Page 56 - Black Velvet Issue 87

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LIGHT YOU UP / WSTR / BEAU-
MONT / THE PROPHETS –
BIRMINGHAM ASYLUM, 13.11.15
It’s Light You Up’s first ever headline
tour after having supported everyone from
PVRIS to Don Broco and they’ve got a sold
out show at Birmingham Asylum 2 with fans
and friends eager to see what set they’ve
got up their sleeves. Coventry’s The
Prophets are first on stage. Fronted by
Kate, the band play melodic pop/rock. Kate
has a soft voice, their songs are catchy,
with single ‘Got Me So Bad’ full of ‘woah’s
and hooks. The band show promise al-
though are still young and have room to
progress. The best thing they could do is
change their name – it makes us think of
Lostprophets, which is not a good thing
considering what their ex-frontman ended
up being convicted of.
When Light You Up first played the
Asylum, they shared a stage with Spencer
Edmonds. He’s back now with a new band
- Beaumont. Based in Birmingham the
band inject some alternative rock emotion
into the evening– think a slightly more indie
Xcerts having a band practice with Taking
Back Sunday at your local rehearsal
rooms. They’ve only just released their
debut single ‘Boys And Girls’, which has an
uptempo yet realistic vibe, but their set has
a professional air.
Heaviest band of the evening are
WSTR. They claim the pop-punk tag but
they’re a much rowdier band when you see
them live compared to on disc. Playing
songs from their ‘SKRWD’ album, the guys
put everything into their set including big
Sports Direct balls, which are kicked and
thrown out into the crowd – although most
end up lay in the photopit for majority of the
set. Sammy Clifford and bandmates also
get the crowd to all crouch down and then
jump back up again. Their set is fast-paced
and furious.
Light You Up frontman Tom Napier tells
the crowd how much it blows their minds
that they’re playing a headline show to a
sold out room. He tells us it is almost three
years to the day that they first played the
Asylum 2. We’re not surprised that they’ve
sold it out though as the band really have
talent and great songs. Whether it be the
sublime ‘Foxfire’, new single ‘Monsters’, or
the title track of their ‘Broken Jaw’ EP, the
band have so much passion and conviction
bursting from every song and it all immedi-
ately flies into the direction of your heart.
Tom asks the lighting operator to kill the
lights before ‘You Are Waiting For A Train’
and urges fans to light the room with their
camera phone flashlights. It’s a slower
acoustic song which sees the crowd sing
along with Tom. “It never gets old,” he says
as he soaks up the atmosphere. Tom also
sings ‘Lifebox’, stripped down, with the rest
of the band joining in as the song gets un-
derway while the set ends with the title
track of their album, ‘All We’ve Ever
Known’, with the frontman telling the crowd
to never settle for second best and to follow
your dreams.
Tonight really was a dream – at least
for Light You Up and us.
YYYYY
SBV
Tom Napier (Light You Up)
Photo By Shari Black Velvet

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