Madding Crowd Bournemouth
Sheffield born singer/songwriter Casey Lowry became an internet sensation during lockdown when he posted a host of videos on YouTube featuring his unique style of performance and honest, frank creations. This brought him a 2 million strong fanbase and immediate attention of the music industry. The Music Venue Trust and Coca-Cola put together a partnership tour of grass roots music venues across the UK giving away free tickets to fans who applied online.
Tonight the tour rolls into Bournemouth for a date at the town centre’s premier music venue the Madding Crowd. Casey is already overjoyed with the welcome the town has given him; after a bit of surfing on Bournemouth beach, venue manager Peter Gilbert has put a keg of Ale in the dressing room for him and his band to enjoy.
While the headliners are enjoying their complimentary ale, tonight’s local support act Archie Ray takes to the stage to an excitedly warm welcome from this fortunate audience. Tonight, Archie on acoustic guitar is joined by two members of his band “The Flutterbies”; Victor on bass and Keanu on electric guitar. Archie is a versatile musician who moved to Dorset recently from the West Country and is already making waves amongst the music scene with a host of impressive gigs, along with a full band gig on the main stage of the Upon House Music Festival.
Archie has a beautifully understated voice and the quality sound system in the place delivers it perfectly, along with the subtly backed skilful musicianship. The trio are largely unknown to most of the audience, winning them over with a series of original material including “Fighting Chance” and “Friends Come and Go”. They’re game and the atmosphere in this place is seriously upped when they deliver two killer blow songs that have catchy choruses and draw in the audience to get involved in a big way. A chance prime support slot of around 30 minutes on a busy Friday evening; featuring well written original songs, along with plenty of clear communication and that is all it takes to win over a new audience.
With his long sun-bleached hair and sporting his Chesterfield ruby shirt; Casey Lowry arrives on stage to a very noisy welcome from a Bournemouth crowd who have never had the privilege of his company before. The outspoken Casey is a refreshingly honest chap and mostly says the first thing that comes into his mind. His arrival shows him a little overwhelmed by the welcome and a tad emotional after losing his Grandfather Phillip a few days ago. The music starts and the audience react enthusiastically to the familiarity of the tracks that they have heard before on Spotify or Youtube.
Much of his material tackles modern day social commentary subjects with personal, frank honest lyrics taken from Casey’s own life experiences. He delivers them along with his two band mates in a unique way, with a certain injection of his own Northern humour and vivacious personality.
The hard hitting “Caught at My Lowest” is dedicated to his clearly beloved Grandfather Philip and the crowd big up Philip’s memory with some sympathetic positively-fuelled chanting. “Beggin” includes a few choruses of “Country Roads” and Casey conducts the audience into singing loudly and the participation continues with requests to the audience to energetically dance. This is to be featuring in a documentary being filmed with “Psycho” and the appropriately title “Trampoline” being the protagonists of the energic movement. The evening ends of a high with “Slow Pace”, an infectious track and quite possibly one of the best creations from Casey and one that leaves the well entertained audience buzzing with the song’s catchy melodies in their ears.
Set Lists
Casey Lowry
I Think I Love Her
Boyfriend
Blue Corduroy
27,000 Days
Caught Me at My Lowest
Loving Season
I Know You’ve Got A Boyfriend
This Thing We Call Life
We Had Everything
Beggin’/Country Roads
Psycho
Trampoline
Slow Pace
Archie Ray Trio
Cry On Me
Fighting Chance
Friends Come and Go
Notifications
Silver Linings
At The End Of The Line
Videos
Links
https://www.facebook.com/archieraymusic
https://www.facebook.com/caseylowrymusic
Words & Media by David Chinery.
