Last night I attended Nottingham Rocks at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham. This is the review I wrote for NottinghamLIVE, photographs used with the permission of Mark Del of NUSIC.
The Nottingham music scene is
a strange beast; we are the envy of the
country when it comes to the amount of talent we have in this city, if you
stood in the centre of town and threw a cup of water in the air, at least one
person getting splashed would be a musician. On the other hand, it is at times
a strangely inclusive scene in which the only other people you see at gigs are
other musicians, along with promoters, writers and broadcasters. With that in
mind, it was gratifying to observe that a large portion of the (admittedly not
as big as it should be) audience were what I call ‘civilians’. We have a vast
pool of musical wonderment, but not enough people seem to want a paddle.
The first performer on stage
was the gifted songstress Georgie Rose and her band, rather fitting really
given that her name has been attached to almost every big festival around these
parts this season. Her festival big
stage stripes well and truly earned, she appeared remarkably unfazed about appearing
in the grandeur of the Theatre Royal with an orchestra backing her up. Opening
with ‘Calmer’, she slipped very comfortably into her act and performed like the
star she will one day be. She took to the piano for ‘Love Me Again’, a
genuinely beautiful moment that moved my girlfriend to tears (who also pulled
that ‘no way!’ face when I told her that Georgie is only eighteen) and made
every hair on your body stand on end.
Georgie Rose
Amber are a band who either
are owed a lot of favours or have done a deal with the devil, such is their
rapid ascent since their formation last December. Not that they aren’t a
talented bunch because they are, but there aren’t many bands who have achieved
in an entire career what Amber have so far. There’s no Nottingham blood running
through their veins, but settling here is criteria enough as we all know,
besides they did form here at university and that’s good enough for us. I
wonder if they have had mushy peas with mint sauce yet. That’s the citizenship
test right there. They opened with
‘Heaven’, and at first it felt as if (to my ears at least) that the full band
sound was drowning out the orchestra and making their presence a touch
redundant. As I’m writing this review while listening to them I can clearly
tell the difference, so the orchestra complimented them as they should. They
seemed genuinely pleased to be a part of the night, although this is only their
sixth gig it was considerably smaller than their fourth and fifth, Reading and
Leeds festival.
Amber
The penultimate set was
Harleighblu, who looked as amazing as she sounds. Taking the much deserved
opportunity to promote her upcoming debut album, she opened her set with two
tracks from it; ‘Enough Now’ and ‘I Believe’. It is a lazy
journalist-come-reviewer that uses comparisons with the likes of Ella
Fitzgerald or Nina Simone, but there will be a day in the future when
Harleighblu is mentioned in the same breath. Taking the brave step of
performing a never before performed song, we heard ‘Love Like This’ before the
current single ‘Play Me’. Harleighblu delivered a breathtaking performance
throughout.
Harleighblu
Finally we had St Raymond on
to close the show. Callum has had a good year; festivals, a record deal,
national and American radio play, and of course a much coveted live session on
NottinghamLIVE. With all that under his belt, headlining this was no doubt a
walk in the park. At least it would have been had it not been for the pesky
gremlins at work. Before he’d sung a note there was a problem with the monitors
that might have been difficult for a less confident artist to come back from.
Those problems didn’t affect his overall performance thankfully, and he played
a blinder of a show, winning the battle of singer versus monitor. Standing
centre stage, he was the only act of the night to perform alone (not counting
the fourteen piece orchestra, but you knew what I meant), joking that the
orchestra knew the songs better than he did. The orchestral backing suited him
down to the ground, so maybe he should consider doing this sort of thing more
often? Mocking the tradition of the encore, Callum walked off to deserved
applause and calls for more, returning moments later announcing that he loves
the silliness of the concept and the waste of thirty seconds that it really is.
The final song ‘Fall At Your Feet’ sounded wonderful with the orchestral aid,
and definitely worth doing as a commercial release.
St Raymond
As a footnote to what I said
at the start, I took my girlfriend Mandi to the show and she hardly ever comes
to local gigs with me. However, every time she does she becomes that performer’s
newest fan. It happened again tonight, especially with her discovery of
Harleighblu and Georgie Rose. I don’t know many people outside of the music
world in Nottingham, but those that I do are going to be invited out more and
you should do the same. Here’s to you Nottingham, you might have no respect for
buildings, history, or popular opinion. You might want to turn every building
into student flats and Tesco Express, but that aside you do indeed rock. Long
may this city continue to rock.
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