Event: Aloft Hotel Liverpool Launch Party.

 

 

If there's one thing that I miss from my teenage days, it's going to concerts. Before I gained adult responsibilities, most of the money that I had was spent on trips to Manchester to see my favourite bands and artists perform. These days, I am lucky if I am able to enjoy the sound of live music once or twice a year, so when Franchesca dropped me an email about the launch party of  Liverpool's new Aloft Hotel, which would fulfill both my duties as a blogger and my love for music all at once, I was RSVPing before I even knew the details.

On Thursday, armed with my blogger event essentials (my camera, my phone and my two blogging pals, Deni and Hollie), I hot-footed it down to Liverpool's swanky new 4-star hotel. Based in the former Royal Insurance Building in the heart of Liverpool City Centre, Aloft have taken a stunning, Grade II listed building and put a modern twist on it, with lots of minimalistic designs, neon lights and sleek seating areas contrasting against the ornate ceiling and suspended candle light chandeliers.

 

Aloft decided to pay homage to Liverpool's cultural status and music heritage for their launch in the city by teaming up with unique music movement, Sofar Sounds, whose mission is to bring the magic of live music back to life by creating a unique music experience through hosting secret gigs in intimate venues around the world. Together, they brought forward a night filled with small intimate gigs in various rooms throughout the hotel (yes, that included inside guest rooms, conference areas and the hotel lobby). Between glasses of champagne, photobooth fun and the best sliders in the world, the girls and I had the chance to explore different areas of the hotel and enjoy the secret gigs being performed by some of Liverpool's emerging local talent. Highlights of the night for me were the soft and meaningful sounds of James Canty (check out one of his gorgeous songs, Putney Bridge here) and his acoustic guitar and banjo, and JC and the Two-Steps, a Merseyside-based cover band who tore the hotel lobby down with their own versions of songs by Michael Jackson, The Coral, Johnny Cash, Beyoncé and more.

 

When Aloft Liverpool isn't being turned in to a venue for secret gigs, celebrity hangouts and glitzy-glam launch parties, it is a 4-star hotel (the fourth Aloft Hotel to open in Europe) housing 116 modern, loft-like guest rooms, with the W XYZ bar located on the ground floor for guests who fancy sipping on a cocktail or two whilst enjoying some live entertainment, or an all-day New York-themed restaurant for anybody visiting the city who want a stylish bite to eat. They are currently offering rooms with up to 20% off for stays completed before March 2015, so if you're planning a little weekend getaway to Liverpool City Centre, check out Aloft Hotel's deals here.

 

Have you had the chance to visit Aloft Liverpool yet?

 

Frances x

 

What I'm Currently Loving: Music

So, I originally didn't have a blog post planned for today but I have been lay in bed watching music videos for the past couple of hours (I know, I am the epitome of wild, I know how to spend my Saturday nights) and I got the urge to write something, so this is a bit of a spontaneous one.

Something that I haven't spoken about much on my blog is music, which is strange as it has been one of the loves of my life since the age of twelve or thirteen, when I watched School of Rock for the first time. I begged my dad to buy me a bass guitar (I was far too hipster at this age to go for something mainstream like the guitar) and I decided I was going to be a rock star one day. Whilst I am still working on that dream ( ;) ), I have taught myself how to play the bass and the guitar (I would learn every instrument if I could; I would LOVE to be able to play the piano and the cajon), sang in the shower (and whilst tidying my room, and whilst stuck in traffic in the car, etc, etc, there may even be cringey clips of me singing floating around on the internet, but we'll save that for another day) a lot and developed an undying passion for attending concerts and festivals. 

Not a day goes by where I don't listen to music, and one of my favourite things to do is scour the "browse" and "discover" tabs on Spotify for new, budding artists, the current most popular songs and the golden oldies that I had forgotten about. I am an open-minded person when it comes to music; there isn't a genre that I don't like and I don't have a favourite either. It is all down to opinion, of course, but I define a "good" song by the way it makes me feel, whether it's an upbeat melody that makes me want to move, a lyric that I relate to so much I could have written it myself, or the passion in the artist's voice that makes the hairs on my arms stand up. I have so much respect for artists who write their own material/ play their own instruments and I love analysing the meaning of songs.

So, since I am currently having a music video marathon, I thought I would leave you with a few (just a few, I could go on for days!) of my current favourite songs, artists and music videos at the moment, which I will no doubt have ruined for myself by this time next week from listening to them on repeat.

