A Day Late, A Dollar Short

Hello!

Apologies for another late blog, at least it's just a day this time!

First off I want to say a big thank you to everyone who came down to The Lacehouse last Saturday for the Hope for Children benefit concert that I put on for a friend of mine.  He was very pleased with the event and the money we raised!  A special thanks to everyone who performed, Alexa Hawksworth was a fantastic addition to the bill and filled in at very short notice which we were incredibly grateful for.  We also had two other lovely ladies, Beth Frisby, Izzy Marie Hill and one of my favourite Nottingham based bands (possibly just one of my favourite bands in general) The Most Ugly Child performing an acoustic set of their country/Americana style music.  Finally I also want to throw in a huge thank you to Kimberley Winter of Under the Tree for helping make the night possible and The Lacehouse for being fantastic hosts as always.

Before I get into this weeks activities I want to say that sadly I will not be going on the Emily and the Woods and Sam Brookes tour that I was due to embark on today.  Due to some unfortunate work conflicts I have had to withdraw myself from the tour and also end my work with NA Music.  Thankfully, the wonderfully talented Dougie Francis was able to step up and fill the gap.  I wish Emily, Sam and Dougie all the best for the week, I'm sure they'll have a fantastic time!

This Friday I traveled back to Matlock for the first time since the February tour to play a set at Twenty-Ten for the lovely Jason Barker.  The two of us were also lucky to be joined by The Most Ugly Child who I was more than happy to watch again not a week since they played for me at The Lacehouse.  Since Matlock is pretty close to Nottingham but far enough away to be a bit of an adventure, with my Under the Tree friends in tow, we set out bright and early to go and explore what I'd call a seaside town with no sea (so many fish & chips restaurants and amusement arcades!).  It turned out to be a really lovely day out, we drove around the surrounding areas and I visited the Chatsworth Estate for the first time, such an impressive place!  The nice weather seems to have disappeared however, and as we were driving through the rainy countryside we had the questionable brilliant idea to film Hurricane in a stormy field.  The resulting video was very atmospheric and I got soaked.  It should hopefully be floating around on the internet soon as well as Kim's Road Trip diary showing our travels...

I did yet more filming bright and early on Saturday morning, this time for WAITT Unsigned at the BrewDog Nottingham.  That video should be available next Saturday (but I'll be living it up in Barcelona by then!).

Finally, I'm very pleased to announce that I will be going back into the studio, this time with Dan of The Most Ugly Child (which as you can imagine I'm very happy about), so the EP is getting set... I've even finished the artwork, can't wait to show you!

Tonight I'll be at The Golden Fleece for one of the last open mic nights with all my friends before people leave Nottingham and the uni life forever, these are pretty sad times but I'm sure we'll be having fun tonight!

Love y'all!

Anwyn :) x

The Late Blog

Hello everyone,

First and foremost I want to say sorry for forgetting to blog last week... The sunny British weather took me by surprise and I got a bit carried away sunbathing in the park!

So the last time I wrote on here I was writing live from Dot to Dot festival.  It seems like such a long time ago now but I just want to talk a brief bit about how fantastic it was.  I was lucky enough to be performing at the Dot to Dot fringe for the lovely people at Under the Tree down at Alley Cafe.  I was joined by some truly amazing acts including the likes of Agnes Bella, Michael Stott, Matt Gold and Beth Frisby.  When I wasn't helping out with our stage I was able to catch some of the main festival in full swing.  I kicked my Dot to Dot day off in Rescue Rooms bar with Leah Sinead who is an incredible local artist.  Continuing the Nottingham based theme, I went to Jongleurs to watch the amazing Georgie Rose perform with her full band.  After seeing her play an acoustic set just a few days before for Under the Tree at Bodega, it was brilliant to see just how perfectly she took to playing with a band.  It was also lovely to see the relatively large venue with so many people in to support a local talent, despite it being early.  This year's Dot to Dot excelled at bringing local acts to the forefront, with such a huge number of talented musicians performing I believe the Nottingham music scene is something everyone involved should be incredibly proud of.

