We’re Lost In Music’s 2021 in Review

Despite the first half of the year continuing to see gigs and events postponed or cancelled, the second half has been wonderful. Our world has been filled once more with live performances and music-enhanced experiences. Our hearts have been full.

Wednesday 14^th July 2021 saw us return to our first gig since before the pandemic. It had been 493 lonnnnngggggg days since we last saw Jack Garratt perform in the eartH theatre hall…and when we saw him step onto the stage at Hackney Church, tears brimmed. It was a magical evening and so fitting that it was delivered by Jack – he was our last gig, and now our first.

Next up was ‘Freedom Day’ and c. 500 people crammed into sweaty PowerHaus to watch White Lies perform. It was almost like nothing had happened and we hadn’t spent months being prevented from doing just that. More gigs followed, as did the return of festivals and, other than a Covid Pass here or there, our gig calendar returned to something more familiar. We could not be more grateful.

And so, our 2021 highlights feature a lot more live-music than last year! See for yourself…

We’ll start with another end of year rundown playlist. Again, we’ve included tracks from each gig or festival we’ve been to (or, in the case of festivals, all the acts we saw), but we’ve also added the postponed or cancelled events again. You can listen here:

Our favourite moments:

In the year that live music returned, it’s no surprise that our favourite moments are all gig- or festival-related!

1. Jack Garratt – Hackney Church, London – 14/07/21 (the return of live music, in a stunning setting, albeit from the comfort of our seats)
2. White Lies – PowerHaus, London – 19/07/21 (Freedom Day! And how good freedom felt!)
3. Halloween at The Warehouse Project – Mayfield Depot, Manchester – 30/10/21 (what a breathtaking location WHP)
4. Field Day – Victoria Park, London – 28/08/21 (the return of festivals – there was a lot of giddy bouncing around)
5. Bad Nerves – Lafayette, London – 14/12/21 (it had been a while!)

And the one that is etched on our memory: Larkins – Heaven, London – 14/09/21 as, following a great gig, Kate received some bad news leaving the venue 😔

Our favourite live acts (that we saw this year):

1. Jack Garratt
2. Bicep
3. White Lies
4. Glass Animals
5. Bad Nerves

Our favourite new acts (the ones we’ve just discovered):

1. Model Man (a trending album on Spotify that we now can’t get enough of)
2. LAUREL (who keeps cropping up on our Spotify)
3. Larkins (we think originally discovered on a TV soundtrack 🤔)
4. Billy Paul (sadly no longer with us but Shazamed in a cafe in Sri Lanka during one of Kate’s surf trips)
5. Do Nothing (part of our 2021 Manchester Psych Fest line up)

We miss discovering bands that are supporting other bands at gigs or through grassroots music festivals – hopefully there’ll be more of that in 2022!

Our favourite venues:

1. Lafayette, London
2. Mayfield Depot, Manchester
3. Gorilla, Manchester
4. Victoria Park, London
5. Moth Club, London

And the worst this year is Scala – please, please, please stop with the smoke machine and improve the lighting!! 

Our favourite albums:

1. London Grammar – Californian Soil (released 16^th April)
2. Bicep – Isles (released 22^nd January)
3. Model Man – Model Man (released 29^th October)
4. IDLES – CRAWLER (released 12^th November)
5. CHVRCHES – Screen Violence (released 27^th August)

Lots of exciting new albums due out in 2022: Metronomy, White Lies, Bastille, Bonobo…

Our year in numbers:

• Number of gigs – 20 (still nowhere near our former tallies but getting back on track)
• Festivals – 4 (festivals are back baby!)
• Number of events cancelled or postponed – 12 (including Glastonbury again – SOB – we’re really hoping this is the last of the cancellations and postponements 🙏🏻)
• Number of bands we hadn’t seen before – 17 (getting those numbers back up again)
• Act we saw the most – Bicep 3 times (although this included a live stream gig)
• Number of venues – 19 (some new ones in there this time)
• Number of geographical locations – 3 (Manchester featured heavily outside of London)
• Number of countries visited – 1 (all UK-based again but we have plans to travel more in 2022) 
• Times we ventured further afield than the UK – 0 
• Number of flights taken – 0 
• Number of trains taken – 8 
• Reviewing Spotify‘s Wrapped for this year, Kate listened to 29,160 minutes of music (quite a drop on last year but still 84% more than other listeners in the UK) from 1,537 artists and spanning 123 genres (again, quite a drop, but modern alternative rock still came out on top). This year it was London Grammar she was in the top 0.5% of listeners of (listening to a whopping 1,586 minutes!) Oh, and she only played Bicep‘s X 77 times… 😅

While 2021 still wasn’t quite what we had hoped, it was a significant step in the right direction. It’s looking promising that 2022 will see more and more live events return…and we may finally get to Glastonbury‘s 50th Anniversary 🤞🏻 You can stay tuned on our musical fun and adventures over on our Upcoming Events page.

Let the music continue to play! 🎶

We’re Lost In Music x

You can check out some of our favourite pictures from 2021 over on Flickr and Instagram or visit our YouTube channel for live clips. Links to all of our music archives can also be found on our Past Events pages.

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