The tenth installment of Flavour Live, the event which brings together fresh talent and established artists took place at Flavour’s most noteable venue, Cargo. Thanks to the DJ’s, from start to finish, Cargo was in full swing banging out all the latest music on the UK scene. As always, resident DJs Longers and DJ Chef were present, along with DJ Sollie who completed a guest set.
Flavour Live events welcome a very musically oriented troop of people from various A&Rs, bloggers and journalists in attendance along with familiar faces from the entertainment industry usually being spotted in the crowd. My eyes were firmly glued to the stage but I did spot comedian Kevin J and ex S Club 8 Jnr and X Factor contestant Stacey McClean. We believe that she was there to back her Ladybird’s (you’ll hear about these ladybird’s further on in the review). Hosting for the night was Artcha, who kept us all in high spirits with his witty humour and eventually had the crowd on full hype sounding like a horde of hungry hyenas.
As the night began the crowd were ready and raring to observe the latest talents. Top of the set list was DDark who opened up the night with a smasher of a set articulating his rapping skills and giving all he had. Bobii Lewis was next to perform and boy did he have the crowd in awe with his sweet sounding voice. Although I have to point out that in all of Flavour Live’s history, Bobii has so far been the only act to bring along an entourage. And I don’t mean five or six heads, because by the sound of it, the back of the room was popping with Bobii hooligans. On with the next act and one for the mandem I’d say, girlband Ladybird stepped on stage in their ensemble of colourful outfits and wooed the guys by singing “If you really want more, scream it out louder”. I don’t think there was even one guy in the house who wasn’t screaming, even the ladies were feeling these birds. The Ladybird’s proved themselves as to not being a one trick pony by singing Usher’s hit as they then went on to perform their latest single, with a full on dance routine which certainly had the male spectators hot under the collar.
[smooth=id:110;]
Black Da Ripper then stormed onto Cargo’s stage and introduced himself in a rather peculiar way which had the crowd in stitches. He soon proved he wasn’t all talk as he rapped his way through his set. Ashley Walters (no introduction needed) was up next with his protégé Realz. They performed their new single ‘Flyboy’. Realz proved to be more than just another Tinchy Stryder and the crowd seemed blissfully happy to have the legendary ex So Solid member, Ashley Walters, back on the music scene instead of their TV screens.
The house later funked up by the arrival of Nate Young on stage. You may be thinking I got the words nate and young mixed up the wrong way round but I can assure you that Nate Young, who was once making music under the name of Young Nate, is now Nate Young (Yes! He is young no more). He had all the ladies drooling, I mean starry eyed, and bootyshaking as he serenaded with his slow jam and dancefloor anthem. Dem Two was up next, you know dem two right? One with the backpack and the other one with the shades. Well Dem two certainly had an impact alright, they were quite impressive, and the bars they were chucking out had the crowd on the biggest hype you could ever imagine.
The time came for South East London lady Lush to hit the stage, and the thrill she created was just unexplainable. I could sum up Lush’s performance in three words, and that is, theatrical, mover and booty! And to hear she was from South East made me even more proud, mad talent for sure and of course repping for the UK ladies. Another big hit with the Flavour crowd was last but not least, Zest (aka teddybear) who firstly freestyled to an instrumental of the dopest track ever made ‘Look At Me Now’. Zest was unquestionably Flavour’s answer to Biggie, it was so hard not to compare the two. So that was it for another month of Flavour Live, ten outstanding performances which included debut appearances and comebacks. Make sure July 12th is boldly penned in the diaries for the next Flavour Live where again another top line up of acts will be there to leave your mouths wide open. Flavours the word!
Review by Melek Derebeyli
Flavour Live is Sponsored by Storm Watches and PRS for Music Foundation