Of course there were other acts at the festival, I finally was able to see Benjamin Francis Leftwich perform after missing him at the end of last year.  He took to the Rock City main stage alone with just his guitar and captivated the audience.  Over on the Rescue Rooms main stage later in the day, following very positive reviews from a friend, I saw Bear's Den and I am now officially in love with this band.  I'm kind of regretting jumping on the Gentlemen of the Road in Dublin tickets now I know that they'll be joining Mumford & Sons, Ben Howard and Edward Sharpe in London, but never mind!  I am hoping they put some more music online soon...  Towards the end of the day as the sun started to disappear, I headed back to Rock City for the 1975, they'd just arrived from supporting Muse at the Emirates but with so much energy you couldn't tell.  While they were no where near being my favourite of the day, it was totally worth sticking around for the majority of their set just to hear Chocolate and have a little dance/sing along (with my terrible accent impression).  Finally, before heading over to the silent disco, I went back to Jongleurs for one of my faves; Lucy Rose.  She was brilliant as ever, possibly even better than when I saw her in Sheffield!  

As if my Dot to Dot day couldn't get better, about 3 weeks before I'd set my iTunes to automatically download Laura Marling's new album and at midnight it did just that.  I won't go into a track by track review because I will be here til next week, but I am so happy with it.  Highlights for me are the 3 tracks she'd already released on SoundCloud; Once, Master Hunter and Where Can I Go? as well as Undine, Little Love Caster, When Were You Happy? and Devil's Resting Place.  Now, I realise that that's a lot of highlights, but that's how amazing and beautifully crafted this album is.  The first 4 tracks roll effortlessly into each other and could just as easily have been one long song.  Many of the tracks on the rest of the album remind me of Joni Mitchell, particularly When Were You Happy, perhaps because Marling relocated to LA for this album.  Either way, it is fantastic and I advise everyone to get a copy, I can't praise her highly enough.

Other than Dot to Dot I've been doing my standard rounds in Nottingham, putting in appearances at BrewDog, The Maze, Guitar Bar and The Lacehouse.  Today I'll be at the Maze again for Wipe Out Festival which I'm very excited about.  It's only £5 entry for 3 stages of music from 5pm til late!

Hope everyone is enjoying this cheeky bit of summer we're having!

Love y'all!

Anwyn :) x

I'm at Dot to Dot!

Good evening everyone!

So clearly I forgot to write a blog this week however, I have a totally legit response; Dot to Dot festival! All day this Sunday I've been out at the festival enjoying some fantastic music, as I'm writing this now I'm sat in the Alley Cafe listening to the fantastic Beth Frisby play for the Under the Tree stage of D2D (I love technology, iPhones rule!) I'm going to do more of a festival review next Sunday as there's still loads more to see today...

As for the rest of this week, it's been a bit of a quiet one in all fairness. It all began at the Maze last Sunday with a gig. i went to see New Orleans band, Hurray for the Riff Raff and they were amazing! I mentioned them in a blog a few weeks ago after tracking down their song Young Blood Blues and I was super excited to see them. Then of course there was the Golden Fleece open mic night which eventually turned into an impromptu jam night at the Lacehouse.

Seeing as I was gig-less for the rest of the week I took two days out to get in the studio and record my EP which has been a very exciting experience.  I've got 4 tracks done now it's just a case of getting them mixed down nicely and adding in some other random stuff (banjo update to follow no doubt!) 

So short and sweet this week, Beth has just finished her set beautifully and now we're on to the next! Yay Under the Tree and Dot to Dot! 

Love y'all!

Anwyn :) x

I've Finished Uni!

Hello there!

This week has been a very busy one on the gigging front.  Starting off on Monday as the NTU Music Society took over Spanky van Dykes for the last acoustic night of this academic year.  This month we had fantastic music from Will Wilson, Izzie Marie Hill, Agnes Bella and Yasmin Issaka.  I kicked off the night with a little help from Will on a cover of Noel Gallagher's If I Had a Gun which is one of my favourite songs so was pretty happy to perform it! I also busted out a ukelele for one of my songs which was a lot of fun as I haven't played ukelele on stage in a very long time...

Tuesday was a pretty important day for me, my final piece of uni work was submitted and I am now no longer a student (we'll make it official when I graduate....) To celebrate I spent the entire day in bed catching up on some TV, then eventually ventured out to watch the super talented Ryan Thomas play at Tilt. 

