Preview: Dials Festival 2018 (Part 1 - Early Afternoon)

In just under a two weeks, on Saturday 6th October Portsmouth’s Dials Festival returns for its third chapter following its first two editions in 2015 and 2016. It’s an event I’m pretty well versed in, after in 2015 having been invited to join the organising team because of my relative expertise in new music and help book some bands for the bill, for 2018 I seem to have ended up with the job title Festival Director and am one of the core organisers and financial backers of the event. I'm not quite sure how that's happened but it has.

The Dials ethos is a little bit different from many multi-venue single wristband access events out there, although I must give a huge shout out to Reading’s brilliant Are You Listening Festival whose model we have partly taken on. It was that festival that inspired me to suggest to the team that the event should be not for profit and run in aid of a charity partner (Solent Mind) whilst raising awareness of what their organisation does and maybe even raise some funds along the way. 

We also thought it was important that, after hearing a number of reports from local artists that certain other bigger corporate festivals in the area weren’t paying the smaller artists instead offering a guest tickets as 'payment', we would offer virtually every band some form of cash return for playing. Sometimes this might only be enough to cover transport to the venue but at least it was some help to artists. You might think that paying artists was imperative, after all they make the festival, but it seems that some events have different ideas. 

This of course means that tickets are a little more expensive than some might expect, but £16 for a full day of live music which includes a host of up and coming bands including the likes of Estrons, Art School Girlfriend, Lauran Hibberd and Fröst who are all getting play on Radio 1 or BBC 6 Music, is to my mind still decent value. The reality is we couldn't make it any cheaper.

Some artists have been wonderful though and agreed to waive their fee as the event is for charity and hardly any of the acts (including our headliners) have asked for guest list. I hope that our ethos of what we are trying to achieve will make both artists and audience feel invested in the festival and this will create a positive community spirit. It was something our previous events were praised for, as well the fact that all the venues are on just one street just a few minutes walk from each other, plus the large amount of women on the bill compared with other festivals, something which as Director I’ve pushed for again in 2018.

If you haven’t got your ticket yet I recommend buying in advance, as they will be more expensive on the day. You can get them from the Dials website by clicking here.

Now onto the music. Over the next 3 blog posts I will be providing tips and recommendations of acts to see at Dials Festival 2018. I’m dividing them into 3 sections – early afternoon, late afternoon and evening, based on the timetable (which you can see by clicking here).

Previous experience has shown that not many people come to the festival early – but this year in particular I highly recommend you get down for the start. We have some really great acts at the bottom of the bill – who knows some of them might even be future headliners? Also, for some early arrivals there will be a few bonus goodies that make your £16 ticket even better value, which we’ll be revealing through our social media a few days before the event, so keep an eye out @dialsfestival.

So here are three acts it’s worth getting out of bed for. You'd be a fool to miss them.

Libra Libra 13.45-14.15 The Loft

Brighton’s LibraLibra might only have 2 songs on line but they’ve already picked up attention because of their eccentrically maverick videos, powerful lyrics and uneasy claustrophobic music that mixes everything from Fever Ray like electronics to power-chord glam-guitars. The jewel in their crown however is the wonderful Beth Cannon whose mountainous vocal range can switch from baby sweet to operatic to rock goddess in a matter of seconds. Some of you might recognise Beth’s name (or voice) – she most recently has worked with Lost Horizons - the band formed by Simon Raymonde of The Cocteau Twins and Bella Union Records and Richie Thomas.

Having already headlined a stage at Brighton’s Alt-Escape festival and with an appearance at the tastemaker led Off The Record Music Festival / Conference in Manchester in November on the cards this is a chance to catch a bubbling under band at their very early stages. They might be on early but they are guaranteed to wake you up with the beautiful noise they make.



Lauran Hibberd 14.45-15.20 The Loft

It was only a year or so ago that the Isle of Wight’s Lauran Hibberd was playing to about 6 people in a pub just over the road from where she’s performing at Dials. Since that time, things have changed. Her song Call Shotgun has been BBC Introducing’s track of the week on Radio 1 and netted over 300,000 streams on Spotify. She’s supported Eliza & The Bear on tour and played the main stage at Bestival. Lauran’s ability to pen hooky fuzzy indie pop songs at an alarming rate is incredible and on stage her funny stories, wit and likeable personality engage as much as the tunes.

Lauran is one of a number of acts playing Dials that (arguably) could already be significantly higher up the bill. Get down and see what the fuss is about.



