Bank Holiday Monday – Manchester Pride 2015

I have had such a hectic bank holiday weekend! I’ve been out and about all weekend and on Monday (31st August), I managed to drag myself to Manchester and make the very last day of Manchester Pride.

This is now the third year I have been to Manchester Pride and I absolutely love it! It is a very vibrant, lively festival and most importantly, it is held every year in celebration of the LGBT community. Manchester Pride is now in its 25th year running so of course it had to be bigger and better than ever before. And it did not disappoint!

For just £12.50 for the Monday day ticket, it was a total bargain for what was included; live music such as the likes of former X Factor contestants Lucy Spraggan and Union J, access to Canal Street and all the bars and clubs, and lots of entertainment throughout the village to name but a few.

The majority of the day was spent pub crawling around Canal Street (c’mon, you can’t go to there without experiencing the nightlife) and although the alcohol was a lot more expensive than I’m use to, I had such a fun time experiencing the city life.

After going in to several bars, me and my friends decided to have a wander to the main stage where we saw Big Brother contestants, Simon ‘Showbiz’ Gross, and Nikki Grahame. Mr Showbiz was putting on a very flamboyant show and singing away to all the karaoke classics, including YMCA. He also had two skinny lads dancing around in skimpy “barely leaves anything to the imagination” underwear too because… Why not? To be honest, I was not a massive fan of him when he was in Big Brother but I have to say, his time on the Manchester Pride Main Stage was mildly entertaining. Although he said “showbiz” way too many times for it to be acceptable.

Afterwards, me and my friends wandering back around the clubs and went in to a club called Kiki, where three drag queens were performing. It was honestly one of the best things I have ever seen; they were strutting around on stage, lip-syncing to songs, and were full of character and charisma. I could have easily have watched them all day, although I envy them for having better legs than me, and being able to walk and dance in heels better than I’ll ever be able to do. They were highly entertaining and put on a phenomenal show and they had everyone singing and laughing along with them.

And then on to the highlight of my night; watching Lucy Spraggan perform on the main stage. I absolutely adore her and her music and I always try to see her every time she is performing in the North West of England. I think she is such a talented musician and I love her songs. The last time I saw her was probably at last years Manchester Pride so it was great to listen to all her best loved songs again, including Last Night, Tea & Toast, and Unsinkable.

Spraggan put on an incredible show and really worked the crowd. If there is one thing she does well, it is putting on an excellent show for her audience and she certainly delivered on Monday.

After Spraggan’s set, the main acts of the night arrived in the form of former X Factor’s contestants, Union J.

Union J are a guilty pleasure of mine so I was really excited to see their set and I thought they were fantastic. They are great performers and so cute! Listening to them play their very first single after the X Factor, Carry You, all the way to their newer songs from their latest album was amazing. I absolutely loved dancing in the crowd to all their songs and thoroughly enjoyed it. They have definitely won my heart!

Now, being near the end of the night, me and my friend managed to go back to Kiki and have a nice little dance (and a few more drinks) before we had to rush back to the train station to get our train home. And when I saw rush, I mean we had to have a 20 minute jog back to the station and boarded the train about 30 seconds before it pulled off.

For everyone who has never been to Manchester Pride before or is thinking of going, I would highly recommend it. For the past three years, I have always had an excellent time there and it is one of my favourite events of the year. Everyone is extremely friendly and its such a lively and entertaining event. And its for a good cause too!

I am determined to go to every day of Pride next year.

Did any of you go to Manchester Pride this year? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Lucy Spraggan ‘We Are’ Album Review

Lucy Spraggan released her third album yesterday (4th May) under her own label, CTRL Records. It is a brave choice to bring out her album without any help from a major record company but if there is anything we have learned from Spraggan over the years, it is that she likes to do things her way and to make sure it is done right. And like her record company name suggests, she is completely in control of all the major decisions put in to making and releasing her album. And with a huge fanbase of ‘Sprags‘, this may be the best decision she has had yet.

‘We Are‘ features 12 completely new and original songs that have been written over the course of the past 3 years. The album documents Spraggan’s life, exploring topics such as her journey on ‘The X Factor’ and moving to London.

Spraggan’s third album feels a lot more grown up and mature than ‘Join the Club‘, yet we still get hints of the folksy, storytelling vibe that made us fall in love with the 23 year old to begin with. The lyrics to Spraggan’s songs speak to us with more experience but if anything, this makes us understand and love her more than we already did.

Lucy is currently on her ‘Unsinkable‘ tour so make sure you grab yourself a ticket while you still can.

