Stealth - The Real Truth and Nothing But

Stealth

7th November 2018
St Pancras Old Church, London, UK

Hailing from Birmingham, UK singer/songwriter Stealth crafts highly intimate and powerful blues infused music that reveals the depths of his soul. His strong raspy voice echoes the influence of his idols Howlin’ Wolf and Etta James. Stealth has also been carving a distinct mark on the live scene.

Stealth launched the second single off his forthcoming Chorus EP entitled “Truth Is” at Pancras Old Church in London last week. Stealth elaborated: “This single is one I've been excited about since I wrote it with Michael Angelo and Ali Tennant! Personally it feels like a real step up from some of the other things I've released. It's the first time I've really pushed myself as an artist. Writing a song that is happy for once. Also it's an area of my voice not many people have heard - it adds to the vulnerability of the song which is about a man confessing his true feelings to someone.”

“Truth Is” is available for purchase / streaming now at https://ffm.to/truthis. It can also be found on the FIFA 19 soundtrack alongside Barns Courtney, Billie Eilish, Broods, Childish Gambino, Death Cab For Cutie, Gorillaz, Logic, and many more.

Stealth owes much of his success to his hit single “Judgement Day” which was featured on an episode of US TV series Suits, resulting in a phenomenal reaction on both sides of the Atlantic. The track has racked up over 10 million streams on Spotify and YouTube combined and continues to grow everyday. Additionally, “Judgement Day” charted globally in 12 countries on Shazam who described it as “This year’s ‘Take Me To Church.’

Tara Lee - Raw and Glistening

Tara Lee

7th November 2018
St Pancras Old Church, London, UK

Singer and actress Tara Lee cites influences from Blondie to Massive Attack, with a healthy respect for songwriters like Tori Amos and Diane Warren. Lee's raw ballads rub against a contemporary edge that is bruised and glistening.
In 2014 she released her debut EP 'Soundtrack' which reached No.4 on the Irish iTunes Albums chart. Although well known for her acting roles on hit TV dramas such as The Fall and Raw, Lee has obvious burgeoning promise, signing a publishing deal with music giants BMG Chrysalis (international clientele includes Kings of Leon and Duran Duran).

Ben Montague - Paradise Found

Ben Montague - piano

Ben Montague launched his second album, 'Back Into Paradise', at St Pancras Old Church in London early this month (01/10/2015). He has just finished a UK wide tour which included two nights alongside Simply Red in Brighton. The album and the night in question further cements Montague in the annals of populist music, where the good guys win and human connections are concrete bridges to a better world.



Ben Montague - guitar

The first impression of Ben Montague reads like a sommelier's notebook detailing a Shiraz's finer points. He was confident and strong, there was crispness, a simplicity but overall a full bodied experience. In fact such was the crowd's jollity you wouldn't be surprised if they had imbibed a few themselves, they sung out loud and smiled at each other conspiratorially.

There was a whip about Ben Montague, he plays his guitar through his shoulders, freewheeling as much as possible and there is no need for the audience to pedal, such is their momentum. His freshness is not unique in the music industry but you cannot help but feel the sting of pure morning air on ripping lungs, and that satisfaction from cool clean mouthfuls of water or new metaphorical births.

Mark Pusey - drums

Both our lead man and drummer Mark Pusey could be happily described as trim, with Montague taking the Haircut 100 plaudits. Their ease at the altar of St Pancras Old Church lent more to a denim spirit rather than that of a hair shirt cassock. There was no self flagellation but there was introspection and after the thick jam spread of 'Haunted' came the simple lines of 'My Father Said', which was as strong and vibrant as Montague's smile and just as genuine.

AL.

Emma Stevens - Shifting waves

Emma Stevens

The subtleties of Emma Stevens didn't instantly shine in the crepuscular air of St Pancras Old Church (01/10/2015) yet her rays of positivity would always reach out and break into the darkest recesses of our urban hearts.

Sam Rommer -
percussion and bass

Emma Stevens' willowy presence bent in the cynical breeze that emanated from the St Pancras streets. Her first song 'Anywhere' blew fallen leaves in the air, she kicked up the sticky seeds so beloved of naughty children, and they cemented themselves upon this grumpy city dweller. Two songs, 'This is for you' and 'Make my day', flowed past before we could feel the real heat of Steven's desire with 'Helium'. This was anything but odourless, tasteless and inert. It had the classic bite of a frost, the hard split of cracking ice and made you lick your lips against the cold. 

Much of Emma Stevens' repertoire talks of Nature and the sea, 'Helium' leaves the wave motif of her most recent album to turn the tide on something deeper. Her themes are the needle point rocks that rise far into the sky, not the brooding crags that scuttle ships and buccaneers, these were as elegant and long as Stevens' neck and we were lucky enough to juxtapose this elegance with Sam Rommer's excellent bass solo. Darker waters, deep swimming.

