Words by Megan Duong

The 2022 release from acclaimed singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini titled Last Night in the Bittersweet kicks off with the electrified Aftermath that layers the melodic guitar riffs with spoken word poetry that sets the tone for the next hour and twelve minutes. If you’ve seen him perform on stage or on your television screens, it’s a joy and you can see the passion in his voice when he plays for the masses. 

Over the course of the sixteen track album Nutini takes us on a journey of nostalgia and joy at every step of the way as evidenced by the incredible Radio that transports us back to the days of old when radio stations. It makes me think of the late 90’s when I would wait by my boom box to hear my favorite song. This feeling could be translated into the feelings of wanting to get to a familiar place within a modern world. He makes that emotion all his own as he’s not afraid to shed his soul for the moment. 

Songs like Stranded Words sounds like something out of the highlands as the battered hero (or heroine) stands atop a hill and sings of their honesty and admission for companionship. And that sometimes it’s hard to ask for forgiveness and help when you’re always fighting battles alone or just trying to hold onto that leader mentality. The synthesized drums are a nice touch to what is a hauntingly beautiful song. 

This entire album is just so good and one that deserves a no skip label. It’s the kind of music you can listen to at the end of a hard day or just when you need some solace and grace when times are just too much to handle. Or when words are hard to vocalize — it’s just a good album to put on with a nice drink and let your thoughts drift away into the background.

My absolute favorites are Shine a Light, Children of the Stars, Lose It, Acid Eyes and Through the Echoes mainly for the impeccable way that Nutini marries the guitars, harmonies and the synthetic elements to create something so beautiful yet delicate. The cherry on top is the way his vocals just makes me believe in every word and thank him for speaking the words that I can not and have trouble fully expressing with my whole heart. I suppose that’s the beauty in songwriting, just letting the words flow through you and pray it touches the hearts of those who take a deep dive into the end results. 

We are not worthy of Paolo Nutini and his genius mind and all of the accolades holds true. This man makes the world a better place to be in with his music. Now excuse me while I go dig out my acoustic guitar and attempt remember the chords to a song my 16 year-old self had learned ages ago. 

This was  the kind of  shows that I have been to that have felt like a therapeutics release. I have been too many shows before were the stage set up was simple yet elevated the live music experience exponentially. And boy did that set the bar high for the rest of the year. The crowd at the World Cafe Live stood packed in front of the stage and listened intently to opener Billy Raffoul and American Authors play their latest hits mixed with the songs that were a treasured favorite amongst the fans. The crowd was diverse with parents bringing their kids out on a Friday night. They were dressed in the bands merchandise that defied the age old rule that you can’t wear the bands merch to a live show. Which is another topic of discussion for another time but as the fans made their way through to the front. The vibes were sweet and everyone had seemed eager to get the night started. 

Billy Raffoul came on stage to a simple stage sweet up, lights on either side of him illuminated his profile as he launched into his set. He sang most passionately about songs that made him feel ’ most alive as he sang the opening verse to to “You Will Be Love” which as mentioned to Billy post show that me it made and my partner feel weepy. He sings about balance and strength and direction saying that there found purpose found when your world collides with your other half. He references the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and its lead played by actor Jim Carrey. (The song is simply titled just that too.) the ending with the uptempo song “we could get high” which has the crowd lending their vocals and their joint sounds echoed through the room. Billy you are a legend and a treasure; grateful for the opportunity to capture your show through words and visuals. 

The tour is simply called “The Best Day of My Life” and American Authors was as magical as everyone has made the experience seem. The stage was set up as if they were performing in someone’s backyard. The staging has string lights held up by two poles and a cactus neon light that was reminiscent of a summertime night. Fans of all ages stood close to the stage to sing in unison the bands handpicked set and even included the tour’s song. The night ended and as I was ducking into an Uber headed back home. My spirit was fully lifted and I couldn’t wait for the next show since this one was euphoric as best. The tour has concluded but it guess is that we can expect big things from both artists. 

Special shout-out to @camiliberty, @emmafoxphoto  and @mirandamcdonald for being some rad women and keeping me company and making me smile and laugh throughout the night. I can’t wait to share a photo pit with you all again some day soon. 

SAM RYDER - Live at the Outernet, London, UK 
Review & Photos by Anna Newman (@annable_84)

Where it all began…

Two things of note happened on the 14th May 2022. 

First of all, it was my birthday. There I was, sitting in my tiny studio apartment in north London, birthday Zoom calls in full swing with all my European friends and drinking and laughing. 

Secondly, it was the 66th annual Eurovision Song Contest. 

Now, Eurovision can be a bit of an anomaly for people outside of the continent. Basically, it’s a song contest for all the countries of Europe. Okay, yeah that seems a bit obvious when I put it like that. But, more importantly, it stokes up one hell of a competitive edge in the UK. Us Brits have a crazy love/hate relationship with Eurovision. We make fun of it every year. We complain that it’s full of political voting. We lambast the other countries for hating us for our colonialist history – and more recently, because of Brexit. But dammit, do we always want to win. 

In the past few years we’ve submitted songs by the boyband Blue; songs written by musical legend Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber; heavyweights like Engelbert Humperdinck and Bonnie Tyler…and we have never been anywhere close to winning. In fact I don’t think we got more than 20 points in the past ten years. We last won in 1997 with Katrina and the Waves, and gosh, we don’t want you to forget it. 

