned, I thought the support acts were great - well chosen generally but well-suited too. I thought that Dawes were so good in fact, that I went into HMV and bought myself their actual CD today - I feel that I must add that the lead singer, Taylor Goldsmith's voice is about a million times better in real life than on recordings, I was actually quite moved (#gigwuss).



Piff the Magic Dragon and his glamourous assistant, Mr Piffles.


They were also supported by Piff the Magic Dragon of 'Penn & Teller Fool Us' fame, who was not only funny but accompanied by the most adorable assistant, speaking as a non-Chihuahua fan.




Always have a lot of time for Marcus Mumford's weird face.











Something Mumford & Sons should make their trademark - they brought Dawes and Piff on stage!

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My favourite Dawes song of the night was 'When My Time Comes', and my favourite Mumford & Sons songs were 'Winter Winds' because the lights all came up and it was beautiful and 'The Cave' because the crowd were almost as loud as they were. Saying that, 'Sigh No More' will always have a place for me because it's the song that made me remember them when I saw them the first time.




All in all it was just such a fun evening, and it was nice to see them again in such an intimate space. I'm a little saddened as part of me knows there's such a small chance of something similar happening again especially as we had such a great spot, then again, you never know.

Gathering Festival, Oxford.

I think I've had enough time to let the first Gathering Festival sink in, and I reckon it was a pretty good evening all in all. Similar to Portsmouth's Southsea Fest, Gathering Festival saw musical acts take over venues up and down Oxford's Cowley Road. And what a fantastic idea, not to mention the perfect opportunity to see Dry The River for the seventh time!





I had thought that it might have been an opportunity to see tiny bands in the earlier parts of the festival, which began at 4pm, but instead we opted for a wander into Oxford city centre before having Chinese and queuing up at the festival's main venue, The O2 Academy to catch Clock Opera, Bastille and Dry The River.





I must be honest and say that I'd never heard of Clock Opera before seeing them, but I'm looking forward to seeing more. They were great and really knew how to get the crowd going, a brilliant start to the evening. I've got a lot of time for bands that know how to incorporate a cowbell.




Bastille were a big surprise for me, the crowd were absolutely mental, I think my current minor tinnitus might be down to the screaming girls in the crowd alone. Their performing style was a lot different to how I thought it would be, but I was mainly basing it on 'Bad Blood', they seem to me to be a lot more pop-punky than recordings would suggest. Very enjoyable though, and they won some serious points for their on-the-money cover of City High's 'What Would You Do?'.





Lastly, it was Dry The River, I was so pleased to see them again, after seeing them at Reading, they were great as usual and full of energy. It was the first time I've been at the front of a gig in ages and it was pretty good, but loud. The crowd were so loud in some parts the band were almost drowned out, probably one of the noisiest crowds I've ever heard which is crazy considering the size of the bands that were performing.








They played my standard favourites, with some songs complete with a brand new brass section, and ended the gig by getting in the crowd to play 'Shaker Hymns'; a brave move considering how rowdy the crowd was. Sadly we were 'on the wrong side' in that sense, but it was okay because I'm privileged to have seen them at eye-level already and it's a little awkward. I ended my time with Dry The River by high-fiving Scott, and nearly knocking a mans glasses off. *sorry.





We cashed in at the merch stand and picked up a sleeve for Dry The River's acoustic copy of 'Shallow Bed' to be released in December, as well as their two beautiful limited edition screen print posters, can't wait to get them framed and up on the wall.



We had hoped to get up to The O2 Academy 2 to catch Spector, but there was a silly 'queue again' policy so we missed out, I heard on Twitter that it was a sweatbox but they were amazing. It was drizzling, which was annoying as we had to rush back to the car to get me wrapped up so I wouldn't fall back into flu again.

After the pitstop, it was over to the East Oxford Community Centre to see if we could see The Staves and then Lucy Rose - it was packed! With a one-in-one-out deal, we did manage to get in, but only into the entrance hall which meant a view through the door, so not worth it. We were advised to go down to The Bullingdon where The Other Tribe were playing but after the disappointment we decided to call it a night and head home.


All that aside, for a first try, Gathering was bloody brilliant, and maybe you could criticise a slight lack of organisation - unless you were very lucky - but for value for money and quality of acts you can't fault it. It's Gathering's first year too, and I had a good time and am happy to go back so I'd say it was a success. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it will happen again next year.

I know there are quite a few photos here already, it's purely because I'm crummy at 'editing down'. There are a even more on Flickr, in their own set and everything and you can check them out here.