Is 2014 Cambridge's most successful year in music ever?

30 | September 25, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News

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MUSIC

F

OR a long time – a very long time – it’s felt like the only claim to musical fame Cambridge has had, has been Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett.

Sure, the band’s been going since 1967 and have new album, The Endless River, due out in October, but other than them, our output hasn’t been overly impressive. Let’s just say it: we’re not exactly Liverpool.

Then 2014 struck and suddenly a new Cambridge Five emerged. A quintet of artists wielding electronic bass lines and chart-tastic vocals instead of stealth tactics and Soviet leanings (although to be fair, most of Clean Bandit can actually speak Russian…).

Joining the bona fide “Dostoyevskys of disco” are indie kids alt-J, pop-soul singer Sam Smith, rockers Lonely the Brave and multiinstrumentalist Nick Mulvey. The amazing thing is, the chances of you not having heard of all, or even one, of them is incredibly slim.

In the immortal (slightly edited) words of Martine McCutcheon: this is our moment (apparently).

Humble beginnings alt-J released their second album, the searching, tricksy This Is All Yours, on Spotify for free last week before hard copies went on sale on Monday. But as the reviews trickle in (positive across the board so far), it’s hard not to revisit their debut, An Awesome Wave.

They wrote the 2012 Mercury Music Prizewinning record while living in Cambridge, keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton’s hometown – he studied at King’s Ely and Hills Road Sixth Form – after meeting at university in Leeds. On graduating the group decided to set up here, “keep our heads down” and have the odd drink at The Mill pub in between working on the album.

The result was that when they last played in Cambridge in May 2013, the Corn Exchange, What’s On noted at the time, was “thrumming with damp bodies and Converse clad teens making triangles with their hands in a warped Vulcan salute.”

Blurring the lines between folk, electronica, hip hop, rock and indie, the album sent the then gawky, withdrawn four-piece spiralling into circles of major acclaim and attention. It was a shock, and a new-fangled, high pressure scenario that, in January this year, founder member Gwil Sainsbury decided to take a step back from.

For Nick Mulvey, whose debut solo album, First Mind, has just been short listed for the Mercury Music Prize 2014, it was quitting Cambridge jazz outfit Portico Quartet in 2011 and going it alone that meant he could build the career, and the sound, he truly wanted.

That sound is a bit tricky to put into words, though. “What I like is where hypnotic and texture based repetitive music meets song and song-writing and song-singing,” Mulvey told us earlier this year. “I don’t think my way to my music, I feel and play my way to my music. It’s not a thinking thing, it’s an instinctual thing.”

It’s worked, now he’s up against the likes of Royal Blood, Bombay Bicycle Club and Damon Albarn for the biggest, and most prestigious, music prize of the year.

At 22 years old, Great Chishill-born Sam Smith has already nabbed his fair share of awards and accolades.

It started with being named Critics’ Choice at the 2014 Brit Awards after wading into mainstream consciousness on Disclosure’s 2012 breakthrough track Latch. He went on to be named BBC Sound of 2014 (beating Mulvey), and topped it off with three No 1 singles: Naughty Boy’s La La La, and solo offerings Money on my Mind and Stay With Me. His debut album, In The Lonely Hour, also did well, if you interpret ‘well’ as a massive understatement.

It knocked Coldplay’s Ghost Stories off the top spot and became the fastest-selling debut album of 2014 so far. And he’s also cracked America, you know, because that’s so easy to do.

Lonely the Brave have taken a more meandering route to fame. They’ve done it the old fashioned way, grafting away on the local

Is 2014 Cambridge’s most successful year in music

EVER? Yes, probably is the answer you’re looking for. As local acts Lonely the Brave and alt-J celebrate major, critically-acclaimed album releases, ELLA WALKER asks whether this year really has been the best the city’s music scene has ever enjoyed.

Clean Bandit

Sam Smith

Members: Jack Patterson (bass, keys, vocals), Luke Patterson (drums), Grace Chatto (cello, vocals), Milan Neil Amin-Smith (violin) Twitter: @cleanbandit Website: cleanbandit.co.uk Album: New Eyes

alt-J

vocals), Thom Members: Joe Newman (guitar and (keys) Green (drums), Gus Unger-Hamilton Twitter: @alt_ j Website: altjband.com All Yours Albums: An Awesome Wave, This Is

Twitter: @samsmithworld Website: samsmith world.com Album: In The Lonely Hour Next visit: Cambridge Corn Exchange, Monday, November 3

Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | September 25, 2014 | 31

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ROUND UP gig scene, building up a solid core of local fans that’s just grown and grown, until their debut album, The Day’s War, placed at No 14 in the charts.

Some serious support from Radio One (and us, of course), has helped, but they’ve done all the work, supporting the likes of Neil Young, Don Broco and their heroes, The Deftones.

Not too shabby at all, is it, for a group of local lads?

