31st may 2024 - 'high vibes 4: mike neaves + matt cargill + nitroii' - live at south street arts centre, reading
my first ever gig - hosted by my year 7 drama teacher. the venue itself was banging and the speakers were like twice my size.. not to mention the sound that came out of them. crisp but absolutely brutal. a lot of feet and hands moving to the jungle-breakcore-ragga-noise blend i had going on. from chris brown to noize creator to sudden infant to drop the lime, i played it all. so good that someone threw their house keys into the crowd and a beer spilled everywhere.
regardless, amazing set considering it was my first. definitely could have done with some filters though.
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2nd november 2024 - live at rising sun arts centre, reading.
this set was at a music venue my friend hired out for her 16th. in short it was a bluetooth nightmare - there was one pillow-sized bluetooth speaker that would not connect to my laptop for the life of it, and when it eventually did, i couldn't hit play on anything on my laptop. luckily, my mate came in last moment with a small bose bluetooth speaker that did the job, and the last 20-25 minutes of my set were played uninterrupted. me and my mates skanked out, most of the girls just stood there taking pictures. i got little to no applause from the crowd except my mates who had come with me, and to make matters worse, my laptop was being held up by cans of coke and a tray.
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22nd february 2025 - 'WANTED SOUND**' - live at st bartholomew's church, reading. (w/ nectarine)
this is the first ever gig i organised myself. i rented out a small side room in a church for this and let it rip from there. nectarine were up first with their youthful rock and roll rage, covering all sorts of tunes from arctic monkeys to radiohead to nirvana - brought up the atmosphere quite well for what was to come.
i went up next and gave the speaker system a workout as per usual... started off with some nasty electro garage/house, and ramped it up to dubstep, then grime, then a kamikaze of amens - drum and bass, jungle, breakcore, whatever. amazing night - many thanks to all who came - second 'wanted sound' coming soon!!!!
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24th may 2025 - 'high vibes 10: nitroii + fishy ricky + john christian' - live at south street arts centre, reading
a year on, i return to south street; headlining this time. i will admit, as someone who's very hard to unnerve, it was a bit of an unnerving experience - feeling like 'what the fuck, i'm at the top of the bill?!', but i'm sure as time passes on that feeling will surely dissipate. matter of fact, by the end of the show i feel as if it already had.
john christian came up with his triple-decker modular set-up and sent me, as well as the rest of the audience, to synthesiser space... what an incredibly skilled guy. fishy ricky came up next; i couldn't keep my eyes (and ears) off of what he was doing - it was so bizarre yet so enjoyable and so indulgent. wonky synths fell under the radar of skittish drums that dipped in and out of coherency that made it all the more interesting to listen to. i came up last, body adorned in skinny levi's jeans and french connection.
i realised my nike shox wouldn't be able to accomodate all of the stage stomping so i had to remain reasonably tranquil for the duration of the set, but the music, on the other hand, was absolutely mental. in dom's words (not mine, my ego isn't that fucking big), nobody has ever given the p.a. system a bigger workout than me. to me it all just sounded like noise, being behind the speakers, and i was second guessing where to drop in the next track. went brilliantly though; lots of hugs and cheers, and i had to put proper fucking elbow grease into scrubbing all the congealed sweat off my back in the shower later that night. no regrets though. if you liked that narrative, please view the pictures linked below...
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