{"id":30830,"date":"2025-01-31T18:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T18:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/?p=30830"},"modified":"2025-01-30T11:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T11:28:09","slug":"festival-review-outside-inside-the-bridge-homelessness-to-hope-at-firebug-duffys-bar-16th-17th-november-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/festival-review-outside-inside-the-bridge-homelessness-to-hope-at-firebug-duffys-bar-16th-17th-november-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival review – Outside\/Inside: The Bridge, Homelessness to Hope at Firebug & Duffy’s Bar, 16th & 17th November 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Oliver Boyle<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously known as \u2018Access All Areas\u2019, the Outside\/Inside festival is a definite must-see for anyone engaged with the Leicester music scene, spanning across firebug’s two stages as well as Duffy\u2019s – the food, the drink, the music and the people mashed together make events like these the best days out you can get in Leicester.<\/p>\n

And for a good cause too. The Bridge<\/a> is a homelessness community outreach charity doing invaluable work in the city, Luke Broughton the creative lead for The Bridge and organiser for Outside\/Inside festival invited us down to take a look.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some of what we managed to catch\u2026<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/h2>\n

With the arranged opener Stanley Iyanu being caught up with a delayed train on the way from London, it fell to the Bellatones<\/a><\/strong> to open up this promising weekend.<\/p>\n

Making their Firebug debut for today, this Leicester native six-piece band had all the bells and whistles you could want, real mood setters. they set the tone of the weekend, with original songs like dreams<\/em> new day<\/em> and we don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like<\/em>, it was incredible. With the room starting to fill up, the band was both literally and figuratively singing from the same song sheet.<\/p>\n

Kicking off the first of many trips to and from the Firebug to Duffy\u2019s Bar, I am confident that the chilli me and my friend had later in the night was worked off.<\/p>\n

Next up at Duffy\u2019s was Becky<\/a><\/strong>, a local performer who in the space of 30 minutes took a room of a few dozen people and told them a story, with her acoustic guitar and a discography featuring songs exploring her struggles with her sexuality, past relationships, parenthood and her battle with an eating disorder which was especially moving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Becky. Photo (c) Oliver Boyle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the sun going down on Millstone Lane, Duffy\u2019s filled up for The Miskicks<\/a><\/strong>, a band comprising of members from other bands from the weekend – familiar faces with new sounds\u2026
\nwith a festival full of acts with original songs, one of my favourite songs had to be porcelain baby<\/em> with the lyric which has stuck with me \u201cshe\u2019s not Lycra, you can\u2019t stretch her, She\u2019s not Lycra, she won\u2019t let ya\u201d a fashionably Sarcee\u2019 performance and exactly what was needed after a dinner at Firebug with my friend Scarlet.<\/p>\n

18:45 comes round and barrelling onto stage comes The Wonky Portraits<\/strong>. These trombones-tooting art-rock, and unglamorous music collective members describing themselves as \u201ctoo pop to be considered punk, but too punk to be considered pop\u201d really brought the energy to the upstairs of Firebug.<\/p>\n

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The Wonky Portraits. Photo (c) Oliver Boyle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tucked into a nook on the front left wing served great for a viewing of these performers, with intermediating misadventures, with the introduction of bubbles and several beach balls between tunes, this mad bunch were a laugh.<\/p>\n

While writing this article, a fair while later, (for which I apologise profusely) I\u2019m still wrapping my head around this set. Roo Stafford and the Inits<\/a><\/strong> are a hardcore collective that no one I know who\u2019s seen them live could put any words to, nor draw any comparison from anything they had seen before.<\/p>\n

Although there is plenty of subject matter for these lot I feel the best way to put you, the reader, into the bar floor through this article is to say that Roo Stafford kicked off the set by dedicating it to Alan Partridge while presenting a framed portrait of the comedian, with songs entitled Rock And Roll And Murder<\/em>\u00a0that stage was absolute chaos.<\/p>\n

Spellgaze<\/a><\/strong> is a band which for anyone who\u2019s present in the Leicester music scene, is in no need of an introduction for. And As usual for these lot, Duffy\u2019s Bar was packed out for them.
\nBen, Sam and Pedro together form a gritty shoegaze group who\u2019s setlist is strategically curated and ordered. All the pieces played were original, yet the set was nostalgic with clear influences from bands like Deftones and Slowdive.<\/p>\n

Between chatting to Spellgaze\u2019s impeccable vocalist Ben and getting a drink at Firebug, we ventured upstairs to see The Societys<\/strong>, a band who brand themselves as \u2018Leicester\u2019s Gary Lineker\u2019 and to be honest I can\u2019t think of a better description.<\/p>\n