On Wednesday I traveled to Sheffield for NA Music's 5th Birthday celebrations.  I was joined at the Bowery by my tour friends Simon Roe, Eve May Rowlands and Dougie Francis as well as NA Music bands The Retrospectives and Twin Bears.  It was a really enjoyable evening... HAPPY BIRTHDAY NA MUSIC! :)

I made a return to Leamington Spa on Friday to perform at the opening of my friends' new studio.  Sound Anchor Studios is a new business in Leamington based in one of the creative arches underneath the railway bridge that offers rehearsal space, PA hire, CD printing and eventually recording.  It's a very exciting development and I feel really lucky to have been a part of it's opening.

I was straight back to Nottingham on Saturday to play Kerblammo! at the Maze for Under the Tree which was a lot of fun.  With three stages and loads of different acts it was a great night.  I managed to catch music from Mikie Howard and Proper English Gentlemen before playing my acoustic set in the Forest Tavern at the front of the Maze.

So Sunday is my first proper day off in a little while and I've enjoyed it with some unhealthy takeaway and gossiping with friends.  We're going to watch Harry Potter now so I'll have to leave it here!

Enjoy the next week...

Love y'all 

Anwyn :) x

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anwynwilliamsmusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

Rain, Rain Go Away...

Hello readers!

Where did all that sunshine disappear to?!  I already miss it...  Is that Summer 2013 done and dusted?  We'll see I suppose.

Last Sunday while the weather was still lovely I got to play a nice set at the Anchor's beer festival to help raise some money for charity.  It was a fantastic day and as the sun was out we were lucky enough to perform our sets in the Hartshill pub's beautiful beer garden.  I felt so summery!  The fantastic weather continued into Bank Holiday Monday but I unfortunately had to spend 2hours on a train to Nottingham, when I did get back it was straight to the Golden Fleece for some open mic love (in between sitting up on the roof terrace of course!).

After spending a lot of time on Tuesday making a fantastic (in my humble opinion) Summer playlist on Spotify of nearly 500 tracks I was disappointed to say the least when I woke up to the miserable grey day that was Wednesday...  My spirits were lifted later in the evening by going to the amazing Rescue Rooms Quiz and Kareoke for the very first time!  Seriously, it was sooo much fun... we didn't win but it's all about the taking part right?!  The kareoke was fab, I haven't done it in such a long time, it was nice to just have a bit of a mess about while singing instead of taking it seriously all the time...

That said, I was back to seriousness on Thursday night as the Music Society did an Under the Tree takeover at Brewdog.  Big thanks to Kim Winter for pulling all of it together, it was a brilliant night with many, many, many very talented Music Society performers who I love a lot.  We had beautiful music from: Mikie Howard, Will Wilson, George and Jess, Yasmin Issaka, Michael Stott, Miles Hornsby, Agnes Bella, Matt Gold, Izzy Marie Hill, Adam Peter Smith, The Long Intros and a special guest appearance from  Marc Reeves who was kind enough to do sound for us (thank you!).  It was so nice to have a night like that before a lot of our members graduate and disappear so a big thank you to everyone who came down to play and support :)

On Friday I submitted my last university essay, all that's left to do now is a piece of group work and then (hopefully...) graduation!  I feel very strange at the minute, these last three years have been mad and I'm so close to the finish line now.  I'm sure to dwell on this even more next week when it'll finally all be over.

Saturday night gave me my first experience of drinking in Beeston!  I played at the White Lion for the Next Step Network music night.  The charity deals with people with mental health problems and helps them with their recoveries, it's a really fantastic charity that's run entirely by volunteers so I was glad to be able to help out even just a little by playing the gig for them.  I was also joined by several other artists and managed to catch sets by Adam Peter Smith, always a pleasure to watch, and the lovely Becky Syson who was kind enough to offer me another gig! yay!  Oh, and Beeston is cool, I like it.

I think that's just about it for this week, let's hope the sun comes back out and I can enjoy my playlist in style...  And finally, before I go, I'm delighted to announce that on the 26th May I'll be playing the Under the Tree stage in Alley Cafe at the Dot to Dot fringe festival! 

Love y'all!

Anwyn :) x

PS - Spotify adverts keep telling me about their 'play button' feature so I've decided to utilise it and share my summer love with you, voila!

LINKS

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YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

The Sun is Out!

Happy Sunday!

Hope everyone has enjoyed the lovely weather we've had this week!  Let's hope it sticks around a little while longer....

