Paul S Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I went to the c2c festival yesterday, which is a country music weekend at the o2. [url="http://www.c2c-countrytocountry.com/"]http://www.c2c-countrytocountry.com/[/url] 4 bands on the main arena from late afternoon until the evening, with small sets from 'up and coming' country bands on pop up stages dotted around the venue. Yesterday and today, although I only had tickets for yesterday. What a great day! Headliners were the Zac Brown Band, who were a phenomenon. I expected them to be good, but they blew me away. I have watched a lot of bands over the last 40-odd years and they are as good as anyone I have ever seen live. Amazing. 8 piece band tight as anything, 4 piece vocal harmony, all top musos. Alll underpinned by the fact that Zac Brown is one heck of a song writer - superb melodies with poignant lyrics. And a Metallica cover They don't come here often, sadly, but I will seek them out if possible. Some of the small bands in the pop-up sets were really good. A couple of Scottish bands - of note Dirty Beggars, great country band writing honest country-style music. And particularly good - Stevie Agnew. Rather special, I'd say - he has a great voice and a great band. Bass player was really very good indeed with great touch and feel. I though he looked familiar - I just looked him up and I was right - someone on here a while back posted a couple of tongue-in-cheek videos ' I slap My Bass and Doing the Meerkat - same guy, Chris Agnew. Brother of singer Stevie and son of Pete Agnew, the 70s rock band Nazareth's bass player. Still going, i think? If you get a chance to catch the band they are superb and bass playing a masterclass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsmith Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 (edited) First visit to such an event as it's not a genre I'm particularly familiar with. I played a short set on one of the pop up stages with a fantastic vocalist who used to sing in one of my rock bands. Flying by the seats of our pants a bit as she lost her guitarist earlier in the week and we had to quickly put something together so she could still play yesterday. Had a lot of fun even though I think we'd have been a lot better with a couple of rehearsals. Still, I don't think we disgraced ourselves, she sang brilliantly and we got a good response from the crowd. Met some nice people and heard some great players throughout the day. Edited March 16, 2014 by jonsmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted March 16, 2014 Author Share Posted March 16, 2014 Interesting! She/you must be doing well to get a slot in the first place. Which spot and at what time? I didn't see any of the acts with girl singers. Well, apart from the Dixie Chicks and Martina McBride in the main arena. What was it like from a performers point of view? I assume you don't get paid for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonsmith Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 We were right by the main entrance on the O2 shop pop up stage and started at 3pm. Sarah, vocalist with Starlane, is a great singer/songwriter and deserves to be there without a doubt. She mostly performs as part of a duo, although myself and the drummer have played with them before. I did feel up against it a bit due to the loss of her musical partner in the preceding days, but the guitarist she got did a great job even though his approach was quite different. We were fed and watered and had a quiet area to chill (and in our case have a quick run through). I guess something like this is about the opportunity to promote yourself and she did attract quite a crowd, as did the other acts on the pop up stages. She had a spell signing stuff at the merchandising area afterwards and plenty of people came along and quite a few bought CDs. Had a great day, despite everything that fate had thrown our way in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 I went to the CMA Songwriter night on Friday and and really enjoyed it. It was hosted by Bob DiPiero who's written hits for loads of top country singers and who had lots of tales about strange ways initial thoughts had come together for songs he'd written. Amazing to think that people with great voices like Brett James don't release anything themselves and just write songs for others (like Martina McBride who was on stage as well). Martina was excellent, as ever, and it was interesting to hear her singing with just an acoustic guitar backing. Striking Matches were an absolute revelation - beautiful, seemingly effortless, harmonies and both of them were really good, fun to watch, guitarists. They've been on Grand Ole Opry over 20 times already and haven't even recorded an album yet! I'd definitely go to something like this again. I did fancy going to one of he main stage concerts but I really dislike the enormo-dome type venues unless I'm lucky enough to get exceptionally good seats so I gave those a miss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtcat Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Really really wish I could have gone to this. I am rapidly becoming a country fan after dismissing it for years. Bob Harris' show seems to be on when I drive home from rehearsals every week and I'm being swung by the new country stuff which seems to be in favour at the moment. I'm totally into the vocal harmonies and some great writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 (edited) I was at C2C Dublin Friday and Saturday. Agree Zac Brown Band stole the show/weekend. Superb in every way! One of the best live performances I've seen and an absolutely brilliant band. Weird costume segue, fly covers dropped into the middle of his own tunes and a full on cover of Enter Sandman that even had the olds in the crowd jumping! Will definitely be going to see them again... Wasn't so impressed with Dierks Bentley or the Dixie Chicks. Both a bit meh. Knew nothing of DB beforehand so no loss there, but really disappointed by the Dixie Chicks (although more for the wife who's a fan). No Martina McBride in Dublin... Or pop-up stages... Or any of the festival type stuff London got... Saturday we missed Chris Young (opted to watch Ireland v France in the pub instead - we were in Dublin! On the day most locals seem to do Paddy's day. It's the rules!). Caught the majority of the band perry. Much more meh than Friday's offering - total non-entity... Why do 'band' members feel the need to pretend to play instruments? I have a twenty that says brother Perry's mandolin wasn't even plugged in! Rascal Flatts were great with some really tasty bass going on. Brad Paisley also great, although he seemed a bit out of sorts - in ears gave him gip all night which knocked his vocals a bit. Didn't effect his guitar playing one bit! Edited March 16, 2014 by Bigwan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 [quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1394990702' post='2397459'] Really really wish I could have gone to this. I am rapidly becoming a country fan after dismissing it for years. Bob Harris' show seems to be on when I drive home from rehearsals every week and I'm being swung by the new country stuff which seems to be in favour at the moment. I'm totally into the vocal harmonies and some great writing. [/quote] Jamie Cullums Jazz show is always on when I pick the daughter up from Guides , I see it as a penance really , in the 3 years I have listened i have not been 'swung' by any of it . I still cant 'come out' to liking country on an open forum , but I don't see it as quite the same penance . It did sound like a great weekend, though I too can't get to grips with enormadrome venues , they leave me cold from both a viewing and listening perspective Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 New country is much closer to rock than what I would class country - especially live. You want to see a rocking live show? Lady Antebellum in a small venue. Best all round show I've seen. So says the former death metal head... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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