Caught Live: The Family Rain.

Fresh from supporting roles on the Jake Bugg and Miles Kane tours, not to mention the trip to Mallorca Rocks with Biffy Clyro, The Family Rain hit Reds Bar at Northumbria University on Friday night, and it was obvious these amazing opportunities had rubbed off well on the three brothers.  They oozed confidence during their performance and had a lot more stage presence and banter with the crowd than during their spring tour, and each track was delivered to an exceptionally high standard (which ironically can’t be said for artists a lot more popular).

For those of you unfamiliar with the band, The Family Rain are an indie rock group, reminiscent of The Black Keys and The Strokes, from Bath: twin brothers Tim and Will, and older brother Ollie. Having all been in independent fruitful projects, the brothers joined as a unit in 2011 and their success has snowballed from there, so much so the band practically had their pick of labels, including Lily Allen's In The Name Of.

The band opened their gig with much-loved track ‘Carnival’, and encouraged the large crowd to join in the performance and come alive, a welcome change from the support act! Aside from the crowd pleasers, The Family Rain played some never-heard-before tracks which were really interesting and brilliant rock-pop tunes. You know you’ve got a winner if the crowd are singing along to a song they’ve never heard before after a few minutes. These unknown tracks are all from the debut album, scheduled for release in February 2014. The reception they got in Reds Bar indicates that this is going to be one hell of a debut album.

The stand out track of the gig has to be ‘Pushing It’, which has been my favourite of the band since I first started listening to them at the beginning of the year. It has the kind of intro that inspires the inner rock god in you: cue lots of head nodding and arm raising as you sing along to the tantalising moody vocals. What I like most about this track is how it is almost completely reliant on guitar; the percussion is only really added to emphasise the dramatic vocal sections, the bass does everything else.

Despite the path their career has took them this year – rubbing shoulders with Miles Kane and Simon Neil over the summer – The Family Rain are still the same down-to-earth, friendly guys that I met during their spring tour. After their set, the band stopped back to sign merchandise and tickets, and were more than happy to get photos with everyone. It’s really refreshing to see a band so appreciative of their fans and easy to chat to. And with this winning formula, it’s difficult to not envisage a promising future for this talented bunch. 

Introducing: Young Aviators.

Young Aviators are a group of three lads born in Northern Ireland, but now embracing life past the border in Glasgow. Signed by student-run label Electric Honey, their commercial debut album, Self Help, offers a pop/indie collection of music that makes you smile; they're new to the music scene and with lots to sing about.

Hailed as a newer younger Snow Patrol, I couldn't resist a listen to the album. I bloody love Snow Patrol. And I'm so glad I did check the band out, although I have to disagree about their comparison with Gary Lightbody and co. In fact, the only thing they have in common with Snow Patrol is their Irish-ness.

After listening to the album in full, I realised the band reminded me of Kodaline, but a lot more upbeat and drummy. 'Forward Thinking', the second track on the album, is brilliantly upbeat with a lot of banging percussion and indie vocals. But it still has an important message, with comments on society at the minute, this song seems to be the anthem of a generation.

 

The album isn't all sunshine and rainbows;their bounciness is contrasted by sedate numbers such as 'Sunshine on the Motorway', which ensures you don't get overwhelmed by the upbeat tracks, to the point of annoyance. 'Sunrise on the Motorway' sounds very dramatic and melancholic, which is a bit of a shock as the first track, especially with the bright artwork suggesting just a lot of fun pop. This rocky edge of Young Aviators is intriguing, and probably my favourite 'edge' of the band. It manages to be energetic yet sedate at the same time. Crazy.

 

Despite the album being relatively short, it is jam packed full of promise and great indie tunes. Yes, there's a lot of bands around with a similar sound, but there's always room for one more. They're obviously onto a winning formula, and they're running with it (or should that be flying?).

Listen to the album online here. You can also find the band on Spotify.

The Return of Fresh Meat.

With the title of Fresher cruelly stolen from them, are the gang from 28 Hartnell Avenue ready to settle down in their second year studies? It doesn’t look like it. After all, second year doesn’t count too. Right?

Fresh Meat is such an agonisingly awkward, yet embarrassingly accurate, representation of what we all go through when we first experience complete freedom. We all know a guy who thinks with his dick; a friend who puts all their efforts into getting drunk and absolutely none into their studies; and a mate whose attempts to be cool are so see-through it hurts. This is what makes Fresh Meat such a winning formula – pulling in an average of a million viewers per episode - and this new eight-part series promises to be just as full of mishaps and bad decisions as the first two. With previous bad decisions ranging from shagging your professor, to changing your degree to drama to impress a girl, can the housemates get even more stupid this series?