Last Sunday evening I went to The Queens Social Club in Sheffield to watch Lucy Rose, she was so good!  I actually think it might've been one of the best gigs I've been to in a while, she was fantastic!  And afterwards she sold me some tea... Lucy Rose makes tea!  How cool is that?  I really enjoyed watching her perform, I've been a big fan of her for quite a while.

Monday was the standard Golden Fleece open mic night which was brilliant as always, I will be sad when all the final year students in the Music Society graduate and disappear, I'm hoping to stick around!

This week the Music Society were invited to perform at Nottingham Trent Student's Union Awards (NTSU Awards).  For any of you that follow me on Twitter will be fully aware of this after my explosion of tweets on Wednesday night. Let me explain, we were sat next to a TV screen that was displaying tweets with #ntsuawards, Music Society kinda just ran with it...  It was a lovely evening with free food and wine (hence all the tweets).  Myself, Matt Gold and the Long Intros all got to perform one song each in front of a very suave looking audience.  The NTU Drama Society also performed songs from their rendition of Fame and dance group, Funky Fresh Collective did an incredible routine.

This weekend I've come back home again, which is always a nice treat and this afternoon I'll be travelling to the The Anchor in Hartshill to perform at a Beer Festival with my good friends Benjamin Penrose and Samuel Hayler!  I'll let you know how we get on next week...

Love y'all

Anwyn :) x

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anwynwilliamsmusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

Open Mic Binge

Hello readers!

So as the name of this blog suggests I have been to a lot of open mic nights this week and I intend to talk you through them a little.  It all began last Sunday at the Brewdog in Nottingham.  This week was only the second time I had been to this night but I already felt really welcome and comfortable there.  I played an entirely new set of three songs that had never been played to people before which was a lot of fun and they seemed to go down pretty well which is always nice, I’ve been experimenting with different tunings so it was really interesting to get a bit of a different sound out.  I highly recommend this open mic night, not least for the free drink given to every performer (Brewdog beers are pretty special).

Monday night was of course spent at the Golden Fleece on Mansfield road.  This open mic is pretty much home to me; it was the first place I EVER played so I really owe a lot to it.  It’s always a fantastic atmosphere no matter how quiet or busy it is on the night.  My favourite.

On Tuesday I was very, very happy to be heading back home for a few days.  It had been so long since I was last in Leamington Spa so it really was brilliant to be there.  Luckily for me, Tuesday night is open mic night at my ‘local’, The Robbins Well.  I really enjoyed being back in the loop here and getting to see some of my incredibly talented friends Spa side! (check out Benjamin Penrose and Samuel Hayler)

I did have a night off on Wednesday, instead of doing anything myself I headed over to the O2 Academy in Birmingham to see the fantastic Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls as they toured the new album, Tape Deck Heart.  I’ve been a fan of Frank Turner for quite a while but only saw him live for the first time last summer at V Festival and then again at Rock City in Nottingham just before Christmas; I think this was the best I’d seen him, it was a great show.

Back in the Spa, on Thursday night I ventured out to another open mic night this time at the Cross Keys.  It wasn’t one I’d been to before but it was a lot of fun and very enjoyable, I played four songs on my own and then got to do a duet with someone I hadn’t done a duet with in a very long time which was lovely.  All in all, it was great to be home albeit only for a couple of days.  I will be back in the area next weekend for a beer festival in Hartshill, keep an eye out on my Facebook/Twitter for details nearer the time!

I spent much of Friday in a car.  We travelled from Leamington to York and back to Nottingham. The M1 in a traffic jam isn’t always the most pleasant of experiences but luckily I had a ukelele on hand to make everything more cheerful... check out the video!  While in York I had the pleasure of playing at the Basement again, this time supporting the phenomenal Alessi’s Ark.  It was a great show and I really enjoyed watching Alessi’s Ark who I have been listening to for quite a while now.  Also the other support act, Denis Jones, was absolutely incredible and well worth a listen – lots of loops and electronic kind of sounds.

After a brief visit to my flat I was back on the road on Saturday to play at the Hammer and Pincers in Sheffield.  It was a lovely pub and I was joined by my friend Beth McCarthy who was her usual brilliant self.  It was nice to play somewhere different and although I’m not usually a massive fan of doing pub gigs it was a really nice evening.

