'Hot Music Live Presents' fundraiser for The Tin #9
Review
I'm not too sure if mere words (at least any I can find) could possibly due justice to last evening's ‘Hot Music Live Presents' fundraiser at & for The Tin but here goes with hopefully some choice highlights.
The nineth and final of this series for 2025, it was thankfully the first since our July event not to also require the audience to brave a storm to get there: which probably helped explain the numbers of enthusiasts who contributed to the special atmosphere: it really did epitomise the unique vibe you find there: more of which in a moment.
In addition to the particularly eclectic line-up of The Rascals, The Sunbathers, RobinPlaysChords & Grail Guard, in a first for our events, the musical interludes between sets consisted of an exclusive first public airing of the ‘Extended Playtime' EP by Septic and the Tanks: specifically Sarah, Lucy & Jim as Sophie & Robin are currently many thousands of miles away.
You'll know how excited I am about the various bands emerging from the ‘Live On Stage' collaboration between The Tin & Coventry Music though given the philosophy of building self expression that the project holds dear, it would be wrong to categorise them in any way: each has a strong, if not fierce, independence and great character: none more so than The Rascals (who played their earliest gigs as ‘Electric Blue'): the youngest band we've featured, one who were playing their second gig of the week at the venue and one whom you may have spotted as demonstrating their talents to Ed Sheeran in the footage of his visit.
Nevertheless, this was their debut gig playing before a generally adult audience rather than their age group peers & in addition, their keyboard player was unfortunately ill & missed the event. For most bands, this would understandably have required dropping out, but like the other ‘Live On Stage' bands they are fearless (that term was bandied about greatly last night) and resilient. You honestly could not have detected either factor in their perfect & captivating set of their own dream-pop originals.
You simply could not wish for a better start to a gig when the first band attract so much attention & applause: the majority of the audience had naturally not seen them before. It was great to see members of The Rascals interacting with much older musicians from other bands (RobinPlaysChords noted that none of them was even born when he first came to The Tin) and swapping insights. The confidence level was sky high. I am wary about building over high expectations but I really believe this band has the potential to go a long way.
Next up were The Sunbathers: a band popular at The Tin yet who initially felt that with an audience probably orientated towards the hard core punk headliners, they themselves might be "wild cards". Well possibly they were but that didn't impact on the reception they received for their gentle and acoustic songs of relationships, wistful experiences and beaches: in fact I would wonder if last night witnessed the greatest difference in decibels between any two of the bands on one of our bills? As a coda, I noted that once she'd delivered such a set, Julie was right in the middle of the mosh-pit for Grail Guard. Another indicator of the nature of the night.
I'm a big fan of the band & would agree with them that they don't play enough (they are addressing the issue though for 2026 and I noted them in conference with Coventry's number one promoter later on). Despite their lack of 2025 gigs & in the context of having seen them before, I would still suggest that this was their finest performance that I'd seen: maybe the audience reaction helped a bit? They also kindly included "Freiston Shore" (their song which appears on ‘Hot Music Live Presents Volume Six') and "The Man Who Loved Christmas" both relative set rarities.
Now I come to a difficult moment as finding the right vocabulary to do justice to RobinPlaysChords is not easy. Another defiantly individualistic musician, clearly what you get comes from his own powerful and idiosyncratic imagination, delivered via a considerable array of skills. Any areas of inspiration and influence from others is hard to detect directly.
It must help (it certainly helped the gig's dynamics) when you possess Robin's onstage charisma and his capacity to present such a dramatic show without artifice and solely by himself with a guitar.
Beyond that, categorising what he actually does becomes problematic: which I imagine is what he wants. You get instrumentals and songs with vocals. He does use a looper, but never to the same degree, making light use of it on one track & going all symphonic on another. He's clearly a greater player, but what he plays varies from simpler rhythmic parts to full on soloing, with all sorts of brief switches: a couple of bars of heavy rock here can be followed by something more ambient. I liked the occasional reverb heavy passages in a Chris Isaak style as I did others which reminded me of the strange tunings and riffs of the early Velvet Underground. But each song had plenty of moments for people of different sensibilities to savour. I would however note that two people there, both of whom play guitar in other bands, mentioned to me how much they were looking forwards to Robin's set.
Like all the artists who played, I recommend RobinPlaysChords as a "must see" live act quite apart from anything he or they might record. If I can't explain the attraction, perhaps all the more reason for you to check him out yourselves.
The energy level in the audience had been high all night (and credit again to the open mindedness of those there who embraced & encouraged bands they'd never seen before in an almost bewildering sequence of styles) yet somehow an extra gear was found for the Grail Guard set.
As noted, there was a mosh zone (and Riaz delivered the vocals for one song from the midst of it) of some considerable good natured vehemence & this reflected the full on set.
The band take no prisoners & pretty much all of their material is aimed at the worst excrescences of our society. Quite apart from the explicit lyrics (which were much easier to make out than most hard core bands), we were repeatedly reminded of their abhorrence of a range of prejudices: which was fine by me & fine by everyone else there. In days during which intolerance & prejudice seems at an all time high & is being encouraged by the powerful, it's good to hear such uncompromising defiance and I feel that people there (certainly I speak for myself) were uplifted by the sense that we were not alone in our feelings.
If this all sounds reactive and maybe negative in tone, then it must also be said that the spirit of the set was extremely good natured and the bond between band & audience highly positive. Possibly many of most exuberant audience members had come to see Grail Guard but I can vouch for the fact that they were matched in their response by others who'd come to see other bands and those who'd never seen them before.
There was a real communal buzz all night: possibly peaking by the end & I am sure that this encapsulates what The Tin means to so many: including obviously those who gave of their talents last night. It also validates the desire to support it with such events.
Our first gig of 2026 will be on February 20th with Izzie Derry, Sophie Hadlum, Croissant and Brass Hip Flask: tickets are available via: https://www.universe.com/events/hot-music-live-presents-izzy-derry-sophie-hadlum-croissant-brass-hip-tickets-67FKZM
It will be our first all-seated event & so there will be a more limited number of tickets available: my advice is to secure yours nice & early.
See you there. Have a great festive season in the meantime.
