New Music - Part 22 - a long awaited return...

Back in 2008, my first year of properly planned festival and live music attendance, one of the new acts that I saw at Latitude and then also live at Bristol Harbour Festival a few weeks later was a singer called Beth Rowley. She is from Bristol, which in part explains her appearance at the latter where she blew away the audience in Queen Square Gardens on a sunny summer afternoon. That year also saw the release of her début album Little Dreamer by Universal. If it had a systemic fault it is that it was too timidly produced, tending towards the Radio 2 end of the market if you will.
After that she seemed to fade away but it is all about to change...

This coincides with a set of three EPs; the first of which, 'Wretched Body', is released on July 8 and here is the title track from it.
It is rather a promising direction I think and, reading between the lines, I suspect that Universal is no longer involved. This is the track listing of what appears to be a digital-only release:

• Wretched Body
• Can't Stop Tomorrow
• Steal Away
• Princess

Those I saw live @ Latitude 2008 (Part 1)

Festivals are not really that demanding when it comes to getting out of bed early in the morning, which is another appealing thing about them, but a little bit of effort can still pay dividends.

Live and exclusive on the Sunset Stage at about 10:40 on Sunday morning.

This was taken during the sound-check when they performed a complete song, not included in the ensuing live set, and for which the audience (excepting festival and band crew) was extremely limited indeed. The set itself was extremely good too and Tallulah Rendall is another artist to watch in 2008-9.

This next is the case of 'Who's That Girl?' (the one that I remember, who was she with her hands wrapped around the world?) and a late addition to the Latitude 2008 line-up.

Beth Rowley performing in the Uncut Arena on Saturday afternoon.

If there was one remarkable thing about this performance it is that, although it was preceded by a couple of minor technical hitches, it seemed as if she wasn't even trying to impress anyone. That it sounded even better live than on the album Little Dreamer was proof perfect. Given only twenty-five minutes on-stage she didn't even perform the single 'So Sublime', but it was.