View My Gig hosts regular gigs across the UK, showcasing some of the finest unsigned talent that the country has to offer. On Sunday, former Stereo Kick Tom Mann headlined Surya in London’s Kings Cross, alongside former bandmate Charlie Jones. I went along to check out the talent that VMG had lined up.
I arrived to see hoards of girls waiting outside the venue, some having queued for hours to catch a glimpse of Tom and Charlie. I had VIP for the gig and we were let into the venue in small groups from around 4:30pm. It was really nice to meet Tom and Charlie as they were both super lovely and getting to meet them before hand just added to the gig atmosphere.
The gig started around 6:15pm and the first act on was Ollie Wade. The 21 year old singer songwriter warmed the crowd up a treat with a cover of Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag. He showcased his great voice with some original songs as well as fan favourite covers of James Bay’s Let It Go and The Weeknd’s I Can’t Feel My Face.
Next up was the lovely Kieran Eldridge. He also performed a mix of original songs and covers. One of the best reactions was given to his mash up of Waves and Amnesia (by Mr Probz and 5 Seconds of Summer respectively).
One of my favourite performers was the incredible David Bulley. What a voice! Along with his band (Rob West and Johnny Ashby), he opened with an original song called Black Rainbow before his own version of Avicii’s Wake Me Up. He then dedicated a song called Sunlight to a fan in the audience – he made the crowd quite emotional with a lovely speech about the meaning of the song and how it can be adapted to anyone who’s gone through a hard time. David also performed a stunning cover of Cool For The Summer as well as his debut single Lions which will be released next month.
The last two performers before the headliners were Lauren Thalia and Lucy May Walker. Both girls were brilliant – I must mention Lucy’s great cover of Pompeii and the lovely flower mic stand that she had!
Finally it was time for the headliners, firstly Charlie Jones. The screams were actually deafening and very reminiscent of the 1D gig I went to a few weeks ago! Charlie’s set was very lively – talking of 1D, his cover of Drag Me Down had one of the biggest crowd receptions of the night. Similar to Ollie, he also performed I Can’t Feel My Face. Mentioning his new YouTube channel to the crowd, Charlie performed the first cover that he uploaded recently which was The Vamps’ Somebody to You. Amongst the covers were a couple of great originals, showcasing what we can expect to hear from Charlie in the future. Before leaving the stage, Charlie gave in to the crowd’s request by performing a snippet of his old original Belieber For Life. “This is the first and last time I’m singing this live” said Charlie, although it was clear that he loved the crowd reaction, with every lyric being sung back to him at top voice.
The last act to perform was fellow Stereo Kick, Tom Mann. This gig was a part of a mini tour to promote Tom’s EP, In The Blink Of An Eye. I was pleasantly surprised by Tom’s original material. I was a massive fan of Love Me So, which he wrote for Stereo Kicks, however I wasn’t the biggest fan of his voice. However I was proven SO wrong – he was brilliant live, he has a great voice and his originals were so catchy even after one listen! One of my favourite originals was a song called Always Love. It must have been the biggest buzz for him to hear the crowd singing back every word to his own material! He also did covers of Naive, Valerie and an impromptu version of What Do You Mean? To finish his set, Tom did his own version of Love Me So which created the loudest crowd reaction of the night.
After all of the acts performed, they came back onto the stage (with James Graham in tow, who’d come to watch Tom, Charlie and Kieran) to perform a group version of Wake Me Up. Even Adam, Mr VMG himself, took to the stage to sing along.
I was really impressed by the whole night. This was the first VMG event I’d been to however it won’t be the last. It was fantastic to witness so many talented singers under one roof – the unsigned music scene is bursting with raw talent waiting to be discovered. It’s great that people like VMG give them a platform to share their music with fans and fellow music lovers alike.