The Fuse Is Lit: AwayDay Radio’s First Ever Gig!

In reverse order, Myles Cheshire, Jay Tennant, Danny Ansell, The Drift, The Astras, and The Institutes – thank you.

So, there we have it. We’ve only gone and done our first ever gig and despite being rather biased, I (UTR) would be inclined to say it went rather well. So much so that I have been tasked with writing a review for it. What exactly does a gig review entail? Good question. Much like my shows, I will be winging this to the best of my ability as I give an honest account of what I thought of the evening.

The first of many gigs for AwayDay Radio as the touchpaper has now been lit and it’s fair to say we have well and truly got the taste for it. It was a case of something new for all of us involved. Although a lot of us involved frequent gigs and festivals on a regular basis, we were losing our collective virginity when it came to being on the ‘other side’ of a gig.

From a personal point of view, I am a big believer in trying something new and diving into it headfirst and this was nothing different. We’ve pushed this gig at every given opportunity without really knowing what the final turnout would be, what with Leeds/Reading and Creamfields being the same weekend. Not overly certain on the final figures through the door, nonetheless, was more than enough there!

Are there things we could’ve done better? Undoubtedly. Are there things that went better than we could’ve ever hoped for? 100%. But that’s enough about us, how about the acts?

All images below were taken (unless stated otherwise) and are credited to Mercury Visuals.

Myles Cheshire

Myles Cheshire in action

Myles was up on stage doing his soundcheck not long before the doors opened at the HMV Empire in Coventry and the tune he was using for the soundcheck was Glasgow by The Snuts and he sounded immense. A bit of tweaking on the acoustics and it was bang on the money. I was disappointed when it came to a halt, but that disappointment was short-lived as he kicked off the evening with that very song and it set the tone incredibly well for the rest of the evening.

Myles followed up with a few more covers by well-known artists, Blossoms, to name just one before ending on some music of his own. At the time of writing Myles does only have one song out there Corridors and Faith but it will no doubt the first of many as Myles continues to grow and expand his musical catalogue.

Jay Tennant

Jay Tennant (right) was next up

It’s never easy to take command of a room. Not when you’re second out of six on a bill and it’s still relatively early on. Jay Tennant did just that. Irrespective of how many people were in the venue at the point when Jay took to the stage, the sound produced by the singer-songwriter was sensational. While I’m not going to sit here and pretend I can remember every single song on the setlist, it wasn’t the titles of the tracks that were important.

The passion Jay displayed was superb and when his eagerly awaited third album (hopefully) drops later this year, his fan base will rocket even further and nobody can begrudge Jay that as he’s a consistent performer, as well as a supporter, of new music.

Danny Ansell

Danny Ansell and his band were third up!

While I try and push unsigned bands and artists as much as humanly possible on the shows that I do throughout the week, on occasion, the odd one does slip through the net. Danny Ansell and his band are a case in point for this. Danny was signed up as a last-minute replacement for Athens who seemingly split up and decided not to tell anyone. That may sound rather blunt, but that’s the way it panned out. Regardless, Danny Ansell stepped in and brought energy, noise, and drums (first time the drums were used that evening).

When you delve a little deeper, you see that Danny has been around the scene for over 20 years, and with that comes an incredibly polished sound, perhaps the most polished sound of the evening. While the majority if not all are of the other artists who played are still finding their feet and refining their sound, Danny Ansell has it on lock. That’s the short version of it.

The longer version is that Danny was able to capture the crowd right from the word go. Before his first track, he brought the crowd closer to the stage as people will still lingering back towards the doors, and what was behind those doors, namely the bar.

Danny dominated the room as he and his band projected a number of tunes out to the crowd who were very receptive to what they were hearing. Bring Back The Feeling was a particular standout for me, despite it only being released a couple of weeks prior to the gig, it was evident that a lot of work and practice had gone into the tune. Danny’s full set was filmed by a videographer, so, fingers crossed, you should be able to see the full set from Danny as and when that’s released!

The Drift

The Drift were fourth up as they played a blend of released & unreleased tunes!