Now we’re on Sunday… Tonight I’m off to see Lucy Rose at the Queens Social Club in Sheffield which I am incredibly excited about as I’ve been a huge fan of her probably since about 2011 when I first heard Middle of the Bed.  I missed out on seeing her in Nottingham so I’m making up for it now, will let you know what I think next Sunday!

Have a fantastic week,

Love y’all!

Anwyn  :) x

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anwynwilliamsmusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

Belated Blog, Dramatic Week

Good evening everyone,

I appear to have forgotten that Sunday is blog day and have been rather distracted by Sunday roasts and making plans for the summer!

This week has been insane!  My dissertation was due in on Friday and (drum roll please...) I managed to get it in by Thursday!  I'm really happy it's all done with now, and to be honest I can't understand how I did it, but I did... so all's well that ends well I suppose, now just the long wait to get my grade back!

Aside from the excitement of the dissertation I did manage to cram in some time for the music in my life... On Monday night the NTU Music Society ran an event at Spanky Van Dykes to raise money for the Student Union's chosen charities in honour of RAG week which was all very lovely.  We had some society faves playing such as Michael Stott, Yasmin Issaka, Agnes Bella, Matt Gold as well as the new addition of Sam Jones which was fabulous!

On Wednesday having nearly completed my dissertation I allowed myself to leave the flat and go and support the fantastic Jess Morgan at Guitar Bar alongside Alexa Hawksworth and Music Soc fresher, Yasmin Eresh.  It was a nice wind down after a lot of relentless typing and I had a fantastic time... I even got to have a little play with some electric guitars (here's me rocking out Hurricane and I'll throw in this video that Marc Reeves shot of The Castle and the Kingdom just for fun too).  

Like handing in my 10,000 word dissertation on Thursday wasn't emotional enough this happened later on and just made my day:

That's the fantastic Newton Faulkner sharing the poster for the Emily and the Woods tour with my name on it!  Needless to say I was incredibly overwhelmed seeing that go up, I feel very, very lucky.

So my dramatic week was rounded off with a chilled out day at home on Friday, a chilled out  day in the park in the sunshine on Saturday and a chilled out Sunday roast eating, summer planning day on Sunday.  Now I'm off to the Brewdog open mic night to hopefully play at least one of the two songs I've written since Thursday night... if I can ever remember my own lyrics that is!

Love y'all!

Anwyn :) x

Dissertation Procrastination

Happy Sunday all!

This one will be brief as I'm 5 days away from my dissertation hand-in date, crazy days!

So this week I've done two open mic nights, I tested the waters (and the beers) last Sunday at the Brew Dog's open mic for the first time which was a lot of fun and highly recommended.  Next up was my standard Monday night of fun at the Fleece, which was extra special this week with university friends reappearing following the Easter break!

On Tuesday evening following a long day of writing I felt the need to have a break so went to see the FANTASTIC Little Comets at Rescue Rooms.  I've been a fan of these guys for a while now but hadn't seen them live until this week and they were brilliant.  Support came from The Crookes who I'd never even listened to before but really enjoyed their set as well.  It was a great evening, and much needed following a lot of stressing and dissertation woes.

My Wednesday night was all about comedy!  My good friends the Long Intros were performing at The Canalhouse for their NCF Comedy night so I went along for the fun and festivities.  If you like things that are funny (and a little rude) you should definitely check them out!

Then there was more dissertation... until........

On Saturday night I had the pleasure and privilege of supporting some fantastic musicians; Rhiannon Mair, Fiona Bevan and Antonio Lulic at Guitar Bar.  I cannot recommend them highly enough, it truly was a pleasure to perform with them.  I was also reunited with my tour buddy Beth McCarthy which was beautiful!  It was nice to get to see her play again for the first time since the tour ended in Matlock all those weeks ago!

So that's all from me, I promise to be a little more talkative next week... my deadline is on Friday - wish me luck!  And one final thing, I'm delighted to say that Beth and I will also be supporting the wonderful Alessi's Ark at Plug in Sheffield at the start of May, everything is very exciting!

Have a lovely week,

Love y'all!

Anwyn :) x

L-R: Neil Atkinson (NA Music), me!, Rob (Guitar Bar), Beth McCarthy, Antonio Lulic, John the bass player, Fiona Bevan and Rhiannon Mair 

LINKS

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YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

The BIG Announcement Week

Hello there!