01 – 23

‘23‘ kicks the album off to a good start while introducing us to a more mature and experienced sound than Spraggan’s older material. Spraggan is currently 23 years old and here she explores her age and how none of us know what the future has in store for us. She also suggests how she is finally happy in here own skin and how we should embrace being young whilst we can. This is a mid-tempo track and sets the tone for the album.

02 – London Bound

After listening to ’23‘, ‘London Bound‘ kicks off with a much faster tempo and really sets us up for what is in store for the rest of the album. This is one of my favourite tracks on the album and explores Spraggan’s experience of moving to London and her feelings towards the big city. This track has a folk-pop feeling to it and here you will recognise Spraggan’s storytelling lyrics that we have come to associate with her.

Like many of Spraggan’s songs, ‘London Bound’ starts with a lot of oh-oh-oh-oh’s to get us singing and dancing along. The tempo and lyrics are fast-paced, which can suggest Spraggan’s hectic, city lifestyle. Spraggan’s lyrics are cleverly put together and through her lyrics she explains how she felt lost in London and wanted to get away to “somewhere [she’d] rather be”. Spraggan vocals are on point and this is a great feelgood song that is bound to get you singing along.

03 – Unsinkable

‘Unsinkable’ is the first single released from the album. This is a slow-tempo song with a powerful piano-drum melody, with Spraggan’s folksy vocals over the top to create a truly beautiful track. Spraggan has used some clever lyrics to reinforce the boat/sea metaphor, which is used to tell everyone that she is “unsinkable” and no one can put her down.

Read my review of ‘Unsinkable’ in more detail here.

04 – In This Church

Another folk-pop track that highlights the divide between religion and homosexual people. This track has a strong message but it the tone is lightened slightly with a head-bopping guitar track to go alongside the lyrics. This is another brilliant track and it focuses on a serious topic that is still a problem for many people. The lyrics “I believe in loving what you do and who you want/I believe my conscious, I believe in right and wrong/I believe there’s wisdom in the things that can’t be taught/we’re all created equal/we’re all naked when we’re born” speak the loudest to me and states that we are equals no matter who we love and there is no harm in loving who we want.

This track gives me the feeling that Spraggan is speaking from experience and the negativity that she has received from people over her time due to her sexuality. This is a great track and the lyrics really make you stop and listen.

05 – The Postman

If you’re a fan of Lucy’s storytelling songs (who isn’t?!) you’ll love this particular track. Spraggan tells a unique story about a soldier’s wife. The track starts with the couple’s wedding and leads to the husband being sent to Paris a year after their wedding and promising his wife that he will write to her once a week. It is a really touching and emotional song that is sure to pull on your heart strings.

In a way, ‘The Postman’ reminded me a lot of ‘Tea & Toast‘ due to the storytelling folk track vibe to this track. And like ‘Tea & Toast‘ from the ‘Join the Club‘ album, this track is completely emotional, especially when there is a falling rain backdrop half way through the song to really get you thinking. A perfectly brilliant song but don’t be surprised if you’re sobbing your eyes out and the end of the track.

Well done to Spraggan for another beautifully written track.

06 – I Don’t Know

This track has talking/singing vocals that works well in Spraggan’s unique voice. The lyrics are touching and emotional, with a slightly upbeat tempo. This is a track about having mixed feeling about someone and not feeling the same towards someone any more. Again there is a feeling that this song has been written due to Lucy’s own personal experiences and the lyrics have been put together beautifully, making the listener compare the lyrics to their own life and are likely to relate to it in one way or another.

The chorus to ‘I Don’t Know‘ is the most catchy one out of all the ones on the album. Again this song is likely to pull at your heartstrings and will make you reflect on your own life.

07 – Broken Bones

After the upbeat songs previous to this one, ‘Broken Bones‘ offers us a much slower melody. This is another track that shows the maturity of this album and here we see Spraggan tackling another serious topic. We first fell in love with Spraggan after her incredible performance of ‘Beer Fear‘ on The X Factor and in ‘Broken Bones‘, Spraggan again addresses alcohol but this time highlighting the negatives of drinking too much. This is a big leap from the lightheartedness of ‘Beer Fear‘ and this track really illustrates that Spraggan has grown up a bit since her last album.

08 – IOU

Another favourite of mine; it has the iconic Spraggan guitar melody topped off with her beautiful vocals.  The chorus is very catchy and slow-paced compared to the overall fast pace of the song. There’s also a big reggae influence to this song, which shows Spraggan is not afraid to experiment with different sounds and create a sound she has never done before.