Jerry Williams 15.30-16.00 The Vaults

After Lauran Hibberd finishes you have 5 minutes for a quick break and then a 1-minute walk across the road to Vaults to see Portsmouth’s reigning indie queen Jerry Williams. Having already sold out the 400 capacity Wedgewood Rooms with her band, Dials will find Jerry performing a more low-key solo set in the intimate space of The Vaults. With a whole bunch of catchy personal pop songs such as Mother (5 million streams on Spotify and counting), Grab Life and Left and Right, this solo set will be another reminder of Jerry’s melodic talent. It may well be busy for this one!



Grab your ticket for Dials 2018 by clicking here.

Late afternoon and evening recommendations coming soon…

New Music: Jerry Williams - Left And Right

If you’re in the UK and listen to the Spotify New Music Friday playlist every week then you may well have already heard Left And Right by Breaking More Waves favourite and Portsmouth's queen of guitar pop Jerry Williams but for those of you that haven’t, it’s time to get acquainted here. 

In the fast-release internet world of today Left And Right is something of an anomaly; it’s a song that has been sitting in Jerry’s live set for some time (since at least 2014) and has become a definite fan favourite – to the point that when she plays it it’s not unusual to see the audience hollering along as if it’s already a big hit single. Co-written with Newton Faulkner and his brother Toby, Left And Right has an element of the full throttle and delirious whisky downing hoe-down to it and builds to a full on orgy of guitars that makes for a head-shaking climax. This one is a stomp for sure.

Jerry Williams - Left And Right

New Music: Jerry Williams - Grab Life (Video)

The new video from Jerry Williams for her splendid indie pop dazzler Grab Life now has a video. Hurrah!

The essence of the video is basically Jerry larking around in various seafront / watery locations with a guitar and whilst she’s at it throwing in a number of the things that make her a rather good indie-pop kid, namely:

1. Very cool trousers. I’ve mentioned this before, but sometimes important points need making more than once. Jerry Williams knows a good trouser and the green ones in this video rank highly in the good trouser game.*

2. Wavey / pointy hands and arms. Jerry has become a true expert in pulling shapes and often likes to combine it with a good hair flick as well. This is all perfectly executed in this video.*

3. Good songs. That’s pretty important, right? Because it doesn’t matter how good your fashion tastes are and how nifty your moves are, if you haven’t got the tunes to back them up you’re going nowhere fast. Thankfully Grab Life is a tune and then some and combines with a whole bunch of positivity as well, which is probably why she’s not going nowhere but instead to SXSW festival in Austin, Texas to play a number of shows including ones for the BBC and Pledge Music.

Jerry Williams - Grab Life (Video)



*Footnote. There will probably be some readers who, if previous experience is anything to go by, will call me out on this post saying that points 1 and 2 are 'irrelevant shit'. Well two-fingers to you, because pop music and the culture surrounding it is about more than just music. It has always been about the clothes, the dancing, the haircuts and long may that continue. In fact maybe pop culture itself is quite possibly irrelevant shit.** But that shouldn't stop anyone talking about it.

**It's not but let's not go there. I could write a thesis on the importance of pop in life and how therefore it cannot be irrelevant. But thankfully for you I don't have the time.

New Music: Jerry Williams - Grab Life

Portsmouth, my home city, doesn’t have a great track record of artists crossing over to the wider mainstream and national stage. However, right now it certainly feels like Pompey’s Jerry Williams has all the potential to break the mould. She's managed to get on the big old important Spotify New Music Friday playlist this week, which shows somebody is taking notice, and she’s certainly one of the best, if not the best, unsigned artists from the south coast central area. 

New single Grab Life is an even more convincing argument to that last statement. It’s a snappy, good to be alive indie pop song that finds Jerry singing about seizing your time on the planet before it all ends: “Don’t watch the sunshine from your bed.” With its bright musicality and Jerry’s mellifluous voice Grab Life is the musical equivalent of Mr Motivator and after listening you’ll probably want to go and hug a stranger or at least do a little dance with one. Filled with personality and joy, this is a cracker.

Jerry will be playing on the same bill as Sam Fender and Love Ssega at the Courtyard Theatre in London on the 22nd November and headlines another London show at The Lexington on the 5th February next year before she flies out to play SXSW Festival.

