10 incredible music acts I have to see live before I die

If you want to get a taste for my favourite artists and the music that gets me dancing and singing along, take a quick scroll down my Instagram feed for just some of the incredible acts I stalk for pictures of their latest incredible performances. After last year turned out to be such an incredible year for seeing so many of the acts I had been longing to see live for years, I am even more determined to get round more of my favourites in the next few years. I cannot describe my excitement at getting to see Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Major Lazer, Beyonce, Bastille, Of Monsters and Men, Julian Marley, Paloma Faith, Sub Focus, Chase and Status, Pendulum and so many others perform live in the last 12 months. But as I tick each off, I add even more acts to my list and it grows even longer. Here are just some of the incredible acts I am determined to see live in the next few years:

1. Steve Aoki – The king of crazy. His performances are high-energy, complete chaos and simply ridiculous – everything I love about live shows and every time I see pictures of him leaping into the crowd or shooting off fire extinguishers or throwing cake at the crowd, I just wish I was there in the thick of it.
2. The Prodigy – I just LOVE their music and have done for years but to be honest, I have seen live footage of the crowds at their gigs and I’m more than a little bit scared of leaping in there. Things often get a lot moshier than I am willing to go, and I’m not sure I want my face smashed in! Knife Party are another one that although I would love to see, I’m a bit scared! Ha.
3. The Chemical Brothers – Like Fatboy, the sound of the nineties and my youth. It’s the music I grew up with and I just know it would be an incredible experience to hear live, plus I know how much those songs get the crowd going even now.
4. Annie Mac – I missed out on seeing her at Parklife two summers ago because of the queue at the gate, but am still desperate to go to a club night or festival where she is DJing, her set lists fill my iPod and her Friday night sessions on Radio One always get me dancing and wanting to go out.
5. Kanye West – See, it’s not all DJs! Love his music and know he would put on an awesome show. Would also be happy to see Drake or Pharrell live as well.
6. Daft Punk – A bit like The Chemical Brothers, they are just an institution and I loved their new album, had it on repeat in my car, so I think it would be amazing to see them live.
7. The Arctic Monkeys – Such good music, a bit of a different scene to all the dance music acts but just one of those ones you know all the words to. Their new stuff is great and although their attitude at the BRITs stank, I still would love to see them. To be in the crowd at a festival when they dropped bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor would be a fantastic experience.
8. The XX – Their album was just stunning and is still my go-to album on my iPod, I never get bored of its stunning sound and I just know it would be such a magical experience to hear live. I would also like to see Chvrches and London Grammar.
9. Cee-Lo Green/Gnarls Barkley – Do I even need to explain this one? That voice? Those songs! And that suit… Winner. Simple as.
10. Paolo Nutini – He is just dreamy, and his music is beautiful. He’s a singer that I have liked for years now and often they don’t stick in my mind that long, or I don’t continue to like their music as their style changes. Paolo has changed his style but I still love it.

I’m sure there are many more I could list and I could go on forever, but these are just some of those that immediately came to mind. He’s hoping I get the chance to see some of them live very soon!

Who would you love to see perform live and why? What was your favourite live act of last year?

Lots to look forward to this March

Swan Lake

Any of my readers will know I had a pretty terrible start to the year and that all of this drama has carried on throughout the last few weeks – but thankfully I’m starting to reach the other side of things. You know how it is, when you are in a situation you often struggle to see beyond it and to put things in perspective until suddenly, one day, you start to realise that things will sort themselves out.

With everything going on, I haven’t really been in the mood to do the usual of going out for meals, to gigs and the like, so you may have noticed the lack of reviews over the past two months. I will soon be changing that, because I have suddenly realised quite how many things I have lined up for March – it’s going to be a busy month for shows, theatre and music, which will be great to really get back to normal. Here are some of the fantastic shows I have coming up:

Ella Eyre

I will be seeing the English Youth Ballet performing Swan Lake at Norwich Theatre Royal to start with –  this I am very excited about having not been to the ballet for several years. I absolutely adore the story of the white and black swan and am really looking forward to seeing a national touring company perform live on stage – especially since the tickets are official review ones thanks to a huge entertainments feature I wrote about the show.

