We’re Lost In Music’s 2022 in Review

For us, 2022 has been a bit of a strange year in the world of live music and events…our passion is still there, but it feels like something has shifted in the industry and gigs and festivals seem to be prioritising the wrong things (namely, money over experience). We appreciate the challenges the industry has faced over the last few years, and continues to face with the economy as it is, however we have been to far too many gigs (and even festivals – Glastonbury we’re looking at you) this year that appear to have been oversold, where it’s difficult to move around, where generally it doesn’t feel that enjoyable to be there. It was only a matter of time before this led to a dangerous situation and unfortunately we closed the year on a postponed gig due to Brixton Academy’s licence being under review following the terrible incident in December.

We hope that 2023 sees some of the light and joy return to the gig and festival experience for us but, after years of seeing so many incredible artists, acts and music live, we’re likely to be taking a more considered approach to the events we attend, possibly only attending those gigs or festivals where we’re confident of the quality of the show and our surroundings.

That’s not to say 2022 hasn’t brought us a lot of very happy memories though. See for yourself in our 2022 highlights!

We’ll kick off with our rundown playlist which, this year, is compiled solely of tracks from artists from gigs or festivals we’ve been to; nothing from postponed or cancelled events this time round. Why don’t you pop it on while you give our review a read?

Our favourite moments:

1. Glass Animals at Glastonbury Festival –Worthy Farm, Somerset – 22-26/06/22 (being back at Glastonbury, watching our boys, one of us from shoulder level!)
2. Bad Nerves – House of Vans, London – 19/05/22 (such an awesome venue, such an awesome gig)
3. Tempelhof Sounds Festival (particularly Florence and The Machine) – Berlin, Germany – 10-12/06/22 (three 👌🏻 days of 👌🏻 music)
4. Parcels – Brixton Academy, London – 30/09/22 (the energy and atmosphere that night was electric, and the band played such a fresh set)
5. Nothing But Thieves at Community Festival – Finsbury Park, London – 16/07/22 (as you’ll see, Kate has become a little bit obsessed, so getting to see the band live was pretty special!)

And the most disappointing was probably the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs comeback gig at Brixton Academy – we’d been so excited but it fell a bit flat for us unfortunately. 

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

1. Glass Animals
2. Bicep
3. Bad Nerves
4. The Murder Capital
5. IDLES

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

1. Grandbrothers (heard on a yoga playlist 🧘🏼‍♀️)
2. The Spencer Lee Band (behind one of Kate’s favourite tracks, River Water, discovered in San Pancho, Mexico)
3. Yeasayer (no longer together but another favourite track, 2080, shared by a friend)
4. Franc Moody (a staple on the bar playlist during Kate’s time in Ecuador)
5. SNAYX (supporting Bad Nerves at Sebright Arms)

Kate’s travels have also led to a love of Latino artists and music…

Our favourite venues:

1. House of Vans, London
2. Alexandra Palace, London
3. Gorilla, Manchester
4. The Dome, London
5. Village Underground, London

And we have a new entry for the worst this year: HERE at Outernet – a new London venue that is trying oh so hard but just isn’t hitting the mark (and the £9 for a small can of hard seltzer doesn’t help their case!)

Our favourite albums:

1. Florence and The Machine – Dance Fever (released 13^th May)
2. Bastille – Give Me The Future (released 4^th February)
3. The Snuts – Burn The Empire (released 30^th September)
4. Wet Leg – Wet Leg (released 8^th April)
5. Jeremy Peter Allen – Algorithm & Blues (released 9th November)

This was a tough one this year as we’ve found ourselves listening more to older albums we only discovered this year.

Our year in numbers:

• Number of gigs – 35 (our tally is back on the up!)
• Festivals – 8 (we didn’t do too badly in terms of festi-feels)
• Number of events cancelled or postponed – 5 (sadly the year started out with more postponements and closed on a particularly sour note after the incident at Brixton Academy)
• Number of bands we hadn’t seen before – 16 (we think, this was harder to calculate this year)
• Act we saw the most – Idles 4 times (even if we don’t fully remember one of them…)
• Number of venues – 29 (with mixed opinion on whether we’ll go back to some)
• Number of geographical locations – 6 (not just London and Manchester in the mix this year)
• Number of countries visited – 4 (international gigs are back!) 
• Number of flights taken – 6 (for gig-purposes anyway, Kate’s clocked up a fair few more…)
• Number of trains taken – 3 (and 3 coaches)
• Reviewing Spotify‘s Wrapped for this year, Kate listened to 27,158 minutes of music (similar to last year and still 82% more than other listeners in the UK). She played 1,659 songs, from 1,135 artists, spanning 62 genres (with modern rock staying on top…despite Spotify throwing in quite a selection of bogus ones!) Nothing But Thieves were her top artist (she was in their top 0.5% of listeners), with her rocking out to them for a negligible 1,851 minutes (in fact, she clocked up 70 listens of Moral Panic 😅).

2023 is likely to be a different kind of year for the Blog, with live music taking more of a back seat. We’ll continue to keep you posted on our plans but we can’t promise we’ll be sharing that much content. That said, we already have a packed calendar in the first quarter of the year, so it won’t be losing significance altogether; it’s simply time to focus our energies elsewhere.

Our Upcoming Events page will continue to be updated with our latest plans for musical fun and adventures but, in the meantime, let the music play! 🎶

We’re Lost In Music x

You can check out some of our favourite pictures 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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