Abi Wade

Posted on 08/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Abi Wade’s And Blood And Air EP was one of the first things we wrote about when we started the blog last year, but we didn’t get to see her live until January of this year and it’s only when you see Abi perform do you truly appreciate her talent. You can pull off all kind of tricks in a studio, but to see them recreated in a live setup is breathtaking – the percussion, the cello played in every way imaginable (and some ways you probably wouldn’t imagine, like with a hairbrush), and the haunting voice, all coming from one person is nothing short of incredible.

Abi’s gone from strength to strength this year, putting out another release – Heavy Heart – and supporting Patrick Wolf on his tour, which is coming to St Mary’s Church on Tuesday 11th December. It promises to be a very special gig – As well as a homecoming for Abi, Patrick Wolf is playing an acoustic set. Tickets are still available (from Resident, via the Source website, etc) as of the time of writing.

Four Videos – Jennifer Left, Abi Wade, Fear of Men, Curxes

Posted on 06/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s four videos to keep you entertained. Two for new songs, two for some not so new songs. Jennifer Left and Abi Wade released their new singles yesterday (and Jennifer Left is having a launch party for hers at the Blind Tiger on Thursday). Mosaic by Fear of Men and Spectre by Curxes both came out earlier in the year, but the videos have only just appeared:

Jennifer Left / Diggory (itunes link)

Abi Wade / Heavy Heart (itunes link)

Fear of Men / Mosaic (Resident link)

Curxes / Spectre (itunes link)

Abi Wade / Heavy Heart

Posted on 14/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

November 5th see’s the Abi Wade’s second release for the Brighton based Love Thy Neighbour label. Heavy Heart, which can be bought through the bandcamp link below is another slice of Abi’s unique combination of haunting voice, cello and drum box, and is backed with another new track, Faker.

Abi is one of Brighton’s most compelling live acts. If you haven’t seen her yet, she’s next playing on 11th December at St Mary’s Church. If you want a Brighton related gig before then, she’s supporting Brighton Music Blog favourite Woodpecker Wooliams at the Old Queen’s Head in Islington on 14th November.

Brighton bands at the Great Escape

Posted on 15/05/2012 by brightonmusicblog

If you hadn’t noticed, it’s just been The Great Escape Festival around town. What a weekend! Officially I was taking photos for the festival themselves, which I’ve done for the last few years. Unofficially, I made it my mission to get around as many Brighton bands as I could. Over the course of the weekend, I saw Abi Wade at Unitarian Church, Dear Prudence at Above Audio, Us Baby Bear Bones at Green Door Store, Abi Wade (again) at Latest, Catherine Ireton at Latest, Fear of Men at Queens Hotel, Nordic Giants at Komedia, Speak Galactic at Latest, Thomas White at Shipwrights yard, Us Baby Bear Bones (again) at Latest, Woodpecker Wooliams at the Fishbowl and Kinnie The Explorer at The Haunt. Phew!

(click through to the pics to view them larger)

Abi Wade & Heliopause supporting Sea of Bees at The Haunt

Posted on 20/04/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It’s always pleasing when a visiting band gets a local acts to support them, and it’s doubly good when two Brighton acts get added to the bill. Wednesday night, Sea of Bees played at the Haunt, and as well as Stealing Sheep who have supported them on their whole tour, they were also supported by Abi Wade and Heliopause.

Abi Wade continues to astound every time I see her. Conventional wisdom says that if you’re going to have drums, strings and vocals you’d probably have a whole band. Conventional wisdom also says that you play a cello by pulling a bow across the strings, not using the bow, a variety of drum sticks and even a hairbrush not just on the strings but over the whole instrument. At times last night Abi recalled the dexterity of The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly who coaxes out rhythm, melody and backing out of just the one instrument, but Abi also has the advantage of a fantastic voice. If there was Brighton act that I’d say people ought to see right now, it would be Abi Wade.

Second act on last night were Heliopause, who were the first band I saw at Sea Monsters earlier this year. Their roots are in folk, but their sound is so much more than that – There’s electronica involved, but it’s not folktronica like Four Tet used to make before he went jazz. There’s elements of post rock in there too, and sometimes the guitars shimmer and send shivers down your spine. What’s important is that it all works so well together, and these elements aren’t clumsily thrown in, which gives the band their own sound the separates them from the crowd. Their next album is released on 5th May, and from what I’ve heard so far, is a real treat for the ears.

Abi Wade is next playing on 10th May at 7.30pm at the Unitarian Church as part of the Great Escape Festival and again on 11th May at 3pm at Latest Music Bar as part of the Alternative Escape. Heliopause launch their album with a gig on 5th May at Brighton Electric Studios.