Comedian Miles Jupp is also on the list for a night of hilarity at the Arts Centre in my home town – the tickets were a Christmas present and I am looking forward to seeing another comedian because it has been a while since the last one. I haven’t seen any of Jupp before now, so am intrigued to see what kind of set he will be doing. From the blurb on the website, it seems he discusses everything from fatherhood to other people’s pants!

Jim Cartwright’s Two will take me back to the gorgeous Westacre Theatre with my family for a night. All of the productions at this theatre are of fantastic quality and I always look forward to reviewing any of the shows because they are just so easy to write about! I’m looking forward to this one because it is so different to any I have seen before – mixing business and marriage with a lot of oddball characters.

Back to XOYO London for another amazing gig – Ella Eyre tickets were another Christmas present and I am so excited to see her perform live, especially after the BRITS! She has such an incredible voice and I loved seeing her perform with Rudimental but it will be totally different seeing her perform on her own. And do I even have to say, I have incredible hair envy of her locks.

Finally, my Christmas present to my Grandad was tickets for the whole family to go and see West End show, Dreamboats and Petticoats, on tour in my home town. He absolutely loves the music from the shows and we buy him a CD every Christmas, so when I heard the show was coming to us, I just had to get him tickets. Looking forward to a nice family evening out.

Dreamboats and Petticoats

I will review all of these shows for you guys and I can’t wait to share these with you all. I’m also really excited to have so much lined up for next month – it will be nice to have some fun after a tough few months. After a few gorgeous sunny days, it seems like spring is well and truly on the way so I see it as a good time to put things in the past and move on to summer fun.

Have you seen any of these shows – what did you think? What else have you guys got planned for March?

Basement Jaxx blew it out of the park with plenty of bass and soul

Now you would have thought that two gigs in a row was a bad idea, but I have a habit of signing myself up for these things – I just can’t bear to miss anything that good! My boyfriend bought me Basement Jaxx tickets for my birthday and it has been a long summer waiting for the day to arrive. Then the FatBoy Slim tickets went on sale and we just had to go to that as well! Luckily they were on consecutive nights so it saved us the train fares on separate journeys, but it did mean two expensive nights out in London, plus accommodation and travel. On this night we stayed in the London Balham Travelodge, which I would recommend to anyone who is going to a Brixton Academy gig, it is right next to the tube station and so easy to get between them, close enough for a taxi if it finishes late but amazing access to the tube as well to save costs.

After a heavy and long night out at FatBoy Slim that had seen us partying until around 5am at a second club that had a pool in it, we had spent the day wandering around the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland eating moose and venison burgers, drinking hot mulled cider and wine. It had been a long day with very little sleep, but nothing was going to dampen our spirits. After one night spent raving to the soundtrack to my nineties childhood, I was eager to start dancing to the amazing hits of Basement Jaxx and relive my love of Bingo Bango, Good Luck and Romeo!

The group started with a powerful introduction by the incredibly soulful singers – all fabulous women with huge, multicoloured hairdos and elaborate outfits. It was clear that a lot of thought had been put into every aspect of the staging, with one of the singers being bathed in the spotlight on the balcony above the waiting crowd, before hurriedly making it to the main stage for the rest of the song. From the very beginning, the group had the entire crowd dancing and singing along at the top of their lungs to every word. It was as though Mardi Gras had exploded on to the stage, but with added soul, attitude and bass. Despite the huge range in ages, from the youngsters coming out with their mates, or even their mums, to the older groups of women and middle-aged couples who made up the crowd – everyone was bonded by their love of the music from whichever era.

