Rae Morris, Green Door Store Brighton 12|09|14

So first off, apologies for the lack of updating over the summer. Even more so for this blog post which in itself is nearly two months late, but here is a review of Rae Morris when she played The Green Door Store in Brighton back in September.

 Rae Morris has been cropping up in a lot of places over this summer, from Radio 1 to featuring on Bombay Bicycle Club's newest album and Clean Bandit. After giving her a listen her music became increasingly addicting and soon became a main feature on my Spotify summer playlist. For such a cheap price I then could not resist myself a ticket to see her in Brighton.

 Situated underneath Brighton Station, the tiny venue suited perfectly for an intimate gig which is definitely what we were intended to be part of.

 Filling up quickly of people of all ages, we were welcomed with her support, Paul Thomas Saunders. His mellow, soft songs rather than psych the audience, relaxed us while making us chuckle with his awkward, but polite self promotion for his album.

 Excitement soon arose while we all patiently waited for Rae to emerge. To prove how intimate the venue was, Rae and her band arrived through the crowd onto the stage. Bursting straight into 'Skin' the audience were greeted and away she went.

 Although Morris' album is yet to be released her setlist was taken from her EP's and included her new single, 'Closer', which had us all moving along. Another highlight would be how Rae developed 'Cold' from a duet to a solo. Normally with the song, you can feel an emotional battle play out between the male and female vocals but as a solo it worked to really drive in one sided heartache with the lyrics.

 Interestingly, although Rae spent the majority of her set behind her keyboard, as we would expect, she did perform 'Love Again' stepped away from it. It gave her a sense of vulnerability, but that made her even more appealing to see she wasn't afraid to face us without her trusty piano.

 Of course she did an encore, one we were all dying to hear more of, which she provided with us alone to perform 'Not Knowing'. It was delicately performed and was brilliant to see her on her own, once the band joined they dived into 'This Time' which pushed the final song to end the show off fantastically.

 Afterwards Rae and her band were met with fans which they were exceedingly grateful to. I myself got the chance to thank Rae and her brilliant band for the evening and their fantastic performance. Below is a photo of Rae and I after I thanked her and told her how much I was gutted I'd not got the chance to get a ticket for her Cardiff date with George Ezra, a tour which if there are tickets left, I urge you to buy.

Rae is definitely one of my favourite new artists this year and January really can't come quick enough for her album to explode onto the charts.

Holi Festival of Colours London 2014 | 28.O6.14

I try to go to a festival every year and this years festival of choice was the Holi Festival of Colours in London. Originally the festival dates back to ancient times in India celebrating harvest and to welcome in Spring. It is also seen to celebrate the colours and unity within people, forgetting everything and to celebrate life.

The Holi Festival of Colours I attended in London did a whole lot of that. The Festival travels all over the world and did two dates at The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at a cracking price of £38.00! So I had to get myself a ticket. The aim then was the collect your powder paint, wear white and every hour throw a whole lot of paint around to some amazing DJ's.

The day festival didn't start off to the best of starts. All week I'd been watching the weather on my MET office app like a hawk. It had been sunny and hot in Cardiff for the past three weeks, of course I'd be fine for the festival, if Wales can have nice weather of course London can. Oh how wrong was I? Torrential rain attacked the field in the early afternoon, thank god before the majority of the paint was to be thrown. That really would have put a dampner of the day (no pun intended).

We still decided to dance and throw paint around in our wellies and macs, hey that is how a festival look is supposed to really look.

My personal highlight was Zane Lowe's set. He played some classic tunes as well as some new good ones such as 'Turn Down for What' which was a crowd pleaser as he made us lower to the ground and then jump when the beat dropped. Imagine watching a field of 20 thousand doing that and then throwing paint, I wish there was an aerial shot of that somewhere.

Another favourite was Bombay Boogie Soundsystem whom seemed to also play the part of compere when the countdown struck. They had a hybrid of Western and Eastern music, and during their second set included two incredibly talented Indian dancers to the stage.

It is easy to say I was well and truly caked in paint, and even four days later am finding sprinkles of paint on myself, I do wash don't worry. It just gets everywhere. Walking back through Stratford was amazing to see so many happy, smiley, colourful people, we definitely did turn a few heads.

