WEYES BLOOD + THE BIG MOON + HOTWAX + KATY J PEARSON + CIEL + PORRIDGE RADIO (SOLO) + BELLZA + EMILY BARKER – COLOURS FESTIVAL, DE LA WARR PAVILION, BEXHILL 24.6.23
‘Colours Festival’ is a new event at the De La Warr Pavilion, a Grade 1 listed icon of modernist architecture on the seafront at Bexhill-on-Sea. The aim is “to celebrate and elevate female talent across a whole day of live music, with the Sussex coast providing the perfect setting.” The acts are due to play across two stages, with the main focus being outdoors on the South Lawns. The upstairs cafe bar area indoors has been designated the ‘Music’s Not Dead Stage’, hosted by the independent record shop situated within the pavilion, and will showcase female-fronted acts from the Sussex area. Additional food and drink for the event is being supplied by a selection of local brewers and caterers.
Well, they’ve certainly been lucky with the weather. It’s warm and dry, with bright sunshine and a gentle breeze wafting in off the sparkling sea. The Outdoor Stage is an impressive covered structure up against the side of the building, and is used for events throughout the summer. The performers face towards the beach.
First up outside is Emily Barker, an Australian singer-songwriter, probably best known for ‘Nostalgia’, the theme tune for the Kenneth Branagh remake of the ‘Wallander’ TV series. A former UK resident, now living back in her homeland, Emily is certainly no stranger to Bexhill. She’s played a number of ‘in-store’ performances for Music’s Not Dead, including a socially-distanced show on this very lawn during pandemic restrictions in September 2020. Fortunately, there are no marked-out squares for us to stay within today, and a growing crowd is casually spreading across the site.
Emily is centre stage, playing an acoustic guitar, and is joined by her partner Lukas Drinkwater, bowing an upright bass, and Rob Pemberton on drums. They open with ‘Return Me’, a gentle and thoughtful piece from the 2020 album ‘A Dark Murmuration Of Words’. Emily’s voice has a haunting quality, with a slight vibrato, and soars beautifully over the rich sustained bass notes and tumbling brushed tom fills. ‘Dear River’ is an earlier number, with a more upbeat folk-rock feel and a nice breakdown outro over damped strumming. The front of house sound is gorgeous, but there are some problems with the monitors. The players press on, regardless. ‘The Woman Who Planted Trees’ tells of the green belt movement that started in Kenya, and has an appropriately African feel on busy toms, topped off with a striking bass solo. ‘Wild To be Sharing This Moment’ is introduced as new, and is notable for a lovely chorus harmony and strummed chords on the upright. The technical issues have now extended to Emily’s mic, so she and Lukas share a microphone for the chanted staccato chorus of the haunting ‘Machine’, a piece about slavery. The glowering groove is accentuated by Rob’s tom hits and delicate stick work on the rims. There are more lovely harmonies on the lilting ‘Any More Goodbyes’. It’s been a wonderful start to the day.
I make my way indoors and up the stairs to the Music’s Not Dead Stage. It’s in the area usually used as the restaurant, with huge windows giving panoramic views of the sea. A lovely setting, but the capacity is clearly going to be way fewer than the overall festival attendance, so I make a mental note that I’ll need to be up here sharpish to catch HotWax later on.
The opening act upstairs is Bellza, a young singer songwriter from Hastings, performing solo with an acoustic guitar. I know her as Bellza Moore, the former “office junior” from local corporate-themed synth trio Office for Personal Development, and I’m very interested to hear her own songs. She has a pleasant voice with an introspective and slightly melancholic quality. The accompaniment to ‘Stupid Words’ is an insistent and steadily building strum with some satisfying chord changes. ‘Out Of Phase’ is amusingly introduced: “It’s not really my song, it’s 14 year-old me’s song.” The younger version of Bellza has left a fine legacy, as it’s an excellent piece.
‘Aubade’ is next, and if you remember your English lessons, that’s the term for a song or poem greeting the dawn. It’s rather lovely, with lilting fingerpicking and a breathy vocal, and receives a huge cheer and warm applause. ‘Daughter’ is particularly vibey and there’s a well-executed cover of Elliott Smith’s ‘Angeles’ that goes down well with the crowd. The final number, introduced as being new, is ‘This Is Healing’, with Bellza’s dreamy vocal over a nice descending pattern of strummed chords. It’s an excellent conclusion to an enjoyable set.
Back at the Outside Stage, Dana Margolin, the main singer and songwriter of fêted indie band Porridge Radio, is performing a solo set. Since forming in Brighton in 2015, Porridge Radio have received considerable critical acclaim, with 2020 album ‘Every Bad’ being shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize. I can only imagine the rest of the band have other commitments, as today it’s just Dana with an electric guitar. I personally find this slightly underwhelming, though I’m clearly out of step with the rest of the crowd. There are more people in now, and there’s a tight knot of fans gathered on the higher ground in front of the stage, who seem to be loving it.
