11th December 2014

Young Bands Showcases

in 2014

2014 has been a remarkable year for young bands.

This article reports on the last of the showcase gigs of 2014 and rounds-up previous gigs throughout the year.

Young bands are important – they are the future of live music.

The teenagers that are picking up their guitars today will hopefully become the established artists that will keep us entertained with live music tomorrow.

On Thursday 11th December, the last Young Bands Showcase of 2014 took place at The Shed live music venue. We at Music in Leicester have been pleased to sponsor these shows. The standard of music excellence at these events had both surprised and delighted us. Tonight was no exception. On stage tonight we had: Before The Crash, Mid City, Flight 15 and a special surprise headline slot from ‘The Flakes.’

Launching tonight’s show was Before The Crash. With the rousing vocals of lead singer Shezza Wileman, the band demonstrated a lot of improvement since their previous appearance back in 29th May this year. Original songs formed part of the band’s set. Good vocals and a lively delivery combined with an attractive and compelling image, they played energetic songs with plenty of passion. Adding in their own covers of Greenday’s American Idiot and Papa Roach’s Last Resort went down well with the audience. They also played one of their own songs – a brand new number – which showed impressive song-writing skills. This is clearly a band that has made considerable progress. Listen to their song Braindead on YouTube. Excellent.

Mid City (previously known to us as Murmur), a four-piece band from Leicester featured the lead vocals of their guitarist (with backing vocals from the bassist) in a fizzy, upbeat set of songs that were laced with ear-grabbing guitar lines. Tonight I think they played one of their best performances to date, having seen them before a few times. A scintillating performance from their lead singer proved that Mid City has established itself as one of the most promising young bands in the city. You can hear some of Mid City’s songs on Soundcloud.

Flight 15 at The Shed December 2014 — Flight 15 at The Shed
December 2014

Flight 15 is another band that has played at the Showcase gigs before. Tonight they showed that they have grown and developed as a band and tonight’s performance was amazing. It was a sizzling performance by this trio of talented teenagers – including their singing drummer. As someone to me tonight “they just keep getting better and better.” I entirely agree with that. It was a sensational performance and one which I hope will see them being invited on to some big line-ups next year. When Flight 15 played at the Young Bands Night in April we said ‘ the first band of the night, were all aged 15; the three lads, from Leicester and Birmingham, provided a set that was driven by vigorous drumming, vocals from the guitarist and firm bassing. The band’s set opened with a short but atmospheric song before launching into a bouncy second number, into which they put energy and determination. In a set that included Biffy Clyro’s ‘The Captain‘ and Jimi Henrix’s ‘Hey Joe‘, they kept their momentum going. An impressive set.’ (Music in Leicester 2014). Since then they have come a long way.

Tonight’s show was headlined by one of Leicester’s top bands: Midnight Wire, billed as ‘The Flakes.’ It was a secret appearance ahead of their major album launch on 19th December at the Y Theatre, at which they will formally release their highly acclaimed album Crossing The Rubicon. They played several of their best songs tonight, including Honey, (one of my favourites, a song that I think has everything that a top tune requires – such as a memorable melody) and their cover of Walking In The Air, from The Snowman film (seasonal!) Also played tonight was New York City Lies. Talk about catchy! Now a five-piece band, their members now include a keyboard player.

A really good night of music with a line-up of impressive acts.