I'm sure most of you follow me on Facebook and Twitter already and are therefore aware of what my big announcement was, but just in case you don't (and because I am incredibly pleased and excited about it...), I was thrilled this week to announce that I will be going on tour with the fantastic Emily and the Woods as a support act, along with Sam Brookes.  The tour will see us play in York, Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield and Nottingham from the 17th - 21st of June.  Like I've said many times this week via social networking sites, I am so very happy about this opportunity and a big thank you must go to NA Music for making it all possible!  There are many more details over here!

Right, so now all that excitement is out of the way let's get down to business!  After my regular stint at the Golden Fleece open mic night on Monday I was feeling a whole lot healthier and very ready for Tuesday night's gig at Rescue Rooms.  I was very excited about playing in such a well established local venue and it certainly didn't let me down, I even had a dressing room backstage! (that may have made my day a little bit!)  Anyway, once I'd managed to tear myself away from my lovely, comfy sofa and TV, I performed a half an hour set in the Red Rooms area of the venue which was really fun, I got to throw some new stuff out there to an almost completely new crowd which is always a nice experience.  I shared the bill with Samuel P, Them Balloons and Minimum who all made me feel super old - and I'm only 21!  These young guys are all very talented, I was particularly impressed by Samuel P who kind of reminded me a little of Ed Sheeran.  I really enjoyed the indie vibe Them Balloons were going with and I could really see their potential.  The headliners, Minimum, really worked the crowd while the heavier sound isn't my genre of choice I really felt that they were brilliant musicians.

Writing my dissertation has been a priority for the majority of the rest of the week.  I have finally reached the point where I am writing about music now which is making it much more enjoyable.  Not that it wasn't enjoyable before, I love researching about feminism and music and now that I have a clearer idea about my topic I'm looking forward to completing it!  As it is a music related dissertation I'll probably talk at more length about it on here at some point, but I'll save it for now...

After a week of being a hardcore student (the boring writing bits, not the fun drunk stuff), I had a musical weekend!  It began on Friday evening at the Lacehouse in Nottingham where I was drafted in at short notice by a friend to play a set.  I love the Lacehouse, it's a lovely place and the NTU Music Society are hoping to do some more work with them (although the end of term and university in general for me is fast approaching!) Watch this space!  The fantastic Agnes Bella, who seems to have obtained my cough, and Michael Stott were also on hand for some entertaining entertainment and fun was had by all!

On Saturday I got to do a road trip for the first time in a little while, albeit only a little way down the road to Derby.  I played at Book Cafe which was another venue that I was very impressed with.  I'd never been there before but it was incredibly cute and quirky, plus you can never complain when you get paid in pizza - very, very good pizza might I add...

So that's been my week!  Not especially busy and with my deadlines looming I expect the old guitar will have to take a backseat again soon but I'm having fun I suppose...  Besides, all my studenty friends that abandoned me for the Easter break are slowly returning to Nottingham so I've got plenty to look forward to! 

Have a lovely week everyone!

Love y'all!

Anwyn :) x

PS - you may not know this about me but I quite like football, so here's a little clip of something that made me pretty happy this week... Now we wait and see how everyone else gets on today,  these next few weeks are bound to get interesting!

LINKS

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YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

Not so Much of a Happy Bunny

Happy Easter folks!

I'm still powering through a horrible cough this week, but thankfully as you're reading this online I don't have to apologise for my constant coughing fits (which has been a problem on stage this week...)

I kicked it all off this week at the Maze (after a whole weekend in bed).  I was playing for their Notts in a Nutshell night and as the solo act I was first to take the stage!  It was my first time playing at the Maze, which is kind of one of those places you have to play at least once if you're based in Nottingham.  Unfortunately, I wasn't up to my best standards what with the poorliness but managed to pull two newbies out of the bag to a very receptive crowd.  Before I headed home (via the Golden Fleece open mic, of course) I caught a set by a band called HotBox.  I was really impressed by these young guys, they've got a really cool sound and although the covers they played were all songs I already love, their original stuff was what sold me...  I'm looking forward to hearing more!

I was back on bed rest/dissertation duties for the next couple of days after being informed that I am 'banished' from my hometown until I finish it... I was really gutted this week that I have had to cancel two gigs due to being unwell, I'm not a happy bunny (Easter joke, get it!?).  So I'd just like to apologise to Monk in Matlock and Verve in Leeds for having to pull out of things this week, I really hate cancelling gigs but this week has just been a total write off.  I did however manage to finish a song, stay tuned...

