WORDS Bea Isaacson
HEADER IMAGE Holly Ziegler
It’s a humid, overcast evening in June and there is a familiarly long line of people queuing patiently outside the EartH venue on Dalston Kingsland. Predominantly young women dressed somewhere between Uniqlo mannequins and Daisy Jones and the Six extras, they are here for the one-off Haim album launch Q&A. The Californian band, who will be embarking on their biggest world tour yet later in the year, talk intimately with the audience about virginity stories and high school anecdotes, playing unreleased songs with all the informal ease of a guy at an afters plugging his Soundcloud.
Across the city, Little Simz is standing within an open-top car, mic in hand, surrounded by dancing bodies as she raps her hits to them. Her latest album, Lotus, was released just last week, and the streets of West London were among the first to hear it live. This comes just one week before Simz’s curated festival Meltdown, running all throughout June at Southbank Centre. The free event, organised by Mas Arts London (formerly Yoyos), is a celebration of not just her latest album, but something of a celebration of London itself; the event organisers sent out the secret location to those that messaged earlier that week, and come Wednesday evening, hundreds of fans flocked to Westway underpass to hear the homegrown hero perform at this seemingly spur of the moment performance.
“The night was beautiful as always, but this one held a certain magic,” says Holly Ziegler, photographer for Mas Arts. “It brought together people from all corners of London, young and old, in a space that radiated pure joy, community and connection.”
Just one night earlier, pop princess of the moment, Addison Rae, is performing her debut album, Addison, for the first time at the notorious The Box club in Soho. And if you’ve been in London for a while – or just on the internet in general – you’ll be aware of Tottenham-raised DJ AG’s viral sets opposite Kings Cross station, where the DJ hosted Will Smith last week to lead the bopping crowds to sing along to Getting Jiggy With It. “Do you know what dubplay is?” DJ AG asked a laughing Smith, who launched the crowd into a singalong to his 1991 hit Summertime.
London has long been an epicentre of live music. From the Rolling Stones’ free outdoor festival in Hyde Park in 1969, to the famous Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, today it feels like every weekend there is some world-famous band or artist playing stadiums and arenas across the city, shared in utmost detail across social media come evenings and weekends, further intensified now we’re in full throttle summer, or, as Instagram stories call it, “day festival szn”.
“London’s day festival scene has boomed in recent years, driven in-part by a growing appetite for big, shared moments of connection through live music,” says Michael King, Operations Manager at Gala and Rally festivals.
London’s day festival scene has boomed in recent years, driven in-part by a growing appetite for big, shared moments of connection through live music.
Michael King, Operations Manager at Gala & Rally festivals
Yet Londoners don’t need to fork out what is often in the three digits of quid to experience live music from their favourite artists, whether city-raised or international. Despite living in a time of music venues closing and a dangerous decline in arts investment; 2023 saw 125 music venues close across the country in just one year, with London experiencing an overall 35% decline in venues since 2007; there is, according to King, “a clear demonstration of the huge demand for communal cultural experiences in the city.”
So London’s music industry got creative. “This summer, we helped launch On The Rye, a brand new community festival in Peckham,” he continues. “Seeing over 15,000 people of all ages come together was incredibly special.”
On The Rye is free entry, similar to other community-organised events like Mas Arts and DJ AG’s viral sets, whose stages have welcomed esteemed artists including London-born Mark Ronson and SHY FX for Yoyos, and Skepta and JME for DJ AG, respectively.
But for American artists like Haim and Addison Rae, their choice of London to launch their new music – in significantly small-capacity venues, no less – does raise the question: why are all these huge artists gravitating towards intimate performances in London while selling out stadiums across the world?
It’s a phenomenon not just limited to London, although it does seem to be largely concentrated in the UK capital. Just last week, in some sort of music industry student exchange programme, Fred Again and Skepta debuted their latest track ‘Victory Lap’ at a pop-up rave in Brooklyn announced just the night before; over in Paris, in her turn to promote her new album, Miley Cyrus played both old and new at Maxim de Paris.
[Paid concerts] not only restrict people due to extortionate prices, overselling tickets but failing in making a space which feels welcoming and comfortable to all, many attendees focusing the experience in getting their money’s worth, rarely speaking to strangers.
Sony Music video commissioner
“It’s so interesting looking at Addison Rae’s sweaty, garishly lit debut show at The Box in London because her team are just getting it so right,” a music video commissioner at Sony Music, who under contract must stay anonymous, tells me. “I think the Eras Tour broke records both good and bad, and we’ve all seen videos online of Taylor playing guitar as a mere spec in the ether while the crowd around sing louder than Wembley’s speakers.”
“Young people are increasingly turning to authenticity,” they continue. “Young people tend to stumble across and watch artists through their TikTok For You page, and although this doesn’t hurt artist discovery, it constructs an invisible wall between musician and audience.”
“I think [it’s] something a paid concert can’t achieve in the same way,” Ziegler says of Mas Arts’ popularity within London’s live music scene. Paid concerts, Ziegler explains, “not only restrict people due to extortionate prices, overselling tickets but failing in making a space which feels welcoming and comfortable to all, many attendees focusing the experience in getting their money’s worth, rarely speaking to strangers.” Events like Mas Arts, however, “brings together communities and creates a more authentic experience of music.”
I mentioned Joy Crookes to my Sony contact, who is on the soul singer’s record team. Crookes, who is of Bangladeshi-Irish heritage and South London upbringing, has a history of celebrating new releases through hosting gigs in both her local pub and the South London Irish centre. “Artists like Joy are recognising this and (wisely) including fairly-priced or free community-centred events into their campaign planning and outreach,” they explain. This is not hugely dissimilar to Haim’s Q&A event, in which the band earnestly referenced their love for London being the first city to give the sisters radio play back in 2013. “We owe everything to you guys,” Alana Haim said.
Haim isn’t alone in crediting London for their breakthrough as new artists. For Londoners, their hometown was credited this month by researchers at SeatPick as the best in the world for live music opportunities and nurturing homegrown talents, outranking similar culture juggarnauts Berlin, New York, and Manchester; for the British, playing in any venue in the capital is often a crucial part of an early career in music; and for Americans, industry legends including Jimi Hendrix and Lana Del Rey saw their careers take off with London’s music fans first.
[Musicians] can interact and dance with people and invite all their friends; it’s not just a party for their audience, but also for themselves.
Holly Ziegler, Mas Arts photographer
The alchemy is set, then, for a summer of live music erupting across London. Backed by their labels, both London-raised artists and their American peers are earnest to give back to the city, especially the city’s fans of their music. But by doing so through small venues for cheap – if not entirely free – is not just a means to allow fans the opportunity to hear them play without the big concert fee, all while subtly supporting the city’s struggling grassroots venues.
There is great joy to be had when giving back: these small sets, so reminiscent of an artist’s first live shows, are, obviously, fun. “I assume they feel like they can be more involved with the crowd themselves, rather than separated on a stage,” Ziegler says. “They can interact and dance with people and invite all their friends; it’s not just a party for their audience, but also for themselves.”
Whether reestablishing their commitment to community or fans, in small ticketed sets or free outdoor gigs, musicians and their teams are increasingly turning to London and its wealth of music-lovers as a way to connect with audiences in a more intimate and accessible manner. The video commissioner adds, “It’s these gigs, not arena tours, where that wall can be broken down and real connections are made.”
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