The floaty, reverb-drenched vocal of ‘Barks Live A Dog’ is backed with sparse strums that gradually build in intensity. ‘Jealousy’ has a brooding menace that contrasts with jangly arpeggios. The lilting ‘Good For You’ is notable for an impressive middle section of tremolo strumming. Standout number for me is ‘Lilac’, with the solo format showcasing the excellent lyrics: “I want us to be better. I want us to be kinder to ourselves and to each other.” Overall, I can’t help but miss the added dynamics that a full band show would bring, but the songs stand up for themselves, and the audience are clearly appreciating the set very much indeed.
I’m upstairs in good time to catch Ciel, an indie-rock trio of disparate nationalities. They met and formed in Brighton, playing their first gig in 2018. Michelle Hindriks from Holland is on vocals and bass, guitarist Jorge Bele Jimenez is from Spain, and drummer Tim Spencer hails from the equally exotic locale of Littlehampton, in West Sussex.
It’s an expansive, effects-heavy sound, and Tim is shaking his head vigorously behind the kit, flailing a long fringe. Opener ‘Back To The Feeling’ has a big dramatic playout. There’s a brisk groove to ‘Seeking’, which really soars. “Thank you for choosing us over Glastonbury,” quips Jorge at the end. I like the poppy ‘Somebody’, which features some effective dropouts. ‘Naked’ has an insistent straight beat underpinning a floaty vocal. Jorge’s guitar solo utilises effects that make it sound like keyboards, a trick that is reprised on ‘Baby Don’t You Know’. Best of all is set closer ‘Fine Everything’, with a catchy hook and tight stops punctuating its psych vibe. The room is full, and there is huge applause at the end of an impressive and very enjoyable set.
By the time I get downstairs, there is a tightly packed crowd gathered in anticipation of Bristol-based Katy J Person, who plays a particularly atmospheric sort of Americana-tinged rock. She’s backed today by a full band featuring guitar, bass, drums, and a keyboard player who doubles up on trumpet. Katy herself is on keyboard for a cover of Paul Giovanni’s ‘Willow’s Song’ (from the film ‘The Wicker Man’), which features on the recent album ‘Sound Of The Morning’. As cover versions go, this is absolutely superb, and I’m utterly transported by its magical and ethereal vocal. It’s a goosebump moment, and a high point of the whole day for me.
‘Talk Over Town’ has an uplifting trumpet-led pop groove, with a satisfying progression and nicely bouncing bass. There’s a quiet breakdown to a lovely dual vocal, which contrasts with the more expansive chorus. There’s a huge cheer for the jangly intro of ‘Sound Of The Morning’, and the crowd around me are all singing along enthusiastically. The faster thudding beat on ‘Beautiful Soul’ is teamed with with a deliciously descending bass line, and the guitar is treated to produce a violin-like effect. ‘Alligator’ utilises a great combination of backing vocals and trumpet, with excellent riffing on bass and guitar. ‘Siren Song’ is introduced as new, and is a languid strut, with Katy and the keyboard player both joining in with additional guitar. I wasn’t that familiar with Katy’s work before today, but she’ll definitely be joining my list of new favourite artists. It pains me greatly to leave slightly before the set’s conclusion, but I suspect the upstairs stage will be somewhat oversubscribed for the next act, and I need to make sure I can get in.
heavenlyemporium.com/katy-j-pearson
At the Music’s Not Dead Stage, security are keeping a careful eye on numbers, and I’m pleased to be one of the clicks on the tally counter. To say that explosive Hastings trio HotWax are up-and-coming is understating the case somewhat, as they have recently signed to Marathon Artists on the back of considerable critical acclaim, not least from this publication. The band, who pack considerable talent and experience into their tender years, actually played their very first gig in this exact space (in their previous incarnation as The Kiffs) at the Music’s Not Dead launch party in December 2018. They’ve come a long way in a short time, expanding their grungy guitar sound into an ambitious, genre-defying musicality that has gained growing and enthusiastic support from critics and fans alike.
