Zuzu
Neighbourhood Festival is back in Warrington’s Victoria Park this coming bank holiday weekend, Getintothis’ Luke Traynor picks the ones to watch.
Following last year’s acclaimed inaugural festival, Neighbourhood Weekender is back for Round 2 later this month.
Headliners George Ezra and Richard Ashcroft take the helm alongside a stellar line up.
Ezra is one of the biggest selling male artists of recent times, with his debut album “Wanted On Voyage” going platinum in the UK and spending 122 weeks in the chart overall.
His arena tour sold out in minutes and his acclaimed second number 1 album Staying At Tamara’s was one of the best-selling records of 2018.
Richard Ashcroft released his fifth solo studio album Natural Rebel last October to huge praise.
The album represents the latest chapter in a hugely successful solo career for the former Verve frontman, Ivor Novello award-winning and Grammy nominated artist.
Neighbourhood Weekender, in Warrington’s Victoria Park, was nominated last year in the coveted Festival Awards.
It brings together an impressive weekend of live music across three stages, from the biggest acts to the best breaking new bands along with a hub of local food and drinks.
Celebrated live artists such as Primal Scream, The Vaccines, You Me At Six, The Charlatans, Nothing But Thieves, Slaves, The Amazons, Gerry Cinnamon, Embrace, Maximo Park will take to the stage as well as some of the best new talent around including Pale Waves, The Hunna, Sea Girls, Fuzzy Sun, Jade Bird, Maisie Peters and No Hot Ashes.
These are the ones we suggest you check out.
No Hot Ashes
Hitching onto the back of the runaway success of Blossoms, No Hot Ashes are another helping put Stockport on the musical map. Skint Kids Disco is full of bouncy charm and vigour, with some infectious guitar fills, and there’s a definite hint of Hard Fi in the lead singer’s delivery and upbeat demeanour.
Jade Bird
Jade Bird is a 21-year-old hailing from Croydon whose vocals can in one breath sound bruised and raw, before instantly turning into a feisty folksy riot. Catch her raucous version of Johnny Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere which fairly romps along.
Love Has All Been Done Before is a delight once it crashes through into its infectious chorus. Perfect fare for a Saturday or Sunday sitting on the grass, music washing over you.
Fuzzy Sun
Fuzzy Sun are from Stockport, too – there must be something in the water, there.
That said, we are only a 23 mile jaunt down the road in Warrington.
This five piece’s psychedelic pop is backed up by plenty of prominent and yearning synth with the lightest flicker of a rhythm and bass groove. I’ll Be The Man is crammed full of majestic and dreamy melodies, spurred on by Fuzzy Sun’s trademark hooks and choruses.
Yonaka
Yonaka’s singer Theresa Jarvis was in confident mood, in 2017, when she told NME: “We’re aiming seriously big, the biggest. “We want to make a proper living from music and it’s the only thing any of us can do.
“It’s the only way.”
The punk-inspired four-piece from Brighton trade in weighty riffs and immersive melodies which populate their latest EP, Teach Me To Fight.
The collection opens with Fired Up and includes the howling vocals of the title track.
Our Girl
Our Girl also come from Brighton, but in recent times have based themselves in east London.
Their record production sounds tight and exacting, perhaps testimony to the producing skills of West Kirby lad and former Coral man Bill Ryder Jones, who flicked the switches on their debut album.
It’s all discordant guitars and vocals, with jarring melody lines that sweep back and forth with admirable dynamics – from hushed and delicate to all-out cacophonies of sound.
Orla Gartland
Orla Gartland is only 24, yet her music seems so mature and sophisticated.
The Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist says she’s most heavily influenced by Joni Mitchell, and frequently refers to herself as a “music makin’ ginger nutcase.”
Flatline and Why Am I Like This begin in fairly non-descript ways, but it’s the choruses when both tracks explode into a pallet of musical colour.
Maisie Peters
Maisie Peters has a voice like chocolate. A Cadbury’s Wispa, to be precise.
She hails from Brighton (another!?), but there’s a definite Irish tinge to her musical approach.
A wordsmith who want her lyrics to MEAN something.
Accordingly, Maisie admits she pens songs with too many words in them…but it’s the lyrics which are her forte.
There’s a touch of Lily Allen’s sound in Maisie’s music, but there’s a wistfulness here that the just mentioned 34-year-old Londoner could not match.
The Snuts
The Snuts rose to prominence in West Lothian in Scotland and their powerful meaty sound draw comparisons with giants like Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys.
Their first headline show at the Glasgow institution and second home King Tut’s sold-out in a matter of hours, and it’s worth having a listen to song Proper on YouTube.
Good melodies, a driving percussion and bass section, and an energy that has produced a collection of indie anthems – that’s The Snuts winning ingredients.
Zuzu
Liverpool songstress Zuzu has recently been billed the “future of Liverpool” by The Guardian, and excelled last November at Getintothis’ Deep Cuts event at Jacaranda Records Phase One.
Her energetic, attitude packed guitar pop certainly catches the ear. It’s also refreshing to hear Zuzu really over-egging her Scouse lilting tones on Beauty Queen.
She won the GIT Award One to Watch in the summer of 2017.
Two years on, it’s about time people got on board this Liverpudlian talent and her immersive hooks. Track All Good is a triumph.
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