In case you hadn’t noticed, we go to more than our fair share of gigs here at One on One HQ.
That, dear reader, is because we firmly believe that live music is the best thing in the world. If you ask us, there’s no feeling better than that of standing in a dark room and screaming the lyrics to a song you love back into the face of the person who wrote them. As a wise man once said, ‘life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings‘, and we’ve had the privilege of losing many a beautiful evening in the midst of some slightly dodgy toilet venue in the heart of a strange city. If that’s not a good way to spend a life – or even just a night – then we’re not quite sure what is.
Our love of live music, though, does occasionally come at a price.
Yes, dear reader, we’re talking about the rare – yet undeniably present – Bad Support Act.
Sure, we’ve seen some absolutely stellar support acts in our time – we once saw Kasabian and The Enemy warm up the stage at a packed-out Millennium Stadium for a little band called Oasis, for instance, and we even saw a certain Mr. James Bay tear up the stage before a Tom Odell show many moons ago. But, for every future megastar we’ve had the pleasure of seeing, we’ve had to sit through more than a few support acts who, to put it diplomatically, weren’t quite to our taste.
Fortunately, though, we didn’t have the same problem when we went to see James Bay in Bristol over the weekend. That, dear reader, is because he was joined by a nineteen-year-old singer/songwriter named Lily Moore.
We couldn’t have been more impressed by Lily’s set
We’ve seen Lily play a couple of times now, and we’re always amazed by just how bleedin’ good she is. She may only be nineteen, but she’s got the soulful voice of a woman who’s lived for twice as long; if you’re after a reference point, then take Amy Winehouse, throw in more than a touch of Adele‘s heartfelt sincerity, and we’d say that you’re on the right lines.
It’s tricky for us to pick a highlight of her set, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say that it was Not That Special. Not only is it probably her best song, but it’s also the one that best allows her to show off her not inconsiderable pipes. Indeed, any song that allows an artist to show off how jaw-droppingly gorgeous their voice is shall likely be fine by us; but, when you combine it with a song that’s both beautifully simple and undeniably touching, you can’t help but to end up with a rather stellar performance.
We thought it was all over, then it was
Her set might’ve been short, but by God was it sweet. Even within an irritatingly short amount of time, she somehow managed to entirely win over an audience comprised primarily of over-excited James Bay fans; and, if you ask us, we’d even be willing to say the concert hall-sized Colston Hall suited her far more than the smaller venues she’s been playing – and that we’ve seen her play in – over the last few months.
So, let’s hope that she felt that they suited her, too, because we’ve got a funny feeling that Lily won’t be playing in small venues for much longer. She’s got the voice, and she’s got the songwriting chops to showcase it: we think that you’re going to be seeing a lot more of Lily Moore over the next few months.