Ruth Barnes, AKA ‘The Other Woman’, champions the best female talent at  Evolution Emerging, as you might expect, but her guide is not without a curve-ball as you’ll see below.

 

View Amazing Radio’s Ruth Barnes presents: A Guide to Evolution Emerging in a larger map. 

Lulu James is a big favourite of ours here on The Other Woman. We love the smokey, bass heavy Rope Mirage EP. Lulu’s on her way up, so catch her here while you can. It’s a great way to start Evolution Emerging and The Cluny would be a great place to stay for the whole night, but then you’d miss Amy Holford to name but one great artist playing elsewhere in the festival.

Recent studio guest for us at Amazing Towers, Amy Holford, has a blue-eyed soul voice to die for and makes The Voice TV show look like a load of old cobblers… which we know it is really don’t we?!

Sticking with The Cluny 2, Natasha Haws will be on stage at 9.15pm. Stick around after Amy Holford, or get there early to catch Natasha. The guitar picking youngster is already writing songs from a place way beyond her years.

Once Natasha’s set is done we take a break from the girls. Young Liar take to the Star & Shadow Cinema and are well worth a peak. The 5-piece instrumental rock band (not to be confused with Young Liars from Canada, there’s only one Liar here) are a firm favourite of ‘The Other Woman’ producer Rachael and they are certainly ones to watch – expect some heavy rocking without ever feeling over-epic or bloated.

We’ve got to end the night with a bit of Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny action. BJH is destined for some big things, with or without Hooves, and I suspect it’s not long before we lose her to the US. For now, soak her up in all her super talented glory. Playing in her hometown, it’s likely to be an unforgettable end to a great festival.

It was with great excitement that we launched The Amazing Sessions last week. It sounded pretty good, if we may say so ourselves. And what a great bunch of guys Boy Jumps Ship are. But we’re not the sort to rest on our laurels, and no sooner has the dust begun to settle and we’re gearing up to bring you the next one. Last Thursday [30th Sept] saw Charly Coombes & The New Breed join us in the studio for the next installment of The Amazing Sessions.

Chris McManus, engineering the session, told us more:

“Amazing Radio and amazingtunes.com, as well as providing their music related services, also deal in Amazing Jobs it seems. Last Thursday I was lucky enough to have the Oxford based Charly Coombes And The New Breed travel north and drop in the studio to record the next installment of The Amazing Sessions.

So just as the band arrived from their epic 4 and a half hour trip ‘up North’, what else could happen but the heavens open at the exact moment the van pulls up. Cue regional apologies for our meteorological short-comings and a sarcastic “welcome to the North”, and it was all hands on deck to unload into the studio. Spirits were high though, rising above the weather, and as hands were shook and introductions made, the air of anticipation began to grow.

The guys – Charly on keys, Dave on guitar, Jake on bass, and Rich (not in the above picture, filling in for today’s session) on drums – began to setup and sound check their instruments and it quickly became clear that as well as having some great banter, they’re all very talented musicians in their own right. After some excellent exchange of what can only be described as ‘geeky’ gear topics, the band were informed of the Sega Megadrive, with over 50 games, waiting for them upstairs while we finished setting up. Fifa 95, yes that’s right, 95! is the first on, quickly replaced by the all time classic, Sonic… It’s a miracle anything gets recorded to be honest.

When all was plugged in and sound checks began everything sounded great, so the band started with the track ‘Molly’. A tight rhythm section opens this one with distorted bass, followed by some great piano and guitar hooks. It was a great start to the day and a sure sign of things to come. We then moved on to their New Amazing Chart Number 1 track ‘Panic In Between the Sheets’, a track I know very well from its popularity on Amazing Radio. This really went to show that these guys are a great live band – and on a personal note, has one of my top 5 piano hooks ever. Easy.

Next the guys took it down a notch with ‘Sub Rosa’, a slower more moody number, and then finished with ‘Jungles and Tides’ in record time, coinciding nicely with the delivery of their pizza order.

After a cheesy prize for their graft they then started the interview with Frankie Ward of The Afternoon Show on Amazing Radio. I’m not going to lie, it was an amusing 20 minutes involving topics such as “why you shouldn’t work in all three of the big fast food chains, two’s OK but never three”. Once we were all done with the interview the lads were nice enough to give us a ‘Pimp my Ride/cribs’ style tour of their very special van. Highlights included flat screen with 5:1 sound, custom table, a fridge and a very subtle but impressive personalized ‘CCATNB TRANSIT’ logo on the back, as if!

All in all a great day and a great session with a bunch of really nice chaps who tell us they will be touring hard soon, so keep an eye out for them.”

You can catch the session from 5pm, Wednesday 6th October, on The Afternoon Show

This session was powered by Blank Studios, a Sega Megadrive, pizza and not working in 3 large fast food chains.

An overcast, late September weekend saw  The Amazing Sessions take its first, non-nonsense steps into this world as Boy Jumps Ship woke up the Amazing studios with a storming live set. Joining the band and the Amazing Radio team was local filmmaker and photographer, Ruth Kilpatrick.

Ruth writes:

The weekend before last was a busy one here in the North East. Not only was there some sort of ‘fun run’ happening, but while all those 54,000 ‘fun running’ energetic types were crossing the Tyne, local lads Boy Jumps Ship could be found stowed away with the lovely folk at Blank Studios – recording the very first Amazing Sessions.

After a thorough set up and some much needed sustenance for a Sunday morning, The Afternoon Show‘s producer Frankie Ward kicked things off as interviewer by getting some background info on the boys. Having all been in various bands before joining B.J.S they each bring a slightly different set of influences when it comes to writing and recording – all of which seem to have amalgamated pretty damn well if their current popularity is anything to go by.

First track of the day Backstays and Halyards goes down a treat but does highlight a small problem with lead singer Si Todd being ever so slightly electrocuted repeatedly throughout! After some in depth detective work, engineer Sam breaks the news that an earthing issue in Si’s new Fender amp is the culprit, leading to a Peavey 5150 taking it’s place – and with Si no doubt searching for his receipt…

With everyone’s immediate health now in order the lads cracked on with the rest of the set – their mixture of well thought out melodies over cleverly constructed songs expose the fact that they’re all accomplished musicians in their own right, while the group vocals that hold it all together will no doubt incite some mass sing-alongs come their live dates in November.

After some more interrogation from Producer Frankie and a few cups of Beechams for the bassist, the band blitz through fan favourite Good Ol’ Sin City and follow it up with A Wilmington Dream to finish things off. As a cheeky side note the boys did record an as yet unreleased fourth track entitled Suck Brick Kid, an exclusive for Amazing Radio.

Five O’clock on Sunday evening and that’s the session over with. Packing away the gear everyone seems pleased with the outcome – hot, tired, but happy. Well done to Boy Jumps Ship for being our session virgins and a big thank you to Chris and Sam at Blank Studios for being so hospitable.

The Amazing Sessions were powered by: Sam Grant and Chris McManus (of amazingtunes.com and Blank Studios) for being so great, Frankie Ward’s range of cookies, cans of Goth Juice for Gav, Douggy’s Doughnuts, a whole load of pedals and by not doing the Great North Run.

Hear the exclusive Amazing Session tracks from the day here.