Even on the train back to Catford I had people coming up to me asking about it so hopefully the festival will get even more goers next year! Safe to say I'll definitely be going again and bringing a big group of people with me. If you like clubbing/ festivals/ dance festivals/ paint/ general fun, get yourself there next year!

I'll include photos below and there is also a vlog up of my whole weekend, in which the next day I will blog about in a separate post as that was eventful!

Enjoy! xoxo

'ChlaLYDIA' - An Original Musical!

As mentioned previously I would follow up once Catherine had uploaded her final piece of her degree, the wonderful 'ChlaLYDIA'. As a warning, it is quite rude with some very hilarious lyric changes to some classics like 'Summer Nights' from Grease. 

Again I'd just like to say a massive well done to both the girls for creating, directing and starring in their pieces. It was a real shame to have only just start to work with them. It has definitely encouraged me to get involved with more projects come September when I will be a second year.

If you have a spare half hour or even just a spare five minutes to catch this piece below, I promise you will be laughing your head off to it.

A classic summer romance that leads to much more, as we've all heard before. But this time dodgy STI's get in the way and causes a song and dance about it. Actually, lots of singing and dancing.. and the occasional free condom.

Enjoy!

McBusted 23/05/14

You know that feeling when you know, you just know you're going to win something? That was myself and Naomi, my flatmate, on Friday. We felt like we were destined to win the pair of of OMFG Tickets for McBusted in Cardiff that evening.

Alas, we didn't win them, some lucky gem did instead and we were then so pumped to see them I had to get us tickets. Living across the road from The Motorpoint Arena has been difficult this year as there have been some right good gigs that have played there this year that I've missed and this was another I didn't want to miss out on.

Like the jammy sod I am, I spent all day on twitter desperately finding a way to re-live my childhood. About just under 2 hours before the gig, A very nice twitter user sold me tickets which I managed to get for about thirty pounds cheaper than original price, and picked them up and off we went. I have to say it was a bit of an adrenaline rush and we weren't even in the arena yet.

To tell the truth my only hold up to seeing Mcbusted (beside the ticket price) was that my personal opinion was that Busted sounded rusty when they announced McBusted. But blimey, was I wrong.
The three supports was good fun, Young Brando were good, E of E were my personal favourite, the singers voice was fantastic! The third band weren't really my cup of tea and by that point I was too impatient for McBusted.

Right so Mcbusted themselves. This may contain spoilers (I guess?) but yes they were fantastic. I didn't stop screaming or smiling from beginning to end. Opening with a clever video of James and Matt travelling back to the future and then an explosive entrance on stage with them flying in and Mcfly busting out from beneath the stage it kicked off with a bang. So I was wrong about their voices, the Busted boys were definitely back with a belter.

Starting with 'Air Hostess' I was just overwhelmed with nostalgia. Every single person in the crowd sang back to the supergroup every word, every lick, every riff. I was over the side of Dougie and Matt, and from them they had great crowd interaction. School boy chants, hitting t-shirts into the crowd with tennis rackets, the triple breast, confetti, band banter, Matt in a wedding dress, it was just amazing fun. Nothing serious, just great crowd interaction, the classic early 2000 tunes that we all used to dance around our rooms to and an electric crowd.

If you can, at any point in the near future, catch a show. I know it's easy to say but if you were a fan ten years ago and miss them as much as we did, get down to a show. Below are some photos of my time, I don't really want to ruin too much but just that it was brilliant fun, and glad they took my motorpoint arena virginity!

xoxo

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It's Been A While But...

So I've been fairly absent from here for a while. Apologies uni has taken over my life recently. So I was rehearsing for two 3rd year FMP's. They were two live performances including multimedia elements and they were fantastic. It was a brilliant feeling to be back performing. I haven't done a live performance since my Drama A level last January!< br />
The first show I did was an original musical called 'ChlaLYDIA'. It was loosely based on 'Grease' meets 'High School Musical' meets 'Avenue Q'. I haven't sang for two years and I really couldn't wait to start rehearsal. Believe me they took over my life. We only started a week and a half before the performance date, which was pretty scary. Believe me, I really didn't think we'd pull it off. Line learning in days for a whole script, busy cast so they didn't turn up to rehearsals, dance choreography to learn, but we managed it!

