ABandOn: Live music is coming to the Guild

Are you looking for something fresh and exciting to do this Friday night? Live Music Society is hosting a massive event at the Guild’s underground this Friday evening. ABandOn will feature live musicians and local bands from both Birmingham and The University of Birmingham.

The night will be featuring Live Music Society favourites from previous gigs, such as Odd Soul and IsaacO. The Tab Birmingham spoke to Odd Soul’s guitarist, Rohit Jepegnanam for an inside view of the upcoming event:

So first off, the list of musicians for the event looks extremely varied. What genre of music are you covering?

The event lineup is really, really cool. There are four really diverse artists playing. Slovac are a crazy alt-rock indie band but have a load of reggae influences thrown in there too. My band, Odd Soul is a jazzy neo-soul band with big atmospheric post rock influences. IsaacO is a really powerful, soulful, singer songwriter backed by an awesome band called The Midnight Collective, and the headliners HANKKS are an energetic indie rock band from Brum.

Which bands feature students from UoB, and which are local to Birmingham?

All the bands on the bill are Birmingham based and the first three (everyone except HANKKS) are all from the uni. It’s quite exciting at the moment because there are a tonne of really great bands coming out of Selly Oak and the uni and the three playing are all good examples of this.

This might be the first time some students are hearing about Live Music Society. Do you mind talking a bit about what the society is about?

Essentially it’s about promoting live music at the uni. They have regular band nights and open mic nights in Selly Oak and the Vale where they put on a mix of local university bands as well as some exciting local bands from the city. It’s such a fantastic pathway for students to form bands as well as perform and create new music.

What are looking forward to the most about Friday’s event? Is there a specific performance you are excited about?

I’m just excited to have live music at the guild. There have been a few events here and there, but I don’t think anything of this size has come up since the 80s really. For example, not many people know that Joy Division played their last ever gig at the uni. In terms of the music I’m really excited to see IsaacO and the Midnight Collective again, he’s a really engaging performer and a lot of fun to watch. And also I’m pretty buzzed to have been asked to play myself so hopefully it should be a lot of fun.

*****

Get all the info on their Facebook event page.

Or buy tickets directly on the Guild of Students website.