09 – Coming Down

Spraggan reaches for the high notes in ‘Coming Down‘ and reaches them all perfectly; this track really shows us her vocal range and ability. Spraggan sings about being happy and not letting anyone pull her down from where she is. I love the lyrics “I am stronger than the ugly parts of you” (which I tweeted and Lucy Spraggan favourited so woo, go me!) This is the most powerful of ballads on the album and will slow you down after listening to the slightly faster tracks.

10 – Until I’ve Lived My Life

Here Spraggan talks about all she wishes to achieve before her time is up and talks about how she needs to live her life first. Spraggan again opts for a piano melody on this track that works well with her lyrics. This track may need a few listens to and is a little more thought provoking than the previous tracks but it is another great track from Spraggan.

11 – Uninspired

This has a beautiful piano arrangement, and Spraggan’s vocal are the strongest on this track, demonstrating her range and ability. This is another top track and probably the slowest song on the album. This is a very powerful track from Spraggan and one of the most beautifully sang song on her album.

There are suggestions that this song has been written about Spraggan’s time on ‘The X Factor‘ and how it made her feel “uninspired”.  There is definitely a lot of raw emotion in this song and we can hear it plain in Spraggan’s vocals.

This is definitely one of the best songs on the album and this is one of those songs that would be amazing to see sang live.

12 – Paper Cuts – Original Demo

‘Paper Cuts‘ has always been one of my favourite Spraggan songs and here she has included the track in its original form. In true Spraggan form, she tells a story through her lyrics and touches on raw emotions. This again uses a piano melody and tells the story of an abusive relationship between a daughter and father.

Overall, ‘We Are‘ is an album we have not seen from Spraggan before. ‘We Are‘ shows us that Spraggan has matured and overcome some bad times and here she expresses her feeling through her lyrics. It is a very emotional album that documents Spraggan’s life and how she has felt at times like she was drowning. The songs are beautifully written and  are sang by Spraggan and is is amazing to see her still doing what she loves best after all this time.

Well done, Spraggan! Keep it up!

Overall Rating: 5/5

Lucy Spraggan ‘Unsinkable’ Review

Photo taken at Manchester Pride 2014

Anyone who knows me will know I have a huge obsession with Lucy Spraggan; every since her appearance on ‘The X Factor’ back in 2012 I have fell in love with the quirky, talented star. She is no one hit wonder however and after leaving the show she has since got signed by a record label, gone on tour twice (with an upcoming third tour), played at numerous festivals and continues to write and play her own music (not to mention her first album released after being signed with Columbia Records reached number 7 in the UK charts). She has her own style and does not try to sound like anyone else in the music industry, she simply sounds like Lucy Spraggan.

And now she is back with a planned tour in May and a new single, ‘Unsinkable’, which will be released on March 29 prior to her tour. ‘Unsinkable’ will be the first single taken from her third album ‘We Are’ which will be released on April 13.

‘Unsinkable’ is one of the Lucy Spraggan’s more slower tracks with what sounds like a strong piano melody with Spraggan’s soft, yet powerful voice over the top. It is strange to hear a piano in a Spraggan song when we are so custom to her acoustic guitar but it works well and introduces a new, more mature sound to her music. Spraggan also makes the use of a haunting choir in the chorus to really bring a powerful impact to this song. This track is packed with metaphors that all revolve around the sea and a boat but for me the lyrics sent out the strong message that no one or anything can put you down because you will bounce back up again because “we are unsinkable”. I particularly like the lyrics “Bring it on, do your worse, I’m ready for whatever you’ve got… Bring it on, do your worse I’m ready. I won’t stop. I won’t stop”  as this suggests power and to carry on doing whatever you do best no matter what others say. Spraggan has previously said this album will be a documentary of her past few years so this track may be about people who have told her she couldn’t make it as a singer and the struggles she has overcome to get where she is now. (?) There are references to feeling like she is drowning but she won’t go down without a fight. If this is a hint of what’s to come on the upcoming album, I am very excited to hear the rest of her new tracks.

Lucy Spraggan writes another beautiful track with help from Adam Argyle and Martin Brammer, and produced by Steve Power. I am always amazed with the songs Spraggan writes as she always devotes herself to her lyrics entirely and writes from experience, often telling a story to the listener.

‘Unsinkable’ is a much more mature track from ones we have heard previously from Spraggan so maybe this is a hint of things to come. Whatever the case, this song is beautifully written, with some beautiful vocals and I can’t wait to hear the new album, ‘We Are’.

Overall Rating: 4/5