Hudson Taylor at Electric Ballroom

Well aren't you good at patiently waiting for me to get it together? I hope the following music-y ramblings will not disappoint you. In all honesty, the timing of this post could not be any better, because Hudson Taylor's debut album has only just been released in Ireland and for the rest of us the wait is almost over. Trust me, 23rd March will be here sooner than you think. Head over to hudsontaylormusic.com to find out about how and where you can pre-order it. (Or indeed, purchase if you have the proverbial luck of the Irish :) )

Now, let me once again take you back in time, to last summer, 5th June 2014, if you want me to be date specific. On that memorable day I strolled around Regent's Park and in the evening I went to my first (and hopefully not last) concert in London. I've already talked about the supporting musicians: Kimberly Ann and the oh so amazing Flyte (still not over them!), but now comes the time to talk about the music that I have cleverly used as an excuse to make myself go on this long-desired travelling adventure.

However, I must issue a warning: if you wish to read an objective review of the concert, click away now and I shall wave you good bye. I am not even going to attempt objectivity (except maybe for a little snippet towards the end). It's a thing about live performances of my favourite music people. I prefer to make the best of it and be passionately infused with the atmosphere and the sound, rather than to think critically. Please take note that my run-down of the show may be incomplete and confused. I'm probably missing a couple of songs and they might not have been in this order. It’s clouded. Emotions ran high. I have only hazy memories of feelings usually related to a particular line in the lyrics, so… Yeah.

*timey wimey wheezing noise of the tardis*

The time had come! The moment we had all be waiting for. We knew it was close when Tadhg brought his violin on stage and then popped off again. There was a little countdown video with an instrumental version of “Battles”, which got everyone ridiculously excited. Only we were not having no instrumentals! We were a singing crowd! So basically the whole things started with us chanting Battles (rather well, may I say) at an empty stage. Then the band came on and then the lads came on and it was the HUDSON TAYLOR concert :) :) :)

There they were in front of me, singing and playing live :) And I was singing along :) Most of us were for most of the concert :) Only… I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit upset, because it was clear as day that it would have been much more special if I had been in the front row right in front of the stage.

I think they opened with “Drop of Smoke”, straight in with tons of energy! It’s funny how some particular lines of lyrics have a special ring to them in particular situations. Like: “I’d kill to get away, I’d die to make my own way, I’d lose to celebrate, I’d win to see the good days. And I’ll never stop the fighting, so bring to me your worst! I’ll never stop believing that I could rule the world one day…“ These words… me being in London… fighting and being brave… Just you try and stop me!

And we were singing along. We were aaaaall singing and Alfie was visibly overwhelmed by our reaction and he could not quite comprehend the sheer amount of joy in the people… Bless him, I think we moved him to tears… :’)

I'm sure you understand that the sound and picture quality of these videos is not always super amazing under the circumstances. But I kindly thank all the people who recorded them and shared online. They perfectly capture the mood of the night.

There was “Called On”, the ever so famous and well loved “Chasing Rubies” and “Second Best” maybe? I think. I’m not entirely sure. “The Night Before The Morning After” I didn’t know this one that well. I think it’s one of the early early stuff, they didn’t play it for a while and now it’s making a come back. "When I broke into your heart, Oh I threw away the key, so tell what you see: a lover or a thief?" And it gets stuck in your head for days and days :) Very interesting structure of composition, btw.

They did one song just the two of them without the band. A new one I hadn't heard before. I forgot the name of it, but later researched and found it on YouTube. It’s called “Off the Hook” and, as pretty much all of these songs, features on the new album. It blew my mind away. Firstly, the lyrics strangely resonated with me and some personal things going on at that time. And then that striking, perfect unison/union of voices.. How is it even possible for two people to sing like one???

I was getting a very Everly-brotherly vibe from this song :) Not just this one in fact. Especially Harry and some of his guitar moves keep channeling Don Everly, whether he’s doing it on purpose (which I doubt) or not :D And the brotherly connection between them shows off in such a lovely way on stage. They stand in front of a crowd, they look at each other and it’s like “I got you, mate, and you got me. We’re in this together. You & I.“ And somehow it feels very special just to witness that happening. They are lucky to have each other, lads :)

Thinking about it, I suppose this chemistry, this genuine close relationship between the brothers is part of the appeal of the band (for me at least). After all, people do like a good "double act" with a strong friendly bond. At the same time it is reflected in their music, gives it a certain other dimension, a depth, if you will...  

