Out and About: Mexican @ Lupita's and Raleigh Ritchie @ Heaven

We needed food and we needed food quick. I'd only ever seen Mexican restaurant Lupita on Commercial Road on drives to East London so was quite keen to try it when we saw one near Charing Cross station. Unfortunately, the nachos were pretty standard and my Atun a la plancha (tuna) tacos, were less than satisfying...tough and tasteless. Our Ludwika Paleta vodka cocktail went some way to repairing the damage though by the look on my face in the above picture!

From there we wandered over to Heaven nightclub. I spent much of my early twenties in this nightclub so it was all very nostalgic!

Always time for some posing of course!

This glittery torso has been here for at least 7 years! Silky khaki trousers were picked up at the #VCSWAPSHOP the other week, soo comfy. Body from Primark and yes I know my bra is showing..

First up were The Iyes, Brighton based Electro pop band, lead singer Melis defo has strong baby Banks vibes about her.

Quick wander round...

What a beaut!

And then for the main event, the reason we were all there.

I know him as Jacob Anderson, that's how we met on both our first feature film Adulthood, all those years ago, I didn't even know he could sing back then! slowly but surely jacob, nope Raleigh has been building his singing career (in between more films and a sting on Game of Thrones) and having dropped a few great EP's, it was amazing to support and see him live finally.

Sorry the pics are so far away! Angst ridden lyrics about growing up and painful relationships, raw soulful vocals and big pounding drum beats; Raleigh has soo much energy, jumping and bouncing all over the stage and it really gets the audience going. He seemed genuinely overwhelmed at the support form the audience, which was generally young but very racially mixed. Nice little special guest from Little Simz, who joined him for their collab 'Cuckoo'. A brilliant gig from someone I think we'll as be seeing much more of.

Live: Banks @ KOKO

Spontaneous nights out are always the best although it may mean this post has crap pics. Let me tell you how this one came about. A friend of mine was texting me on Monday night on her way home from seeing Banks live at Koko and asked had I heard of her? Wait what? Of course I had and I love her and shit I'd missed her in concert again! I tweeted how upset I was and the very next morning one of my most supportive supporters tweeted me a link to where I could get some last minute tickets (thank you Danielle! And thank you Twitter)

A quick text to another friend to see if she was free and the tickets were purchased. 

The warm up act was Eclair Fifi who played a super alternative set and made my friend and I wish we could DJ. Beyoncé, alternative R'n'B, ratchet trap and some trippy beats set the tone and then Banks appeared on stage. 

Dressed in a sleeveless black leather top, long black skirt and black boots to match her long dark hair she looked like a sexy Wednesday Addams all grown up and you can see how much she is into her music as she struts up and down the simply dressed stage, stomps to the music and flings her arms and legs. Far too many singers are so nonchalant on stage and her passion reminded me of Ella Eyre, although its a totally different performance style. 

Slinky sensual R'n'B vocals laced over big ominous beats as Banks ran through tracks from her London EP as well as a few of her popular underground hits like an acoustic version of Warm Water and new tracks Brain and Stick. She also performed her recent live lounge cover of Aaliyah 'Are You That Somebody?' and The Weeknd's 'What You Need'  (who she recently supported on tour) in her own inimitable style, lots of eerie adlib sounds which often make up the bridge or intro to her tunes. 

Banks clearly values her UK fanbase and has a deep affinity for London, where she recorded her EP, even naming it after our lovely city. She's very Californian in her rare chats directly to the audience ("I love you guys so much") and she still has a slight awkwardness to her movement on stage that is super adorable. The only thing I wasn't feeling were the crazy light shows going on behind her - almost every song had a different back light and they were often flashing so quick and so bright I couldn't always look directly at the stage. And I didn't see an epilepsy warning anywhere!

An amazing show by a relatively new artist. Sold out shows without a single mainstream song in sight. Real music lives! 

Live: Jhené Aiko @ YouTube

Last night I was one of the lucky ones. A select audience had been invited down to the YouTube studios for a very intimate acoustic gig from R'n'B songstress of the moment, Jhené Aiko. 

Now you might be an old school Jhené fan from back in the day when she guested on B2K's album or maybe like me you started to appreciate a couple of years ago when she dropped her mixtape 'Sailing Soul(s)' which featured the likes of Drake, Kanye West, Miguel and Kendrick Lamar. Perhaps you've only recently discovered her delivering sugary sweet hooks on 'Sparks Will Fly' on J. Coles 'Born Sinner' or 'From Time' by Drake but chances are if you've heard Miss Aiko's delicious vocals then you're a fan. And there were definitely lots of fans in the room yesterday, who judging by the singing along have not stopped playing her latest EP 'Sail Out' for the last few months. No seriously, it can't just be because everyone was singing word for word with me, ad libs and all. 

Yep I was really that close. I managed to bag a seat literally front and centre, on a cushion on the floor directly in front of Jhené. I was in full fan girl mode and I was not ashamed!

The soft spoken, doll like Jhené won over the crowd the moment she arrived on stage, politely asking if she could remove her big heels before treating us to guitar accompanied renditions of 'Bed Peace', 'Comfort Inn Ending' (which she informed us she has just filmed a visual for, which she also directed) and of course, the new female anthem 'The Worst'.

A front runner in a new wave of R'n'B, Jhené's vocals are light and breathy at times and I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of them live. There's a lot of technical control even though her music is often dreamy weed type tracks perfect for those late smoky nights. Her lyrics are always astoundingly real, whether that be in grief like the song 'For My Brother' written when her brother was dying of cancer or on 'The Worst' where she talks about an ex lover who she called a dickhead but thanked for giving her the inspiration. She said she feels one of the reasons the UK and Europe in general have supported her so readily is due to a connection with the rawness of her lyrics. She loves London the best. Okay she said we came second to Paris in terms of audiences on the Would You Like A Tour tour she's just done with Drake, but she did say London shows her a lot of love and aren't afraid to support like some American crowds are. 

And she loves British tea!

After the short set Clara Amfo interviewed Jhené and we really got a sense of her kinda hippy, spiritual vibe. She seems super chilled and aware of herself! She spoke of her beautiful 5 yet old daughter who recently took over her Vine account, of shaving off all her eyebrows when she was younger and how she was homeschooled as she has been in the music game for so long. There was a great discussion about treatment of women in the industry, and although she said she wouldn't describe herself as a feminist she said she feels she deserves to be treated as equally as any hard working artist male or female...so I kinda think she is without realising it! 

"A girl can show a little skin and not be a hoe". A girl after my own heart!

Jhené is very adamant about maintaining her own sense of reality in her music and fighting the fake shit that the industry is permeated with, so seeing her conviction is heartwarming. I'm looking forward to hearing a little bit more of her rapping alter ego J Hennessy too, and she let us in on the fact that they had been waiting for a rapper to record a 16 for The Worst when No ID, who signed her, told her "Fuck these rappers!...But don't fuck these rappers". And so J Hennessy did the damn thing instead!

If you haven't heard of Jhené Aiko yet then where have you been? Get to a computer right now...

Pinning up her Polaroid in the YouTube studios.