Sunday<\/h2>\n

After a busy Saturday I was back at Firebug for the second day, now joined by my friend Paulina, we found a spot at the bar next to Firebug’s ground floor stage which had now been set up. The first person to preform that morning was L\u2019ku<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

L\u2019ku utilizes synths, various bells, kalimbas and other instruments to create a strange sort of lucid atmosphere in the bar, one which captured the attendance from the bar staff and festival attendees in turn- he ventured from the stage down to the bar floor and proceeded to hand out multi coloured bells to the audience.<\/p>\n

Aswell as the introduction of a third stage to the festival, there were also two spoken word poets in the form of Cathi Rae<\/strong><\/a> and James Scott Howes<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cathi Rae. Photo (c) Oliver Boyle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cathi Rae is a great story teller who gave a very personable performance of her poems exploring her job as a cleaner for a wealthy family and her disdain for them in an incredibly emotive poem entitled your cleaner hates you<\/em>, she then went into a piece which explored her relationship with her late father through the perspective of his hands \u2013 going from being \u201cshaped like spears\u201d to \u201cresembling that of an untrained artists depiction\u201d. A very moving hour.<\/p>\n

The second poet of the evening was James Scott Howes who took on a more visceral and confrontational style to the poetry in his set which explored themes of \u201cviolent affirmation\u201d and how it takes \u201cguts to be passionate\u201d. At one point he even told the audience \u201cyou are all going to die\u201d. A quite peculiar way to get an audience on side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
James Scott-Howes. Photo (c) Kevin Gaughan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now for one of my favourite sets of the weekend, Honest Dave<\/a><\/strong>, a beautiful performance from Dave and the rest of the band, with their saxophone, guitar and \u2018wooden knock\u2019 played a varied discography; featured songs that tackled a Rwandan witch who was able to convince a militia of Hutu to lay down their arms and saved over 100 Tutsis, a song which spoke out against sex crimes in the K-pop industry, a song dedicated to social workers and a call to arms for people to watch other people\u2019s drinks. Firebug was all there for it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Honest Dave. Phtoto (c) Oliver Boyle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The organiser of the event, Luke Broughton<\/strong><\/a>, also performed a set the evening- it wasn\u2019t the first time I had seen them perform live and it most definitely won\u2019t be the last, picking up from the great JJ Lovegrove<\/a><\/strong>, it was the most packed I’d ever seen Firebug\u2019s bar floor. And on a Sunday at that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Luke Broughton. Photo (c) Kevin Gaughan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Shaking ourselves loose from the grip of Luke’s set we managed to catch Ranger and Serina Jasmine<\/strong>\u2019s set at Duffy\u2019s Bar , capitalizing on the intimate nature of the stage room they both delivered a varied set consisting of well polished guitar solos, angelic singing, rapping, and even a political commentary on ongoing conflicts in the middle east, a theme that was on running throughout most performances during the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ranger & Serina. Photo (c) Kevin Gaughan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the last performances I was able to catch during the event was \u201cyour weird cousins favourite rapper\u201d, Comprehend<\/strong><\/a>, and Jay Dagley<\/strong><\/a>, both local Leicester rappers and mental health advocates who preformed some songs from an unreleased project tackling themes of mental health and addiction, in a very mature and blunt way which left much to contemplate once in my uber home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jay Dagley & Comprehend. Photo (c) Kevin Gaughan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All round, a weekend well spent in Leicester, gigs like these are time spent well with the plethora of new talent popping up consistently at Venues like Duffy\u2019s Bar and Firebug coupled with artists like Luke Broughton fostering these new breakout bands, poets and solo acts alike – if you’ve never been to one before, make sure you do.<\/p>\n

If you would like to share this review, please help us by using the share buttons below instead of a screen print \u2013 thanks!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now for one of my favourite sets of the weekend, Honest Dave, a beautiful performance from Dave and the rest of the band, with their saxophone, guitar and \u2018wooden knock\u2019 played a varied discography; featured songs that tackled a Rwandan witch<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":30851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[339,134],"tags":[264,205,318],"class_list":["post-30830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-339","category-festival-reviews","tag-acoustic-music","tag-indie-music","tag-spoken-word"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_4214.jpg?fit=1001%2C668&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73uhX-81g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28605,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/preview-access-all-areas-3-for-the-bridge-homelessness-to-hope-at-duffys-bar-9th-10th-july-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":30830,"position":0},"title":"Preview – Access All Areas 3: for \u2018The Bridge Homelessness to Hope\u2019 at Duffy\u2019s Bar, 9th & 10th July 2022","author":"Kevin Gaughan","date":"23\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A chilled experience for all the senses in the most intimate of settings with delicious food and all for a worthy cause - that's what Access All Areas 3 is all about. 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