Of the five, it’s only Clean Bandit who didn’t grow up here, but damn it, they still count as ours. The four-piece met at Jesus College in 2006, and became an electronic chamber music entity after Jack Patterson (bass, keys and vocals), took a recording of cellist Grace’s classical string quartet and mixed it with electro beats. Two weeks later they played their first gig at the now, sadly closed Kambar and made one of their earliest music videos with fellow Cambridge student, supermodel Lily Cole.

This year they rocketed on to every radio playlist thanks to the glorious, No 1 single Rather Be featuring Jess Glynne, before their debut album, New Eyes, proved they were no gimmick. They become major festival favourites, nailing sets at Secret Garden Party and Latitude this summer and recently did a celebrated live performance of the album on Radio One’s Zane Lowe show, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was stunning.

The future It’s an impressive list of names and achievements considering the music scene in Cambridge is widely slated for having shrunk in recent years, thanks to the fact the city’s lost venues such as Kambar and Barfly, while the number of pubs hosting live music has dropped (although, the number of cafes putting on gigs has actually increased).

But, says Simon Baker, of local promoters Green Mind Gigs, that conception is a bit

misguided. “I think there’s always a tendency in Cambridge to hark to a bygone era that didn’t really exist,” he says. “I think the scene in Cambridge is very strong, sometimes it’s a little fractured, but there’s certainly a strong pool of good local bands.”

He explains that the main issue Cambridge has in supporting up and coming acts is the lack of venues. “There’s a size in between The Portland Arms and the Junction that we’re definitely lacking – a 400-capacity size.”

Lonely the Brave’s Mark Trotter agrees. “I love the music scene in Cambridge, but then I’ve grown up in it. It’s great because there is a real community, everyone knows everyone. I don’t know if there’s enough places for people to play anymore, if I’m honest. There’s a lack of mid-level size venues, and we’re lucky that we’ve still got places like The Portland that support bands that are coming up and allow that to happen.

“But between there, your next step up is the Junction and that’s a big leap for a lot of bands. The music scene is strong and the people involved are really lovely, I think there’s a lack of venues to support that,” he says, but adds: “The scene is alive and kicking.”

And with Lonely the Brave as a successful example, Baker is adamant there’s still scope for the old model of gigging in the city, despite the effects of YouTube and Twitter on being the go-to platform for showcasing new artists.

“Bands can get a live following much quicker than maybe they would’ve done once because people don’t have to spend £5 and take a gamble, they can decide in advance whether a band’s worth going to see,” he admits. “Maybe that means it’s a bit more ruthless and means the weaker bands don’t get a look in, but is that such a bad thing?”

• Check out our new local acts feature on page 44. This week we’ve spoken to Squadron Scramble. Want your band to be featured? Get in touch.

Lonely the Brave

Members: Mark Trotter (guitar), Gavin (Mo) Edgeley (drums), David Jakes (vocals), Andrew “Bushy” Bushen (bass) player, Ross Smithwick (guitar).

Twitter: @lonelythebrave Website: lonelythebrave.com Album: The Day’s War Next visit: Cambridge Junction, Saturday, December 13

Nick Mulvey Twit ter: @nickmulveymusic Website: nickmulvey.com Album: First Mind Nex t visit: Cambridge Junction, Friday, October 17

WATCH the sun set at The Gog Magog Farm Shop’s Giant Sundowner Session on Saturday. Starting at 6pm and finishin will you get to see the sky go all golden, there’ll also be a street food market to explore as well as live music and djs. Artisan burger van

TOM Frankland and Keir Cooper have taken Cervante’s classic, Don Quixote, and given it a bit of a spin. Don Quijote will see them get playful with the text, mixing dance, theatre, visuals, live music and a whole lot of anarchy. And it’s staged among the audience with the title role being played by a secret guest performer – scary, huh? The show runs at Cambridge Junction tonight at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 from (01223) 511511.

SOUTH African pianist Neil Hilgrove Colledge is giving a recital at St George’s Church, Littleport, on Saturday at 7pm. Performing three piano sonatas

by Austrian composer Joseph Haydn,

Steak and Honour will be there, as will Guerilla Kitchen and The Spirited Mare cocktail bar, plus world folk artists The CC Smuggler. Sound good? Tickets are £20 from gogmagoghills.com, and follow @gogmagogshop for more updates.

Beil is a regular to these parts having played recently at Kings, Magdalene and Fitzwilliam Colleges, so he definitely knows what he’s doing. You’ll be able to pick up tickets for £5 on the door.

WHO doesn’t love a bit of cello music? You’re in for a treat at Cambridge Junction on Sunday. Jazz singer Claire Martin and the soaring strings of The Montpellier Cello Quartet are taking to the stage together for an evening of chamber music meets jazz. Songs on the programme include songs Kurt Weills’ My Ship, Gershwin’s My Man’s Gone Now and Lennon and McCartneys’ She’s Leaving Home, and tickets are £21 from (01223) 511511.