Sunday, July 10, 2011

Evening mini festival at Somerset House

From Aloe Blacc 2011

It was relatively early start at Somerset House as a number of new acts got the chance to experience playing the wonderful venue as part of the What Next programme – if Debbie Aramide, Franklin Secret and Ruby Blue are examples of what London can produce, without a formulaic TV talent show in sight, then the music industry has a great future.

Listed as the first “main” support act Yasmin continued the great live music. Her confident performance of Finish Line was the highlight of the set.
Dionne Bromfield, at 16, could easily have been one of the acts performing as part of What Next – but she easily justified her position as top support act. Filling the venue with a sound that belied her young age – she didn’t need the support of her four dancers to put on a good show – the sound alone did that – but if they helped added to her confidence they didn’t distract from the quality of  the set. She will surely emerge from the shadow of her god mother, Amy Winehouse, and become a star in her own right…
The smooth Aloe Blacc then took to the stage – his polished mix of Soul, Jazz and R&B with a little rap/hip hop mixed in filled the Somerset House court yard on what had become a warm summer evening.
The addition of 3 sets from What Next extended the evening in to almost a mini festival – the wonderful Summers Sunday afternoon weather contributed – would be nice if Somerset House decided to extend this to all their weekend gigs in the Summer Series. 

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