Abi Wade live at the Old Market

Posted on 25/03/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Abi Wade at The Old Market

Last time I saw Abi Wade, back in December of last year, she was playing the acoustic spot at the Source New Music night at the Pavilion Theatre. Her ‘Of Blood and Air’ EP had just been released, but she was playing to a largely unappreciative audience. In the past three months a lot has changed, because last Thursday night she played to a packed out hall at the Old Market, where the crowd were hanging on every note. Support came from Dan Edwards & Max Crawford, and Luke Sital-Singh. Rumours of me having missed the support because I was distracted in The Conqueror around the corner are unfortunately true. We arrived just as Abi’s set started, and my companions marvelled at both the simplicity and the complexity of her setup. With just one person on stage, it is quite incredible that the sound of a whole band is produced. Somehow, with the aid of a tambourine and a stomp box on drum pedals, cello strings being bowed, and plucked, and the cello body being tapped with the bow, and drumsticks and even a hairbrush, and warm rich sound was created which, had you not been watching, that thought that it was only being created by one person wouldn’t have even crossed your mind. For three quarters of an hour, we were treated to a selection of tracks from the debut EP, and a whole host of other material, including an interesting cover of One Hand Holding by The Maccabees. We were left wanting more, which is the way thing should be – thankfully, Abi’s got a lot more gigs coming up soon: On 18th April at The Haunt (supporting Sea of Bees, with fellow Brightonions Heliopause also on the bill), 27th April at The Hope (supporting Dan Mangan) and 13th June at the Prince Albert (supporting mancubbabywoman)

Brighton Source New Music night December 2011

Posted on 02/12/2011 by brightonmusicblog

Sorry – no pithy title for this blog post. I tried to try and eke some kind of pun out of the headliners Black Black Hills, but it just wasn’t happening.

The December Source new music night played host to Two Jackals, Abi Wade, For Marla and Black Black Hills. Trying to avoid the rain meant that I missed the first band, Two Jackals, and arrived to catch Abi Wade’s first set. Hopefully you’ll all be familiar with Abi after I posted about her new EP the other week. The Source and the Pavilion theatre have had a great idea to not only provide us lucky people with more music, but also to acknowledge that an acoustic act probably won’t work at the same time as a loud amplified act, so inbetween acts upstairs in the Theatre, acoustic acts perform down in the bar area. Seeing Abi Wade play live was great, because you get a much better impression of how she makes her music. It’s all down to her, not just with her cello, but with two bass drum pedals, one attached to a tambourine, and the other to a cajón. And as I mentioned in my EP review, she doesn’t just use her bow on her cello – she also used a variety of drum sticks, and most interestingly, a hair brush, to create additional percussive noises.

Next up were For Marla, who looked and sounded great – a bit like a rockier Smiths, or perhaps a tougher Frankie & the Heartstrings. While they’ve got the look and got the sound, unfortunately they were blighted with some technical issues which took up most of their set. Rather than work around them, they stopped while they resolved them, which meant that everything was a bit too disjointed. Hopefully next time I catch them, they’ll play a full set rather than just the fifteen minutes that they managed to play for today.

Headlining were Black Black Hills. It seems almost obligatory to mention that they used to be Pope Joan – everything else I’ve read about them seems to mention it – but I’m sure they’re trying to move on with their new name, and presumably new set of songs. While that may be the case, the years they’ve been playing together in their old guise have helped them become the band they are today – tight, with a fantastic sound, good songwriting skills, and great stage presence. If you missed them tonight (and quite frankly, their was a very poor turnout for such a great band, which I’m putting down to the weather) then they’ll be playing again at the start of next year as part of the Sea Monsters 2 event at the Prince Albert. Be there.

New Label, New EP

Posted on 15/11/2011 by brightonmusicblog

Brighton has a new record label in it’s midst – it’s called Love Thy Neighbour, and it’s been set up by Daniel Copeman from Esben & The Witch and Brighton Promoter Andy Rossiter. Their first EP has just just hit the shops (I picked it up from Resident last saturday), and is by local cellist singer songwriter Abi Wade, entitled “And Blood And Air”:

Before I even start to describe the music, I have to say how impressed I was with the packaging. The “air” is cut out from the sleeve, there’s a separate band around the outside, and the text on the main part of the cover is hand printed. I’m a sucker for nice packaging, and this is pushing all my buttons.

And then the music – it’s a little bit folky, and quite minimal, mostly with just Abi singing and playing the cello, sometimes with the vocal doubled up to give harmonies, and sometimes with some light percussion. The cello is used to great effect, not just bowed, but plucked in a manner of styles to fill the some of the gaps where a bigger band might have guitars or bass or drums. You can listen to one of the tracks off of the EP on soundcloud here:

There’s more details on her myspace, and occasional updates on twitter. I’ll keep an eye out for some links for the label and post them when I find them.