Swindle and his team roll through Camden’s Proud Galleries for the launch of his new EP Who Said Funk…

I arrived at Proud in Camden to the sound of DJ Scratcha, host of the Grimy Breakfast Show on Rinse FM mashing up the tunes, helping the growing crowd get in the mood before the first ILUVLIVE act took to the stage. Little Man (the host for the night), hit the stage, and sang a funky, soulful, slow jam repeating the words “I Love Live”. It was a fitting intro, accompanied by the house band, which consisted of a keyboardist, guitarist, bassist and drummer.

First up was last weeks open mic winner Mr Fontain (a jazz, swing and easy listening vocalist from Manchester). He began his set with a classic, slow track, I Left My Heart In San Francisco. He had a crooner style to his sound. This first performance was tuneful enough, however I believe the tone could’ve been slightly warmer. His second track was a really great rendition of the P-Square song, No One Like You. He had the crowd moving and feeling this track. When he was done, Little Man offered him some free advice, “to dance and move when performing this song, in true African fashion.”

The next singer up was female Lanna Love, who started of with a mellowed out cover of Rhianna’s Umbrella. Throughout the first verse I wasn’t feeling this, but as the performer’s vocal muscles warmed up, so did her performance, and as she grew into the song, her tone improved. The second track she performed was a personal composition that she had prepared just for fun, and featured MC Craze. This track was full of energy, the contrasts of the soulful singing and emcee spitting worked really well.

The next act to grace the stage was the (apparently) shy Niyi. He kicked off his set with a bluesy tune, the lyrics were full of emotion, the performer sang about the struggle, strife and pain; so characteristic of the blues style. His second and third tracks were far more “rocked-out” affairs. This sparked the crowd into a bit of life. Little Man then got back on the stage, fired-up, and asking the house band could they accompany him whilst he sang the chorus of Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl. Just a little suttin’ for the people….

Scratcha then played a couple of wicked filler tracks whilst the next act set up. For this act there was to be no house band. He had his own backing band, consisting of an acoustic guitarist, a female keyboardist and a male backing singer. When everything was prepared and ready to go, Little Man returned to the mic to introduce the act. He paid the guy some big, big compliments, saying he was the next best thing after Justin Timberlake, following that up with “he’s pretty fly for a white guy!” The crowd were then asked to make some noise and throw their glasses in the air, before Little Man quickly retracted that request, ahead of introducing eighteen year old, Mike Hough to the stage. His first song was titled She’s The One and was delivered with passion, and soul. It had an air of romantic love ballad, but with an R&B twist. The singer had beautifully controlled vibrato, and he sang from the heart. A great performance and maybe he is slightly reminiscent of Justin Timberlake (or is that too much of a compliment?) His second track was about music and love, where he showcased his impressive vocal techniques once more. He was greeted by warm cheers again. This was then followed by his final song, and the end of his performance was greeted with rapturous applause. Just before he left the stage, Mike Hough quickly had time to give a little plug to a performance he’s doing at the IndigO2 on 3 June(get your tickets NOW!)

He then introduced the extremely talented Jareth Johnson. She performed three songs for us. I think the first track was titled The Acoustic. Whatever it was called it was absolutely brilliant. It started off with a melodic guitar riff before Jareth began taking over with that wonderful voice of hers. The best way I can describe the sound is UK urban folk. The voice at times reminded me of Regina Spektor and at other times of Paulo Nutini. I’m not saying she sounds like either of these two artists, but that her voice is alive and full of character. There was some real big love was shown after the first number. The second song she performed was called Heartache. Although the title sounds sad this tune seemed to be funkier than the first. An optimistic ballad, if you will. Jareth, again, showed beautiful voice control and was rightly applauded in a big way when she finished her set.

Little Man returned to the stage to welcome on the headline act. “We want it to sound like Wembley up in this place…” he said, before going on, “Make some noise, go crazy, let’s feel some energy up in this bitch, for the one they call Swindle!” The first of the singers to perform one of their tracks from his Who Said Funk EP was Nadia Suliman. The track she performed kicked off with a funky drum riddim, before a funky bass line kicked in on the piano. The tune was happy and had great texture, helped by the backing vocals of A.L. who then performed a track solo, which had a really sexy 2-step bridge. Shea Soul was next up and she had some groovy smooth sound in her song. The performance was delivered with a real bouncy energy, which all added to the experience. The final performance was given by Miss Fire, who resides from Leicester. The track was called Part-Time Lover, and was full of funky beats and delicious harmonies. Who Said Funk was released yesterday, and my advice to you is… Go cop that!

Words by Liam Tootill

Tags: ILUVLIVE, swindle