Jerry Williams - Grab Life

Preview: Victorious Festival 2017

One of the success stories of the UK festival market over the last few years has been Victorious Festival. Set in Breaking More Waves home city of Portsmouth it started from relatively humble beginnings in 2012 under the name Victorious Vintage in Portsmouth’s historic dockyard with top of the bill names including Dodgy and The Lightning Seeds, before increasing its capacity and transferring to Southsea Common in 2014 where Dizzee Rascal and Seasick Steve headlined.

Since that time Victorious has expanded further. With a clever policy of booking top of the bill acts that were once able to headline much bigger festivals, but have arguably dropped in their status a little since their halcyon days but still remain popular, Victorious has been able to maintain a value ticket price by selling at high volumes compared to other festivals (early birds this year were £20 for the Friday and £25 for both Saturday and Sunday). It is essentially the Primark of music festivals, – but it’s a model that works and Victorious has been able to establish itself as a strong competitor in the fierce festival market at this time.

Despite the success there have been criticisms of the festival as well, namely that it has damaged the local music scene with local venues struggling to sell tickets during the summer as people become used to paying such low prices for big names, that the festival doesn’t pay many of the local artists that play to keep ticket prices low and that this year the event has been sold to Global Entertainment who are now the major stakeholders. Global’s reputation has taken a bit of a pounding this year having taken over Y-Not festival which had a number of organisational problems in relation to security, site layout and dealing with the bad weather it experienced; much of this has been attributed to  cost cutting by Global, although this hasn't been proven. However, there is no evidence as yet to suggest that the sale of Victorious will lead to a similar drop off in quality.

One new addition to Victorious this year is the opportunity to camp as the festival now attracts more and more people from outside of the local area. The festival campsite will be off site in Farlington in the north of the city, with a bus service being provided for ticket holders to get to the event on Southsea Common.

This year Victorious Festival is headlined by Madness, Stereophonics and Elbow but elsewhere there’s some oddball eclecticism; there probably aren’t many festivals where British Sea Power, Frightened Rabbit and Band of Skulls are followed on stage by Rita Ora. 

Here at Breaking More Waves, what is important are the newer and lesser known acts at the festival. Here are 5 recommendations from lower down the bill, many of whom will be familiar to regular readers of the blog – unfortunately 2 of these do clash, so I’ll be flicking a coin between Lauran Hibberd and Rationale.

Jerry Williams (Castle Stage 14:00 Saturday and Acoustic Stage 17:25 Sunday)

It’s been a huge year for Portsmouth’s very own indie pop queen with well received sets at the likes of Great Escape Festival and V Festival, getting played on daytime Radio 1 as a BBC Introducing artist and her song Mother hitting the 4 million plays mark on Spotify. This weekend she plays two homecoming shows as she continues to establish herself as one of the most successful singer songwriters to come out of the south coast city for a long time. Expect catchy pop tunes with an indie pop sensibility. Boy oh boy, Jerry will no doubt be glorious at Victorious.



Bad Sounds (Castle Stage 12:00 Sunday)

Hip hop beats, samples, grooves, the funk, tech-savvy coolness and songs that manage to throw the words oesophagus and rhinoceros in the same line. What’s not to like about that? They’re on very early in the day so could probably do with every single ounce of support they can get. If you like Beck, Len or EMF this band will be for you.



Fjokra (Seaside Stage 15:45 Sunday)

This recommendation is a bit of a gamble as Fjokra is an act I haven’t seen live yet. However, Breaking More Waves has past history with this band having selected them as one of its nominations for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent longlist back in 2015 where I was impressed by the potty explosion of ideas in their music. Whether it will make any sense live remains to be seen, but I’m recommending Fjokra on the basis that their bonkers pop might just be worth a gamble. As a plus they are playing the seaside stage, the weather forecast looks optimistic and so it might just be a great place to hang out mid-afternoon.



Lauran Hibberd (Showcase Stage 16.50 Sunday)

The Isle of Wight’s Lauran Hibberd is playing one of the smaller stages at Victorious, before she transfers to the largest at Bestival in September. Why should you catch her at Victorious? The answer is simple. Great acoustic folk pop songs and an enchanting voice, plus she’s a performer who seems to really enjoy playing her songs and that delight will transfer to you. Have a break from the bigger stages and witness her talent.