‘Barbie (Not Yours)’ is a powerful and urgent start to proceedings, with lively riffing from lead vocalist Tallulah Sim-Savage on guitar, and Lola Sam on bass. Drummer Alfie Sayers unleashes a massive roll during ‘When We’re Dead’ to usher in a slowing breakdown for the guitar to soar above. ‘Phone Machine’ has a suitably bleepy angular riff, with nifty stops and lovely breaks of bubbling bass and shuffling drums. There’s a lot going on. ‘Treasure’ is hard-driven, with a growling riff, and the bouncing verse of ‘Drop’ contrasts with a more urgent refrain. The sparse vocal and guitar intro of ‘She Don’t Like It’ takes things down briefly, before the sublime ‘High Tea’, which features considerable rhythmic variations. A groan of sustained guitar hangs over lolloping bass, before breaking to urgent crashing chords. There’s a breakdown with a low, cello-like rumble of effects, which we exit via another crazy drum break by Alfie. The quality of playing combined with the imaginative sweep of the songwriting is nothing short of astonishing, especially in a relatively young band. ‘1,000 Times’ mixes it up some more, with its waltzy intro and outro, and the jolting ‘Rip it Out’ is an appropriately dramatic conclusion to a powerful and superbly-executed set. The crowd roar their appreciation. Apparently 300 people were turned away after the room reached capacity. I don’t imagine there will be too many more opportunities to catch HotWax in a setting this intimate.
Things are a little more mellow on the Outside Stage for the atmospheric indie-pop of The Big Moon. A four-piece from London, their 2017 debut ‘Love In The 4th Dimension’ received a Mercury Prize nomination, and they played an in-store for Music’s Not Dead to promote follow-up ‘Walking Like We Do’ in January 2020. The band members are Juliette Jackson and Soph Nathan on guitars, Celia Archer on bass, and Fern Ford on drums. Everyone sings.
There’s a steady build on opener ‘Wide Eyes’, from the 2022 album ‘Here Is Everything’, and a swaggering rhythm on ‘Don’t Think’. The vocal harmonies really come into their own on ‘Barcelona’, which seems like a perfect soundtrack for a beautiful summer’s evening. I like the guitar twang and moody vocal of ‘Suckerpuch’, and there’s a notable change of pace for the slower and reflective ‘Satellites’. ‘Two lines’ starts with a vibey guitar chug that puts me in mind of the Velvet Underground, but soon morphs into something more expansive and synthy. There’s an enthusiastic clap-along to the poppy ‘Trouble’, and some tasty riffing on the bass-driven ‘Bonfire’. The excellent set concludes with the fantastically catchy ‘Your Light’ from the second album. Impressive harmonies on the pre-chorus led to a killer hook of staccato backing vocals. This has been another quality performance from an act at the top of their game.
It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable day, greatly helped by absolutely perfect weather. The sun is just starting to set as we await the headline act, and there’s a beautiful orange tinge to the sea on the horizon, with a thin layer of mist obscuring Eastbourne at the foot of the South Downs in the distance.
Weyes Blood is the professional name of American singer-songwriter Natalie Merling. In case you were wondering, it’s a stylised misspelling (and pronounced like) ‘Wise Blood’, a 1952 Southern Gothic novel by Flannery O’Connor. The music is hugely varied and artily performed. If you’re not already familiar, think Kate Bush or Aldous Harding, combined with the silky vocals of Alison Goldfrapp, and you’ll have the general idea. The visual element is very much in evidence tonight. The band are tastefully attired in maroon suits and dresses, and the stage is decorated with candelabras. The singer wafts onstage to a huge cheer, a dreamlike vision in a long white dress with huge floaty sleeves, long brown hair tumbling down her back. She dances elegantly around the stage during opener ‘It’s Not Just Me’, then straps on a guitar for ‘Children Of The Empire’. The crowd are loving it.
After a brief pause to admire the scene, we’re into ‘A Lot’s Gonna Change’, whose piano intro builds with thudding kick and tumbling fills to a big twangy guitar solo. By ‘Andromeda’ it’s starting to get dark, and the stage is lit with a huge wash of purple to complement the expansive synth sound. ‘Grapevine’ is big and bubbly, and ‘Everyday’, mischievously described as the “mosh song”, is bouncy pop. ‘Movies’ has an appropriately cinematic sweep, accentuated by flashes of bright white light, and the singer is throwing flowers to the crowd, Morrissey-style. For set closer ‘Hearts Aglow’, she activates a red light under her outfit, a simple idea that looks strikingly effective. There’s a huge roar at the end and calls for an encore. The vocal style of ‘Something To Believe’ reminds me of The Weather Station, and there’s a tasteful solo of slide guitar. The very last number of the night is ‘Picture Me’, performed solo to rapturous applause.
The inaugural Colours Festival appears to have been a resounding success, and has certainly provided a most enjoyable day’s entertainment. Everyone heading for the exit gates seems to have had a good time. The De La Warr Pavilion has various outdoor events during the summer, including the Austerity Records ‘Seaview Festival‘ on 8th July, featuring the likes of Warmduscher, B C Camplight, Pale Blue Eyes, plus local heroes such as Aircooled, Snayx and Office for Personal Development, amongst others. Purchase your tickets for this exciting event HERE.
