Friday 6th February 2015

Glastonbudget Auditions Night

The Shed

On stage tonight: Chris Ostler, Nazarene, Papa Shango and Final Coil.

What a great way to start an evening of live music! Chris Ostler is a singer who has been performing on the stages of Leicester for a long time; he was here at University before moving back to his home town of Exeter, from where he traveled to come here tonight. Now he is back and what a pleasure it was to see him again. We have opened a trench in the archives of Arts in Leicester to bring you some vintage Ostler (they don’t call us the Time Team of Leicester music for nothing.)

Chris Ostler at the Glastonbudget Festival in 2012:

Chris Ostler told us us “There was a lot of positive response from the audience which made the whole festival that much better, let alone just on my set. The crowd reacted very strongly to the covers played Black eyed Peas – Let’s Get It Started, Crowded House – Weather with you, and especially Phil Collin’s Another Day in Paradise. “With the arrangement of cover, composed, cover, composed, and so on, I felt it was enough to get the crowd listening and keen to listen, although as expected, a rapturous applause was the natural crescendo given from the ever so engaging and happy crowd. I was even asked by certain fans to remove my clothes from my body, that amused me but I proceeded to play with the next song in my set-list. [Arts in Leicester magazine, 2012]

In 2012 Chris Ostler was featured in Arts in Leicester magazine:

Chris Ostler is a singer and songwriter, born in Exeter, Devon on the 19th September 1990, he moved to Leicester to study for a degree in Music, Technology and Performance at De Montfort University. He attended Exeter College and did a BTech. in Music Practice as well as playing with many other talented musicians and singers. Chris came to our attention here at ArtsIn as being a fine singer and writer of listenable songs and we have covered his performances and releases as well as inviting him to perform at our showcase concerts, such as our Singers of Distinction shows. He sings and plays acoustic at the moment but it doesn’t stop there. In order to push his songwriting ability, he also plays electric guitar, drums and bass as well, and has the ability to create and arrange other instrumental parts within his songs. Producing five Songs with his current EP, with sounds of powerful rock ballads and emotional lyrics, Chris loves to convey emotions to his audience in his music and live. Chris has appeared at many of our local live music venues and festivals and is in demand from bookers and promoters as a solidly good and dependable artist who is always popular with local music lovers. Chris always appeals with audiences, where ever we have seen him perform live. Chris has played at the Glastonbudget Festival for the past two years, and has appeared on Citizens Eye radio, Demon FM, BBC Radio Leicester, Hilltop Radio, and a large number of venues and pubs in Leicester. His biggest achievement so far is to be invited to support Joan Armatrading in November, in Torquay. [Arts in Leicester magazine, 2012]

In 2013 we wrote

One of the elite runners in the marathon that is Leicester’s acoustic circuit, Chris is well known and well admired as for his songwriting as for his dazzling singing abilities. Tonight was no exception; his set included Tim and Neil Finn’s Weather with you, recorded by Crowded House, Lamplights with its whistled intro and finished his set with an incredibly good number. Stunning. [Arts in Leicester magazine, 2013]

Chris Ostler brought out his Show Me The World in 2012:

Show me the World has a set of engaging and listenable songs on it. The five songs are well constructed, nicely recorded and feature the finely articulated vocals of Ostler and his distinctive voice. Now, musical aficionados with greater knowledge than I will immediately say ‘Oh, he sounds like …..’. I am not particularly bothered who an artists sounds like. I would not like what I am listening to more or less simply because of who the singer sounds like. [Arts in Leicester Record Reviews, 2012]

Read more about Chris Ostler on his website.

Nazarene. We saw this band in January:

Featuring two very good lead singers – Elle Swettenham and Tom Zbaraski – they delivered a set of enjoyable and ear-pleasing songs, laced with Latin rhythms. Cool, funky sounds with lots of engaging rhythms flowed from the stage. Tom Zbaraski was previously in The Delis Mix with Nazarene’s drummer Luke O’Neill. Altogether one good band with music that we look forward to hearing again. Another interesting point that is Elle Swettenham is the sister of Nate, a.k.a. The Skunkboy Project, another well-known singer on the Leicester music scene. [Music in Leicester]

Two fabulous voices backed by a set of first-class musicians and an ear-licking set of songs added up to an altogether very satisfying musical experience. Pop-rock at its best – foot-tapping rhythms, ear-grabbing lyrics and an impeccably engage stage presence, what more could you ask for from a band?

Excellent

Follow Naraene on Facebook.

Papa Shango. What can I say? Musical theatre with a large number of performers, painted faces, costumes of many kinds, big hats, musicians wandering around the room playing their instruments, people dressed as monkeys, getting the whole audience to sit on the floor for one song, people with sponges in their mouths, a selection of party hats – not something you see every night at The Shed. But, if you want to go crazy, party and have a good time … this is the band for you. Think of Evil Scarecrow in bed with Korn but not as serious. There are times when you just have to let your hair down and parteeee – a bunch of utterly crazy dudes. The room loved them.

Very entertaining.

Follow Papa Shango on Facebook

The night was completed by Final Coil – a band for which I have considerable respect and admiration. Four excellent musicians playing music of high calibre. They had the audience screaming with delight; big, pounding sounds brought alive by a scintillating stage presence and their two front singers adding a substantial vocal layer to the tunes. Final Coil’s set of metal songs was tightly executed with inspirational incisiveness and explosive guitar work. It was a set that was incandescent; well-harmonised vocals, mesmerising melodies and good to watch as they were to hear, a seriously good piece of live music. They played all their own songs. Listen to Final Coil’s single Waste Your Time single on Soundcloud

Final Coil goes back a long way, in 2009 I wrote:

Stepping in at the last minute to fill the slot vacated by the Utopians, newby art rock band The Final Coil, playing their first ever gig, brought the night to a pleasing finale. The five piece, included a female vocalist (who spent most of the show hiding behind a speaker at the side – it was a rather small stage for such a large band), three string players and a drummer. The opening number was a song that crackled with atmosphere, having a heavy rock flavour and some feverish guitar riffs that soared over the backing. Poundingly good beats were richly ornamented with colourful guitar tones to produce a nu-rock sounding set, slightly reminiscent of early Linkin Park, Pearl Jam and Mogwai. With an appetising stage presence and considerable commitment to acute guitar work, this was a stunning performance from a band making its live debut and thrust unexpectedly before an audience. Wonderful stuff and well worth seeing again. [Arts in Leicester magazine]

and in 2011 Kevin Gaughan wrote:

Final Coil, a four piece alternative grunge rock band from Leicester. Interesting looking set-up with the female bass guitarist in the middle of the stage and two singing guitarists either side. As you would imagine, they had a strong guitar sound which was sublime, often at a medium pace, but with oodles of grungy, distorted guitar – the guy can sing, too! When they warmed up, the pace was still not ballistic, but the vocals went into screamo mode which was great, even while they were screaming the (sound) house down, the underlying music was superb with great use of the guitar effects pedals and reverb. [Arts in Leicester magazine]

Follow Final Coil on Facebook  and down the brutal EP Live with Doubt for free.

After the official part of the evening had finished, Chris Ostler came back on stage with another set of songs to keep the party going. Very much in the spirit of Glastonbudget, the fire was not allowed to go out too early. The auditions shows at The Shed frequently draw a goodly crowd and offer an evening of quality music. Well worth attending.

See also:

Previous article on the Glastonbudget Auditions

Our listing of music festivals in 2015

See our report of and photos by Mat Borland from:  Glastonbudget Festival 2014