The gig was explosive, and amazingly even managed to outdo the Major Lazer one I saw there last month. The showmanship was spectacular and just kept surprising the audience, from an incredible body-popping dancer who writhed her way across the stage, to dancers in morph suits with lights all over the front, to a huge robot that came on stage and did the robot dance with a bunch of gorillas! It was chaos, but well organised and perfectly put together. My favourite moments had to be when the group had a slightly more chilled number followed by the huge Good Luck and Bingo Bango – both huge, loud and explosive songs that had me screeching out the lyrics. My boyfriend and I were dancing like maniacs and I couldn’t keep my feet still – it was amazing. A moment that gave me chills, and still does now, was when a stunning ballet dancer reminiscent of Black Swan took to the stage and delicately danced her way around the stage while one of the singers began to sing the lyrics to Raindrops. Amazingly, I had managed to forget that these guys sang that song, despite loving it so completely when it was released. But hearing it sung so beautifully, so delicately and yet so powerfully was incredible. She stripped the song bare and, in contrast to the huge bangers they had just been playing, seemed so stunning in comparison.

I was also impressed by the performance of one of their latest releases, Back to the Wild, which to be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of when I had heard it previously at home or on the radio, but which had a huge impact live and although not as catchy as their older stuff, it certainly made everyone dance and sing along, including myself. Finally, my absolute highlight of the night was, without a shadow of a doubt, hearing the start of Where’s Your Head At. It was one of those moments, like when the Project X theme tune comes on in a club when everyone is smashed, when everyone turns round to each other with their mouths agape and then loses the plot seconds later. It is one of those songs that, ever since seeing it performed live on TV, I have always wanted to see live at a gig and I am so glad it has happened. The atmosphere was beyond anything I have ever experienced – it was electric and sizzling.

It sounds silly, but I’m getting chills just thinking about how amazing this gig was. I am so lucky to have experienced two of my top acts in two nights and I will never forget this weekend – I just hope that I am lucky enough to see them again in the years to come. The nineties were my favourite decade for music because so many of my favourite vintage acts were at their height at this time, but I’m glad to see now that electronic dance music is making it into the top 10 – it is about time we escaped talentless, boring pop music – I can’t deal with any more cutesy love songs by kiddies too young to have experienced their first kiss! Give me hard, dirty, filthy base music in a dark club or a huge venue and I’m happy.

Review: Sub Focus – why I will never understand the point of a mosh pit…

Sub Focus at UEA, picture by Jade Mynott

After a lot of excitement and plenty of waiting impatiently for October 26 to come around, I finally headed to the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, to see Sub Focus perform live for the second time. Now I absolutely LOVE Sub Focus, his music is exactly the type of drum and bass, dubstep and house combination that drives me wild when I hit the dance floor and often separates me from my friends who are not quite so excited by dance music.

Luckily going to Hideout Festival earlier this summer helped introduce me to some new raving buddies, while reinforcing for me how cool my current ones were – when going to gigs like these and planning to rave all night it is VERY important to choose pals that can keep up and will be with you until the very end of the night.

From left, clockwise, DJ Mark Malle, myself, Jade Mynott, Lizzie Russell and Vikki Kinnear

From left, Piers Walton, my boyfriend and his housemate Mark Wolverson, and myself – the three best Lil’s

I was partying with my number one raving buddy and boyfriend, Mark Wolverson, his housemate, Piers Walton, DJ Mark Malle and Vikki Kinnear – The original Hideout Festival crew, and two new additions in Jade Mynott and Lizzie Russell. All of us are big music-lovers and most of us prefer dance music and often attend nights like these whether at Fabric in London, Warehouse Project in Manchester, or anywhere else we can find – in fact some of us are currently making plans to go to Tomorrowland Festival in Belgium next summer.

I have to be honest and say that although a huge Sub Focus fan, I was not as impressed with the release of Torus, preferring the massive banger tunes like Tidal Wave, Out the Blue and Could This Be Real which feature strong vocals to an incredible beat – all three are powerful songs in their own way and the reaction from the crowd when they were played said it all in terms of popularity.

I think that Torus is a bit of a grower, all of the songs sounded so much better live than they did when playing in my car, but still not up to the high quality I expected – I wonder if perhaps this is a sign that Nick Douwma is changing his sound with the times and is perhaps losing some of the qualities that I preferred about his music. I actually spoke to a couple of people later in the night who had been at the gig and they said a similar thing, that they were really impressed with the gig generally but that the quality of the music was not as they expected.