George Ezra- Budapest

Magic!- Rude

Michael Jackson- Slave To The Rhythm

Sia- Chandelier

Nico & Vinz- Am I Wrong

Kodaline- High Hopes

Kodaline- Love Like This

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down- When We Swam

Jagwar Ma- Uncertainty

I hope you love these songs as much as I do, and maybe you have discovered something new?

What are your favourite songs at the moment? I'd love to know!

Frances x

Festival Number 6, 2013.

Oh, life. August was such a good month for me; I managed to blog pretty much every single day and now here I am on September 24 and it's my first post of the month. I'm pretty annoyed with myself to say the least.

However, sometimes we can't help when problems arise and we need to take a little time to ourselves, so I was over the moon when I heard that I had won the Pearl and Butler competition for two camping tickets to Festival Number 6 (thank you, thank you, thank you!), and last Friday I found myself equipped with a tent and my sleeping bag, on the road to the gorgeous Portmeireon village in Wales

It must have been at least four or five years since I last visited Portmeireon and I definitely felt that I appreciated the scenery more now that I am a little older. It's truly stunning, like a fairytale village with it's winding cobbled paths, pastel-painted buildings and water-side cliff location, and it was certainly a nice change from the usual Bramham and Donington Park festival backdrops. The weather wasn't on our side when my friend and I arrived, and we were feeling rather soggy as we walked down towards the main arena in our wellies and stylish plastic cagoules, after finally winning the battle against our tent and the pouring rain. This hardly hindered our spirits though; one thing I love most about festivals is that the atmosphere seems amazing whatever the weather, getting muddy is all part of the experience and we were still looking forward to seeing Everything Everything perform that evening (who, might I add, absolutely blew me away; they are AMAZING live). Admittedly, I hadn't heard of a lot of the bands on the line up prior to the festival and after seeing that Manic Street Preachers and My Bloody Valentine were headlining I was half expecting the festival to be something geared more towards the older generation. Which, in some ways, it was; there were definitely a lot more dad-dancing 40-odd-year-olds than you would come across at Leeds/Reading or Creamfields, but I think Festival Number 6 has that magic touch of catering for all ages and genres. I was pleasantly surprised by the talent and definitely discovered some new music which I have not stopped listening to since, some of the highlights being the angelic vocals from London Grammar, the heavier trip-hop vibe from Tricky, and being transported back to those cheesy family wedding do's in my childhood 90s days with Chic and Nile Rodgers, who brought a party to the Number 6 main stage with popular 70s hits such as Everybody Dance and We Are Family.

I also have to take a bit of time to talk about the food. Oh my. I had totally intended on being as healthy as possible over the weekend, packing myself some cereal bars, cupasoups and a bunch of bananas before I left my house. I was defeated within an hour of my arrival, however, when I was faced with the smell of hot waffles, churros and chocolate, pizza dough and the ultimate rainy-day-comfort-food, paella (chicken and chorizo and vegetarian half-and-half; ah-mazing), wafting over from the on-site food vendors. Not to mention the produce market which sold freshly-baked bread and the most amazing chocolate brownies and cupcakes from One Sweet Day. Needless to say, I'm glad we arrived quite late on the Friday afternoon as this meant that we had to walk quite a distance to find a camping spot, and I am convinced that walking back and to between our tent and the arena three or four times a day is the only thing that saved me from gaining a few extra inches on my waistline.

Overall, I had an amazing weekend, and Festival Number 6 is definitely one that I would return to again and I would recommend it to anybody who is up for a different, more relaxed festival experience that is full of culture. There was so much to see and do that it was impossible to experience everything, such as the morning yoga sessions, the aerial dance performance, the 60-strong Brythoiaid male choir and even the showing of Shane Meadow's film Made of Stone which was being screened in the No.6 cinema, all of which I regretably missed. For the people who are more into the clubbing scene they also held multiple woodland raves with DJs like Horse Meat Disco, Audio Farm and Drunk At Vogue, so people could dance away in to the early hours of 2-3AM.

 

It was also a much-needed break away and I returned home feeling refreshed and motivated, ready to get back in to blogging. Expect lots of posts coming your way! :)

Have you ever been to Portmeireon or experienced Festival Number 6?

*DISCLOSURE: A huge thank you to Pearl and Butler and Mission PR for providing me with weekend camping tickets for this wonderful festival!