Rationale (Castle Stage 17:00 Sunday)

Rationale, the Zimbabwe-born British singer-songwriter, first appeared on this blog in 2010 when he was performing under his real name Tinashé. Fast forward to know and after a slew of great singles including Fast Lane, Re.Up, Prodigal Son, Fuel To The Fire and Loving Life over the last couple of years, Rationale is ready to release his debut album in October when he’ll be back in Portsmouth playing the mighty Wedgewood Rooms. His live performances are slick and seductive - highly polished soul pop with modern production that deserves your attention.

Victorious takes place this weekend 25th Aug to 27th Aug. Some tickets are still available as this article is published. Click here for tickets.

Ones to Watch 2017 #8 - Jerry Williams

Although many of the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch choices are signed to record labels, most years there’s normally at least one unsigned artist on the list. This year I’m delighted to choose an act that hails from my own home town, and her name is Jerry Williams.

Jerry first came to my attention a number of years ago when I received a text from a friend telling me that he’d just seen a new young artist play a gig and he thought she would be ‘just your thing’. He was right. Since then I’ve watched Jerry Williams develop her music to the point where, despite not operating with a label, she’s played sold out shows both in her home city and London as well as releasing a number of engaging EPs: A Hairdressers Called Sids, Cold Beer and Let’s Just Forget It. The most recent of those was awarded Best Produced EP at this year’s Unsigned Music Awards. The songs on those EPs have all performed rather well, clocking up over 3 million song plays on Spotify.

So what is it that makes Jerry Williams one to watch for 2017? In essence it's the same things that I highlighted when I first posted about her back in 2015, only now they are developed further and better. First, it’s her voice, which has a sprightful youthfulness that on certain songs reminds me a tiny bit of Harriet Wheeler from The Sundays. Second it’s her songs. Documenting her life and loves with a straight-up pop sensibility but with an indie edge they’re instantly likeable, even when they’re actually a bit sad. And third it’s her live gigs. Each show I’ve seen Jerry play has been better than the last, her confidence and class growing with age and experience – it probably also explains why she can pull off some pretty extreme clashes in the fashion department (she's a wearer of the outlandish trouser) and make them look cool. 

Jerry Williams has certainly put in the ground work. What 2017 holds for her remains to be seen – but let’s keep an eye and ear out for her shall we?

Jerry Williams - Let's Just Forget It 

Jerry Williams - Mother

New Music: Jerry Williams - Let's Just Forget It (Video)

Jerry Williams is carving out a rather good space for herself musically, managing to neatly encompass elements of indie, pop and traditional singer songwriter into each new tune she releases. 

Her latest, Let’s Just Forget It is probably her finest one to date. Out goes the musical chirpiness of Boy Oh Boy or Mother and in slides a tender melancholy musicality combined with Jerry’s personal real-life lyrics. “Just hold your arms around me, this cruel world, let’s just forget it,” she sings at whoever the song is directed to, as the music swells to an intimate and tender crescendo. Her voice as ever is sweet perfection. Beautiful stuff.

The video, a one shot piece, was filmed on West Wittering beach near Chichester – one of my favourite areas of coast in the south of the UK – its simplicity working well with the song. OK I’ll admit at the end I thought Jerry was going to rush off into the distance and jump headlong into the sea, but then maybe the (likely) accompanying shout of “f*ck this, it’s cold,” probably wouldn’t have suited the poignant atmosphere of the work up to that point.

Let’s Just Forget It is the title track of Jerry’s new EP which also features Mother, a track that has now hit over 2 million streams on Spotify – not bad for an unsigned artist. 

Jerry is also about to head out on her first UK tour, starting this Sunday in Portsmouth at The Loft. Breaking More Waves will be in attendence so follow me on Twitter (here) for some opinions of the gig there. That show is already totally sold out, although tickets are available for her other shows in London (3rd), Manchester (4th), Bristol (5th) and Birmingham (6th) – grab one quick.

Jerry Williams - Let's Just Forget It

New Music: Jerry Williams - Mother (Video)

I’ve already featured Mother by Jerry Williams on the blog, but now the song’s got a video treatment. Just in case you missed it first time round, this one’s a naggingly upbeat piece of day-glo indie pop that burns with a tuneful brightness. Of course chirpy sounding pop music sometimes needs to come with a warning stating ‘May Become Annoying’ but thankfully this isn’t the case here, particularly as Jerry isn’t shouting about how life is fantastic and everything’s perfect. Instead she sings of running home through the rain and not feeling herself. 