Despite this slight disappointment at the change in sound for Sub Focus, I have to say that I still have my favourite songs on the new album and amongst these are the obvious Out the Blue and Tidal Wave, but of the newer releases I also quite like Turn Back Time and You Make it Better – they certainly got me, and the rest of the crowd, dancing.

Jade Mynott, myself and Lizzie Russell at the gig

Despite my slight disappointment at some of the songs, I was very excited by the huge crowd that had turned out to see the gig and the incredible show delivered by Sub Focus. You could tell that the last time I saw him it was very early in his career compared to his success now – money had been poured into the performance which even featured a bit of a light show that dazzled and amazed the ravers as the twinkling spirals revolved – see top pic.

It was very impressive and the show led on very well from support act, Fred V & Grafix, who I managed to catch the last 20 minutes of – they were great and another pair of awesome DJs to add to my list of people I’ve seen. I love their remixes and often realise after that a great version of a song was actually mixed by them.

Overall it was a great gig in a fantastic venue with a really good crowd – everyone was really friendly and genuinely just looking to have a good time. I didn’t see any real trouble and everyone left with a big smile on their face. But, as usual, there were the small group of people who felt the need to try and start a mosh pit in the centre of the dance floor and star shoving people about. I don’t mind people having fun, but I will never understand where the fun is in a mosh pit – especially after seeing a girl get her face split open at V Festival and continuing to smash about while she bled copiously.

It is a very immature and sad way to spend a gig – especially for those who then boast about it later on via Twitter and Facebook about how they elbowed someone in the face, used it as an excuse to punch someone for fun or lost their shoes. What is the point? Fair enough at a gig you are bound to get pushed about in a busy crowd, but why does this mean you have to shove back and cause trouble? I actually broke up a potential fight in the crowd that night and am glad I managed to or me and my friends could have been caught in the crossfire. Luckily most people around us could hold their own in terms of being pushed about and we all worked together to keep enough space to breathe and have a dance.

Despite this is was an amazing gig and I can’t wait for the next one – Major Lazer in two weeks time! After the gig we headed to my favourite Norwich club, Hideout, where the great music continued thanks to  Joshua Roberts, Dunny of Toolroom Records and Pete Graham for Sadiqi: Our 1st Birthday – a top event and we couldn’t stop dancing until the club closed and we were forced to leave. An amazing night with amazing friends at great venues.

Me and Mark in Hideout

The best is yet to come – forgetting my post-festival blues

After a busy summer of travelling around the country, and further afield, to some really amazing festivals – much of which was spent either looking forward to the next event or enjoying the moment at one. I was left feeling pretty bereft when it hit me that there were no more as the season drew to a close. My excitement over my promotion to editor of This Festival Feeling helped to ease my post-festival blues for a short time as the thought of next summer’s festivals sent a thrill down my spine.

But now that too has eased and one must think ahead to the wintery months ahead in which I plan to continue dancing and raving with the same good friends I spent my summer with. It’s funny, during the day I’m the sort of girl that loves vintage clothes, acoustic music and a good book. But at night, I’m the girl who lives in her denim shorts and bum bag, and dances until the sun rises in trainers.

Right now, it is just two weeks until I do just that in Norwich, when I will be seeing one of my favourite DJs, Sub Focus, playing at the University of East Anglia. I downloaded his new album just yesterday and have yet to listen to it, but I think it will definitely spice up my workout and drive to work this week. Here is the video for one of my favourite songs by him, it’s just one that always gets me dancing and singing along.

He headlined the dance stage at Glastonbury this year, and I was gutted he wasn’t at Hideout Festival. I have seen him before at UEA and it was an amazing night, I’m sure it will be even more so this time because we are taking along some amazing friends, and joining in a Zombie Fun Run during the day! There are still tickets available here if anyone else is interested! I’ll be sure to post a review of the night afterwards.