Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Buzz buzz, head is buzzing. Last night saw the official debut of Hey Gravity! at the Barfly in London. Place was packed, and not entirely full of A&R men. Word had clearly got round that Justine had a new band and the fans were out in force.
(one of Steve's excellent shots of the band - picking up on gravity theme)
As debuts go it was excellent. Aside from being one of the best rock female vocalists on this planet, Justine knows how to move, each song having it’s own Justine style approach – reminded me in some ways of a young Peter Gabriel and the theatrics that he brought to stage shows through mime & movement. The set was all about Hey Gravity! – concentrating on tracks from the new album, and then closing with an amazing cover version of a Patti Smith song (me thinks this is right). Big risk that former M.A.S.S. fans turning up might be disappointed to not hear any old familiar tunes, but such is the quality of the new album I doubt anyone was too bothered by the end of the evening. Nice to hear my mobile ring tone being played live - the intro to Nobody's Fool is the perfect ring tone and knocks spots of that frog sound.
A special mention has to go to Anna who was playing her first “official” gig in the band. Bringing in a second girl seems to have worked – gives a more balanced approach to the line-up and I guess over time will develop more in terms of their stage presence. I can see why the band knew from the moment Anna turned up to audition, plugged in and said “do you want me to play lead or rhythm” and then ripped into their songs, that she was the right choice. Also, Justine’s man was present on the sound desk last night managing to create a very respectable sound for such a difficult venue to mike. He’s more used to working with the likes of the White Stripes but flew back from Dublin for last night’s show.
The band seemed to really enjoy the gig and expectations are high right now. I got to meet the other manager Matthew (from memory he’s Justine’s personal manager) who gave me a kiss on the head! He also manages Misty’s Big Adventure.
If I had one criticism about last night it would be the lack of marketing. Despite most of the crowd there to see Hey Gravity! I guess I would prefer to see more by way of posters, flyers etc that advertised the website and the new single being released. Just a personal view but when am I ever wrong!
Apologies to those who expected me to blog over the weekend about Liverpool’s win over Man U. We won – what more can I say.
Last Friday saw the fabulous Juliet Turner. Was a great gig – amazing vocals – voice of an angel. I’ve followed Juliet Turner since she first turned up at Greenbelt (she usually played in my venue so was hard to miss) and can understand why last year she won the best Irish female singer award. Nice chat afterwards about Michael McDermott. Plenty of Greenbelt faces at the venue.
The rest of this week is going to be busy busy on the work front so apologies if things go a bit quiet on here for a while.
(one of Steve's excellent shots of the band - picking up on gravity theme)
As debuts go it was excellent. Aside from being one of the best rock female vocalists on this planet, Justine knows how to move, each song having it’s own Justine style approach – reminded me in some ways of a young Peter Gabriel and the theatrics that he brought to stage shows through mime & movement. The set was all about Hey Gravity! – concentrating on tracks from the new album, and then closing with an amazing cover version of a Patti Smith song (me thinks this is right). Big risk that former M.A.S.S. fans turning up might be disappointed to not hear any old familiar tunes, but such is the quality of the new album I doubt anyone was too bothered by the end of the evening. Nice to hear my mobile ring tone being played live - the intro to Nobody's Fool is the perfect ring tone and knocks spots of that frog sound.
A special mention has to go to Anna who was playing her first “official” gig in the band. Bringing in a second girl seems to have worked – gives a more balanced approach to the line-up and I guess over time will develop more in terms of their stage presence. I can see why the band knew from the moment Anna turned up to audition, plugged in and said “do you want me to play lead or rhythm” and then ripped into their songs, that she was the right choice. Also, Justine’s man was present on the sound desk last night managing to create a very respectable sound for such a difficult venue to mike. He’s more used to working with the likes of the White Stripes but flew back from Dublin for last night’s show.
The band seemed to really enjoy the gig and expectations are high right now. I got to meet the other manager Matthew (from memory he’s Justine’s personal manager) who gave me a kiss on the head! He also manages Misty’s Big Adventure.
If I had one criticism about last night it would be the lack of marketing. Despite most of the crowd there to see Hey Gravity! I guess I would prefer to see more by way of posters, flyers etc that advertised the website and the new single being released. Just a personal view but when am I ever wrong!
Apologies to those who expected me to blog over the weekend about Liverpool’s win over Man U. We won – what more can I say.
Last Friday saw the fabulous Juliet Turner. Was a great gig – amazing vocals – voice of an angel. I’ve followed Juliet Turner since she first turned up at Greenbelt (she usually played in my venue so was hard to miss) and can understand why last year she won the best Irish female singer award. Nice chat afterwards about Michael McDermott. Plenty of Greenbelt faces at the venue.
The rest of this week is going to be busy busy on the work front so apologies if things go a bit quiet on here for a while.
// posted by Dave @ 11:21 AM 
