By Chris Hillman
Every week, we go out and about to hear the cream of live music across Reading and Wokingham.
In fact, last year, photographer Andrew notched up 100 gigs – that’s nearly two a week.
It’s the best way to experience some of the talent on our doorstep. The next best thing is our brilliant RaW Sounds Today playlist, a great collection of music from bands and artists with a connection to Reading and Wokingham, many of whom you can hear live over the coming months.
Every week, we aim to showcase music you may not have heard of, giving you the chance to discover something new.
We’re really proud of it and hope you tune in for free on Spotify – bit.ly/rawsoundstoday
We also have a Facebook group – search for RaW Sounds Today and it will come up.
Our Fate – Broken
Our photographer Andrew Merritt attended 100 gigs last year and a couple of weeks ago he attended his first gig of original bands of 2024 and it seems it was a good one.
Three excellent bands – Call of Sirens, Reawaken & headliners from Reading, Our Fate. They all performed excellent sets and it inspired us to listen to the Our Fate album from last year. It’s never too late for good music.
That album, Reflections of My Past, is full of melodic rock anthems. Here is one of our faves from it. It’s an emotional rock ballad with a mellow guitar and vocal intro building to a powerful crescendo – linktr.ee/ourfateuk
Tom Webber – This Time
Here’s a new single from an extremely talented artist that we’ve featured a few times previously.
We’ll keep on featuring him if he keeps on releasing great stuff like this. It’s a wonderfully upbeat song yet again showcasing Tom’s skills as a quality songwriter and performer.
Tom, from Oxford, has been championed by Sid Siddle at Club Velocity (Sid knows his music that’s for sure).
He will be performing another CV show on February 3 at Rising Sun Arts Centre as part of a tour – lnk.to/tomwebber
Aden Pearce – Ghosts
We’ve always loved the vocals of Kate Herridge of Dakorra so when we heard that she’s guesting on this solo single by one of her Dakorra collaborators, we had to give it a listen.
We liked what we heard. It’s a very atmospheric piece and Kate’s vocals fit perfectly alongside Aden’s.
Aden is an artist and producer in Bristol, who originally came from Reading and is working on a new album – www.facebook.com/adenpearcemusic
Aaron Cilia – Baguazhang
Aaron is a local musician, songwriter, producer and sound engineer who has certainly developed his sound and production skills over the last few years as you can hear on this new single release – www.facebook.com/AaronCiliaArtist
Neil Wighton – There’ll Come a Time
This is a very good debut solo single from the guitarist with Bracknell-based band, Spriggan Mist.
You can see them at The Acoustic Couch in Bracknell on February 17 – www.facebook.com/61555415787435
One Eyed Man – I Will Be Reminded
This local indie folk artist releases another excellent single and it’s a very moving one too as it’s a tribute to a great friend of his called Milan who sadly passed away – www.facebook.com/TheOneEyedManOfficial
Adomania – Primal
One of our fave local bands, Adomania, opened our first playlist of 2024 with this song from their recent two-track single. The band have gone up a level with tighter musicianship and production – www.facebook.com/AdomaniaBand/
Marisa and the Moths – Fake It Till You Make It
They are live at Sub 89 Reading on May 2 in support of their forthcoming new album – www.marisaandthemoths.com/
Patchy Blonde – Don’t Ask, Don’t Get
A cool debut solo single from Wokingham-based Madeleine Bowis, who is also the vocalist from Adomania – linktr.ee/patchyblonde
Modesty Blue – Sad Sweet Dreamer
Local group with their single based around a cover of the 1970s classic by Sweet Sensation – www.facebook.com/modestybluemusic
