New Music & Hop Farm Festival

The best thing about living in London (even as I type that it doesn't seem real still) - is having the option of seeing great live music at any given time of the week.

The worst things about living in London is that I would need to sell my car in order to afford to go to the big ones. I far prefer a nice intimate gig. The difference between seeing John Mayer play Shepherds Bush Empire in 2004, and seeing him play the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan in 2007 was incredible. The first was like a lovely hidden secret. He talked to the crowd, he hadn't yet crossed the line into mega-idiot-star. It was bliss. I even sqeezed up to the front and stood with my arms propped and folded on the stage. The second was so huge, I couldn't even see him. There were so many pre-teen girls screaming because they 'so related' to his music, and he had no rapport with the audience at all. He had turned into a mainstream monster and worst of all - Jessica Simpson was there. That's $60 i'll never bloody see again.

Give me the first any day.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to see Ellie Goulding play at Dingwalls in Camden. Great little venue, and perfect for her. Everyone there was there because they knew they were onto something good. She belted it out with her Bjork/Julia Stone-esque pipes and made the crowd feel like they had got their money's worth. Her album is on constant reply on my iphone at the mo. Boootiful tunes.

My favourite thing is to find out about something good before the masses - which is why I am SO excited about getting some weekend tickets to the Hop Farm Festival!

It seems to be a new-ish festival in Kent, with massive potential to be the 'go-to' festival in the coming years. It's the same feeling I get about the Forfey Festival in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It seems more organic, creative and without all the crazy trimmings of the bigger festivals. This years line up (so far) proves they are onto a good thing:

Bob Dylan
Mumford and Sons
Seasick Steve
Laura Marling
Peter Doherty (bah)
The Magic Numbers
& Foy Vance

FABULOUS!

Get on it, the tickets are gonna go fast...

New Starts

Hello peeps,

I know it's been a while - but a lot has happened! With the fabulous trends of twitter and fb taking over our networking time, I realised that good old blogs have been a bit neglected - and that makes me sad. I have had a personal blog for about 6 years, and I can't bring myself to delete it. It would be like chucking my diary in the fire. But, I need a fresh focus.

I also know that stuff on the music front has been really quiet recently, and that's because my husband and I have recently moved to London. This means lots of new things for us: New home, new jobs, new friends, new pace of life. It's taken a good few months to really adjust our lifestyles to the hustle and bustle of the big smoke, but we are loving it.

Now that a routine has clicked in, I've started to feel the pang for that creative outlet again - so here we are! This is my attempt to get back on the music/creative train and throw my thoughts, inspirations and aspirations out there again.

I intend to make this blog a bit more generic, about life in London at the minute, as I collect my ambition and retrack where life is taking me - rather than solely focusing on the music stuff. It will eventually all blend together...

Thank you for sticking with me - for supporting us through this big move - for asking me when I'm coming back with more music, when I'll be gigging in London etc. It means a lot.

FYI - the 'My Brother's Keeper' EP is still available on itunes and CD Baby. If you haven't yet got yourself a copy...

Big London Lovin,

Mx