I should stop rambling.

“World Without You”, “Butterflies”, “Wildfires”, which I am growing to like more and more. “Throw Me a Line”  from the (at the time) new Battles II EP "We don’t know where it all started, we don’t know where it will end :)"

"Don't Tell Me" a very new new song, that nobody heard in full band arrangement before. Oooh, exclusive! :) It almost made me cry, because it said things like: “Don’t tell me I can’t be who I am” and something along the lines of “Stand up if you’re feeling afraid, stand up if you’re feeling alone“, which is exactly what I’m doing here. Standing up. Even though at times I’m terribly afraid and sometimes even lonely. (If you want to hear the track I recommend this stripped down acoustic version they recorded for The Live Sessions channel on YouTube. I particularly appreciate the unexpected changes in chord progressions :) )

“Weapons” and “Battles” were both MASSIVE sing-alongs! Like, you wouldn’t believe! I know Harry and Alfie certainly had hard time believing. Battles was the pretense end of the show and after much cheering and applauding… (It was such an intense noise that my ears must have temporarily switched off or popped into another dimension. Otherwise I don’t know how to explain that I haven’t lost my hearing.)... there was an encore.

They came back with “Just A Thought” and the mash-up of all mashups “Lose Yourself Walking On The Flume”, which blew the roof off the place!!! I never thought I knew so much of the Eminem lyrics :) Apparently I do. Here is one of their official videos from the night. I am torn between liking the higher quality of sound and footage and not liking that you cannot hear the crowd singing. Pity, that's all.

Then the very last song of the night. When Harry announced it, I couldn’t believe it was the end. It felt like such a short set :D Now that I’m writing it down I see that it wasn’t. They’ve played a LOT of tracks, but it seemed to have flown by so fast. Probably because we were all too busy with the singing :) So Harry promised us we would make this the best last song ever. And we did. It was “Care” *sniff*. (Unfortunately, I haven't found any decent video footage that would capture the atmosphere of it and the voice of the crowd.)

I still couldn’t help but dream of being closer, right in front of them. Because there I would be more... a part of it. More as a performer, less as an audience member. That’s what I do at live gigs, I perform with them all the way through, feeling like “Why don’t I have a band like this? I want to be in a band.“

And so it was over. Somehow we were on our way out very quickly and I didn’t get a chance to visit the merch stand, which was very crowded. So I had to miss out on the special limited edition T-shirt or the poster. We got on the tube with a lot of other lovely people from the gig. There was even a bit of a spontaneous sing-song on the escalators :) I grabbed a copy of the Evening Standard, because it had an advert for a production of Richard II, starring Martin Freeman. That is a relevant reason.

We went home. Since I had company, I didn't have to worry about being outside after dark and I enjoyed  being carefree and just walking in the general direction of home. And then I tried to get to bed asap, because I had a long day ahead of me.

___________

Phew! If you're still reading this, thank you very much for staying with me. You don't know how glad I am I finally got this done. Why does it always get so complicated with the posts that I care about a lot? :D

To conclude, all I can say is that a Hudson Taylor live performance is something else. Something I would heartily recommend to every human being. Yes, I am a big fan and therefore exceedingly biased. However, even if that was not the case, if it is not the case with you, there is quality music to be enjoyed. You can see the mix of talent and a lot of hard work that these lads put into it. They bring into the room enourmous amounts of energy and passion for music. And I don't know about you, but I find there are few things in life that are more pleasing to watch than people who are passionate and good at what they're doing.

Oh! Actually, Hudson Taylor will be touring UK and Ireland in February, introducing the new album. Most of the tour is sold out already, but if you hurry, you might still find a couple of tickets available somewhere. Check the dates and availabilty here. Go for it! What are ya waiting for?!

That's all from me now. Leave me a comment if you're feeling nice. Or share this somewhere, if you're feeling even nicer. Ta! x

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