I did manage to squeeze one more gig out of the week on Saturday in West Bridgford.  Despite being still very ill, it was a really fun experience.  It was just me playing covers all night and it was kind of nice to take a break from my songs for the evening and pay tribute to some of my faves!  Also, the crowd were amazing!

So, it's back to bed for me... I'm feeling a little better today but still not 100%, hopefully I'll have made a full recovery by Tuesday for my gig at Rescue Rooms (message me via Facebook for tickets).  I'm sure the new season of Game of Thrones will help with this... :)

Enjoy the chocolate!

Love y'all 

Anwyn :) x

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anwynwilliamsmusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

R&R: Rock n' Roll vs Rest and Recuperation

Hello everybody!

I was back to my busy-bee ways at the start of this week, following a very fun St Patrick's day at the Salutation Inn with music from Satnam's Tash, I was back to my own music on Monday with an NA Music gig at Jam Cafe in Nottingham.  I opened the night (powering through this disgusting cold I have...) and shared the bill with The Retrospectives, Wolf Club and Proper English Gentlemen.  I was very impressed by all the acts that played, in particular The Retrospectives, who played a more stripped back set than usual and completely smashed it!

I ended Monday night at the Fleece (who's surprised?!) and later back at my lovely friend Nikola Neumanova's flat for some all night jamming with our wonderful musical friends Michael Stott, Agnes Bella and Yasmin Issaka.  It was pretty much a perfect night in...

Tuesday was a back-on-the-road day; I had another NA Music gig, this time at the Basement in York for the first time since the tour which was rather exciting!  I love York, it's such a beautiful place and my second time at the Basement was great, with other support sets from the young and talented Harley Daniels and Shannon Cole.  Headlining was Toby Burras, otherwise known as Unfinished Drawings.  With a super smooth voice and really unique guitar playing he really blew the crowd away, I especially liked his cheeky little cover of Kelis' Milkshake... that was impressive!

I was on Music Society presidential duties by Wednesday as myself, Agnes Bella, Matt Gold, Max Hammond and Michael Stott played at The Point, Nottingham Trent's student's union bar in Clifton,  for their Real Ale and Cider Festival.  It was a really enjoyable evening and we're definitely hoping to do more work with NTSU and hopefully put on some more live shows over in Clifton, so watch this space!

Since Wednesday I've spent a lot of quality time with my bed trying to shake this cold/cough that wants to ruin my life (also because who needs this much snow in England in March?)... But at least that's meant I've had a fair amount of time to do bits and pieces on my dissertation, at last.  I opted to take this approach... yes, it's a bit Carrie Mathison from Homeland, but I am probably going to go slightly crazy before I get this beast of a project handed in so it seems pretty justified.

Just quickly, resting in bed tends to have a fair bit of social media attached to it these days, so here's something I came across that you should check out.  If you like The Smiths, a rare demo of them in their early years appeared on YouTube this week... give it a listen, the sound quality is pretty poor but it's cool, and it's a little bit of musical history!  Find out more on NME.com.

Have a nice Sunday everyone!

Love y'all

Anwyn :) x

PS - 2 new songs completed this week and at least 2 almost there... stay tuned!

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anwynwilliamsmusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

Music Appreciation Week

Happy St Patrick's day everyone! 

This week has been much more musical than last with lots of gigs attended/planned and new music listened to!  I've had a bit of poorly throat and a cough this week so instead of breaking myself any further I decided to have my own music appreciation week and check out what everyone else has been doing lately...

As I mentioned last week I headed down to the Golden Fleece on Sunday evening to catch the lovely Michael Stott play a fantastic set.  It was a really enjoyable evening, and I was lucky enough to also see a talented young duo called In The Teepees, as well as managing to catch some songs by the brilliant Ande Hunter (of Hunting Helen) before the snow set in and I had to brave the walk home!

A little bit of creative insomnia had me writing a brand new song when I returned home after the gig.  I debuted it the next day and it seemed to go down quite well.  It's much softer than the other new stuff I've been writing recently so when I eventually get a recording I will be looking forward to some feedback! 

