It’s fair to say that the Brighton & Hove News Music Team are always thrilled to witness Vlure (stylized as VLURE) when they come to town as their music and shows are simply fantastic! We have caught them on a number of occasions and the energy in the room on each occasion has been something very special indeed!
Fans will therefore be extremely happy to read the following announcement from VLURE that dropped this morning: “Grassroots venues are the lifeblood of this whole industry. Without them, none of the rest of this would tick. Without them, this band would not exist. We have partnered with The National Lottery @tnluk + @musicvenuetrust for a #UnitedByMusic https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/unitedbymusic Summer underplay tour in England & Northern Ireland. It will be shining a light on these important spaces. We’re running it back to small venues, it’s going to get sweaty. New music, new merch, new stage show. Get it sent”.
VLURE have announced 8 concerts at the tail end of next month under the #UnitedByMusic banner and they are making a welcome return to Brighton. This time it will be at The Hope & Ruin on Queens Road on Thursday 24th August. The other dates are Leeds Oporto 21st August, Hull Adelphi on the 22nd, Bermondsey Social Club in London on the 23rd, Strange Brew in Bristol on the 25th, Night + Day in Manchester on 27th, Black Box in Belfast on 29th and concluding in Birkenhead at Future Yard on the 30th August. It’s fair to say that all of these venues are grassroots venues and will benefit from VLURE’s appearances! It’s a dead cert that ALL of them will sell out!
VLURE aren’t alone in their support of grassroots venues and budding local scenes. In fact we know of a handful of other shows coming to Brighton with the United By Music Tour. These are The Dirty Nil at The Hope & Ruin on 26th July, Ed Harcourt at the Latest Music Bar on 27th July, Luke La Volpe at The Folklore Rooms on 9th September, Lily Moore at The Rossi Bar also on 9th September, and 86TVs at The Prince Albert on 11th September. Further information on these 5 gigs can be found at the bottom for this article!
Now then, so who exactly are VLURE I hear you ask?
Well now, their ranks consist of Hamish Hutcheson (vocals), Conor Goldie (guitars, synths), Niall Goldie (bass), Carlo Kriekaard (drums) and Alex Pearson (synths, keys) and they formed back in 2018. A trio of them hail from Glasgow (Hamish, Niall and Conor), whereas keyboardist Alex Pearson comes from Reading and drummer Carol Kriekaard originated in The Hague in the Netherlands. Back in January 2022 they dropped their 5 track ‘Euphoria’ EP, which took over the mantle from their terrific ‘Shattered Faith’ debut single release, which came out in March 2021 and their ‘Cut It’ single dropped last January.
So what’s a VLURE show like?
We have reviewed them on a number of occasions including their (support slot) appearance in Brighton at Chalk on 18th March 2022. The VLURE experience was described as thus……
“This evening at Chalk their set commenced at 7:29pm with a poem from a colleague of theirs who stood not on the stage, but on the back of the crowd barrier. This set the tone for frontman Hamish Hutcheson’s in-yer-face performance as he too addressed the crowd with his enthusiastic barrage of Glaswegian burrs during their seven song 30 minute set. Thirty minutes being the ideal time in which to lay down the gauntlet for the evening and to flag up that 30 minutes will be all they will need in order to gain a whole host of new VLURE fans, not just tonight but when they return to Brighton in May for The Great Escape.
Hamish is the ideal charismatic person to have out front. You can’t help taking your eyes off of him. His performance is edgy and you don’t quite know where he is going next as he patrols the crowd barrier from left to right. Could this be the new Joe Talbot? Hamish’s bandmates not only look the part, but they sound the part too! To me, it’s a wonderful conglomeration of SCALPING, The Ninth Wave and The Murder Capital rolled into one, with added KLF and mid 1980’s to early 90s synth and an industrial EBM vibe.
They opened with ‘Desire’ which is the B-side of ‘Shattered Faith’, which was a most promising start and the by now mostly packed crowd loved them and were on board. ‘Show Me How To Live Again’ came next and was the first of four numbers culled from their ‘Euphoria’ EP. This was followed by ‘I Won’t Run (From Love)’ which reminded me of Simple Minds and Alex’s backing vocals were rather enjoyable during this tune. ‘Heartbeat’ bopped along rather nicely, but was immediately eclipsed by new number ‘Cut It’.….and indeed it does cut it, with its KLF sound going down. In fact Hamish’s vocals can be likened to that of Bill Drummond’s.
Their debut single ‘Shattered Faith’ was up next and for me was the highlight of their most enjoyable set. A good comparison with this number is ‘My Name Is Ruin’ by Gary Numan as they both have wailing vocals and keys in an Arabic/North African vibe. VLURE would in fact be the perfect act to open up the forthcoming Numan tour as well. The Numanoids would take them to their heart. For their final number, ‘Euphoria’, Hamish clambered over the crowd barrier and went on walkabout through the crowd, whilst remonstrating the lyrics directly into punters’ faces. As you would expect, some loved it, some were bemused and some were very embarrassed in a British kinda way.
This had been a most energetic set by a band that will soon be headlining this size venue in their own right!”
VLURE concert tickets and other information on the band is available HERE.
As stated above, the other artists appearing in Brighton under the ‘United By Music Tour’ are as follows:
The Dirty Nil – The Hope & Ruin 26th July – Tickets HERE.
Ed Harcourt – Latest Music Bar 27th July – Keep an eye out for tickets HERE.
Luke La Volpe – The Folklore Rooms 9th September – Tickets HERE.
Lily Moore – The Rossi Bar 9th September – Keep an eye out for tickets HERE.
86TVs – The Prince Albert 11th September – Keep an eye out for tickets HERE.
86TVs:
“We all grew up playing Grassroots music venues all over the country. They are places you can try your hand at what may at first seem out of reach, learn from the failing/succeeding and everything in between. It still feels to us like being able to hold an audience in these venues is what makes a band, that is where the soul of live music is.”
Ed Harcourt:
“I am delighted to announce a small solo piano tour of UK grassroots venues in association with the awesome Music Venue Trust; since I was 18 years old, I have been performing in countless clubs & bars across our land, legendary sanctuaries for all to converge, nights I can’t remember & memories I can’t forget! They have been the vibrant springboards, places where I honed & learnt how to perform live & where I find myself returning to time & time again. Unfortunately we are at a point now where so many of these establishments have been forced into closure. It’s truly heartbreaking. These are the sacred places where your favourite bands & singers find & found their voices. They are part of the lifeblood of our culture. By doing this tour with the patronage of the MVT & their United By Music campaign, I hope we can not only raise awareness of the threat so many of these venues face but provide you, the punters, with a magnificent night out & an excuse to get out and support live music & the grassroots venues that host us all. Thank you & see you down the road!”
Lily Moore:
“I always get so much more excited either performing at or going to a gig, knowing it’s a venue I’ve never been to. There’s a special vibe about Grassroots Music Venues that you don’t get in massive rooms. You feel safe enough to dance or cry or put the light on your phone and wave it around. There’s something about it. A history. We need to look after our Grassroots Music Venues because without them, there would be no big venues and no artists emerging from the UK. They’re how we all start out and we need them.”
At this moment in time we can see that there are an impressive 118 different #UnitedByMusic concerts happening throughout the whole country. You can see who is playing where and when under this scheme by following THIS LINK.
