When: Saturday 21st July 2012
Where: St Peter’s Church, Notting Hill
Why: My mate was singing and ukulele-ing – how could
I refuse?
A gorgeous evening of music and new discoveries. St Peter’s
in Notting Hill is a fabulously preserved church, brilliantly adapted inside
for musical purposes, and a captivatingly orange hue on the outside. Bit
Mediterranean. It also looked beautiful inside, lit by hundreds of tea lights
– good work whoever lit all of those, and sorry for accidentally plunging my
finger into one of them almost as soon as I entered.
We settled on comfy rugs and cushions in front of the altar,
unscrewed our booze (BYO in a church, win win) and prepared our ears for an
onslaught of beauteous tunes. The evening was collection of
musicians brought together to showcase their own tunes and various innovative
covers, accompanied by a talented orchestra and choir (+ ukes). All the
performances were of such a high standard and the song choices were inspired –
covers included a re-worked version of Greensleeves, Teardrop by
Massive Attack, The Smiths’s There is a light that never goes out, and
some Usher was chucked in there too. Eclectic is the word.
Obviously my friend Nikki was the true star of the show, but
I also discovered some seriously great new musicians. Personal fave was the
incredibly inventive Abi Wade, who takes
multi-tasking to a whole new level – she plays the cello, sings, does
percussion all at once, basically every limb and probably every particle of
concentration is used up, and the result is lush. I also loved Mt. Wolf, who covered Teardrop which was
my song of the evening, and their lead singer’s voice had a kind of
Scandinavian sound to it (even though she’s English I think) – their music is
divine and I seriously advise you to have a listen. We also heard from Faith Taylor who was more folky
and sounded a bit like a grungy Kate Rusby – very talented and impressive.
This was the first Coveryard event, and hopefully the first
of many, as it was so well received by the crowd and genuinely so enjoyable and
chilled out. Massive congrats to all involved. Hooray.
See below for a cracking cover of Eleanor Rigby (sung by Georgina Hunt) which was demanded as the encore for the night. This is my video, so it's not great, but bear with.
Brixpig x
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