Bristol based punk band Droogs performing live on BBC Upload (credit: Sam Gould Photography)
If there’s one thing I bloody love, it’s a good gig. I love live music, in a small venue, a line-up packed with emerging artists, sticky floors, that weird guy in the corner (you know the sort, there’s always one at every gig), the smudged handstamp you get given after paying your entry fee, the half-chilled beer… You get the picture.
But of course what I really miss is those amazingly intimate live sessions that used to happen each week on my radio show Upload. Each Monday evening I’d welcome a new ‘House Band of the Week’ into the BBC Radio Bristol studios on Whiteladies Road in Bristol as they’d lug their gear into our teeny tiny performance studio which we call ‘The White Room Studio’. Each week, the house band would be asked to perform a stripped back session live on the radio. We’d also record a heap of their tracks to play out through the rest of the week. It’s such a joy to watch the artists thrive as they play live and their music beams out of our transmitters across the West Country and out to the world through the internet and the BBC Sounds app.
Bath born musician Isobel Holly performing live on BBC Upload (credit: Sam Gould Photography)
We’ve had folk singers, indie bands, musical theatre casts, global blues stars, a 30+ strong choir and even Grammy nominees perform live since we launched Upload in October 2018. Every week I would be blown away by the incredible talent performing on the show. All that stopped rather abruptly in the middle of March 2020 as COVID-19 took hold and the world ground to a halt. Across the world governments, including here in the UK, implemented ‘lockdown’ restrictions on their citizens. The BBC carried on broadcasting through the pandemic, we’re Britain’s public service broadcaster - of course we carried on! But with the restrictions and the outbreak of coronavirus we could no longer continue to have guests coming in and out of the BBC studios in Bristol.
DJ and producer Andy Jarvis has remixed artists like Ed Sheeran. He was our first live DJ set on Upload (credit: Sam Gould Photography)
Monday 16th March was the last time a musician played live on BBC Upload on BBC Radio Bristol. Damn. That feels so long ago. I really miss those live performances. But, luckily, we’ve got some incredible videos of many of the previous sessions that have happened in the White Room Studio - some filmed by our incredible social media team at BBC Radio Bristol and by the stupendously talented Sam Gould who takes some of the beautiful photos you can see in this blog post (check out his website and drop him a line if you need photos taking - he’s ace to work with).
I thought I’d take the opportunity to look back at some of my favourite live session performances from the last two years and collate them on this twitter thread. But also list a couple of them right here in this blog too.
Luke Marshall Black - ‘Losing Sleep’
Luke Marshall Black is a talented chap. The Glaswegian now lives in Bristol and has a voice that harks back to his homeland with subtle Scottish lilts that remind you of modern Scottish powerhouses like Lewis Capaldi and Paolo Nutini while being very much original. Luke’s voice has one of those great qualities that isn’t easy to master as well as he does - he comforts you with his delicate and warm tones, but soars with big notes too when he needs to. But it’s the effortlessness that he exuberates that draws me to him. Talking to him about his talent, he gets coyly embarrassed that you’re complimenting him - he’s a truly modest man. When Luke Marshall Black uploaded his debut track ‘Losing Sleep’ to BBC Upload, I remember listening to it on the uploader and being so blown away by it that I listened to it again right away. Then I played it to my colleagues who were sat either side of me. I loved it so much I made it track of the week and knew I had to get him in to perform live in session. I had to wait a while for him to come in, he wanted to make sure the moment was right and that he did something special. The wait was worth it. Watch the video above to see why!
Find out more about Luke Marshall Black on his facebook page and stream his music right now on his Spotify.
Make Friends - ‘Ellie’
Oh boy. Make Friends - what a band. Firstly, they’re another prime example of a hardworking group of mates who truly get the value in the detail. Bringing together their passion for music, obsessing over the elements that define their sound and genre and making sure that they write tracks that are consistent with their style. If you were to ask me which of the bands I’ve had perform live in session were most likely to make it big time, then I’d almost certainly say these guys. Tom, Connor, David and Max already have a batch of bangers that you should already have added to your playlists and have on repeat, and repeat, and repeat… add to that a strong base of dedicated fans who go to see them perform live. Last October the band played a sold out gig at the legendary Bristol venue-on-a-boat Thekla supporting Macclesfield trio Cassia. At around the same time Make Friends followed in the footsteps of every major name in pop music since the 50’s by performing at the BBC’s iconic Maida Vale studios for BBC Introducing in the West.
Check out the Maida Vale session tracks on their Spotify and find out more about the band via their website here.
Jamie Cruickshank - ‘I Can See Totterdown’
If someone was to ask me to tell them the most bizarre thing I’d ever convinced a musician to do was, I’d say this was it. Let me set the scene… It was August 2019 when I called up Bristol based singer-songwriter Jamie Cruickshank. When he picked up the phone I bet he didn’t expect me to ask him if he was going to be free at 4:30am one summer’s morning to perform his track ‘I Can See Totterdown’ while floating serenely in a hot air balloon basket several hundred feet above his hometown for the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. But I did. He half snapped my hand off at the opportunity, while the other half hesitantly pondered the thought of the heights. It was his first hot air balloon flight and it’s always a weird thing to get your head around at the best of times, let alone when you need to bring your acoustic along with you too. But there was a reason I picked Jamie for this opportunity and it was all about this one song. His folky singer-songwriter simplicity reminiscent of Damien Rice shines beautifully with this track for which is somewhat his flagship track. The song nods to hopeful futures for his family while namechecking iconic suburbs of Bristol such as Totterdown and Windmill Hill. The magical moment of glimpsing the rows of colourful houses across the steep hills of Totterdown in the distance across Bristol as Jamie sang the lyrics “I can see Totterdown” is a moment both he and I will never forget. Neither will the balloon pilot or my BBC colleague Phoebe who were crammed into the balloon basket with us!
Hear the original version of ‘I Can See Totterdown’ on Jamie Cruickshank’s Spotify.
Of course, one day I hope we can get back to hearing live session performances back on Upload. I can’t wait for the buzz that we all feel as the artists get ready to strum that first note or sing that first lyric that will beam across the airwaves as they sing it. The nervous energy that fills the studios just before the red light flickers on and I introduce the first track of their session. I can’t wait for that moment.
Watch more live session videos on the BBC Upload YouTube channel and submit your content for airplay on BBC Upload via the website bbc.co.uk/upload at any time.