Music icons including Ed Sheeran and Stormzy have dominated the record charts with their hits – and fans at Sound City Music Festival were some of the first to witness the artist’s meteoric rises to fame.
Sound City, based in Liverpool, celebrates its 15th anniversary from April 30 – to May 1, 2022, and has given a platform to some of the world’s biggest musicians, as the festival returns to the city once more.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star, Sound City Managing Director Becky Ayres recalled that fans experienced the ‘greatness’ of artists early on in their careers, with many seeing ‘something special’ in musicians like Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Florence and The Machine and The 1975, in some of their first shows before their rise to global fame.
(Image: Getty Images for BAUER)
“Ed Sheeran was on one of his first tours and he played at Sound City, at Bumper, which isn’t there now. It was on Hardman Street in Liverpool,” said Becky.
“Everyone said he was so nice to deal with, so humble. He wasn’t known at the time, but he came down to the production office to ask us something. He was really polite and knocked on the door.
“Then he played an amazing show that has become the stuff of legend now. He was playing to three hundred people.
“A lot of them saw something special, and they would never have got onto the fact that he would go on to such amazing things after. That’s fantastic to know.”
(Image: WireImage)
She added: “The 1975 playing in the Zanzibar, which again is a 300 capacity venue, people queued around the block for that as they knew it was something quite special.
“For the fans, they can be there at these very early stage moments and can experience greatness while people are still at the very early stages of their careers.”
The festival, which began in 2007, sees fans hop from venue to venue as they explore the best in new music, as well as performances by established artists.
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Sound City has hosted global acts including The Human League and The Flaming Lips on its stages, along with performances from upcoming artists who have gone on to achieve huge success including Christine and The Queens and Florence and the Machine.
“Florence and The Machine played at the very first festival in The Attic, which is a tiny venue. It’s like one hundred people.
“Catfish and The Bottlemen – When they played, they were playing again in the Attic, but they were playing like they were playing to a stadium full of people. You could see at that stage that they were just absolutely living and breathing it.”
She added: “Stormzy playing just again to a small crowd of people. Again, it was a really powerful performance when he wasn’t really known.”
(Image: Redferns)
Sound City 2022 will once again see the festival champion the best in new music – along with headline sets from established artists – which in 2022 includes The Lathums, Self Esteem, Tim Burgess and Yard Act.
Jack Saunders from Radio One is also appearing at the 2022 festival, featuring artists like Crawlers, with Becky saying: “What is so great about Sound City Festival is that every year, we have around three hundred artists who will play, and there will always be some out of that number that will go on to much bigger things. That is one of the best things about it.”
“We’re so lucky that we’ve been able to host those stars right at the beginning of their careers. There are loads of examples of success stories that have come out of Sound City.”
Talking about the future of the festival, she added: “It would always be amazing to see some of our previous alumni, as it were, coming back, but obviously that gets harder the bigger they become.
“I just want it to keep staying relevant. It’s a real privilege if we can keep exciting people for years to come.”
Tickets for Sound City Festival 2022 are on sale now.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
