Reviewed by NEIL MARCH and SHERRY SAHAYARAJ.
MIA WILKS
DEAR PEOPLE
CITY LIMITS
Tonight was always destined to be a special occasion. A live show promoted by the amazing Tony Hardy, fellow Fresh on the Net moderator, good friend and one of the most energetic supporters of grassroots music through his incredible weekly blog Fifty3Fridays, the gigs he puts on and his work with the Glastonbury New Talent Committee. Three recent Fresh on the Net faves (as voted for by the readers) on the bill in one of the most attractive venues in London. And in attendance no less than 5 FOTN mods (us two plus Tony, Mia Wilks and fellow artist Alan Dreezer) as well as regular guest mod Sue Oreszczyn and Abi and Tadj, husbands of Sherry and Sue respectively. Sadly Del Owusu was unable to join us due to a bereavement.
NEIL: First up was Fresh on the Net’s youngest ever mod Mia Wilks. Mia, who recently turned 18, was accompanied on guitar by 17 year old Lucas Hill. It is a measure of Mia’s (and Lucas’s) talent and self-confidence that she was so easily able to translate her songs into this minimal acoustic framework. This was particularly evident on Masterpiece where the vocal flourishes were agile and natural sounding. She explained her well-documented story about the music teacher whose negativity had such an impact on the resilience that has become a key part of her journey and then performed Supernova as Lucas navigated the tricky overlapping bass-style riff with the acoustic guitar. The dynamic Drive sounded very different as an acoustic track but lost none of its passion. She ended with another single LYI with its swinging rhythm and dexerous vocal performance. All in all, it was an accomplished and compelling performance that reinforced everything we already knew about why Mia is a unique talent.
SHERRY: I really enjoyed Mia’s and Lucas’s performance. The acoustic setup suited the intimate vibe of the venue, especially as the opening act, and gave out a very warm vibe to the audience. Mia’s songs carried out a sense of liberation and positivity. Her vocals were flexible across the set, soft and delicate when the songs called for it and more dynamic and powerful on songs like Masterpiece. I liked how she balanced the emotions of each song naturally with her vocals. The whole performance had a very warm and uplifting energy.
SHERRY: Dear People, aka Bex Green, was one of those performances where I kept wondering how she was managing to pull everything off live so seamlessly. Performing the whole production live could easily become overwhelming, but Bex made it feel effortless. Every track had its own atmosphere, keeping the audience curious about what was coming next. Her ethereal vocals worked beautifully with the synths and the sound of the venue, while the lighting added another layer to the whole experience. It felt almost like being taken into a different space for a while. A really beautiful and immersive performance.
NEIL: Bex Green aka Dear People travelled up from Brighton to bring her unique synth dream pop to The Bedford. She has built her sound around a love of unfashionable keyboards (me and her both!) but her sound tonight was cinematic and rich with warm harmonic tones, unobtrusive beat and her reverberant yearning vocals. So far unreleased track Borderline was a demonstration of how she is able to create something that is both melancholy and hopeful, building an emotionally charged vocal and striking melody over ripples of synths and occasional percussive hits. She also used two different types of mic to create harmony. She managed, in her imaginative cover of Elbow’s One Day Like This, to make a melodica resemble bagpipes! Bex chatted amicably and slightly apologetically at times in relation to dealing with all her ‘buttons’ but her songs and performance displayed a quiet confidence that was absolutely justified by the quality of her work.
NEIL: Alex Hall aka City Limits is a musical chameleon in the best of ways. I last reviewed a performance of his, also at The Bedford and also for Tony, in 2022. He has been on quite a musical journey since then. Tonight, he had a live drummer who had a click and backing track to keep up with (and which clearly didn’t inhibit his lively playing). Alex, donning a guitar, launched straight into Hanging By A Thread, his distinctive dreamy vocals delivering its memorable melody before grabbing his trademark trumpet. His sound was a hybrid of breezy pop, synthpop and electronic dance undercurrents veering into Drum’n’Bass. He was joined for one track by a saxophonist too, the trumpet and sax intertwining in the instrumental section. It was an energetic and accomplished set.
SHERRY: Neil showed me a review of Alex Hall (before he became City Limits) performing at The Bedford back in 2022 and told me how fantastic he was live, and after seeing City Limits myself, I could completely understand why. Alex’s vocals were really strong and had a lovely dreamy quality to them, while the live drums brought so much energy to the set. The combination of saxophone and trumpet added even more colour. There was so much happening musically, but it all worked really well and made the performance feel lively from start to finish.
SHERRY: Overall, I had such a lovely evening at The Bedford. It was great to spend time with friends, discover some beautiful music and meet so many lovely people along the way. I’m really thankful to Tony for inviting us and bringing everyone together. Good music, good conversations, and of course some delicious food and drinks made it a really enjoyable night.
NEIL: Congratulations to Tony and all the artists on a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining evening in a beautiful venue. Big praise also to our talented friend Richard Hunt who has been the sound engineer at The Bedford for 7 years now and always ensures the sound is not just pristine but punchy and widescreen (so to speak). Great to see Mia’s mum Steph too and to meet Tony’s wife Jill for the first time. Last but not least, the gig was a snapshot of how Fresh on the Net shines a light on so much upcoming indie talent.
