Set List

LEAFY
UNSMART LADY
STRONG FEELINGS
HER HIPPO
SIT DOWN MEAL
VIKING HAIR
MORE BIG BIRDS
TRADITIONAL FISH
NEW LONG LEG
MAGIC OF MEGHAN
TONY SPEAKS!
SCRATCHCARD LANYARD

At the beginning of 2021, it looked like by September we would all be vaccinated with very effective vaccines and life would be returning to normal. I started to buy tickets with increased expectations. A few in July and August to tip my toes in, with an eye on restarting regular gigging in September. Then Delta hit and things changed.

Figures weren’t great in July when we opened up. So I cancelled those early gigs. I decided to give my first planned gig in August a miss and then later found out several people had come down with COVID after the gig. As August went by, it was clear the vaccines were less effective at stopping a Delta infection than they were with the original virus. While they significantly reduced deaths, many were still being hit hard by Delta and suffering long COVID. Disappointingly, it was also clear the majority of venues were not going to ask for masks, vaccine passports or lateral flow tests. Something I think was a mistake.

This changed my plans. 

I decided to try and be sensible and reduce the number of gigs to one during weekdays and Daylight Music on a Saturday. I also decided to continue to mask up and to do lateral flow tests before every gig. I figured it is no good being at the front giving the band COVID. Disappointingly at times, I’ve been the only person wearing a mask in the audience and I guess many are not doing lateral flow tests.

I think it’s fair to say, gigging in general was affected by cancellations due to COVID infections. I think I missed about half a dozen gigs between September and December due to them being cancelled or rescheduled. If I had a sniffle, I also gave the gig a miss. I also missed a few after being pinged at the LIFE gig. Then to make matters worse, the new Omicron strain hit gigging in December leading to mass cancellations. While this strain doesn’t look as deadly. It’s wiping out gigs and tours with January cancellations starting. In fact, as I write this, I’ve just had a positive test and I’ve had to cancel Rockaway Beach at the beginning of January. There’s going to be a lot of cancelations over the next month.

So this wasn’t a good year for gigging. I only managed 23 gigs this year, rather than the 60 or so I had pencilled in.

But we did get to go to gigs. 

At times I didn’t think it would ever happen. So I had to wear a mask. Doing a LFT is hardly taxing. I may have picked ‘safer’ venues with good ventilation and less reliance on tube travel. But these choices were a small price to pay to be back seeing live music.

So I guess, given where we were last year, 2021 was a good year after all. 

Best Festival: Wide Awake Festival

A new London festival and a rather fine addition to the London festival scene. From the fabulous Bad Vibrations team, the festival had a brilliant lineup featuring IDLES, Murder Capital, Dry Cleaning, Black Country New Road, Black Midi and many others. Located in Brockwell Park, the location worked really well. Definitely a festival to keep an eye on.

Best Gig: All

It’s difficult to give out a best gig this year. Just going to a gig after nearly 18 months was a life affirming experience. Returning to Daylight Music was a brilliant. Catching up with Sea Power was a tonic. Going to my first real gig with Pozi was a really life lifting a weight off me. Nadine Shah impressively owned the 100 Club, reminding us how music can be so vital. But it would be unfair to single out one gig. So this year, I’m going to give the award to gigging in general

Band of the year: Dry Cleaning

Dry Cleaning released their critically acclaimed debut album, New Long Leg. They also played a number of festivals including a great set at Wide Awake Festival. Pretty much everyone who sees them loves them. There’s something special about the way Florence delivers her stories while the rest of the band create music that spirals around her. 

Best new band: Wet Leg?

With one of the catchiest songs in years. Wet Leg show a lot of promise. I only managed to see them once and the event felt very ‘industry’. It will be interesting seeing them with normal punters later in the year.

Best gig photo: Sea Power at Derby

Let’s face it. This is what we’ve missed. It was so good to have live music back.

Album of the Year: Dry Cleaning, New Long Leg

1. New Long Leg – Dry Cleaning
2. For the First Time – Black Country, New Road
3. Bright Green Field – Squid
4. Uppers – TV Priest
5. A Common Turn – Anna B Savage

• Art of Lying – IST IST
• System – Calum Easter
• Western Spagetti – Blood Wizard
• On All Fours – Goat Girl
• Humanity – Henrik Appel
• Island – Corrina Repp
• A Common Turn – Anna B Savage (5)
• Spider Tales – Jake Blount
• Quale Futuro? – Qlowski
• Endless Boogie – Admonitions
• None Fiction – NOV3L
• Collapsed in Sunbeams – Arlo Parks
• Drunk Tank Pink – Shame
• Uppers- TV Priest (4)
• The Waves Pt.1 – Kele
• Moon-Drenched – John Dwyer
• The Obvious – Ed Dowie
• For the First Time – Black Country, New Road (2)
• New Long Leg – Dry Cleaning (1)
• Bright Green Field – Squid (3)
• Back to the Future – Sons of Kemet
• G_d’s Pee At State’s End! – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
• Welfare Jazz – Viagra Boys
• Crawler – ILDES
• Busy Guy – Stephen Fretwell

Daylight Music will unfortunately be taking a short break as it raises enough money for a new season. I can’t wait for it to come back. If you’d like to help see their JustGiving page

Johny Pictish

Molly Linen

Molly Moore’s Mystic Business

I had been really looking forward to this gig. LIFE are a fantastic live band. It seemed like lots of other people I know felt the same. Tonight’s gigs seemed to be full of people I know. Clearly I know a lot of people with good taste.

