I really didn’t know what to expect when I ventured into Cardiff’s Barfly on the 19th February. I had heard stories from people who had been to rap gigs, and none of them were pretty. Because of this, I was extremely weary whilst I was walking down the stairs. Luckily my fears didn’t come true. The place looked rather empty with the ‘crowd’ (the term used loosely) being a lot older than expected and seemed more interested in the bar than the stage. However, over the next fifteen minutes the place began to fill up with a mixture of ages and styles; no-one seemed your stereotypical ‘rap’ fan.
The first act, Caskade, graced the stage to an overexcited audience who began to swamp the front of the stage. With a voice that reminded me of a mixture between Run DMC and the Beastie Boys over the top of very heavy beats, he seemed to warm the crowd up well. However, towards the end of his set, his songs were becoming very similar and the crowd began to find the bar a lot more interesting.
The second act, Dead Residents, had more of a rockier style about them. Instead of just using samples and beats as a base for their lyrics, they used instruments, with a live guitar on stage. Their style had a larger variety to it with them sounding very R’n’B one moment, and then a little bit death metal the next. This really seemed to please the crowd who seemed more engaged with them and looked like they were completely ready for the main act to grace the stage. Dead Residents had done their bit and warmed up the crowd and fair play to them.
After a short break, DJ Turkish got the crowd going with a remix of ‘Sway’ by Michael Bublé before Sway himself jumped on stage, much to the excitement of the crowd. After a quick burst of crowd participation, Sway leapt into a short acoustic version of ‘Up Your Speed’ before performing the full track, which sent the crowd crazy. After a small but gracious speech about everyone buying his album, allowing for the crowd to get their breathe back, he began a slow but beautiful reprisal of the lyrics from ‘Flo Fashion’, with the crowd knowing every word, before, launching into the song itself. This seemed to be the structure of the show. A small, a cappella version of the song or explanation of the lyrics, before performing the song; unique but the crowd seemed to love it.
His set was filled with some of his biggest hits like ‘Saturday Hustle’ Featuring Lemar, ‘Little Derek’ and ‘Silver and Gold’ featuring Akon, with the over excited crowd knowing every word. A short burst of Blur’s ‘Parklife’ in the middle of the set made the crowd go wild, much to the surprise of Sway himself, who seemed slightly taken aback by their excitement. His songs seemed to be very different from the typical format of a rap song, with the lack of guns and girls, being replaced by humorous but intelligent raps about his life. You can see why Akon signed him to his record label, Convict Music; the boy has talent.
Sway has definitely impressed tonight and by the looks of the hard core fans that descended on the Barfly, he has been for a long time and I can see him continuing his success into the future. It was exciting and dynamic from start to finish and the audience loved every moment.
[Taken from: http://www.bangingdrum.com/pages/review/details.php?review_id=34 ]
Monday, 9 March 2009
Friday, 13 February 2009
Take That- Beautiful World
When Take That broke up in 1996, many of their fans became so distraught that a Samaritans helpline had to be set up to council all the broken hearts. Fast forward 10 years, and Take That are back, fresh from a reunion tour and releasing a brand new album for the first time without the infamous Robbie Williams. Many people doubted that they would be successful, believing that they belonged in the 90’s along with their various, unsuccessful solo careers. They were just there for the money right? The fans would have moved on for sure? There’s no interest left. Wrong. The fans were there, ready and waiting, excited at the prospect to see the band that they had loved back again making more amazing music. How right they were.
From the beginning of the album you can tell that this is a typical pop album that Take That are renowned for. There is the catchy chorus that you just can’t help singing along to, beautifully written lyrics about love and life, the consistent rhythmic music that you can imagine swaying and dancing to. Yes it has it all. But what Take That do better than all the rest is the fact that they have done it for years. They are the masters of the genre. They know what works and what doesn’t, and you can tell by the fact there’s not one weak song on the album.
