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Charlie Barnes Writes His Will & Testament

  • Published in News

Singer-songwriter and Bastille live member Charlie Barnes has shared a new single from his upcoming album, Oceanography with ‘Will & Testament’ featuring backing vocals from Bastille’s Dan Smith. The follow up to 2015’s post-pop monster, More Stately Mansions, Oceanography finds Barnes in a different place in his life. The past two years have seen huge change for the musician, he has spent the majority of his time on the road as a touring member of Bastille, performing on some of the biggest stages in the world and travelling all over the globe as well as getting married and relocating from Leeds to the Midlands.

The new single sees Barnes exploring his poppiest urges with excellent results explaining “Will & Testament’ has been through a lot of different iterations in its lifetime.  The main guitar hook that starts the song is from the very first demo recording I did before the last album was even finished, and I originally built the demo up to be this big, wall of sound moody post rock thing with really nasty sounding guitars in the middle eight.  Funnily enough, it was the former Oceansize member who suggested we take a slightly different approach, so we have Steve to thank for how this song eventually turned out.  It's sorted of ended up sounding like Discoceansize.  Yep.  I went there.” The new single also features vocals from Bastille’s Dan Smith with Barnes adding “He made it all sound much better, so thanks Dan.”

In contrast to his previous LP – largely recorded in one place with producer and Oceansize guitarist Steve Durose – Oceanography is a story of snatched moments after tour rehearsals, late nights spent in far flung studios from Wales to Virginia, ideas sent back and forth over email and put down in fits and starts while on the road. At points it seemed like it would never come together, so it’s some achievement that it not only matches the attention-grabbing maximalist prog pop of More Stately Mansions, but builds and expands on that record’s foundations.

 

Tour dates are listed below:

·       March 7th - Leeds, Oporto (with The Society Pages)

·       March 13th - Glasgow, Bloc

·       March 14th - Leicester, The Cookie (with The Society Pages)

·       March 15th - London, Islington Academy 2

·       March 22nd - Sheffield, West Street Live

 

 

 

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Festival Coverage: Leeds Festival - Saturday

  • Published in Live

While I might consider myself something of a  Festival veteran these days, arriving halfway through the weekend is something I’d never done before. Unfortunately, work commitments meant that this year we don’t arrive on site until early Saturday afternoon, a move which has both pros, and cons.

While turning up looking and feeling fresher than the hardcore contingent that have been camped since Wednesday has its pluses, it also means that this year we miss the likes of Liam Gallagher and Muse, whose respective sets were mentioned over the weekend with nothing but reverence.

Entering the arena for the first time this year, it’s instantly obvious that the atmosphere on the Main Stage for indie-poppers Two Door Cinema Club has been boosted tenfold by the weather, and the band’s bright and breezy indie anthems are lapped up by a baying audience. We make our way over to the BBC Introducing stage for Leeds locals The Golden Age Of TV, whose upbeat art-pop is yet another perfect accompaniment to the weather. Having come a long way in a short space of time, the band’s latest single ‘Television’ only feels like the tip of the iceberg, and you can expect much more from them soon.

Unsurprisingly, Bastille’s return to the Main Stage following their 2015 appearance is met with a rapturous response from a distinctly younger audience and as the sun starts to dip and the band belt out the likes of ‘The Things We Lost in The Fire’ and ‘Pompeii’, flairs are lit and more than a few people seem physically moved.

Elsewhere, Cigarettes After Sex offer an atmospheric and more laid back alternative on The Festival Republic Stage, though one can’t help but feel their overtly chilled ambient indie would be better suited to an earlier slot than the one they find themselves in. That said, the band make for an interesting discovery, and one we recommend checking out.

Back on the Main Stage, Kasabian hit the stage to a riotous response, opening with ‘Ill Ray (The King)’ there’s bucket hats aplenty and more than a few flairs considering their banned nature at the festival, it all adds to the atmosphere however.

Concurrently, You Me At Six followed up last year’s not-so-secret set with a blistering statement of a headline on the NME/Radio One Stage. 15 tracks filled that span the entirety of the band’s career, it’s performances like this that inspire the massive devotion their fans shower on them. Tracks such as ‘Loverboy’ and ‘Stay With Me’ are met with huge singalongs, while ‘Save It for the Bedroom’ is almost deafening in its crowd participation. And as huge jets of flame erupt from the stage, it’s abundantly clear that You Me At Six have come a long way from their be-fringed pop-punk beginnings and are fully deserving are the arena-filling realms they now inhabit. True modern day rock stars.

Back at the Main Stage, Kasabian close with an impassioned outing of ‘Fire’, and while the crowd loses its collective shit, it becomes increasingly clear that they’re a band I just won’t ever seem to ‘get’ and though they’re one of the biggest names in British music in recent years, I can’t help but ask myself, why?

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