SHALLOW HONEY + OPAL MAG + CORDELIA GARTSIDE + GEORGE CRUMP + URGENTSEA + KAROBELA – DALTONS, BRIGHTON 1.6.24
This evening we found ourselves based at Daltons which is a fully accessible venue based on the Lower Promenade, Brighton which it’s right on the beach under the zipwire. We were here in order to take in the delights on offer from ‘Loud Women’ who had organised this sunny seaside shindig. It’s titled ‘Loud Women Minifesto’ and featured a half dozen new acts, these being Shallow Honey, Opal Mag, Cordelia Gartside, George Crump, UrgentSea and Karobela. We decided to share reviewing duties tonight and so acts 1, 3 and 5 were reviewed by Nick Linazasoro and acts 2,4 and 6 were covered by Jess Kemp and so without further ado, here’s what happened.
Opening the event at 6:50pm were Karobela which is pronounced (pronounced ka-ro-bella), and which we are informed “is a Polish sword”, but on investigation that’s spelt Karabela and is a Polish sabre which is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry. However, their name is actually made up of the first two letters of the band members Christian names: KAtie King (bass), ROb Freeman (guitar), BEn Gower (drums) and LAuren Diamond (lead vocals). They formed out of the ashes of Flawless Carbon and are an Alt-Indie outfit who offer up good old fashioned rock and roll with big riffs, dirty grooves, and most definitely littered with British South-East England powerhouse accent vocals, which certainly fits in with the Loud Women ethos. The sound level blasts out of Dalton’s speakers as a call to arms for passing folk to get their arses into the joint and check out what’s going down! Karobela give us a seven tune taster during their 28 minute set which included their latest single ‘Get Hard’ and I believe a couple of as yet recorded tunes ‘Afterthought’ and ‘Better Than Ever’. Lauren is also in control of a compact M-Audio keys and laptop keys iPad configuration on the floor. In essence it’s a normal rock sounding outfit especially the guitar work , but those present enjoyed their performance.
Karobela:
Katie King – bass, bv’s
Rob Freeman – guitar
Ben Gower – drums
Lauren Diamond – lead vocals/keys
Karobela setlist:
‘Skin & Bone’ (from 2020 ‘Karobela’ EP)
‘Red Light Green Light’ (a 2022 single)
‘Libertine’ (a 2021 single)
‘Afterthought’ (unreleased)
‘Better Than Ever’ (unreleased)
‘Get Hard’ (a 2024 single)
‘Candy’ (from 2020 ‘Karobela’ EP)
UrgentSea – The Brighton-based, quartet alt-rock band combine early 90’s US and UK Indie alt-rock with a modern spin. Tending towards a more US style alt-rock sound with a UK vocal they were occasionally reminiscent of early ‘The Breeders’. Between tracks the band chatted to the audience or to themselves frequently using self-deprecating humour. ‘Headful Of Hollow’, with its powerful vocals, duets and higher pitched crescendo grabbed the audience who complied when lead Katherine Stewart encouraged them to come closer. ‘Listen Up’, an older song has a slower build with a military style beat holding pace before a fast tempo chorus brought the whole band in before the outro. It was one of the catchiest tracks in the set. ‘Red Kiss’, another older song was more downbeat old school style rock with a slower solo vocal and guitar lead in. It moved from parred back to heavy and back again with Stewart vocals rising to soprano at several points. Another stand out song was their new single ‘Cruel’, as catchy as ‘Listen Up’ it whisked the audience along with it. The pacing was great, the delivery, as with the rest of the set was tight, this is a band who know how to deliver a great live performance and write great tracks. Before performing the final song of the set the band asked the audience to send them any footage of the set that they had shot for them to edit together into the next video for the single. Ending on a surprise cover of Republica’s ‘Ready To Go’. UrgentSea delivered a version so flawless, relentless and enjoyable I could argue it was far superior to the originators live performance. Ending on a high the band adjourned to the merch desk to sell and sign. As with earlier singles ‘Cruel’ is available from your favourite streaming service, record store or directly from the band’s website detailed below.