The songs, written and sung by all the bandmembers, shows their new mature but contemporary style whilst still holding on to that classic, Take That sound that was loved in the 90’s. There is a song on there for everyone; the typical ballads like ‘Hold On’ and ‘I’d Wait For Life’ alongside the more up-beat songs like ‘Reach Out and title track, ‘Beautiful World’. The lead single, ‘Patience’, sung by Gary Barlow, is a slow but powerful song, whilst their second single, ‘Shine’, sung by Mark Owen, is more rockier and breaks the mould of a traditional pop song, showing the difference between the 90’s and 00’s Take That. The end track ‘Wooden Boat’ demonstrates the bands comedic side and allows for Jason Orange to sing lead for the first time.
The album is defiantly worthy of its number one status, and the fact it has sold over 2.5 million shows that there is one or two people out there who thought so too. With stacks of awards given to it, the band have defiantly shown that they are Back For Good.
From the beginning of the album you can tell that this is a typical pop album that Take That are renowned for. There is the catchy chorus that you just can’t help singing along to, beautifully written lyrics about love and life, the consistent rhythmic music that you can imagine swaying and dancing to. Yes it has it all. But what Take That do better than all the rest is the fact that they have done it for years. They are the masters of the genre. They know what works and what doesn’t, and you can tell by the fact there’s not one weak song on the album.
The songs, written and sung by all the bandmembers, shows their new mature but contemporary style whilst still holding on to that classic, Take That sound that was loved in the 90’s. There is a song on there for everyone; the typical ballads like ‘Hold On’ and ‘I’d Wait For Life’ alongside the more up-beat songs like ‘Reach Out and title track, ‘Beautiful World’. The lead single, ‘Patience’, sung by Gary Barlow, is a slow but powerful song, whilst their second single, ‘Shine’, sung by Mark Owen, is more rockier and breaks the mould of a traditional pop song, showing the difference between the 90’s and 00’s Take That. The end track ‘Wooden Boat’ demonstrates the bands comedic side and allows for Jason Orange to sing lead for the first time.
The album is defiantly worthy of its number one status, and the fact it has sold over 2.5 million shows that there is one or two people out there who thought so too. With stacks of awards given to it, the band have defiantly shown that they are Back For Good.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Spotify- The new music revolution!!!
There I was, sat on a train, 2 hours into my 4 hour journey, reading my beloved copy of NME. It was there where I came across an article about a new music system called SPOTIFY-a free, internet-based, jukebox, which has almost every song and album ever released (well except from the odd artist here and there) available to you at the touch of a button.
The basic principle behind it is that you download the programme from their website (www.spotify.com/en/get-started), create an account, enter in the artist you want to listen to and hit play. As easy as one, two, three really. Amazing really.
Now you're probably thinking, 'How is this different from other programmes like this?'. Well Spotify has one of the largest libraries of music so there is more choice and, unlike places like Limewire, you won't get any of the bad quality, recorded from the radio, types of songs. You get the official ones. For free. Also the layout is a lot like that of Itunes, which means that for a lot of society, it is easy to get used to, with a lot of its features being very familiar. You can also create saved playlists, to allow for ease of access for your favourite songs. There is also a 'radio' feature where you can choose from different genre's and decades and they will play recommended music. Perfect if you are looking for some new music to listen to.
However, like most things, it does come with some flaws. Firstly, none of the music can be downloaded, meaning that you can only listen to it from you computer. Not the greatest if you're life-source for all your music is your MP3 player. Secondly, in order for it to be free, it is funded by adverts and, as well as the odd advert around the programme, there is also an advert played every 7 songs or so. Now this can become annoying when you're listening to your favourite album, but it does make it sound a lot like you're listening to the radio. Also, the adverts do become very repetative, with only a few adverts being played. By the end of a day, you are able to memerise them in entirity, which although annoying, can be an amazing party piece. But these adverts are needed so that the creaters can pay the record companies for the access to the music.
