FIFTY3 FRIDAYS: BOOK NOW FOR LIVE AT THE BEDFORD

As you might guess from the above image, I am not going on about Fantasy Football for the second week running. Although, to answer Sid & Doris Rocker’s enquiry, I did triple captain Haaland and scored 94 points while I didn’t need to worry about grandson Dylan’s form. He is running third in our league. [Doesn’t this count as going on about Fantasy Football? – Ed] No, well a little.

Pic of Silk Cinema by Kevin England

So, to The Bedford. We begin with a plug for the next Fifty3 curated gig at The Bedford, Balham. The venue is always a welcoming space with its striking circular shaped gig room, excellent sound system and attentive audiences. It is a place people come to listen to rather than chat over the music and largely stay for the whole show. On Tuesday 22 October, we have another great eclectic line-up featuring the fabulous Silk Cinema, with fine support from Brighton’s Frances Mistry and South London’s The Music of Sound. Regular readers I’m sure will be familiar with all three names but you’ll find full details of the gig HERE. The show is free but it is wise to book tickets – this guarantees you a seat, though there is always standing room for any walk-ins on the night. Here is Silk Cinema and “Too Many Times”. You can dance to this!

Photo of Wings of Desire by Charlotte Patmore

The dream pop duo of Chloe Little and James Taylor aka Wings of Desire has consistently shared some compelling music over recent years culminating in a debut album, Life Is Infinite, last December which brought together all the band’s earlier single releases. The Stroud based pairing has returned with a new EP, Shut Up & Listen, with a fundraising link to a local social project, The Long Table, which is under threat of eviction. The Long Table counters social isolation to bring people together to eat and socialise, paying what they can afford, and seems very much aligned to the band’s own world view expressed in its music.

You can buy an exclusive cassette of the 4-track EP via Bandcamp for £8 or more with all proceeds going to The Long Table. The title track encapsulates the band’s core anthemic sound overlaid with mandolin and accordion lending it a touch of roots folk. Powerful and inspirational, the song develops mantra-like to reject the digital overload and falseness of modern life to move towards a more grounded reality, prompted by and respecting the natural world. The accompanying western-inspired video by award-winning filmmaker Amber Little lends additional space to the song and reinforces its message. Wings of Desire have live dates coming up in the UK and Europe including a show at London’s Bush Hall on 1 October. Don’t miss.

Photo of Hippo Campus by Brit O’Brien

St. Paul, Minnesota four-piece, Hippo Campus, has been on and off my radar since first hearing the band’s debut long-player, Landmark, in 2017. I have always sensed an overriding togetherness about the band which harks back to the camaraderie instilled from the early days of four best mates setting out to start a band. Hippo Campus has been on quite a ride, not least writing over 100 songs, getting sober, keeping up a regular routine of group therapy and then, realising they didn’t actually like the record they were making, scrapping five years of work, starting over and pouring their most vulnerable feelings into a new fourth album, Flood, which drops on 20 September.

“Forget It” offers a great foretaste of what is to come. While the full album explores wider themes of adulthood, from anxiety to death, addiction to relationships, the single is a reminiscence on a love lost and found with the realisation that what happened in one moment will last forever. Knowing self-criticism is balanced by forgiveness and acceptance of shortcomings. I particularly like how the song begins quite low key but picks up a momentum that resolves itself in quite mesmeric choruses. You can catch Hippo Campus on a, so far, one-off UK date when the band plays its biggest headline show here to date at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 4 December.

Last week I introduced readers to the music of young Australian singer-songwriter Hannah Quinn who I came across randomly on YouTube and was immediately struck by her maturity and songcraft. As it happens, yesterday the 16-year-old Newcastle, New South Wales native premiered the video to the final song on her debut EP, the title track “Nights Like This”, giving me the perfect pretext to feature the song here. While last week’s pick, “Bring In The Rain” evoked Fleetwood Mac with its midtempo pop rock vibe, the latest release perfectly illustrates Hannah’s versatility.

A song about creating memories with friends which you can look back on after “someday we'll have to go and grow up”, “Nights Like This” brings bedroom pop to the beach. With a knack for writing a melodic top line and employing a sweet yet assured vocal tone, Hannah spills out her teenage reflections and colours them with the imagery of living for now. It is a beautifully crafted pop song, peppered with her cute octave vocal rises and plumped out with EDM flavoured synths and percussion. It's hard not to be impressed by the youthful poise of Hannah Quinn.

Photo of Paris Paloma by Phoebe Fox

I caught a few songs from Paris Paloma’s Glastonbury set on the BBC Introducing stage en route to seeing Alvvays but there is the chance to watch a full set tonight as the Derbyshire native and now London-based alt-pop singer-songwriter is promoting her debut album, Cacophony, which is released today. I first heard Paris two years ago when she modestly appeared as one of four acts at an all-female showcase at The Fiddler, in Kilburn. Tonight, there is no need to make the trek across London as conveniently she is appearing at St John’s Church courtesy of the marvellous Banquet Records just a few yards up the road from me in Kingston upon Thames.

While I have previously shared Paris Paloma’s hard-hitting song about the roles forced upon women, “Labour”, it seemed appropriate to do so again:  the line “You make me do too much labour” seems to cement her own role in standing up for her gender. There is a surprising range to her repertoire across the 15 immersive songs on the album and an earthiness to her lyricism akin to Laura Marling as she meets themes of gender roles, love and death head on. It’s not all righteous anger either; there are softer, contemplative songs that provide light and shade.  An example is “The Warmth”, a slow-fuse fluid healer in which her hushed layered vocals create an enthralling ambience.