The video itself is a performance piece that fits with the general chirpiness of the music, with Jerry playing around on a bike, pulling some shapes and swapping roles with her band. Extra marks as well for the best pair of trousers I’ve seen this week – other indie pop acts take note. There’s more to life than skinny jeans and leather jackets.

Jerry Williams - Mother (Video)

New Music: Jerry Williams - Mother

If I had to pick one band that I would desperately love to reform it would be 90's indie darlings The Sundays. Their three albums, and in particular their debut Reading Writing and Arithmetic probably helped shaped my future musical taste and listening more than pretty much anything else, and Harriet Wheeler remains one of my favourite vocalists of all time. Back in 2014 there was exclusive news (bizarrely via American Airlines' inflight magazine) that having stepped away from the limelight nearly 20 years ago to raise a family, Harriet and her partner David were writing again and that maybe, just maybe there would be some new songs. However at this stage we can't be sure. (See what I did there, see? No...oh..ok.....here you go...click here)

Why do I mention all of this? Simply because after pressing play on Mother, the snappy two and a half minutes worth of tuneage from Portsmouth's Jerry Williams, the first thing that hit me was the similarity in the vocal delivery to Harriet Wheeler, especially during the verses. At this point it's pretty fair to say that unless the song was a steaming lump of turd, it was always going to become my new best friend of a song. Musically buoyant, but lyrically a little down in the dumps, it marks a slight shift in Jerry’s sound from when I first featured her to a more indie pop style. Expect your postman to be whistling this one down your street soon.

Jerry plays a free home town gig this Sunday at Little Johnny Russell's in Southsea, Portsmouth (get there early because she's on stage just after 8) followed by London gigs at The Finsbury (19th) and Birthdays (25th). According to Record of the Day (who also compared Jerry's vocal to Harriet Wheeler - they're not wrong) Jerry has been working alongside Dan Carey (Rae Morris, Kate Tempest, Bat For Lashes)' Nick Atkinson (Gabrielle Aplin) and most impressively Slow Club, a band that Jerry has often expressed her love for.

Jerry Williams - Mother

Jerry Williams - Boy Oh Boy

Fun fact number 1: Jerry Williams debut EP was called A Hairdressers Called Sids. Breaking More Waves HQ is approximately 5 minutes’ walk from that very hairdressers.

Fun fact number 2: Jerry has now released her second EP. It's called Cold Beer, and whilst we were typing this post we were drinking exactly that. There’s some fantastic synchronicity going on here, we're sure you'll agree.

Let’s just hope, for our sake, that Jerry’s next release isn’t called Go And Shoot Yourself In The Head Whilst Standing Naked In The Middle Of A Motorway.

If you’re a regular reader you will of course have already seen the video for the disco-pop groover that is Cold Beer (here), which is doing very nicely, having picked up over 20,000 views on You Tube. Now we’re streaming another track from the EP. If you think you recognise Boy Oh Boy it may be because we’ve featured the song on the blog before, but in a more stripped back form from Jerry’s SBTV session. Now Boy Oh Boy gets the full band treatment, thankfully the tune and that confused teenage hook: ‘Boy oh boy oh boy, I hate you but I love you,” isn’t overwhelmed by the bigger production.

If you’re in the south coast area, Jerry’s launch party for the single takes place today (Sunday) at Tiger Tiger in Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth from 5-8pm. It’s free entry, so there's really no excuse for not going. Drinking cold beer is of course optional, although it would seem almost rude not to considering the EP title wouldn’t it? Jerry also plays 2 sets at next weekend’s Victorious Festival on Southsea Common in Portsmouth (opening the main stage on the Saturday at 12 o'clock as well as a set on the Nevada Acoustic Stage). There’s also another Portsmouth Festival date in the diary on October 3rd when she plays the newly formed and rather fabulous new music, multi-venue, Dials Festival, (featuring the likes of Hooton Tennis Club, Kagoule, Black Honey and Chloe Black) which replaces the on hiatus Southsea Fest, early bird tickets for which can be found on this link here till the end of August. 

Jerry Williams - Boy Oh Boy

Preview - Dials Festival 2015

Dials Festival, Albert Road, Southsea, Portsmouth - 3rd October 2015

We’re pretty sure that we’re not the only music blog that has dreamed of curating its own festival or stage at a festival. So when the organisers of Dials, a brand new multi venue new music event based in our home city approached us asking if we’d be interested in hand picking some of the bands on their bill, we jumped at the chance.

