1865, Southampton
Southampton Rock band Our Propaganda has been building up to this evening for a long time and this could quite possibly be one of the most important gigs they have played since they forming. Tonight the band has hired The 1865 to put on a special gig to support the release of their new single “Fast Food At Midnight”, and perform tracks from their soon to be released debut album. To get to this stage a fantastic amount of hard work has gone into the preparation and a lot of ticket selling to make the evening work. The weather outside is absolutely atrocious with strong winds and heavy rain, along with the traffic congestion as the Saints are playing a rare Friday night game at home. Luckily the band’s army of fans are a dedicated lot and as I arrive the place is filling up nicely. The band has specially selected two local opening acts to kick off the event in style.
The first of these is four-piece Pop/Rock outfit Myriad, who come out onto the stage and is welcomed by a group of their most loyal fans. They perform a collection of tunes that feature catchy radio-friendly Pop melodies that display some decent guitar work and infectious rhythms. Frontman David Littleton is full of positive energy and does his best to get the crowd involved with a host of mostly original tunes. These include a great song called ‘Castle of Sand’ and a rather predictable cover of “Dakota” by the Stereophonics, which to be fair does get the audience singing along. After a quick check on the Southampton v Leicester football score (at that stage it was 2-0 to Leicester ….it did end up a 9-0 Home defeat!) it’s time for their final number “Tate” which is arguably their best number. It’s positive and uplifting, featuring some more nice guitar work and well-delivered vocals.
The Collision is a band who have let’s just say, had a few challenges to overcome in their time together and they are clearly a very determined group of four lads who make some great music together. They hit the stage at 100 miles an hour and whip up the audience with high energy opener “Blessed”. Frontman Lewis Smith covers every inch of the 1865 stage delivering some quality vocals, backed by some crushing rhythms and some impressive heavy guitar riffs. “Ghosts” is an early highlight as the Portsmouth-based band showing their musical skill at creating a beautifully melodic tune with some audience-friendly vocal hooks. The band continues to warm up the crowd with a series of powerfully delivered tunes, they seem to be making the most of this night as it’s to be their last gig of 2019. They leave the stage on a euphoric high after a solid 35-minute set that the whole audience seems to thoroughly enjoy.
The moment has now arrived for Our Propaganda to take to the stage and unveil their new material to the world. They stride on, getting an unbelievable welcome from family, friends and a whole host of their most loyal fans; many of whom have been with them since the start. Kicking off with new tune “Essential Love”, the band show that the wait was indeed worthwhile with a potential new anthem. The new single “Fast Food at Midnight” is next; it is a metaphor for a phrase that drummer Charlie coined late one night on the way back from a previous studio session, outside of a service station McDonald’s. It is a fine-sounding song live and many of the fans here have clearly had a sneak preview as they start to sing along.
Our Propaganda is a band that have found a special chemistry between the four band members, this enables them honestly to create music they all wholeheartedly believe in. It’s a process that has seen this band of brothers come together for this goal of creating the album. It’s not due to be out until the beginning of next year, but this preview gig has shown us that the band’s previous experimentation has worked dividends and these tunes are sounding like a band who are coming of age. They are not your typical Rock band as their tunes all have an individual life of their own; bringing so many different elements; with not one band member being dominant over the others, there is a real unity between them. The evening has been a real success and the band’s showcase of the new songs prove to be a real hit with the audience. They can all be very proud of what they have achieved here and hopefully build on this, as a rowdy audience member shouted “Next stop Wembley”……well you never know!!
Set Lists
Our Propaganda
Essential Love
Fast Food at Midnight
My Ghosts
Summer in Herenberg
Above Me
Pale Shade of You
Hideaway
Gold in Your Hands
Come a Little Closer
How Can We as Children
A Cigarette for Your Sins
Everything’s Fine
Queen of Artisans
The Collision
Blessed
Ghosts
Save You
Youth
Unbelievable
M.O.M.M
Runaway
You’ll Never
Myriad
Easily
Start Again
I Walk
Castle of Sand
Home
Afterglow
Dakota (Stereophonics)
Ocean
Tate
Videos
Links
https://www.facebook.com/ourpropaganda
https://www.facebook.com/TheCollisionUK
https://www.facebook.com/myriadband
Words, Pictures & Video by David Chinery (Chinners).
