Sunday @ Glastonbury Review

After spending most of the week slushing about in mud, soaked to the bone, the sun finally decided to show up on Sunday. And it was bloody hot. So what better way to start the day than with the chilled R&B musings of Jamie Woon, whose debut album, Mirrorwriting, was one of the best albums from the BBC’s Sound of 2011 nominees.

The BRIT school graduate had a great crowd on the West Holts Stage, as he went through the best songs from Mirrorwriting such as ‘Night Air’, Lady Luck’ and ‘Spirals’. Woon was clearly enjoying himself and whilst his debut can be quite intense, he decided to lighten the mood a bit with a stonking cover of Charles & Eddie song ‘Would I Lie To You’.

NME Tour 2010 @ Bristol 02 Academy

The 2010 NME Tour provided one of my musical highlights of 2010 with an extremely strong line-up. Having already seen The Maccabees twice, this gig was more about the new acts breaking through in 2009/10 and Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Drums are possibly some of the best new bands to surface recently. The bands which have opened previous NME tours have often gone on to big things, some of the previous openers have been: Florence and The Machine, The Ting Tings, Kaiser Chiefs, and Coldplay.

The Drums took the opening slot for 2010 because of the hype (mostly from NME themselves) that surrounds their Beach Boys/Cure sound, and the hype is perfectly just if this performance was anything to go by. With songs such as ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, ‘I Felt So Stupid’ and the brilliant ‘Best Friend’ the four boys from New York are certain to take 2010 by storm with their energetic live performances. Frontman Jonathan Pierce appears so comfortable and confident on stage with some quirky dancing to accompany his Robert Smith-esque vocals.