Bernard Butler, Norman Blake, and James Grant

Bernard Butler is an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist, and I’ve followed his alternative rock and Britpop music since pretty early on in his career. The standard of his guitar playing blows me away every single time I hear it, and watching him play effortlessly live was absolutely incredible. He opened with a pretty lengthy rocky guitar solo, accompanied by an awesome drummer, and they had everyone dancing along before Butler had even introduced himself and they show.

As well as being an incredible musician himself, he’s a great producer, and actually won himself a BRIT award at the 2009 awards for Producer of the Year. He played an awesome set when I saw him recently, and opened with the single Stay, from his debut solo album. He had everyone singing along, and encouraged us all to dance along with him. It was awesome that he also played some super famous tracks from his time in Suede, as well as McAlmont and Butler.

His energy was really high, and it was infectious to the crowd. He maintained his enthusiasm for the entire 2 hour set, and played some phenomenal tracks on both guitar and piano.

As just one of the singers and songwriters in legendary Glaswegian indie pop group Teenage Fanclub, Norman Blake knows a thing or two about collaboration; over the course of a sparkling, critically-acclaimed career that’s spanned a couple of decades and several LPs, at this point, he’s worked together with bandmates Raymond McGinley and Francis McDonald to bring their own songs to the table and then mould them into cohesive albums, leading to classic records of the genre like Bandwagonesque and Grand Prix. Interestingly, despite some increasingly long lay offs between Fanclub records - especially in recent years - Blake has never really properly gone solo - instead, he continues to seek opportunities for collaboration elsewhere. Since moving to Canada in 2009 to live with his wife, who hails from there, he’s formed The New Medicants with Joe Pernice, releasing a debut full-length under the moniker, Into the Lime, earlier this year; it was met well by the critics. A handful of local shows confirmed that he brought his signature guitar playing from Fanclub to the Medicants, as well as his increasingly dulcet vocal tones; next up is likely to be a return to his ‘day job’, with no new Fanclub records since 2010’s Shadows at this point.

With one of the most soulful voices you are ever likely to hear, James Grant is simply magnificent to listen to. Introducing himself onto the music scene in 1982, he has been singing his heart out and producing exquisite acoustic melodies for well over thirty years.
I've seen James perform many times since discovering his music, mainly at The Mill in Banbury, and each time he seems to offer something different. Whether that be performing his own covers of pop songs that are shouted out from the crowd or being accompanied by the well renowned harmonica artist Fraser Spiers, he always offers incredible entertainment to a small but dedicated audience who hang on his every note. The intricate finger plucking patterns, his vast vocal range and some truly inspiring lyrics make him a must-listen to, which is obvious in songs like 'Lips Like Ether', 'My Father's Coat' and 'Winter'.
James is not only just your average singer-songwriter but also a performer and to some extent, a comedian. In the small interval between each track, the Scotsman always breaks into little anecdotes explaining his various songs and the influence behind them, often with humour throughout and the word 'pish' being said in every other sentence. If you were to hear him speak, you probably wouldn't be able to guess that he would have such an amazing voice.
Although he doesn't produce songs with the most upbeat of tempos, James Grant churns out classic after classic throughout sets and is a thoroughly nice guy; a real pleasure to listen to.