Swansea & South Wales Live Music

I went along to Pearls Coffee Shop on Walters Road to see Natalie Jones play a gig. After speaking with owners Mike and Lucy, I understood this was the first non-themed live music evening. So rather than booking live music for Valentines day,  St Patrick's day  or Beaujolais day, they wanted to make a start to what will be a regular live music Friday evenings.  Unfortunately, I arrived at 6pm for the published 7pm gig start time, but soon found out this wasn't the case after speaking with Natalie who was told it was an 8pm start time. Like anywhere trying to start a regular event it’s understandable for there to be a few hiccups. However, this wasn't a major issue as Natalie set up and got started in a matter of minutes. Natalie’s play list of regular cover songs was expanded with new material which had the enthusiastic audience singing along. Natalie was even kind enough to play a few of the requests I threw her way. A sample of songs she played o...

The Hyst on Swansea's High Street hosted a Swansea Fringe Festival event GRL PWR, featuring some of South Wales finest female vocalists as part of a celebration of the contribution women have made to the industry. The list of acts appearing that evening included;  Lorna Rees Edie Bens Aiden Keryn Emi Mcdade & Claire Edwards Eleri Angharad Natalie Jones Laura Benjamin The Hyst was set up as per usual for the occasion with a great sound system and technicians on hand to assist all the acts, as per usual. The stage was bathed in a pink lighting to emphasis the female focal point of the evening.   Lorna Rees Lorna Rees started the evening off by singing some of her original songs. I had never encountered this performer previously, so I was surprised not to see someone like Eleri Angharad or Natalie Jones open the show. However, I was blown away by just how good Lorna was. There were times during her set I almost thought I was listening to Nata...

On Friday 14th September I went along to an event that was taking place at The Hyst on Swansea's High Street. This event was put on by the Haka Entertainment Agency and titled Hakoustic Swansea, which featured a number of the best singers and musicians that South Wales has to offer. (The Hyst) The acts performing on the night included; 1. Marcus Gumms 2. Cory Baker 3. Three Legg'd Mare 4. Laura Benjamin 5. Gwi Jones 6. Natalie Jones 7. Kedma Marcus Gumms started the evening off with his iconic country styled voice, that in m opinion sounds like a combination Willie Nelson and Tony Hadley. Even though he was against the clock with another booking elsewhere fast approaching, he remained ever the professional and delivered a perfect performance. This was the third opportunity I've been lucky enough to see Marcus perform, but even this time he still amazes me with his sets sounding like they've just come out of a Nashville recording studio. If a...