Well done to Catherine for writing, creating and performing a wonderful musical, with rude alternatives to classics like 'Summer Nights', 'Oh My God You Guys' and more. (which I enjoyed thoroughly as I really miss my Musical Theatre class from College). Hopefully there will be a link up soon so I can post that up if anyone wants to watch it! I honestly can't believe we pulled it off as we were first at 9 am and first.

The other performance was on a more serious note called 'A Life's Metamorphosis'. About a man who starts off as a Nazi working in the concentration camps during WW2, but later on in life regrets deeply and also finds faith in Judaism as a result. Inspired by 'Attraction' the winners of Britain's Got Talent last year (i think), I was involved in the shadow sequence (11 minutes in) but I would watch purely for the iPad scene after as well, if not watch all of it. Simone worked her arse off to create this piece and you can see it from beginning to end. I can only appreciate how long it must have taken her to get it all in time and make 5 individual films as well as the live performance. A link is below to watch that.

I had a blast working with these people. I'm annoyed we've only just got to know them, they're all incredibly talented but also so friendly. We all clicked so easily and the time was bittersweet due to them finishing.

So yes, just an update of what I've been up to in this month of absence, good luck to the third years moving on in the industry, praying we'll still see them around and pleaseeeeee check out their work! Hopefully that'll be us in a couple years as creative as that!

Firle Flower Show

Since coming back home to the sunny Southern Coast, I needed to get some rural countryside back in me. As much as I do love living in the world of The Welsh Capital, I do miss the trees and the fields that are virtually at the end of my road. So, my mum and I attended The Garden Show in Firle this Good Friday which really didn’t disappoint.

She’d warned me to take plenty of money along with me, thinking I’d hardly spend anything, thinking it would be a bit on the pricey side, my mind was instantly changed. The prices were beyond reasonable and so many great independant companies there that I wanted to support.

As pictured, I bought this spring scarf in a daisy print, a very popular print for this season and this clutch bag. £26 pounds for them both! Bargain! Most of my spring/summer formal or going out wear are a nude pink colour so will look perfect in the hotter months!

I also bought a seaside themed cushion for my bedroom at university. A beautiful handmade scatter cushion will go perfectly against my Next Brighton themed accessories in my halls room, to remind me of home, being miles away.

The Garden Show itself was a fantastic day out for everyone involved, great in supporting independent stalls and companies, trying all types of fudge and cakes and even a few drops of rum, one part a poor student like me probably couldn’t afford!

It was lovely to visit somewhere so beautiful, kept so well and incredibly attractive in the sunlight, it was somewhere I could have stayed all day. Firle Place in itself is a tucked-away treasure in The southeast that I can’t believe I’ve only just discovered myself. I will definitely be going back for another walk when I come home in the summer. The Garden Show also is a very broad and pretty show to attend, not just for gardens but for a range of interests and homeware. If you want to attend, http://www.thegardenshowonline.com/ to see if there’s any more near you. I know it doesn’t sound like a typical place you’d find a nineteen year old to go, but it was lovely, a brilliant place to buy some things that you really, really can’t find anywhere else.

I created a short montage video of my experience, to improve and practise my editing skills for uni, but also to display its natural beauty that the show entailed. More work and posts up soon as I go back to uni on Friday and let the antics begin again!

The Start

Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Wise words from none other than Julie Andrews, a hero of mine.

But hello, my name is Sophie, a creative student from South East England but studying in the land of Wales at USW. I don't know why I started this but I know it will be good to get those creative juices flowing, which I deem as very important. It may not spark up much interest from the outside world but even for me alone it's a great place to express and share creative experiences.

I don't really know what to put up for a first post, what do you do?! It's a tricky situation. I think I'll post whatever I feel like on this blog, but I can garuntee it will probably evolve round many feelings towards great tv shows (ahem, 'Game of Thrones'.) and other forms of media, some photography and music, oh most definitely expect music appreciation.

For now, I'm going to leave this extremely interesting blog post with a couple of links of work I've already co-created on my course. Hopefully expect something up soon for Firle as well.




Sophie xo

Persona - Episode 1 - Twenty-One from Brandon Ham on Vimeo.