Anwyn Williams Music

Sunday, 12 May 2013

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!

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Sunday, 5 May 2013

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

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Sunday, 28 April 2013

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

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Sunday, 21 April 2013

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

Sunday, 14 April 2013

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

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