Last Thursday music supervisors Soho Music kindly invited me to their event downstairs at Mother London. I was pretty excited about this, not just because it was the first event I’ve been asked to attend as a blogger, but also because it was going to feature an acoustic performance from Mercury nominated artist Ghostpoet (AND there was a promise of pizza).

The venue (Mother London) is the UK’s largest independent ad agency, and the creative brainpower behind campaigns for Ikea, Boots, Money Supermarket (Snoop Dogg!) and many more. Soho Music puts on showcases in agencies every few months, ranging from lunchtime sessions to fully-fledged evening productions. Carly, one of the lovely team members explained why:

“It’s a great way to interact with our clients, and get people thinking about music in a really creative way. It’s also a great way to introduce agencies to new music and artists which we think are relevant to the brands they work with… and really, who doesn’t like a party!”

I arrived on the night to sound checking and a glorious aroma, as the Soho Music team appeared having raided Pizza East. After taking time to appreciate the agency interiors, complete with a wall of portraits of employees’ mothers (!!), I had a drink and introduced myself.

The gig was set up in a small room with an elephant’s bottom in one corner (yes, you heard me). Ghostpoet and his acoustic band, including a great female vocalist, began their set with ‘Cold Win’, an emotion fuelled track from his latest album Some Say I So I Say Light. Next up is ‘Them Waters’, a song about the Thames, and ‘Plastic Bag Brain’, my favourite so far with its catchy guitar hook. The man himself, born Obaro Ejimiwe, is funny and down to earth, addressing the room as ‘mum’ and ‘mama’. After several more songs, including ‘Survive it’ (his “mantra”), the band ended with ‘Meltdown’, a reflective track about the aftermath of a relationship.

After the gig we all headed for more drinks round the corner, and I had a brilliant time getting to know everyone. Interested in the work Soho Music had done recently, I asked Carly to tell me more:

“I think some of our favourite recent syncs would have to be the Schwartz ‘Sound Of Taste’ campaign we just finished working on with Grey, where we got MJ Cole to score a beautiful piece of piano music for the film. The music was actually written first, and the film shot around it – which is quite an unusual way to work. We are also very proud of the Coke #reasonstobelieve campaign we worked on. We found the song (You Got The Love) and talent (Milly Pye) for this, as well as licensing the music and overseeing the re record. It was great to be involved in so many aspects of the creative right from the very start.”

All in all I’d like to thank Soho Music and Ghostpoet for a fantastic evening!

E x