The Dash live at The Monarch, Camden

I've met so many amazing, interesting people this summer. After a chance encounter at Titan Studios in Watford, I was invited to see The Dash play live at a venue in Camden a few weeks ago.

I'd occasionally seen the band name come up on my Facebook feed but I didn't know much about them, so I deliberately didn't listen to any of their stuff online so I could experience them live with no bias. So, I wasn't really sure what to expect :) 

I traipsed the entire length of London (or so it felt) in the rain to reach the top end of Camden High Street where The Monarch is situated. Despite the rain and the fact it was a weekday, Camden was buzzing, it turned out The Libertines were launching their album just up the street!

I'd never been to the Monarch before, and I nearly strode right past it, but eventually hustled myself into the warm and got a gin and tonic down my neck before braving the pavement again to talk to the band - Marc, Dan, Gareth and Aiden.

Here's a terrible, blurry photo of me and Aiden, if you think this guy has good hair game, wait until you see the rest of them :) Now that I see this shot on my computer screen rather than just my phone, I think he might not thank me for it. But it's all I have. 

In fact, full disclosure, I was completely at the mercy of my washed-out phone camera this night, so I'm going to steal a photo from their Instagram feed (@wearethedash) to show you the whole band.

And then they started playing. I was pretty much blown away almost immediately, they absolutely rocked through their set, with lots of jumping about and synchonised hair flicking in time with some awesome guitar-playing. Apparently they are "notorious for leaving the stage in a storm of broken bones, hearts and guitars" and I can kind of see where that quote came from, I a bit fell in love with Dan the guitar player, owner of my favourite hair of the bunch - second from right above.

I've searched for the best video I can to share here, but you'd be better off clicking over to their youtube page where there's a long playlist of incredible live performances from all over the UK and Europe.

I can't wait to go along to their next London gig which is at The Monarch (follow them on twitter here for gig news) on the 4th November. Check them out online at their website by clicking here, or go along to their Facebook page and give them a like for live dates and photos.

I'll be posting my round-up of the summer later in the week, for now, I'm off to enjoy the beautiful Indian Summer everyone said we wouldn't get...

Katy x

Victorious Festival with The Turner Brothers

Well, where do I start?

We knew all summer that this was going to be the big gig of the year, and boy, did Victorious deliver. I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the amazing support, photos and feedback from the bands two sets, and I'll do my best to sum up the day here...

We headed off on The Party Bus super early on Saturday morning. I, like many, weren't fully convinced that we were going have everyone together when it was time to set off (we were pushing the time frame a little already at this point) but in the usual Turner Brother way, everything came together, everyone went to the loo and we hit the road with high expectations. The Turner Brothers took about 40 people on that bus, and most of them were fully in the T-Bro spirit, wearing the t-shirts and singing Turner Brother tunes. We listened to Laylow four times on that journey. Seriously.

And then we arrived at Victorious! You'll have to excuse the weird jumble of photos I have for this post, the camera on my phone is seriously dire and my point and shoot has given up the ghost (genuine request - if you have a cheap point and shoot camera you don't need, please let me know, I'm desperate for one and the budget won't stretch right now). So the photos that I have here have been taken by Jay, who is pretty much my saviour when it comes to gig photos, with his fancy phone and great eye for shots, and Richard Allen, who was the official videographer for the day and from whose footage all the performance stills have come apart from one.

Thanks guys! ♥♥

Time for the big performance! We got all the equipment backstage, set up and it was time to play, opening the second biggest stage that Victorious had to offer...

Here's a sneaky, overexcited photo of me and Jay getting to hang out backstage.

I rushed back round to the field to watch the boys, and they absolutely smashed it. Two guitars, two trumpets, Parry on percussion and the brothers giving it their all, there was a substantial crowd gathered by the end and a whole coachload of marauding fans dancing to all the songs they knew off by heart.

Look at the size of that stage!

After their first set, we had a six hour break to explore the festival and see some of the incredible acts lined up. We explored and went a little feral on overly expensive cider. I ate a very large amount of food and failed to take pictures of any of it at all. Because I'm a good blogger like that ;-)

A real highlight of the afternoon for me was seeing one of my favourite female artists, Laura Mvula on the main stage. She was pretty awe-inspiring, with her beautiful voice and a serious energy that I'd love to experience in a smaller setting. I'm listening to her right now :)

The second Turner Brother set was at the Mayfield Studios Real Ale Stage, a packed, tented stage with rain cover, perfect as the heavens opened just before their slot, meaning even more people crammed in to experience what turned out to be my favourite Turner Brothers performance ever...

