Kodaline Album Launch
The Wardrobe – Leeds
Steve and I have now completed 9 blogs in our Vinyl Odyssey, we have been to 8 record stores and a record fair.
Our journey has taken us to many areas around the North of England and we can honestly say that every trip has offered something different, something interesting and we’ve met some very knowledgeable and friendly people along the way.
There’s more to come so keep reading and we’ll keep blogging.
This blog is a little different we want to bring you the experience of an album launch taking into account the venue, the band and the quality of the gig.
An album launch can come in many guises.
Its an event to promote the release of new music. It could be a video launch, a listening party or in our case a gig by the band.
The band in question here is Kodaline. They are an Irish 4 piece rock band and have been releasing music for 10 years.
They have released 4 studio albums, a couple of live albums including this release titled Our Roots Run Deep, along with a few E.P’s and compilations.
Now I have to confess at the outset that attending this launch is all my idea. I am a Kodaline fan and have been listening to them for 3 or 4 years now but I was a little hesitant when pre ordering the album and gig tickets that this might not be to Steve’s taste.
Kodaline are very melodic (not Steve’s thing), they are anthemic (could give Steve nightmares) and are close in music style to Coldplay.
Steve hates Coldplay indeed when you mention them he makes the same sound a man makes when his parachute fails to open.
The evening starts in the bar at the Wardrobe.
The bar and the venue downstairs is run by Futuresound Group. They are a Leeds based music company That runs music venues, live music events, music festivals and a record label.
They are the team behind Live at Leeds festival which will feature in our next blog. Many thanks to Futuresound who kindly provide us with a couple of drinks and a much needed meal.
Since the 70’s Steve has always wanted to be a ligger and this is the nearest he’s come to it.
The bar itself is spacious and clean, the food is great and as gig time approached it was very busy and the atmosphere was really good.
As we got closer to the doors opening at the venue we could see the queue forming outside but we were both quite shocked at the length of it when we joined it.
Once the doors opened the queue moved quickly and within 10 minutes we were inside the venue it was all very well organised thanks to Crash Records.
Neither of us had been to this venue before and we were both quite taken aback by the size I was expecting a small intimate room but it’s really quite large with room for 400 standing, a nice size stage and a large bar area with a good queueing system so getting drinks wasn’t a problem.
When the band came on the first thing I noticed was the sound was excellent and although the band were doing a stripped down set the sound and view was great from wherever you were in the venue.
I was stood at the back but Steve did his usual wandering around and agreed the sound and views were exceptional.
They did a set of around 90 minutes doing all their popular songs including Brother, Wherever you are, Brand New Day and my favourite High Hopes plus a great version of Billie Jean.
The crowd loved them, singing along to all the words and generally having a great time (I noticed Steve wasn’t singing).
On the journey home Steve admitted that although the band are far from his favourite he agreed that the performance and musicianship was very good.
I have High Hopes for Steve I’ll get him into melody one day.
In summation would I recommend an album launch, the answer is yes paying an extra £8.00 over and above the album price is really good value.
The band sell 400 albums at a gig like this through pre orders, is it good for independent record stores well that’s another question.
P.S. The album arrived a couple of weeks after the gig from Crash Records and its great give Kodaline a listen they really are underrated.
P.P.S. Steve’s copy still has the cellophane wrap on maybe my High Hopes were misplaced.
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