UrgentSea:
Katherine Stewart – guitar/ vocals
Vicki Workman – guitar/ backing vocals
Jack Clark – drums
Ross Workman – bass
UrgentSea setlist:
‘Colouring Book’ (unreleased)
‘Headful Of Hollow’ (from 2022 ‘UrgentSea’ EP)
‘Lighten Up’ (from 2022 ‘UrgentSea’ EP)
‘Red Kiss’ (from 2022 ‘UrgentSea’ EP)
‘Hero’ (unreleased)
‘Hit Undo’ (unreleased)
‘Cruel’ (a 2024 single)
‘Ready To Go’ (Republica cover)
Next up it’s the turn of Brighton-based young non-binary producer and bassist George Crump who brings their take on nostalgic synth pop to the world via working with other talented female/non-binary Brighton vocalists, and indeed this is the case this evening as George has called on the talent of Alex on lead vocals, plus Dan on drums, for the whole of the 28 minute set which ran from 8:18pm until 8:46pm. I’m guessing that when the trio launched into opener ‘Leave Me Alone’, a large proportion of punters present would have assumed that George was in fact the vocalist, who was absolutely terrific I hasten to add, but in fact it wasn’t the case, as bassist George introduces themself with a “Hi I’m George” after the tune has ended. The vocalist Alex is a musician in their own right, and going under the moniker of ALY, who offers up an impressive slightly nasally Fleetwood Mac American sounding style vocal delivery and has thus far dropped two singles ‘Within A Circle’ (which was recorded at Brighton Electric Studios) and ‘Illogical’ as well as releasing tonight’s closing number ‘Give You Everything’ with George. To be honest I wasn’t actually expecting a surprisingly modern take on nostalgic synth pop akin to the likes of La Roux and CHVRCHES, as part of tonight’s Loud Women lineup, but it’s a masterstroke by Cassie and her team! I have suddenly discovered two new artists to follow in the one set! George was seriously on the case and looking after the Fender Mustang bass, keys and laptop, and Dan was on drums and presets as the tunes came speedily one after another. The quality of George’s material is astounding for one of so few years! They must be like a sponge in absorbing all of the musical information and converting it into an absolutely solid set! Well what can I say other than the trio were seriously holding it together and I truly felt that there was real potential here, says he having witnessed Dua Lipa play live at Brighton’s Hope & Ruin in Brighton to a not full capacity audience! Was tonight’s George Crump’s set going to be another one of these “I was there!” moments? Time will tell….
George Crump:
George Crump – bass, keys, laptop
ALY – vocals
Dan – drums, presets
George Crump setlist:
‘Leave Me Alone’ (a 2024 single with Kathy Foster on vocals)
‘Heaven’ (unreleased)
‘Better Left Unsaid’ (a 2024 single with Kathy Foster on vocals)
‘Memories’ (unreleased)
‘Skydiving’ (unreleased)
‘What We Had Before’ (a 2023 single with Millie Cook on vocals)
‘Give You Everything’ (a 2023 single with ALY on vocals)
Cordelia Gartside – The St Leonards based singer songwriter self describes her work as “Lo-Fi creep rock”. From the recordings available, Gartside gave the impression of a solo artist. As she set up, I was pleased to see she had a trio of musicians with her and I was intrigued to see how this would change her sound. ‘December’ offered parred down musical delivery coupled with a quiet vocal. Rather than put the audience off, it lured the audience in closer before quickly becoming an unexpectedly heavy start to the set. Gartside’s vocals are delivered in such an expert way that for the first time I didn’t need to use earplugs to listen to a set. ‘Machine’ had a great slow building intro, low bass and drums. Gartside’s voice builds slowly and employs repetition to seep into your brain unnoticed before slowly fading away leaving you wanting more. ‘Stranger In The Water’ again starts with a slow creep in, Gartside’s beautiful and skilful vocal drifts over the listener with a lightness of touch. Gartside is the master of her instruments employing her (brand new) effects pedals sparingly, using the strength of her vocals to hold the audience. There are few musicians who have this skill, the only thing breaking the audience’s rapt attention was their own applause at the end of each song. Stopping to pitch her wares at the merch desk, Gartside allowed the necessary reality to interrupt briefly before introducing her band. The next song was the first written as a band and was “brand new!”. Gartside took the opportunity to tell the audience how grateful they are when performing before getting into the meat of ‘Lying’. Another great builder of a track it underlined the power of her voice. On the final song of the set, she took the opportunity to thank the audience and urged them to come and talk to her afterwards, “Come and say Hi! Even if you think you might be annoying, it never is!” The last song of the set was as yet unreleased ‘Hospital’ played out to jubilant applause. Cordelia’s next Sussex concert will be at The Piper in St. Leonards-on-Sea on 8th June with Brighton outfit congratulations – Tickets HERE.