I wouldn’t put it past them.

From the brains behind the brilliant Peep Show, Fresh Meat is hitting our screens for its third series this week. But just because the gang are technically no longer freshers, that doesn’t stop them living the freshers lifestyle. In fact, with new housemate Candice (a sheltered fresher) to take under their wing, the housemates pull out all the stops to look cool. Obviously, they fail miserably. Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie) and Vod (Zawe Ashton) peer pressure the poor girl to do drugs in her first few days away from home, leading to some pretty full on snogging and then, very shortly after, lots of vomming.

JP (Jack Whitehall) is yet again putting all his efforts into pulling, rather than actually getting a degree. Christening 28 Hartnell Avenue as ‘Pussy Haven’ and creating ‘Team Hard-On’ – which is arguably worse than the infamous Pussy Patrol à la The Inbetweeners – doesn’t seem to impress the ladies. Howard (Greg McHugh), on the other hand, seems to be a hit with one fresher in particular. Is love, or rather ‘fuckageddon’ (one of JP’s brilliant coinages this series), on the horizon for the socially awkward ‘pig man’. With a title like that, we can pretty much guarantee he will screw it up. 

The ‘Ross and Rachel of Manchester’, Kingsley and Josie (played by Joe Thomas and Kimberley Nixon), begin the series 9 hours apart as Josie was forced to transfer to Southampton after causing serious damage to someone’s face when operating dental machinery half drunk (we’ve all been there). But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t feature in this series. Oh no, we get to see her on screen, on a screen, as she seems to spend her second freshers’ week sat in her room talking to her old friends on FaceTime. With Kingsley admitting they are ‘over like Dover’, is there any chance of a reconciliation? If writing a novel for her over the summer doesn’t win her over, I don’t know what will. ‘Cos that’s not weird, or creepy. At all.

We’ve had the year of beer, the year of fear is still a long way off. Second year is the year of the spear. I wonder how much ‘spearing’ will actually take place this year. My bet is not a lot: let’s face it, they’re all awful at pulling. Women, not viewers, they’ve got that nailed. 

Caught Live: Tom Odell @ Newcastle O2 Academy

Having been an avid follower of the progress of Tom Odell ever since his breakthrough at the start of the year, the chance to see him live was an opportunity I was not willing to pass up on. Despite my love for his music, however, I was slightly wary that Odell wouldn’t put on much of a performance, and with only one album to his name, there was the worry that he didn’t have enough well known material to really draw in the crowd.

I was, of course, completely wrong on both accounts. The sold out show was a spectacle of musical talent and energy. There was no need for any showy stage design; a plain curtain bearing his name, a few lights, and a piano, was all the necessary equipment to provide over an hour of entertainment and excitement. The set list cleverly interweaved Odell’s big hits, such as ‘Can’t Pretend’ and ‘Another Love’, with less known tracks from the album, like ‘Sirens’. There was even a surprise appearance from The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ and (my personal favourite track of the night) ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You’.

Yes. Really.

The shock encore rendition of the Etta James classic was an immediate hit with the crowd and had everyone in disbelief and hysterics simultaneously and showcased Odell’s personality; when listening to his album, it is sometimes difficult to remember that he is still a young lad with a sense of humour and that he doesn’t always feel so depressed over the state of his love life as his tracks imply.

Throughout the performance, Odell was spot on both vocally and on the piano. Passion and intensity oozed from each chord that was produced from his chaotic banging on the keys, and the crowded intimate setting was perfect acoustically to emphasise the dramatic percussion that complemented Odell’s energy.

 The stand out track for me was ‘I Know’, which was already my favourite from the album. Tragically melancholic by nature, this track transcended brilliantly in a live capacity and had everybody singing their hearts out to the chorus, despite being one of the lesser known tracks from Long Way Down. ‘Another Love’ was also a spectacle of a performance, with Odell almost jumping through the stage with enthusiasm as he magnificently hit every note on the piano.

The opportunity to see such a talent as Tom Odell in a relatively intimate venue and at such a low price is unlikely to arise again anytime soon. With his popularity soaring on both sides of the Atlantic – Odell has just finished a tour of the States – I anticipate that his next nationwide tour will be to much bigger audiences and at much higher a cost. Easily the best gig I’ve been to this year, I can’t wait to see what Odell presents us with in his next album and his future live dates.