So, as I lay on my bed, obviously drinking away my birthday in a way to forget how ridiculously old I was getting and pining away my wasted 30’s, I was waiting for our newest hope – Sam Ryder. Now for me, Sam was the great unknown. As normal I had downloaded and rinsed the hell out of the sing he was going to sing and yes, I loved it. But, the singer himself was new to me. I am not on TikTok, and from what I’ve seen that is where he was discovered during the great year of 2020 and the pandemic that shan’t be named. All I knew was he had a great song and even better hair. I was here for it. 

And I had a long time to wait. The UK was billed as 22nd out of 25 songs – sandwiched between Australia (don’t ask, we still don’t really know why,) and Poland. 

Finally, it was our turn. The song was a triumph. The lyrics amazing, the performer a star and the guitar solo was perfection. It was so good we came second. We actually came second! The only country beating us was Ukraine (for good and obvious reasons). 

Finally able to see Sam Ryder live in London…

So, fast forward to a year later and I see there are Sam Ryder tickets out for a gig in London? Dammit, I was there! Did I care I was going to Milan for a Bastille gig the following day? Hell no! I would sleep when I’m dead. Tickets purchased and I couldn’t wait to see our very own hero in the flesh. 

Admittedly, when it came to the cold November Wednesday night, after a long day of work, I was almost regretting my life choices. There I was, standing outside Outernet in a long queue, in 5 degree weather, and no jacket. It was cold, but I’m Scottish, we’re built from hardy stuff! It’s quiet, the queue isn’t really bustling and we still have fifteen minutes before the doors opening up. We don’t know what’s happening but we do suddenly hear a lot of bustle going on in front of us. 

Then, almost like he had appeared from nowhere, there he was. Sam Ryder. He was making his way down the entire queue. I have never seen anything like it. The show was sold out and the doors weren’t open, and here he was walking down the entire queue, greeting everyone, offering hugs and selfies, handing out leaflets for his new album. It was insane. He wanted to speak to people. He was apologetic to people when he didn’t think he was spending enough time with them. He was a real gentleman. An honest to god good bloke in a sea of musicians who could have just taken his new found fame for granted. It blew me away. 

No selfie for me – I have a horrendous track record of saying stupid things to celebrities, so I prefer my interactions to be as brief as possible – but I did congratulate him on having Mary Poppins pockets in his duffle coat. 

And we got a fist bump. I counted it as a win. 

We get into the venue, and somehow we actually got near the front. The crowd was…definitely eclectic. There were people my age, some kids who were younger who must have found Sam on social media; there was the clear Eurovision crowd and then right at the barrier was definitely a more mature gig goer. They were loving it, they seemed to be singing along, trying to catch Sam as he passed and they even managed to grab a set list at the end from the security guard. I definitely know some people that will be doing exactly the same thing at their age.

Support was from another social media star, Ellie Dixon. A one woman band, she announces that she does all of her own producing using things she can find in her house, including a coffee jar as percussion and cups as drums. She proudly informed the crowd that she had been given a Radio 1 song of the week and we all cheered. She was bubbly and sweet and immediately got the crown on her side. I had never heard of her before that night, but am no seriously considering attending her first headline gig in Hammersmith next year. 

I mean, she sang a song about biscuits and then proceeded to pelt the audience with Oreos. She’s pretty awesome. 

Ellie finished and we all waited with baited breath for Mr Sam Ryder to grace the stage. There was a slight delay as one of the ladies on the barrier had actually had a little too  much to drink and was ‘asked’ to leave the venue for her own safety, but finally he came on. 

Tiny Riot started the show. Now, I admit after Eurovision I was downloading everything I could get from Sam from Spotify. And this song is without a word of a lie my favourite one of his. I was thrilled I got to hear it live. The amazing thing was, that everyone in the crowd also knew the words. We all sang along like he was a triple platinum album selling performer. 

This is from an EP. This man hasn’t even released an album. And yet, the crowd sang along. We got Whirlwind, July… we got every song off of that EP and we got his new song. We got a song he had written on his couch last week and had never been played before. 

He was a consummate professional. The crowd hang on every word he said. He asked us to sing? We sang. He asked for lights up? The phones were out and people were shouting that they were out of battery, but by god we got lights. His charisma and stage presence was brilliant. To be honest he reminded me so much of the old videos of Freddy Mercury with Queen, and I hope that one day he does an entire gig with Roger Taylor and Brian May because he would knock it out of the park. 

Throughout it all, he smiled. He climbed into the pit to sing to one person, and he didn’t care that people were trying to touch him. He laughed at himself when he forgot something or couldn’t hear anything. His vocal range was so broad. He hit every high and every low and there wasn’t a bum note to be heard. 

He drank cans and cans of Diet Coke, and didn’t that make me appreciate him more, because that is the nectar of the gods. He said that he had played empty gigs for years, and I have no idea how, because he would be able to draw in the biggest critic of his music and where he started and I’m sure they would be singing along with him by the end. 

Speaking of the end, we ended on Spaceman – the second place Eurovision song of 2022 that we now all love and will be singing for years to come. The crowd drowned him out. The crowd were just so happy for him. And how absolutely British of us all. To be obsessed and thrilled with a song that didn’t even come first. But we came second and that is bloody well good enough for us this time. 

Sam Ryder has dragged the entire country along on his Eurovision journey and he is not going to end it any time soon. He has a bright future ahead of him and he will be shooting for the stars for years to come. All I ask is that you download his first album on the 9th December 2022. The most amazing way to end his Rockstar year would be to have a number 1 album. And I can’t imagine anyone else more deserving than Sam Ryder.