Cordelia Gartside:
Cordelia Gartside – lead vocal/ guitar
Tom Ironmonger – bass
Max Garner – drums
Cordelia Gartside setlist:
‘December’ (a 2023 single)
‘Machine’ (a 2023 single)
‘Stranger In The Water’ (a 2023 single)
‘Diablo’ (unreleased)
‘Lying’ (unreleased)
‘Terminal’ (unreleased)
‘Hospital Corners’ (unreleased)
The penultimate act of the night was Opal Mag who is billed as “your new fave dreampop-slacker” and this is seriously the case with our chum Guy Christie who voted Opal Mag as his favourite act of this year’s Escapes (full list HERE), as well as our reviewer Ben ‘Jerry’ Robinson who witnessed Opal Mag at The Rossi Bar on 13th April as part of the ‘Homegrown Festival’ and in his own words “My notes at the end simply said “Wow, this is awesome”, what more can I add!”. It turns out that Opal Mag is the new venture for Frankie Stanley, who felt constrained by her former band and now is endeavouring to get her own ideas across. This evening (and indeed for all of her few previous performances), she has called on the talents of others on the local music scene to assist in getting her message across and so Frankie appears with a band. For this evening’s 23 minute, 7 tune set from 9:48pm to 10:11pm, lead vocalist and Squier Stratocaster guitarist Frankie is joined by Hannah Websdale from Currls on drums, Austin Prichard from Ideal Living, Soft Top and Tinman on Fender guitar and backing vocals, Jessica Stretton on Roland keyboards and backing vocals, and Marie Freiss on Fender Jazz bass. Considering Opal Mag has only been going since last December (and the lineup can rotate), today’s musicians were incredibly tight and did our ears proud. It was a solid indie rock cum shoegaze dreamy vibed perfectly layered set with echoey vocals and some decent guitar work going on here and was like a rocky psyched out version of The Sundays and they sounded as though they have done tons of gigs as opposed to just a few as a five piece. There’s a true depth of sound with this performance! Frankie regularly offers a slower American style vocal delivery with often tilting her head sideways on at the mic. It was a fabulous set of unrecorded material and I certainly expect good things to come of this! A must see local artist! Catch Opal Mag live in Brighton on 3rd October at The Hope & Ruin in support of TWEN – Tickets HERE.
Opal Mag:
Frankie Stanley – lead vocals, guitar
Jessica Stretton – keys and backing vocals
Hannah Websdale – drums
Austin Prichard – guitar, backing vocals
Marie Freiss – bass
Opal Mag setlist:
‘Love To See You Shine’
‘Try Not To Hate Everything’
‘Take Away The Rain’
‘Feel It All’
‘Confusion State’
‘I Don’t Like You, But I Love You’
‘Glow’
Shallow Honey – The Brighton-Based quartet specialise in 90s inspired Alt-Rock/ Dirty Pop. They’re a tight outfit. Conway’s lead vocal has an air of Throwing Muses era Kristin Hersh, with Beth Ditto’s belting power and tonality during songs such as ‘Control’. The musical delivery is pure ‘90s indie-rock. Some songs have an edge of Moloko, some Alice in Chains, Garbage and even UK bands like Powder. At the start of the set Conway offered thanks and much kudos to the other bands who had performed on the night and the sound engineer (wise woman). On the second song this paid off as the sound engineer asked if they wanted to turn up the drums, which they did. The instrumentalisation swims with classic 90s guitar riffs and beats, multiple influences seeping in, but moulded to the bands own distinctive style. ‘Lightweight’ had an intro sound which was a real mix of U.K. 90’s indie pulled from all over the country. It also has a great bridge and compelling vocal delivery with catchy as hell lyrics. Cheryl’s drums are relentless towards the close of the song. ‘Breakup Breakdown’ has a bombastic intro which settles into a slower verse before bursting into another catchy as hell chorus. ‘Pyunk’ showcased Conway’s impressively strong vocal again. ‘Start The Ride’ had me thinking of Juliana Hatfield’s ‘Spin The Bottle’. Conway told the audience “This track is about how women get binned at thirty-five.” The final song of the set ‘Control’ saw Cheryl’s hammering drums return and the hook in Conway’s repetition of “Smile, Smile, Smile” which as a ‘90’s indie kid had me grinning ear to ear. This was a power set to finish the night on offering a real contrast to the previous act, but balancing out the variety of styles on offer, keeping the audience on its toes.
Shallow Honey:
Rai Conway – lead vocal
Carl Toppin – bass
Ben Siviter – guitar
Cheryl Marie Chitty – drummer
Shallow Honey setlist:
‘SCAB’ (unreleased)
‘So Still’ (unreleased)
‘Breakup Breakdown’ (a 2024 single)
‘Lightweight’ (a 2023 single)
‘Pyunk’ (unreleased)
‘Start The Ride’ (unreleased)
‘Control’ (a 2021 single)
The obvious camaraderie, mutual support between all of the acts was refreshing and gave the night a strong positivity sometimes absent. This was my first Loud Women event. Always hungry to find more female performers I’ll be following and attending as many of their events as possible from here on in. The next Brighton offering from Loud Women will be at The Prince Albert on the 21st of June featuring The Bluebonnets, I, Doris and COWZ. You can purchase your tickets HERE.