Dials is a brand new collaborative festival taking place in 5 venues in Southsea, Portsmouth on the 3rd October 2015. It was originally set up when organisers heard that the well established new music festival Southsea Fest was not running this year and whilst hugely disappointed, decided the show must go on, in the form of their own show.

The name Dials comes from the concept that the festival is being run by a co-operative of venue owners, promoters and other music professionals and enthusiasts from the Portsmouth area, who are passionate about bringing exciting new music to the south coast, helping support local musicians, venues, businesses and the community in the process. 

Breaking More Waves is one of those enthusiasts. Others include iconic independent music venue the Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth cultural website and store Strong Island together with their offshoot record label Strong Island Recordings,  Hong Kong Gardeners Club, who have in the past propagated new music nights that included the likes of Everything Everything, Dan Smith (before he became Bastille), The Joy Formidable and Django Django  in tiny rooms before anyone had heard of them. Plus us, Breaking More Waves Blog. Hi. 

You can see the full list of artists playing in the poster below, which includes national touring acts as well as musicians local to the Portsmouth area. 

Of course what we’re really excited about is the handful of acts that Breaking More Waves has helped deliver to the festival. There's plenty of noisy rock n roll, indie and such like on the bill, but with our selections we've tried to inject something a little different. Here they are:

Alice Jemima

It was way back in April 2011 when we first featured Devon based singer Alice Jemima, a then unsigned songwriter, and ever since then we’ve been championing her music to anyone who will listen. We’re proud of the fact that directly because of that championing (and of course Alice’s fantastic songs) she landed a Radio 1 session at Maida Vale and since that time she has slayed the internet; her cover version of No Diggity has built up over 2 million plays on Soundcloud – more plays than all the other artists at the festival put together. The last year or so we haven’t heard that much from Alice, but with some recent support slots with Laura Doggett, a showcase for Sunday Best recordings at Brighton’s Great Escape, a new self penned song Diamonds & Bones getting an airing on Radio 1 courtesy of Huw Stephens and appearances at this year’s Camp Bestival, Somersault and Bestival festivals it seems that Alice is finally readying herself for something pretty special. We’re very pleased and excited to be able to finally bring Alice Jemima to Portsmouth. One not to miss.



Chloe Black

“We could have a star on our hands,” we wrote about Chloe Black in October 2014 and now that star shines on Portsmouth. Self-tagged ‘goth ‘n’ soul’ singer Chloe had a big online hit with her lyrically morbid tune 27 Club and all the reports we’ve received since have confirmed that she can deliver live as well with a potent vocal and bags of charm. Prepare yourselves to fall in love with Miss Black in the Wedgewood Rooms.



Black Honey

Furious frenetic feedback frenzies, pop melodies to die for and a captivating and dramatic front woman, Brighton’s Black Honey have it all. It’s probably why they were one of the most written about bands by UK Hype Machine listed music bloggers in 2014 and featured on the Blog Sound of 2015 long list – music bloggers version of the ubiquitous BBC Sound of list. As we all know though, being ‘big on the internet’ doesn’t necessarily translate to being a great live band, but Black Honey absolutely do. When we saw them earlier this year we were blown away by their rawness, their musicianship, their tunes and their power. Another must see, they’ll be headlining the Edge of the Wedge stage.



Lyza Jane

In contrast to Black Honey’s energy and forcefulness, London’s Lyza Jane creates languid sounding experimental electronic pop infused with modern trip-hop beats not dissimilar to the likes of Banks, FKA Twigs and Tricky. She’s already played Glastonbury festival twice, supported Alabama 3 and recently worked with reggae royalty Ranking Joe. There will be plenty of rock and roll aggression on display at Dials, so slip into something more comfortable for a while with Lyza Jane.



Glass

Glass are a totally new duo from London of which not much is known yet. You certainly won't find their songs streaming on Soundcloud, Spotify or You Tube. They describe their music as 'Pop Hip-Op Crance'. Those with good internet search skills might recognise them from previous musical projects. As Dials is very much a new music festival and that means discovery, don't play safe - make Glass part of that discovery. This will be their first show outside of London. Arrive early before they're gone.

Curxes / Jerry Williams / Wyldest

Whilst we’ve selected acts from London, Devon and Brighton to play, Breaking More Waves is also pleased to give a nod to some of the local and emerging talent from the Portsmouth area, or acts that have Portsmouth connections. Curxes, Wyldest and Jerry Williams are three artists that we’ve featured on the blog a number of times and all of them will be cropping up somewhere on the Dials bill. So if audacious dark electronic music (Curxes) chiming ethereal guitar pop (Wyldest) or catchy acoustic pop (Jerry Williams) are your thing, then go watch all of these.They’ll be giving some of the national touring bands a run for their money.

