it's a new dawn, it's a new day

 

Hey everyone :)

I thought it was time to get some creativity flowing around here again, so I have decided to re-kindle this blog! Since I've now got my fashion blog, RosieGlow, I'm going to make Cider With Rosie a purely music blog. As you can see in the picture above, I had a little notebook planning session, so I'm just writing this post to let you know the ideas and features I've decided to start writing on this blog. 

I've been really dedicated to my fashion blog and I thought it was about time I did the same for music. Music will always be my first love, and recently I've had dreams blossoming about a future in music journalism, or radio or something of the sort. So where better to start experimenting than on my blog? I'm also going to be writing for my University newspaper, The Mancunion, in the Music section but I thought this was a great place to get some writing practice!

In case you're wondering what sort of music it is I'm going to be writing about on here, I don't think I will ever have a theme or be stuck to any particular genre. Although you would probably call me an indie girl at heart, I seriously love all music and all genres and listen and watch a huuuuge range of different things. I am always on the lookout for new artists and new styles and will never be tied down by my music taste! The sky's the limit.

So here's my line-up of some of the things I'll be writing to you about on here:

Gig Reviews: 
Obviously I will be reviewing any gigs I go to (which will hopefully be a lot as there's tons of good ones going on in Manchester this term and I will hopefully score some free tickets working for the newspaper!)

Album Reviews:
I will review a new album on a (hopefully, depending how it all pans out) weekly basis.

Song of the Week:
Every Monday I'll be letting you know of a new song that I am loving that week.

Picks of the Week:
My picks of the best live gigs around the country each week.

Up and Coming:
A monthly feature of the up-and-coming new or unsigned acts I think you should be keeping an eye out for each month.

My own Music:
I might upload videos of myself from time to time playing/singing either covers or my own songs. I've never done anything like that before (minus having a music myspace from when I was about 14) and I think I should probably start.

Skins:
This might seem like a weird one, but my next post is going to be about the music from Skins, because they always chose amazing soundtracks and it got me thinking that rather than just the one feature on it, once series 5 starts, I might make it a weekly feature after each episode: of my favourite music picks from the episode and that sort of thing. We shall see....



Well, that's all I've got for now...I will have to see how it all goes, but I think it'll be great. It'd be lovely to have some followers, so if you fancy sticking around to see where this goes, then follow me - I think it'll be a fun blog!

For now I'll love you and leave you with a song I heard for the first time today and am already in love with. If it was Monday this would definitely be my Song of the Week. It's the first single from Noah and the Whale's new album, Last Night on Earth, which will be released on March 7th, and it's called Life Goes On (or L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N). It's great. Put it on, crank up your speakers and have a dance around - it'll make you happy I guarantee! I don't know if lead singer Charlie Fink has finally got over his ex Laura Marling, but he's definitely cheered up - and I approve :)

Enjoy :)

Rosie x

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Glastonbury 2010: Mumford & Sons

As one of this year’s biggest breakthrough bands, Mumford & Sons was very high on my list of who to watch at this year’s festival. Since their rise to fame has been so recent, the folk-come-indie band were playing in the John Peel tent, which was bad news for all the poor souls stuck outside the edges of the tent tip-toeing for a view, but brilliant news for me, as I had stood my ground through Ellie Goulding and Kele (from Bloc Party)’s sets beforehand and won myself an amazing spot near the front to enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime chance of seeing this band at such an intimate venue. My guess is that after the triumphant performance they gave, small stages will soon be a thing of the past!

Despite the overbearing heat, Mumford & Sons were definitely one of the best bands I saw at Glastonbury this year. Singer Marcus Mumford’s voice and lyrics are beautiful, powerful and thoughtful, drawing comparisons with that of bands like Noah and the Whale (some of the members of which, incidentally, were at school with members of Mumford). However, what makes their music brilliant, I think, is the way in which it avoids the possibility of being overcome by its somewhat depressing lyrics; still retaining the upbeat, hoe-down vigour of the folk influences it has sprung from. The band biography on their official site declares that Mumford & Sons’ aim is to “to make music that matters, without taking themselves too seriously” and they achieve just this. The crowd were up and dancing for the entire set, and at Marcus’s shout of “how about we have ourselves a bit of a hoe-down?” the men next to my friend and I linked arms with us and swept us up in a dance worthy of Cotton-eye Joe!

It was just a brilliant, fun and life affirming performance of perfect Glastonbury-afternoon music (Yes, I had the classic epiphany-whilst-dancing-in-a-field moment!) Above just being great musicians, they put on a fantastic show which there was no doubt that every member of the heat-drunk, mud-stained audience absolutely loved. Here’s hoping they’ll be appearing on the Pyramid Stage next year!

Glastonbury 2010: MUSE

Muse were, in my mind, indisputably the best act of Glastonbury 2010. For a long time, the 3-piece Devon band have been one of the big names I’ve wanted to tick off my list and to say they did not disappoint is an almighty understatement. Their full-blown, high-voltage set had the 100,000 strong crowd losing all their inhibitions and surrendering to the waves of heavy volume and blinding light that erupted from the Pyramid Stage for the full 2 hours of their electrifying set.

With the sound absolutely perfect and the light show a brilliant spectacle (although possibly less of a focus than previous Muse gigs), the set was overwhelming from whatever your position amongst the huge, hero-worshipping audience; consuming every crowd member and getting everyone on their feet and screaming along with the hit-after-hit pouring effortlessly from front-man Matthew Bellamy’s lips.