Now it was for time for, if you can call them that, the outsiders. The term outsiders is used very loosely here, admittedly as the distance from Brum to Coventry isn’t huge. All the same, it was the first time The Drift had performed outside of Birmingham so as it was something new for AwayDay Radio (putting on a gig), it was equally as new for The Drift.

There were many elements of the gig I was looking forward to pre the doors opening. I would even go as far as saying pretty much all of it. As with any gig you go to, there’s a song or songs that you look out for and this was the first of the evening for me. I’d love to have had properly planned everything out and had one song to focus on from each artist etc, but such is the way of the world, there was one particular tune from the lads from Brum and one standout one from The Institutes which we’ll come onto later.

The Drift are very rock & roll and from the first tune to the last, you were listening to a band that gelled well together. We had guitar solos, drum solos, and absolutely everything in between. Recalling when specific songs were on individual sets isn’t my strong point (apart from The Institutes where I’ve got a setlist to help me cheat), however, I can tell you that the track I was waiting for wasn’t right at the start and wasn’t right at the end. That helps, doesn’t it? Ha.

Do You Feel Alive was the track I am alluding to. Similar to Northern Revelation’s Radon, it has a killer intro and then it takes off from there. Of course, the worry is always that it won’t be as good seeing it live as it is hearing it through headphones/speakers. The worries were soon stamped out. The sound was pure and true and it is going to take something very, very special to top that release from The Drift. It is their most recent release and they’re going to have to pull several rabbits out of hats to beat that track. It has everything.

That’s not to take anything away from the rest of the set, not by a longshot, it’s just that at that moment in time, nothing else in the world mattered and it’s only really music that can do that to you. The drum solo which The Drift finished on was downright disgusting, by the way, spectacular is an understatement.

The Astras

Local lads The Astras were the main support of the evening

Jay Tennant summed The Astras as well as anyone could’ve done and it’s bang on the money…

High acclaim indeed from a fellow musician, but was it deserved? You better believe it was. Much like Danny Ansell before them, The Astras were a band I didn’t know a great deal about, although that wasn’t through lack of trying. No tunes on Spotify and only the one recently appeared on YouTube so it was very much a step into the unknown with me when it came to The Astras.

One thing that was clear to see from the get-go was the support that The Astras brought with them. Chelsea Dagger faded into the background and the guitar riffs started and from that moment onwards, you were watching a band that have the ability and potential to go right to the very, very top.

Swagger? Check. Anthems? Check. Crowd in the palm of their hand? Check. I’ll say this once more (for now), keep a very close eye on these lads as they’ll be going right to the top. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but they’ll get there.

The Institutes

The Institutes finished the action off in style

After The Astras had gone off to ferocious applause from the crowd, it was time for the main act of the evening and (wrestling commentator’s voice on) the moment we’ve all been waiting for!

The aim of the game for The Institutes was to showcase their debut album which is available for pre-order now, here!. They done that and then some. Starting on the 2020 release All That You’ll Ever Know and taking things on from there, the crowd were like putty in the hands of the Coventry band who have got very big plans for the future.

Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, what with them being the headliners and all, the majority of the people were there to see The Institutes, and as the lads whipped the crowd up with a couple of Coventry City chants in between the first couple of songs, it was clear to see why.

Something Beautiful followed and from there on in, everyone in the venue was hypnotised by the sound that The Institutes were producing.

Referring back to the earlier point of tunes you were hoping were going to hit the spot, the particular one was I Just Can’t Keep Myself From Loving You, and much like the aforementioned track from The Drift it went above and beyond what you could’ve hoped for.

In true rock & roll style, they were meant to come off to then get brought back out on the stage for an encore but front man, Reid had other ideas. So while the rest of the band were waiting for Reid, he was still on stage having it large and do you know something? Sod it.

That’s the way it goes sometimes. That’s the beauty of the music industry and that summed up the gig in a nutshell. Organised chaos. And who doesn’t love a bit of that? Next up, Birmingham and Stockton, see you down the front x