Tickets for Dials are on sale from today and available locally from The Wedgewood Rooms, Pie & Vinyl, Strong Island’s store. You can also buy them online from this link. 

We recommend buying early as the current £15 price tag is for early birds only.

Keep an eye out for a shiny website for the festival coming real soon and in the meantime, check the Dials Facebook (here) and  enjoy the playlist below of most of the artists so far announced. More acts are still to be added to the bill.

You can follow Dials Festival on Twitter here

Buy tickets using this link

Put 3rd October in your diary now. 

Dials Playlist

Jerry Williams - Cold Beer (Video)

Portsmouth is the home of Breaking More Waves and it’s also the home of singer songwriter Jerry Williams, who we first featured on the blog at the start of the year. Since that time Jerry has played shows at Brighton’s new music showcase The Great Escape and has also been out supporting Nathan Skyes on his sold out UK tour.

Next up comes a new offering from her forthcoming EP, due for release on the 21st August. 

Cold Beer has a glossier production than Jerry's earlier acoustic recordings, with some soft disco riffs entering the mix. Lyrically it rests a little against Kate Nash’s hit Foundations, with Williams singing about throwing up in the sink (rather than her trainers like Nash) so maybe at least a little easier to clean up!

The video itself is a whirlwind tour of some of Portsmouth’s local haunts, including Meat and Barrel, Clarence Pier, Lucile’s Creperie, Bandstand, Pie & Vinyl, The Garage Lounge and Tiger Tiger accompanied by her date - a man with a rather out of control afro. And the song you hear at the start of the video? It's a snippet of another one of Jerry’s songs, Boy Oh Boy.

Jerry Williams plays an EP launch show on the 20th August at Camden Barfly as well as Wilderness Festival this summer.

Jerry Williams - Cold Beer (Video)

The Great Escape Festival 2015 - Preview (Part 1 of 5 - Why We Love The Great Escape)

If there’s one music festival that we mark on our calendar every year for certain attendance it’s Brighton’s The Great Escape. A new music fan’s delight, The Great Escape (and it’s smaller brother The Alternative Escape, which runs alongside the main event ) is an urban festival that showcases emerging artists from all over the world with over 400 up and coming bands playing in 35 venues, accessible on one wristband. It’s the festival where we first saw Adele playing in a tiny coffee house, Haim play a ridiculously sweaty club show that involved one of the band stripping down to their underwear it was so hot and along the way we’ve caught the likes of Foals, Years & Years, London Grammar and Dan from Bastille (before he had formed Bastille) play sets whilst they were still developing as artists.

So what makes Great Escape so good? Here are 5 simple reasons:

1. It’s a music fan's festival. 

Other festivals are brilliant for the diverse and often rich range of entertainment and experiences they provide, from poetry to film to theatre, to fine food and drink, but Great Escape's focus is firmly on music and nothing else.

2. The imbecile factor is low.

Because of 1 above and the fact that virtually all the acts playing are relatively new, the lack of idiots in the audiences tends to be minimal. At the risk of sounding like gig snob, and generalising a little, as bands become more successful their audiences generally become more mainstream and with the mainstream comes more and more twats. You know the sort – the bloke who stands with a pint in his hand chatting to his mates all the way through a bands set, suddenly paying attention when they play ‘the hit’ shouting “I love this song,” and to record that he was there promptly takes a selfie of his stupid dumb ass face with the band behind him, recording what a 'great time' he had before continuing to chat for the rest of the song and then heading for the bar.

3. Sheer value for money. 

You can buy a super early bird 3 day ticket for just £39.50. Last year that allowed us to see 42 bands full performances over the course of the event.

4. Daytime gigs.

Daytime gigs are music lovers dreams come true, mainly because you can the whole day doing what you adore doing but can normally only do in the evening. All we need from the Great Escape now is a handful of breakfast gigs (in a cafe serving coffee and croissants perhaps - that would be perfect.) Also you’ll find it’s the more committed fans who will catch the shows earlier in the day, which once again reduces the imbecile factor.

