Tag Archives: Evans Above PR

01.13.17
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Gitta De Ridder – Altersonic – Groningen

My legs are aching. I was standing on them for much of yesterday, either watching a show from the next bright young things or wandering around Groningen hoping to catch those next bright young things before they’re on the radar of everybody else. 

 A fuller review of yesterday at Eurosonic will surface on eFestivals in time but for now I want to focus upon one small part of the day. 

 It was about 5PM and I was wandering back to my fine room in the centre of this City. I needed to get ready for the evening – snow was forecast for the night and I wanted to add a layer or two (and an extra pair of socks).

 

A lot of activity takes place around the Grote Markt here; there’s a big outdoor marquee (Eurosonic Air) which hosts bands for free, lots of pop-up food stalls if you want a snack or two and many of the Eurosonic venues. This also seems to be the space where much of ‘Altersonic’ happens. 

 

I’m guessing (my Dutch isn’t great) that Altersonic is one of the alternative spin-offs from the main Eurosonic. Eurosonic can only schedule a certain number of acts and others need opportunity to show off their talents as well. I like that Groningen has this festival within a festival even if it also means that my sense of overall confusion at the complexity of it all has heightened. 

 Anyway, I was walking past what can best be described as a pop-up radio station, a room with windows looking out onto the Grote Markt. A cheerful woman handed me a headset and said that I could listen live to what was being recorded within this room. I put the headphones on, watched and listened. Some sort of live lounge was in progress. An act who I didn’t recognise, just her and a guitar, was playing. “Sweet and solid folk music with a familiar twang”, I thought. 

(Click on page 2 to find out who it was)

 

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04.07.16
by

The Van Susans – Seagulls

Regular readers of Sonic Breakfast will know that i’m a sucker for tunes that invoke memories. It’s all the better when they focus upon loss in a romantic, reminiscent, sort of way.

Regular readers of Sonic Breakfast will also know that I open posts with the words ‘regular readers of Sonic Breakfast’ when I can think of no other way to start a piece. But’s that’s irrelevant right now.

 

A couple of days ago, I was sent the video to a new track by The Van Susans. It came my way via one of the best PR people I know. Julia at EvansAbove takes time to get to know the sort of stuff I’m likely to appreciate and, as a result, I’ll always open mail that she sends even when there is inevitably a backlog elsewhere.

This Van Susans track, Seagulls, is no exception to the general strike rate. After last year’s escapades in Brighton for The Great Escape festival (review here), I’ve grown quite partial to the place. And so, any video that features shots, old and new, of the town and the beach is great in my book. In this pretty emotive video, an urn containing ashes is carried around the town as memories of the past are drawn upon; happier times of childhood and adolescence extracted from a collection of old home movies. As the track builds, we realise that the ashes are about to be released to their final resting place – thrown into the sea in cathartic conclusion. 

Loss is inevitably distressing. The way it’s dealt with can also be uplifting. Forgive The Van Susans that the vocal delivery in this powerful track veers a little too close to Frank Turner for comfort (I jest – I hear he’s quite popular) and allow yourself to get carried away in the windswept woe of it all. You’ll be all the happier for it.