We changed it up a little this Monday, once every month the NTU Music Society hosts an acoustic night alongside the Nottingham Trent Students Union at Spanky van Dykes.  This month we had some truly amazing acts from our society on the bill; Michael Stott was still on top form from the night before, one of our freshers, Yasmin Issaka played Spanky's for the first time, Will Wilson who consistently puts on a great show at almost every Acoustic Night we've run joined us again and we had a new addition in the form of an incredibly talented duo called Midnight and the Blue.

Despite all the fun over at Spanky's I couldn't resist the pull of the Golden Fleece open mic night as usual and headed down there afterwards to do a couple of songs to a really happy crowd!  I love the Fleece...

This Wednesday was an Orange Wednesday for me, I went to the cinema to finally see Oz: The Great and Powerful.  After watching the now infamous Radio 1 interview multiple times I was very excited to see Mila Kunis enjoying 'being ugly for once'.  I think she pulled it off pretty well!  I'd heard the film had been given some bad reviews but I quite enjoyed it...  However, following a friend of mine lecturing me on the history of inventions/science regarding Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla  (with a little help from The Oatmeal and Epic Rap Battles of History), Oz's obsession with how awesome Edison was seemed wrong!  Click on the comic link and see why, poor Tesla... On a side note, science and history should always be taught like that!

After a long day at uni on Thursday I once again joined forces with Calum Hems for a bit of a jam.  We kind of perfected The Castle and the Kingdom and then got straight to work on my new one... and I'm so excited about the banjo part he pretty much made up on the spot for it - what a talented guy!  We then ventured down to Jam Cafe to watch the fantastic Lester J Allen play an incredible set, I really recommend checking him out, he's very talented and such a nice guy as well!

Finally I'd just like to mention a few music related things that have made me super happy this week, because it's always nice to be happy!  Firstly, this track by track review of Laura Marling's new album which is coming out on the 27th May has me very excited, the taster track, Where Can I Go? is gorgeous and I really cannot wait to hear the rest!  Those of you who know me will understand this as you'll already know how much I love Laura... she's even in my dissertation!  Secondly, I finally managed to track down a song I've been trying to find for about 3 weeks...  Turns out it's Young Blood Blues by an amazing little New Orleans band called Hurray for the Riff Raff, seriously check them out!  They even have a cover of River by Joni Mitchell (the other subject of my dissertation) on their YouTube!  And to top it all off, this week I managed to obtain tickets to see Lucy Rose in Sheffield as well as successfully booking (thanks to my wonderful father) tickets for the Mumford & Sons, Ben Howard, The Vaccines and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes concert in Dublin which I am incredibly, incredibly excited about!  I'm a huge fan of all these artists and had already been discussing going to Dublin over the Summer so as soon as I saw the Phoenix Park gig advertised I was determined to get tickets!  Next stop, booking flights to Ireland... that seems like an appropriate way to end this St Patrick's Day blog, now to go have some Irish inspired fun!

Don't get too drunk everyone...

Love y'all

Anwyn :) x

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anwynwilliamsmusic
YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams
Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams

The Week Off

Hola!

This entry is probably going to be boring and short because this week has been my week off music!  After 2 weeks going pretty much non-stop I took a little time to rest...

Of course, the week started off as usual at the Golden Fleece open mic night where I accompanied my lovely talented friend Lucy Yates for 3 songs, as well as doing a little set of my own.

The rest of the week was much more about drama than music for me, which is very unusual... but it's good to be out of you comfort zone every now and then.  I was asked to help some friends out with a filming project so was faced with the awkward experience of acting, which is obviously not my favourite performing art!  That said, it's all been pretty fun and I actually quite enjoyed myself... definitely looking forward to seeing the final thing!

What with my acting career on the rise (...or not) I really appreciated going to see the NTU Drama Society put on a production of Fame on Friday night at the Nottingham Arts Theatre.  It was a great night out watching some amazing talents who have put a lot of hard work in to making the show a huge success.  

So, short and sweet this week... hopefully I'll have more to talk about next week, starting with my set at Spanky Van Dykes Acoustic Night tomorrow!  But tonight I'm rounding it all off back at the Golden Fleece to watch the brilliant Michael Stott perform.

Love y'all!

Anwyn x

PS - Happy Mother's Day to my mum :)

LINKS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anwynwilliamsmusic
YouTube: www.youtube.com/anwynwilliams
Twitter: www.twitter.com/anwyn_williams