Sam Whiting - guitar

There was plenty of skipping optimism, time upon time you imagined you heard the sound of laughter from cohorts of greeting friends. 'Sunflower' broke this pattern, it conjured visions of a perpetually growing beanstalk, just like that of Jack's. It reached higher over days and nights, but it pushed harder and keener during the midnight hours, forever trying to find the moon. 'Riptide' let us dig our toes into the shifting pebbles beneath us, it stopped us being knocked from our feet.

A quick note to say how much I enjoyed sketching guitarist Sam Whiting. Check him out at @samtwhiting

Buy Emma Steven's Wave Deluxe CD on her website. The first 100 copies ordered will be gift-wrapped with a personalised, signed message from Emma and the chance to find one of three Golden Tickets for two free tickets and a meet 'n' greet at one of Emma's future headline shows.

Best of luck.

AL.

Izzii Moulsdale - St Pancras Old Church

Izzii Moulsdale

Joe Jackson - guitar

The words are brief because there was a problem with my press pass at St Pancras Old Church on October 1st 2015. Once inside this atmospheric venue you always appreciate that the stage is set for singers to sing and us the audience to sit quietly and listen. It is a simple equation in a beautifully complicated and symbolic interior. I know not whether singer Izzii Moulsdale is the complicated type but her singing has a simplicity and purity that made it easy to cast away the manic air that exits beyond the church walls in the urban jungle.

You can follow Izzi Moulsdale on Twitter at @izzimoulsdale
and listen to her on her Soundcloud page.

AL.

The Lost Brothers - Dovetailing Dawn and Dust

Mark McCausland

It was a first sell-out London date for Ireland's alt-folk duo The Lost Brothers at St Pancras Old Church last week (12/11/2014). They had been preceded by Maria Byrne and Lisa O'Neill in this atmospheric venue dedicated to the Roman martyr St Pancras. It was packed out indeed, they would have hung off the rafters if they had been within reach.

It was a serene setting for two performers whose vocals floated above the everyday hubbub of the swarming metropolis beyond. It was an early foray into their latest album with opening tune 'Gold and Silver' followed by 'Derridae' which has caused a stir for BBC Radio 6 listeners, myself included.
The album New Songs of Dawn and Dust was released in September on the London based indie label Lojinx. This London gig was but one of 23 dates that sees them start and finish in Ireland via Scotland and England.

Oisin Leech

Beyond the lullaby voices of Oisin Leech and Mark McCausland there were narratives that spoke of wandering journeys, of caravans in the old world sense. Thoughts of Augusta John blossomed in the mind, and like the great artist The Lost Brothers are imaginative, cultivating the ability to catch a striking yet unfamiliar perspective of their chosen subject. Skilful too, there was a guitar dexterity that gave 'Can I stay with you' a jovial and upbeat wash, and took away the blues in the song.

The graveyard at St Pancras Old Church is famous for it's trysts between the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the future Mary Shelley. At times if felt like we were watching a modern experiment in Mrs Shelley's body quilting. If you closed your eyes The Lost Brothers 'became one' courtesy of their dovetailing voices.

AL.

Lisa O'Neill - Stronger than before

Lisa O'Neill

Sandwiched between Maria Byrne and The Lost Brothers we tasted the most satisfying filling of Lisa O'Neill at St Pancras Old Church in London last week (12/11/2014). It was a treat of zesty proportions and although it was a brief 40 minutes, there was plenty to get our teeth stuck into to.

Mossy Nolan -Guitar/bouzouki

The scale of St Pancras Old Church fitted the dimensions of this diminutive Irish singer but it's whitewashed walls barely contained the energy of her words. She commanded the space as she took the stage alone. She caught our attention, standing away from the microphone but attacking it when need be or leaning toward it as though sniffing a rose over a neighbours fence.

'England has my man' gave us plenty of Lisa O'Neill's meat and gristle to chew on. The toughest corners of her narrative were a pleasure to find rolling around our mouths and minds long after she had moved to pastures new. 'Nellie's Song' spoke of adventures across the USA, and I was lucky enough to be sitting with London's busiest gigsters, the legendary Dr and Mrs Fizzy. They had last heard O'Neill in Boston, so its seems America still calls.

Mossy Nolan joined O'Neill throughout, and played the straight and still man alongside his leader's springloaded jack-in-the-box. Many of the night's tunes come from Lisa O'Neill's second album Same Cloth Or Not (Song Seeds Records) which is anchored by Nolan's talents, from guitar to bouzouki. Trying to contain O'Neill on paper is like trying to capture the elemental, she is a force, a mysterious one that touches the cornerstone of our being.



Lisa O'Neill

You do not float on cloudy skies upon hearing her voice, even while listening to the penultimate tune 'Dreaming'. There is a Piafesque frisson as though the voice has been fragmented, it has been broken apart and been put back together even stronger.

That is how we felt after Lisa O'Neill had finished, we were stronger than before.

AL.