THE BIRTH OF NORTHERN SOUL

First things first, I would like to apologise for the lack of posts

this October. I've been a very busy girl what with my college work & uni applications

and yadda yadda yah. 

Plus I haven't felt very inspired lately....

But, that changed today whilst I was scouring through the music channels this early
morning and I stumbled across one video, and then another, and then
that special thing called a brainwave took place
in the depths of my cranium and fused the two together and I came up with
this idea and it look very promising: the birth of white soul.

Now I hear you ask, what on earth are you on about,
what videos? Well I shall reveal all to you now.

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The first video was:

JOHN NEWMAN
Cheating
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The second was:

JAMES ARTHUR
You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
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At first these two new artists may seem completely unrelated to one another,

but in actual fact, they have many things in common

in regards to the kind of artists they are, their voices, their style, influences

and the kind of music they are spearheading into

the charts and the national radio waves.

We've known of John Newman's voice since Rudimental's 2012 chart smasher

'Feel The Love' and its successor 'Not Giving In', and therefore we

had a taste of his gravelly, soulful, rich tone before

he went out on his own, armed with some real gems 

like number one hit 'Love Me Again'.

In all honesty, I genuinely thought he was a black man when I first

heard his voice. It was so derivative of the Motown era,

it had that gorgeous, enticing black soul that is so hard to replicate unless

you're truly blessed with the gift of having it yourself.

So it knocked me out of the water

when I found out he was a white kid from the depths of Yorkshire moors.

Now on to James Arthur,

king of X Factor 2012, we were again aware of a gravelly,

rich, soulful tone to his voice, like that of John Newman, and his take on

Shontelle's, 'Impossible' was utterly gorgeous. 

He added a depth and

soul to it that wasn't there before -if you've heard his cover of

twerkaholic Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' you'll see

what I mean- and he showed

some real promise of breaking the X Factor mold.

Everyone, whether they care to admit it or not,

wanted to hear just what he would come out with for his first single.

Would it be any good? Would he lose his style?

Would they strip away all he was and replace it with something

completely unoriginal?

Well the relieving result is no.

New single, 'You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You'

is nothing like the typical cheesy pop you would expect from an X Factor winner.

It's got substance, it's got some mean brass and beats and most

importantly: It's got soul, and not that cheap

manufactured crap.

No, no, no, it's the real stuff, the soul that money can't buy.

You've either got it or you've not.

And like John Newman, James Arthur certainly does.

And with one artist spearheading the idea of white soul, 

a certain John Newman, that's all very exciting and commendable,

and you've got to hold your hands up to the man.

Look what he's managed to achieve off his own back.

He created a new genre

in which he was  the only inhabitant, he took a risk,

he raised a bench mark, and went out there.

The public hadn't heard anything like him before,

yet they lapped him up like a cat pouncing on a dish of rich, silky cream.

A public so accustomed and tuned into rap,

r&b, dubstep, electronica, pop, got the soulful 'Love Me Again' and album

'Tribute' to number one.

John Newman has begun something.

A change in direction for the music industry.

But he can't do it alone, he needed people to start following

his example, holding up the torch for good old

rich soul, and lucky for him,

a certain X Factor winner has jumped on the bandwagon

and is following in his wake.

It's a very exciting time for the music industry.

As little as two years ago, the idea of bringing back soul and those

beautiful Motown vibes seemed impossible or at the least,

unlikely. It wasn't the right time, yet look at where we are now.

And like with r&b, hip hop et al,

could this be the start of a new genre taking the reigns and steering

the course of music?

Will we see more undiscovered soul stars emerging from the shadows,

will artists begin to incorporate elements of soul into

their music?

It seems like we're on the cusp of a new type of soul altogther:

it's white, it's British, it's modern, and it's so very, very cool.

Newman's doing it old school, Arthur's introducing it to the world of pop,

what will the artists of tomorrow be doing?

Stay tuned....

CHOCOLATE AND SEX WITH THE 1975

Now before you go jumping to conclusions, thinking I've ditched college to become a roadie in order to enjoy some rather frisky past times, involving Cadburys Dairy Milk and Manchester's finest new addition to the indie/rock scene, lemme explain.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to go watch these guys 

The 1975, at Nottingham's Rock City and can I just tell you now it was AMAZING.

With an ever expanding back catalogue of incredible tunes, such as the mighty 'Chocolate' and the saucy little

number 'Sex', to keep the crowd rallied and as high as a certain Mt. Everest, the atmosphere,

 as you can probably imagine, was electric. And when the beginning chords of those numbers in particular began wafting around the room, everyone, including myself, seemed to

 get an insatiable injection of life, courtesy of Matt and co. and just went absolutely crazy in the best possible way.

As always seems to happen, I found myself on the very cusp of a brewing mosh pit and for once I

just let myself go completely and got stuck right in there, being thrown to and fro like a I was stuck in a human pinball machine.

It was the best feeling ever.

You close your eyes. You listen to the music, let it fill your veins, let it take you higher. 

You sing the words and you come alive, and before you know it you're bouncing up and down like a pogo stick, crashing your body into the unfortunate soul next to you and feeling like life could not get any better than it is right there and then in that beautiful moment. 

You aren't alone. You're surrounded by a huge crowd of people who feel what you're feeling too and you're all in it together, in this instance, singing about sex, petticoats and what do you know, chocolate.

And it's the most incredible thing.

They played a variety of songs from their excellent LP and self titled debut and put on a truly phenomenal show, complete with flickering lights, a buzzing atmosphere and a turtle neck clad Matty who looked

effortlessly cool with his half shaved head and youthful, energetic and beautiful voice.

So in their role as musicians and makers of tantalizing tunes and magical moments, it's

safe to say The 1975 have well and truly outdone themselves.

Even if you don't know that many songs, like me, I would get yourself down to one of their remaining

gigs (that's if it hasn't sold out yet) and experience all this for yourself.

This is a band that has been working their arses off for the last eleven years and who

appreciate and deserve every piece of success rightfully coming their way. They make fantastic music,

they're impossibly cool, intriguing, unique and to top it all off, they're genuinely nice people too!

Lead singer Matt Healy has the crowd in his hand, commanding them effortlessly

to do as he pleases "don't start a mosh pit or I'll f***ing kill you", and after the gig 

my friends and I were lucky enough to meet him.

( Bad angle of course, but nevertheless, one cannot complain when one is meeting the lead singer of an incredible band)

Living up to his other alter ego aside 'Mr Cool' - 'Mr Nice Guy'- he made the effort

to greet every last one of us who stood adoringly in his presence and enforced a sense of world peace and ensuing harmony as if he were Nelson Mandela himself, telling us "not to get crazy and start pushing and shoving one another or I'll get scared and I'll get on that bus and go home. I'm not going, I'm staying right here and I'll make sure I meet every single one of you."

This caused one of my best friends to express her overwhelming love for Matty in the only way she knew how, by screaming happily, and who can blame her?

As a fan, to hear that was just the nicest thing and it goes an awful long way.

If I didn't already love this band, I now just want to go around with their name tattooed on my forehead,

free advertisement and all that, because they took the time to meet us and thank us and show that our support is appreciated. 

So as I said, GO, GO RUN LIKE THE WIND AND BAG YOURSELF A TICKET FOR THE 1975 RIGHT NOW and me? I'm off to the tattoo parlor....

LINK: http://the1975.com/tour

SEX

CHOCOLATE

THE CITY

GIRLS