5. Number Of Shows / Choice.

Of course there are plenty of other multi-venue festival’s in the UK now, but The Great Escape is the grandaddy of them all. Now in its 10th year (we’ve been to 9 of them – having missed the first) it boasts more bands, more venues and more choice than any other. Sure, some venues, particularly those with the more well-known / buzzy acts will reach capacity and you’ll have to get there early to get in, but if you find yourself in a queue, don’t hang around too long, there’s a huge amount of other brilliant talent waiting to be devoured in other venues.

Have you got your ticket yet? Have you got as excited as we have about it all? In that case grab one now by clicking here (it usually sells out so don't delay) and enjoy the thrills and spills down by the seaside at one of the musical weekends of the year. 

If you’re struggling with the idea of 400 acts and wondering which ones to take a punt on, Breaking More Waves has selected 20 which we think will be worth investing time with (programme clashes permitting). Unsurprisingly the vast majority have featured on these pages before.

We’ll be featuring 4 artists in each of the next 5 blog posts. All 4 posts will be published during the course of today, 1 post on the hour every hour between 9am and 1pm GMT.

Recommendations (Part 1)

1. Aquilo

Breaking More Waves gave them their Hype Machine debut in March 2013, in 2014 they played a daytime basement show for The Alternative Escape (which was rammed with music industry types) and now 2015 finds them on the main bill of Great Escape. Beautifully restrained but soulful keyboard based music.

2. Bully

"Indie / alternative guitar music is dead." Yawn. No it's not, it's just reached that stage where its become like folk music, a tradition, ideas handed down from generation to generation. Bully are just part of that lineage. The point is that they're one of the better and more exciting bands of that breed around right now. We introduced them to the blog just last month. Read more about them by clicking here.

3. Rag 'N' Bone Man

Big voice. Big tunes. Blues. Gospel. Soul. Rock. Hip-hop. This man does it all. One of our Ones to Watch for 2015 (here) playing in his home city. Everyone who catches him live is blown away by his incredible voice. If you haven't yet, it's about time, surely?

4. Jerry Williams

Another recent blog inductee and one of the more unknown names on the bill, 19 year old Jerry Williams hails from Breaking More Waves home city of Portsmouth and is pretty much the opposite of Rag 'N' Bone Man in terms of vocal tone; Jerry's is deliciously sweet and utterly adorable, as are her chirpy acoustic pop songs that she plays with a sense of joy and freedom. We understand that Jerry's playing more than 1 show in Brighton at the Great Escape - expect to see her somewhere on the Alt Escape bill as well.



Stay tuned for part 2 of our recommendations later today.

Jerry Williams - New Waves

She sings songs about being the obsessive stalker type and trying to make someone love her when they don’t, but despite the slightly scary over clingy girlfriend possibilities, there’s a lot to adore about Jerry Williams, a relatively new Portsmouth based singer songwriter. First and foremost there’s her voice. She has a light chirpy tone that's almost cheeky and delightfully sugary in its nature, but she can do sadness as well, turning a cover of Mr Probz's Waves into something a little bit teary.  Certainly her vocal couldn’t be confused with her namesake, Swedish rock ‘n’ roller and actor Jerry Williams.

Secondly there’s her sense of enthusiasm and eagerness to perform and play. You can see it on her SBTV performance of her song Boy Oh Boy, a track that was co-written Jim Duguid (Paolo Nutini and Alex Clare), and by the fact that at one music festival last year (Victorious) Jerry managed to rack up five performances on different stages during the course of the weekend. This keenness as well as her talent is winning her some recognition; she romped home with her local paper’s best solo artist award last month (runner up was Breaking More Waves championed Eloise Keating) and has already completed writing sessions with the likes of Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Nick Mulvey, Bat For Lashes), Newton Faulkner and Carey Willets (from Athlete). Now she gets the Breaking More Waves treatment and introductions.

Now you can find Jerry uploading a series onto the internet called The Portsmouth Independent Sessions where she plays in her favourite independent shops and cafes in the Portsmouth area. From those sessions we’re streaming her latest, the rather pretty Film Noir, which was shot in an antiques emporium.

It’s still very early days for this singer songwriter, but with a vocal so charming and a developing catalogue of songs, we’d be silly not put her name in the top drawer marked one to watch.

If you’re in London this week you can do that watching yourself as Jerry Williams plays The Old Queens Head in Islington this Wednesday.

Jerry Williams - Boy Oh Boy (SBTV)



Jerry Williams - Film Noir (Portsmouth Independent Sessions)