If adverts are not your thing, you can always pay for them to removed. The lovely makers of Spotify have come up with two different payment stages to remove those pesky ads. The first is the 'Day Pass' option which costs 99p. This allows you 24 hours of advert free access to the library. This is perfect for parties and general days of music endulging. Then there is the 'Premium' option which costs £9.99 a month. This allows you to have absolute no adverts, ever. However, I must say that these two options take the fun out of the fact that it is completely free.
Spotify is defiantly the music programme that everyone should use, and I can see it taking over from other programmes in the near future, especially if/when they create a MP3 player to transport all the music around on. Itunes, beware.
The basic principle behind it is that you download the programme from their website (www.spotify.com/en/get-started), create an account, enter in the artist you want to listen to and hit play. As easy as one, two, three really. Amazing really.
Now you're probably thinking, 'How is this different from other programmes like this?'. Well Spotify has one of the largest libraries of music so there is more choice and, unlike places like Limewire, you won't get any of the bad quality, recorded from the radio, types of songs. You get the official ones. For free. Also the layout is a lot like that of Itunes, which means that for a lot of society, it is easy to get used to, with a lot of its features being very familiar. You can also create saved playlists, to allow for ease of access for your favourite songs. There is also a 'radio' feature where you can choose from different genre's and decades and they will play recommended music. Perfect if you are looking for some new music to listen to.
However, like most things, it does come with some flaws. Firstly, none of the music can be downloaded, meaning that you can only listen to it from you computer. Not the greatest if you're life-source for all your music is your MP3 player. Secondly, in order for it to be free, it is funded by adverts and, as well as the odd advert around the programme, there is also an advert played every 7 songs or so. Now this can become annoying when you're listening to your favourite album, but it does make it sound a lot like you're listening to the radio. Also, the adverts do become very repetative, with only a few adverts being played. By the end of a day, you are able to memerise them in entirity, which although annoying, can be an amazing party piece. But these adverts are needed so that the creaters can pay the record companies for the access to the music.
If adverts are not your thing, you can always pay for them to removed. The lovely makers of Spotify have come up with two different payment stages to remove those pesky ads. The first is the 'Day Pass' option which costs 99p. This allows you 24 hours of advert free access to the library. This is perfect for parties and general days of music endulging. Then there is the 'Premium' option which costs £9.99 a month. This allows you to have absolute no adverts, ever. However, I must say that these two options take the fun out of the fact that it is completely free.
Spotify is defiantly the music programme that everyone should use, and I can see it taking over from other programmes in the near future, especially if/when they create a MP3 player to transport all the music around on. Itunes, beware.
Saturday, 6 December 2008
''Avenue- Last goodbye'' Review
Last Goodbye is the debut single from boyband Avenue, of X Factor fame. After being kicked off the show for already having a manager and a re-arrangement of the band (they lost one member but gained another), they are now signed and are creating a storm on the music scene, especially after their recent stint, supporting of McFly on their Radio:Active Tour.
The song itself is an upbeat and catchy song, with hints of classic pop combined with the captivating club beat. This mixed with the beautiful lyrics makes it a true boyband hit and marks the beginning of the path of success for the band.
(Soruce HMV.com)
Becky
=]
The song itself is an upbeat and catchy song, with hints of classic pop combined with the captivating club beat. This mixed with the beautiful lyrics makes it a true boyband hit and marks the beginning of the path of success for the band.
(Soruce HMV.com)
Becky
=]
Monday, 1 December 2008
A while ago I was told that it would be a good idea to create a blog, where I could place all the Journalistic work I have a produced, so they could all be collected together for ease of access if needed if the future.
It's generally a random collection of writings I have done for my University Newspaper and Magazine, as well as the odd thing that I have written for practice.
For anyone out there in web-land who's actually reading this, I hope you enjoy it.
Becky
=]
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