Supporting LIFE was Nuha Ruby Ra. I’m really not sure how to categorise her. ‘Art’ probably needs to be pre-pended to the category, her music is very much part of a performance piece. Starting off with a stereotypical ‘Native American war cry’ using two microphones over a dark industrial influenced electronic music. I really liked it. I reminded me of the 90s industrial scene with the heavy use of samples and dark soundscapes. While her performance kept my attention, I would love to see her with a band behind her. It could be truly next level stuff.

LIFE have always been a mixture of catchy songs and great live performances. In Mezz, they have a truly great front person, in the Jarvis Cocker mould. A gawky self confidence, with self aware cheekiness. The rest of the band support him, but never play second fiddle.

After nearly two years away. Tonight they started off with a bang, with their hit Popular Music. A perfect way to get the crowd going after such a long time away. This gave them the momentum to throw in new songs, which signal a change to their sound. The pop edge seemingly tempered with a more contemporary post-punk sound that wouldn’t be out of place amongst bands like Fontaines. While I can understand why they might want to move in that direction – I hope they don’t move too far away from their indie pop sensibilities, as there is no one else who does what they do. But what we heard tonight, was good, leaving me eager to see where they head with their new album.

Set list

• Popular music
• Big Moon Lake
• Moral Fibre
• Shipping Forecast
• Hollow Thing
• Niceties
• Incomplete
• Almost Home
• Never Love Again
• Beautifully Skint
• F.W.N
• Self Portrait
• Excites Me
• Grown Up
• Bum Hour
• Half Pint Fatherhood

Earlier this year, Amyl released their second album, ‘Comfort to Me’. Musically, it showed the band had moved on with more complicated and tuneful songs. So I thought it was worth catching their ‘album release’ in-store, especially as they’ve gathered a good following and no longer play such small venues in London.

Tonight’s gig didn’t vastly change my previous opinion. In Amy Taylor they have a great front woman. She was chatty and funny and performs with a lot of energy. Despite the album being more tuneful, live she was still very shouty and again, while I enjoyed the gig, I wasn’t left feeling like I needed to rush out to see them again. Worth catching them to see if they are your thing.

First up, Hackoustic’s Tom Fox came together with saxophonist Samuel Sharp. Tom’s homemade instruments blending with Samuel’s sax

Next up, a first for Daylight, a mini opera. Alya Al-Sultani telling the story of her grandmother. The performance featured audience interaction with a ‘paper orchestra’. Unfortunately Gawain Hewitt who was meant to be accompanying Alya was ill. But he was there in spirit through an app the audience interacted with. A fascinating first.

Closing this Daylight was another ad hoc collaboration between Lula.xyz and Aby Vulliamy who literally came together for the first time for the performance that mixed musical gloves and viola.

Have to admit. What with all the travel restrictions still in place. I was pleasantly surprised to see a full band. I thought it might have just been the singer with a keyboard and laptop backing track. Luckily, they could just about fit onto the Rough Trade stage.

The introduction to the album features an orchestrated section. Clearly bonkers (in a good way). Haley Dahl, complete with cape and velvet suit, started the gig by conducting her invisible orchestra. It was a sign that this was going to be a gloriously glam cabaret as they played the album in full. Musically, this was pure art pop. At times consciously pompous, while pulling back in all the right places. I was struck at times listening to the album of a Kate Bush influence and tonight with all the theatre, it was there for all to see. This is performance art, not merely music. Definitely worth catching.

Welcoming the audience as they arrived to St John’s in Bethnal Green, Paul Cuddeford’s blues on a steel guitar gave the audience a hint of what to expect. Today’s curation is very much a near jazz experience. Music that skirts around the edges of jazz but shares much of its ethos. Something the discerning Jazz audience seemed to engage with. Well most did, apparently two ladies left after the first act proclaiming to the volunteers on the door ‘that wasn’t jazz’. Nice to see they have such an open mind to new music

The offending artists were BAG. They mix spoken word with various electronic sounds and music. To be fair to the two ladies. No it wasn’t ‘jazz’. But there was a theme today. Terry’s choices put vocals at the fore. In this case, the vocals used to deconstruct our expectations of musical structures – a bit like the improvisation bits in jazz. Vocals speeding up and slowing down, accenting different bits of variable length sentences. All the time, forcing the music to shift form. I can see the connection. But to be honest, who cares. It was a fascinating performance.

Deconstructing music continued with a pair thrown together by Terry, soprano Jan Goodkin and pianist Rod Melvin. Who explored Terry’s idea that the songs of the Smiths have some similarity to plainsong chants. Again, plainsong is not Jazz. But the idea of two musicians who hadn’t met, coming together and using the rules of plainsong to work with each other’s performance has some of the spirit of jazz.

I’ve never liked the Smiths. Or rather, I’ve never liked Smiths when sung by Morrissey. I enjoy their songs far more when covered by other bands without Morrissey’s annoying voice. But I will begrudgingly admit the music and lyrics are often brilliant. Today, stripped back to a minimalistic interpretation on the piano and Jan’s terrific singing of plainsong, the songs also gained an absurdist humour that I would never have connected to the Smiths.

The two ladies would have hated it. I loved it

Continuing with the theme. Jem Moore gave us his fascinating interpretation of Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy. His bass playing perfectly complementing the darkness in the poem.

The two ladies would have hated it.

Closing Terry’s curation was his own band, The Near Jazz Experience and for once there was some improvised jazz. Always musical and never inappropriately noodley, I’m sure this was more of what those two ladies were looking for. Although, I’m not sure they would have appreciated the NJE’s excellent take on Hendrix. Maybe they were right to leave after all? Me, I loved every second

Daylight’s strength has always been its ability to challenge. Occasionally these invited curations play it safe. But more often than not, the curator rises to the challenge of selecting a range of music that embraces Daylight’s ethos. Terry’s session more than did that. Hopefully some of today’s audience will have understood what Daylight Music is about and enjoyed their experience and return in future.