Despite being out of breath for the majority of the two days I spent at Liverpool Sound City I had a considerably great time! It was surreal to see members of my favourite bands wandering around the streets of Liverpool looking completely lost, surrounded by thousands of others from all over the world who we’re all here for the same purpose- to listen to great music.

Arriving on the Friday meant I was lucky enough to witness something very special; John Cale of the Velvet Underground in conversation with John Doran. The hour talk lead to fascinating stories about Cale’s life post Velvet Underground, his work with Lou Reed and a general rare insight into his life which I felt privileged to witness. The atmosphere in the conference room of the Hilton Hotel really gave off the audience’s lust of wanting to know everything he’s had the privilege of encountering. The talk began with him quickly jumping into the heavier topics such as relationships with Lou, Nico and Eno, which I was eager to hear about. The conversation flowed from how chopping off the head of a live chicken was all in the name of avant garde to a chilling insight into what the Velevt Underground was like behind closed doors, before meeting Andy Warhol who transformed the VU essentially from being unlikely to succeed into a group who are one of the most influential in the world. Listening to Cale talk about his sheer dedication to music, describing his writing process as “anger, then sarcasm followed by downright rudeness and eventually brutality” made it apparent that we were all sat before a rock legend. The audience was left wondering upon his plans for the future and someone asked John if he was still working on his first number one single. He smiled and said, ‘Yes, I’m working on it’.

Manchester five-piece (full of psychedelic vibes) Spring King perform a half an hour set in East Village Arts Club. The audience were struck by the levels of the energy radiating from the band as they played crowd favourites, including ‘Mumma’ (which has been on repeat in my head for the past two days). With an upbeat atmosphere throughout the whole room the band had an impressive stage presence leading to the audience dancing along and catching onto the repetitive lyrics and guitar riffs . The room was filled with jaunty melodies as they played their next single ‘Demons’, showing off the oozing potential within the band! Spring King are definitely a band to catch live if you ever have the chance, their album ‘In All This Murk and Dirt’ is available to check out now.

One of the notoriously uprising Birmingham bands, Superfood took to the stage on Friday night in East Village Arts Club. Oozing in Britpop and potential, the spirits were high in the theatre with an intimate crowd who were gradually singing along more as the set progressed. Each song continued to add to the growing atmosphere in the room. It’s really great to stand in the audience and watch a band really enjoy themselves whilst they’re playing equally as good music! Their EP, ‘Mam’, was just as good live as it is on a record… If not better!

At the moment Wolf Alice happen to be one of the best bands on the ‘indie’ horizon. After seeing them last year their stage presence has improved by miles along with the quality of their performance. Noted as “ones to watch” by most music publications last year, the Birmingham band did not didn’t disappoint. Their ability to change an atmosphere with just one song was incredible. The crowd went from simply admiring the music to jumping around enjoying themselves and creating a huge buzz of anticipation and excitement. That itself is something a band strives to achieve, but their captivating guitar riffs and powerful vocals made it seem effortless. Their new EP was previewed during their set, receiving an extremely good reception, ‘Creature Songs’ will be released on the 26^th may.