That tent was so hot, all our Turner Brother t-shirts were soaked with sweat. The guys did a shout-out to their coachful and a whole section of the front of the tent went absolutely wild, there was an incredible atmosphere and the crowd even convinced them to play "one more" which turned out to be my favourite Turner Brother song of all time, one they keep promising me they will play and keep forgetting, 'Janine'.

And then it was all over :)

I abandoned ship and went to see Primal Scream on the main stage, they weren't everything I dreamed they would be, to be honest, but the rain coming down and the sun setting and the stage lights and the crowd and the mud up to our knees pretty much made all my other festival dreams come true!

A seriously unforgettable day, and the boys have had so many incredible comments and new fans over the last few days, it's been hard to keep up with. They play Croxfest on Saturday if you fancy catching them live at a free gig before summer finally gives up the ghost and leaves us wintery and crammed into dark pubs instead of rolling around in sun-drenched fields or at least enjoying warm summer rain.

On a side note, I have a couple of other posts coming up this week. Last night I went to see a truly awesome new band, The Dash, in Camden and I promised a little write-up, I really believe they are destined for big things so I'm glad I got to see them in such a close-up setting.

Big thanks to Nick Courtney et al at Victorious, David Horrocks Photography, Richard Allen Photography, Isaac from Liquid Lens Productions and my lovely friends for coming along and getting involved at the gig, love you all ♥♥

The Indie Sermon With The Turner Brothers

Okay, so I'm seriously late writing this, in fact most of the day is a blur now I look back on it, but I wanted to show off some of the great photos we got of the band smashing it at St. Peter's Church, Sudbury last month.

I don't think I've attended a Turner Brothers gig where they showed up with the same band members yet, and this was no exception. That's Simon Parry on percussion, Dom standing in for Harry on the guitar and no drum kit or trombone at all - but they still rocked, not many bands could do that :)

The venue was a disused church in the very centre of the village. We spent most of our time inside rocking out to the various bands that were on the line-up, so I didn't get a shot of the outside, but it looks exactly like you would expect a small village church sitting in the centre of a forked high street would.

It was a bit of an odd day. There weren't a huge amount of people initially, I think the guys at Indie Sermon could have indicated to village visitors that there was something going on a little better, we didn't see any signs or anything coming into the high street and there was nothing other than some Portaloos crowding the main entrance to indicate anything was going on inside at all. I think they missed a trick there, as there were two beautiful wrought iron lampposts at either side of the door that would have looked great with some bunting or lights strung between them - I put this idea to the Indie Sermon organisers, so maybe next time :)

Some of The Turner Brothers and crew.

Great shots huh? Thanks to Jay for taking these on your phone, they rock!

We are heading to Portsmouth for Victorious festival this weekend, and excitement is building! If you are hitting the festival, be sure to catch The Turner Brothers opening Castle stage on Saturday morning at 11.25, and later on in the Mayfield Studios Real Ale Tent at 18.30, see you there!

New Music Release Day Change from Monday To Friday

So, now that I spend so much time following bands around, I try to keep more up to date with music industry news. I kind of fell out of the loop after I finished working on the radio, and have been playing catch-up ever since.

So when I heard rumblings on social media sites that the hashtag #newmusicmonday wasn't going to be as relevant anymore, I was quick to do my research. It turns out, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have implemented a blanket global music release day, to combat piracy, increase record sales and help artists with their social media campaigns. That day is now Friday - it was previously Monday in the UK.

Some of the major radio stations have used #newmusicmonday as show fodder for years, it's one of the most popular hashtags on twitter.

I'm so interested from a social media position to see what effect this has on the online campaigns of some of the bands I like to follow. It won't change much for The Turner Brothers, until it comes time to release a new song. Although I am going to have to change the hashtags we use, #newmusicfriday doesn't have the same ring to it, it will be interesting to see what emerges.

In case you are interested, the official reasons for the change are:

• Reducing music piracy by implementing release in different countries on the same day (highly controversial as a reason for the change in most of the things I have read. I would imagine that allowing bands to release their product when they wanted would be a better way to reduce the time their music is sitting around waiting to be released)
• Allowing more cohesive social media campaigns relating to album and single release as the release day for each country will be the same. 
• People are more likely to buy music on their pay day or over a weekend when they have more free time.

The decision is a culmination of 8 months of research and discussion. I have no idea what impact it will have on record industry sales. I'd love to hear from my social media friends who do projects related to the music industry whether they feel it is a positive change or not :)

On a slightly related note, The Turner Brothers are about to launch a competition to win tickets to see them at an exciting upcoming festival - I can't wait to see what response we get - this is the first time I have been involved in something this big - please follow @turnerbrosmusic on twitter, like them on Facebook or spy on the band through Instagram,