Review: Lucy Spraggan at the 2Q Festival
On Saturday 9th April 2016, CelebMix headed to the sold out 2Q Festival in Derby, England to review some artists. XFactors Lucy Spraggan played a set at the Guildhall Theatre and was by far one of the funniest artists at the festival.
At the festival CelebMix spoke to a few people around the 6 different venues playing live music and asked them who they were excited to see, the popular response was Lucy Spraggan amongst names such as Seafret, We Are The Ocean and Eliza and the Bear.
Lucy auditioned for The XFactor UK in 2012 where she performed her very own song Last Night however, she quit her time on the show due to illness, but that hasn’t stopped her, she’s still playing professional live shows and after seeing her performance yesterday evening that makes us very, very happy!
Lucy walked onto the stage all smiles announcing who she was and giving a very friendly and welcoming hello to the audience. The audience cheered and screamed with excitement as fans realised that this was the moment they would finally get to see one of their favourite artists play on stage, in front of their eyes. Lucy welcomed the cheers by cracking a joke about the audience being very excitable and “crazy”.
Before performing her first song Lighthouse Lucy talked about how she lived in Buxton not too far away from the gig she was playing, she cracked a joke about Buxton, where she once lived, being like Bakewell but without the cake and “only water”. Lucy expressed her pleasure at being back performing in the area and performed a beautiful acoustic rendition of her song, Lighthouse. During the performance audience members recognised her song and sang along, Lucy noticed this and encouraged them to sing along if they knew the song. At one point during the performance, Lucy taught the audience the bridge to the song and asked them to sing along. See a clip of the performance below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HnhIs9lVlU&feature=youtu.be
After a lot of banter between the audience and Lucy and a few upbeat songs, she stunned the audience to silence with a few deeply emotional songs such as Tea and Toast which she introduced with a story of how she was inspired by a moment she witnessed, while busking in the streets before she got regular, professional gigs, where an elderly lady collapsed and her elderly husband refused to let go of his wife’s hand throughout the whole ordeal. After hearing her perform this song there were dry eyes in the audience, but only just! Another emotional song played was a song she introduced as one that was inspired by a friend who works with children who are put in vulnerable and difficult home life situations that Lucy described as “something nobody should go through, not adults, let alone children”. The song, Paper Cuts is a truly saddening song of a real life situation and we fully support Lucy bringing this to our attention through lyrical beauty and such vocal diversity (we may have cried here.) Watch the performance in the video below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILB50v8uefg&feature=youtu.be
With all these songs that make you feel something and make your eyes well up (we admit to a few tears…), it’s clear to see that Lucy is a natural born singer and songwriter. You can hear the raw emotion in her voice and see it in her face, which definitely draws you to her and makes her a very interesting performer, not only to watch but to listen to. Lucy also made a running joke about singing this joke to a backing track, her keyboardist was unable to perform at 2Q so she joked about them being unreliable and spoke about awkward musical intervals to a backing track.
Lucy in her emotional performances gave a shout out to Mental Health after her saddening experience losing somebody she knew to depression. We salute you Lucy for being honest and open about mental health, we shed a tear through your performance of dedicated song Dear You.
We have another clip for you from the festival, Lucy performed Unsinkable and the audience were asked to sing along. The audience interaction really made us feel welcome at her set and definitely made the show what it was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sRpud-hIqk&nohtml5=False
Welcoming new fans in the audience, and recognising those there from the beginning and from her XFactor days Lucy spoke about her experience on the show and about how leaving made her feel. Lucy gave a very honest account of her feelings towards the show and performed her song Uninspired, which is inspired by her time on XFactor. During Uninspired, Lucy actually got one verse in and started humming along admitting to forgetting the words to her own song and laughing it off. The audience laughed with her and the following day she thanked the audience for being one of the best she’s had at a festival and even reminded us of her lyrical memory lapse. It’s ok, Lucy. You’re forgiven and gave us a laugh!
Really, really loved @2QFestival.
The loveliest and most attentive festival audience I've ever had!
— Lucy Spraggan (@lspraggan) April 9, 2016
Take a listen to the audio clip below!
https://youtu.be/sQznjsDwULw
Lucy thanked her audience for coming to the show and walked off stage, only to be demanded back on stage for an encore where she came back on stage and announced she would sing one last song, inspired by daytime TV host and show Jeremy Kyle. During the performance, Lucy noticed that her guitar amp wasn’t working so Lucy, being the professional she is, carried on with an acoustic guitar while backstage they tried to figure the technical fault out. While the staff at the venue tried to change over the guitar while Lucy is singing, Lucy carried on and stamped her foot to keep the rhythm where the audience joined in clapping as she sang. Lucy swapped guitars and the performance continued as normal. It was such a great moment to witness, Lucy showed her true potential and blew us away!
The venue was small, which made the performance very personal and intimate allowing Lucy and the audience to really bounce off one another through Lucy’s great sense of humour. It was amazing hearing the stories behind each song Lucy has written, and then performed for us. Most of Lucy’s music, minus one or two songs, were played by her on her guitar as she sang which really added to the live music experience. If you’re thinking of seeing Lucy Spraggan live or buying her new album ‘We Are’ after seeing this gig review and watching the clips we urge you to do it because you will not be disappointed. Her setlist included songs such as Mountains, Unsinkable, Paper Cuts, Jeremy Kyle, Lighthouse, Last Night (Beer Fear)and In a State. Lucy Spraggan is a natural talent, a brilliant artist and has a very welcoming and loving personality.
Have you seen Lucy Spraggan live before? What do you think of the clips from 2Q? Let us know in the comments below or by Tweeting us @CelebMix.
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