The great thing about seeing a band like Muse is that - unlike unfortunate Friday night headliners, Gorillaz, who unwittingly filled their set with barely-known songs from their brand new album – they have such a vast amount of material and such extensive success that literally every song of their set is a scream-your-guts-out super-hit that gets the whole crowd jumping. No wonder I’d lost my voice when I woke up in my tent on Sunday! Almost every song was a high point in my eyes, the set getting bigger and better with each one, but the ultimate “Oh my God, I can’t believe they’re playing this,” moments had to be at Plug in Baby in the finale, and the appearance of U2’s The Edge playing guitar for a brave but perfect cover of U2 song, Where the Streets Have No Name.

They were – in a word – unbelievable, and without a doubt my highlight of the festival for this year.

For more information about Glastonbury Festival, and to register for tickets for 2011, visit www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

For extensive BBC coverage of the festival and over 40 hours of live performances, visit www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/

Photos by Rosie Blake.

Glastonbury 2010: The XX

Chilled out Indie trio, The XX have, in the past year, managed to conquer both sides of the Atlantic before anyone even had the chance to bat an eyelid. And rightly too. In the Guardian’s G2 Glastonbury pull-out on Monday they were described as “gloomy”, a remark I think could hardly be more off mark. Their music may be slow and laid-back, but oozes with a cool physicality and haunting sexuality with every reverberation of Oliver Sim’s bass.

I saw them, not at their bigger spot in the John Peel tent, but headlining Friday night on the Park Stage – the brain-child of Michael Eavis’ daughter, Emily, and the most relaxed and intimate venue across the site. Right at the back fence of Glastonbury’s 1000 acres, the quiet backdrop of stars and almost-full moon was the perfect backdrop for this amazing set.

It was by far the quietest gig I have ever been to; the audience involved and entranced in an entirely different way from the shout-y, stomp-y crowds of the Pyramid Stage, every pluck of the throbbing bass an overwhelmingly intimate pluck at the listeners’ heart strings, sending them into content contemplation rather than ecstatic screams. Their no-frills performance and casual attitude added even more to the late-night darkened bedroom appeal of their reverb-ed guitars and breathy vocals.

Although some argument could have been made for them merely sounding like their album, the self-entitled XX, I enjoyed the subtlety of their live performance and the experience of their understated but powerfully involving music filling up the night air is not one I will forget in a hurry.

Glastonbury 2010

I’ve been to Glastonbury for the last 4 years and it just gets better every time. This year, the 40^th anniversary of the festival’s birth in the 1000 acres Somerset fields making up Michael Eavis’ legendary farm, was no exception. Who would have thought that something which began as “Pilton Pot Festival” which cost £1 entry, with free milk from the farm itself, could have become the amazing and renowned event which over 177,000 people attended this year?

There’s no doubt about it: Glastonbury is amazing. With 27 official stages, a cabaret tent, circus, cinema, theatre and countless smaller venues for bands and DJs to play, Glastonbury is a thousand acres of glorious chaos and has everything you could possibly want from a festival. Where else in the world can you sing your heart out amongst a 100,000 strong crowd one minute and then dance around a lit-up band stand to what can only be described as “folk music on crack” with about 20 people (including a body-popping ten-year old) the next? You can watch the sun rise sitting at the stone circle, wander the healing fields where a friendly hippie will comment on the strength of your “energy”, see a whole family dressed up as bees, an eighty year-old man dressed as superman, meet an old, greying man dancing to Dubstep who genuinely believes he is Jesus, dance the night away at a club spurting out fire, drink cider from a double-decker bus, go for a cup of tea in a solar powered tent at 4am, and have an epiphany about the world whilst dancing to your favourite band in a field. And that’s just in the first 24 hours. The most amazing thing about Glastonbury is that it is in no way just a gig: it is a lifestyle. Everything, from the places you eat in (whoever thought Goan fish curry would be tasty?), the stalls you wander through and the hundreds of bands that are performing, is incredible. You can’t help but get soaked up in it entirely.

It’d be more than easy to talk for hours about Glastonbury but instead, in a series of blogs, I will share with you the musical highlights of my festival this year.

Marina and the Diamonds

I went to watch Marina and the Diamonds in the John Peel tent, the new bands tent and my favourite Glastonbury venue, with little knowledge of her music and even littler expectation. And I was entirely blown away.

The sultry but equally strong allure of Marina’s (real name Marina Diamandis) voice captured me from minute one, veering from beautifully controlled and deeply personal one minute to strong and even shout-y the next. Her sound and sense of individuality caused me to draw similarities to Regina Spektor, whilst her lack of inhibition and her obvious personal connections and ability to throw herself entirely into her music harks back to the likes of Janis Joplin.

There were a few Gaga-esque quirks thrown in, such as donning an American baseball jacket and holding a burger triumphantly, portraying the American Dream, for her song Hollywood and a pair of Heineken glasses for Shampain but, her performance mostly relies on the unique quality of her voice and her individual and clearly self-inspired lyrics. As a performer, and what we see of her as a person, she is refreshingly down to earth and, more than anything, it is obvious that she is just up there doing what she loves for no one but herself, with no regard for conventions or especially the “fame” culture that has sprung up recently among many female singers.

The highlight of her performance, for me, was not the sing (or shout) along lyrics of her better known tracks but in fact the choice of cover song she performed halfway through her set; Starstrukk by 30H!3. She performed, in my opinion, the kind of transformation to this song that is the mark of a true artist. Her slowed down, chilled out version of the upbeat club song was beautiful, haunting and even sad, showed the beautiful capacity of her voice and transformed the song into something that was entirely different to its original and entirely her own. On the strength of this song alone, I would have said she was one of the best new artists I saw at Glastonbury.

At any rate, this girl is definitely one to watch; tipped as runner up (to Ellie Goulding) in the Sound of 2010 poll, and especially in the current climate of quirky female singers, I suspect this is only the very beginning of her rise to stardom.

Watch the Marina and the Diamonds cover of “Starstruckk” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIKcf8eqFLs