26th September
City Link-Up Unsigned at the Music Cafe
Photos by Kevin Gaughan
Tonight’s show was opened by four young dancers who gave us a set of well co-ordinated routines. The four girls had met at school and decided they would like to go out and dance.
Leicester’s top reggae artist TannI Browne is noted for being a top artist tributing the songs of Bob Marley. A superbly good vocalist, TannI is always a great favourite at these shows. He performed Songs of Freedom a-capella, a great demonstration of his singing skills.
Rayden, a singer and rapper, evoked respect from audience members with his song against gun crime. He had a good voice and strong lyrics for his original songs. With his fine sense of rhythm and pleasing r ‘n’ b style, Rayden’s positive message rap was impressive.
Singer Justene Whyte was someone I had seen before. An artist from Leicester, Justene sang her all-original songs, taken from her EP. Her beautiful voice wow’d the audience and she used it with ingenuity to deliver a remarkable performance.
Nottingham’s Trey B brought another tuneful set of r ‘n’ b style songs to the stage, presenting a cool image on stage. He has stuff up on YouTube and Twitter.
Leicester artist Tha Deadeye came to the stage with his support artist. Big sounds, big beats and a well balanced set of songs enabled Deadeye to show us his individuality. An artist who is making his mark, Deadeye has got his music out there – on YouTube, SBTV, MTV and Radio 1. “Stay connected to the right people”, he advised, during his interview with compere MC 5iveO.
Leicester singer Jah Marnya has featured in previous City Link-Up shows and tonight he followed up his previous appearance with another astonishingly good performance. What a great voice he has and what an impressive stage presence to go with it! His song Crazy, driving me crazy” had all the hall-marks of a hit.
Through out the night, DJ and sound guy Deano Presto did a great job holding it all together at the back of the stage.
Promoter Cyrlene Braithwaite thanked all the artists on tonight’s line-up and also thanked several others who had contributed to making this one of the “best City Link-Up shows ever.”
After six previous shows, City Link-Up Unsigned has now established itself as a vital part of Leicester’s live music scene and as an important event for both local artists and those from further afield who want to gain experience with our local audiences.
City Link-Up will be running the urban music stage at the Leicester Oxjam festival on Saturday 19th October. It will be held at Midas Cafe Bar in Yeoman Street.
The next City Link-Up Unsigned show takes place at the Music Cafe on Thursday 31st October.
See also:
City Link-up reviews for
April (Published by Arts in Leicester)