CORDELIA GARTSIDE + MILER + NIERRA CREEK – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 9.3.25
We have been singing the praises of St Leonards-on-Sea based singer Cordelia Gartside ever since catching her performing at last year’s ‘Homegrown Festival’, in Brighton when she performed a set with her band at The Hope & Ruin on 13th April. Back then our reviewer Mark Kelly reported thus:
“Sometimes it’s just not good enough to have preconceived ideas about an artist. All the music I’d heard by Cordelia Gartside featured her singing with an acoustic guitar. But wait! As she takes the stage at The Hope & Ruin she is accompanied by a band! In addition to herself on electric guitar, she has a lead guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. Yes – a proper band!!! Not only that, her lead guitarist (who I believe is called Amy) is playing a PRS, which is the kind of guitar that only serious guitarists play, and as Amy shows in pretty short order, she is a serious guitarist. Cordelia is another great singer, extraordinary in fact. Her songs are grungy and emotional, with Amy unleashing peaks of crystalline notes throughout the set. Cordelia and her band remind me of Heartworms, but without the gothic overtones. Each song has a character of its own. You can tell that the songs are related, but they in no way sound the same. ‘Tonal’ is one of Cordelia’s newer songs that she has written as a ‘band’ song. It has quite a few time signature changes and reminds me of Throwing Muses, Belly and The Breeders. She should be on 4AD! ‘Hospital Corners’ is the last song. Cordelia tells us that after it finishes they’re “just going to run away”!!! Tellingly, throughout the set the audience don’t make a sound while the band is playing. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but Cordelia is another ‘find’!”.
Our next encounter was at the ‘Loud Women’ bash at Daltons on 1st June last year, where I was sharing reviewing duties of the six acts on the bill with my colleague Jess Kemp. That night Jess reviewed Cordelia’s set and her key observations included that “Gartside’s beautiful and skilful vocal drifts over the listener with a lightness of touch. Gartside is the master of her instruments employing her (brand new) effects pedals sparingly, using the strength of her vocals to hold the audience. There are few musicians who have this skill, the only thing breaking the audience’s rapt attention was their own applause at the end of each song”.
Our last encounter of 2024 with Cordelia was for her headline show at The Rossi Bar on 17th December. This was covered by Christian Le Surf and he ended his review by informing us that: “Following rapturous applause and cheer from the audience, I simply had to approach Cordelia post-haste and congratulate her on a wonderfully remarkable performance”.
Wind the clock forward to a number of days ago, 1st March to be precise, and we again had the pleasure of witnessing another set from Cordelia, this time it was for the ‘Hidden Herd All-Dayer’ at the Green Door Store. This featured no less than nine acts and the reviewing duties were split between myself, Ian Holman and Peter Greenfield. Peter wanted to review Cordelia’s set and he concluded his report thus: “For me, Cordelia Gartside was a standout performance among some exciting artists at Hidden Herd’s all-dayer. I wasn’t alone in thinking this, as a commonly heard phrase throughout Saturday night was “Did you catch Cordelia Gartside’s performance?”.
So this evening it was finally my turn to actually get to review Cordelia! Now I have to be perfectly honest in stating that any folk that understands my music taste, will know that Cordelia’s material sits well outside my normal musical preferences. However, having been totally transfixed and absorbed by her performance a mere eight days ago, I seriously wanted to catch her at the very earliest opportunity, just to double-check that the 1st March performance wasn’t a one-off freak!
So what do we know about Cordelia? Her press pack informs us that “Cordelia Gartside’s ‘lo-fi creep rock’ is deep, reflective, and powerfully cathartic, drawing comparisons to PJ Harvey, Radiohead and Black Country, New Road”. It goes on to say that “Months after starting her career Gartside was recording new singles at Hackney Road Studios. The songs gained strong acclaim and support from BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, and Amazing Radio– an impressive achievement for an independent artist”. It also adds that “After an early-career appearance at Glastonbury Festival, Gartside formed a permanent band in 2024, and is building momentum on the live scene. Standout shows in Brighton and London culminated in a headliner at The Lexington, which The Sound Sniffer described as “bursting with raw, invigorating energy.”
Cordelia dropped a trio of singles in 2023, these being ‘16ox’, ‘27’ and ‘december’. Then last year another four singles came out: ‘stranger in the water’, ‘machine’, precious’ and the recent ‘hospital corners’, which was chosen for BBC 6 Music’s Introducing Mixtape, and praised by Emily Pilbeam: “Cordelia’s voice really gets me… stoked to see what’ll come next.”
Tonight at the Green Door Store Cordelia is joined by Willow Simpson on lead guitar, Max Garner on drums and Tom Ironmonger on bass for their seven track set which ran from 10:00pm to 10:36pm. The quartet opened with two unreleased tunes, these being ‘Pay By The Hour’ and ‘Gone’ and one segued straight into the other. Cordelia gives us the first taste of her massively impressive vocal deliveries, one, in fact, that gets even better throughout this evening’s performance. No wonder Melita Dennett was left “stunned” after her mesmerising BBC Introducing Live Lounge performance.
Tune three, ‘All I Want’ is also unreleased, and this has a slower start than the previous two tunes and it’s a haunting melody that gains pace half way through. It has a late 1960’s vibe, but with world class vocals atop. Max carries on tapping away at the drumkit on the song’s conclusion and the remaining trio of musicians then begin selection four, ‘The Rapture’, which is as yet unreleased. For this decent new track the band rock on out and it’s a good sign of things to come methinks. The 2024 ‘Stranger In The Water’ single is the next selection and it’s a slow starter where guitarist Willow makes the instrument talk to us as if it’s a voice, it’s expertly played. This would be a good choice of tune to put on the record player at the beginning of an evening meal with treasured friends.
The penultimate selection is the ‘Hospital Corners’ single from last year. This has a different vibe from all the rest of Cordelia’s music this evening, in that there’s a hint of The Cranberries there in her vocal delivery, and yet halfway through she cuts such a frail figure as though she’s honestly hurting and reminiscing as to the subject matter of the song. I was almost expecting tears to run down her cheeks, it’s that intense. Her eyes though have the 1000 yard stare as they pierce through the front wall of the venue and beyond. I was literally totally transfixed whilst this was going on. It’s like hearing John Miles’ ‘Music’ for the first time! They signed off with ‘Good’ which they rock on out with, no wonder it was the final selection.
Well what can I say after our 36 minute encounter this evening? If there was real justice in the world, then Cordelia would be headlining Glastonbury and dueting with Paul McCartney! She’s honestly that good! We just need the world to catch us up, just like they did with Dua Lipa, who I reviewed playing at a not even full Hope & Ruin pub, before she was famous!
Cordelia Gartside:
Cordelia Gartside – vocals and guitar
Willow Simpson – lead guitar
Max Garner – drums
Tom Ironmonger – bass
Cordelia Gartside setlist:
‘Pay By The Hour’ (unreleased)
‘Gone’ (unreleased)
‘All I Want’ (unreleased)
‘The Rapture’ (unreleased)
‘Stranger In The Water’ (a 2024 single)
‘Hospital Corners’ (a 2024 single)
‘Good’ (unreleased)
There were two support artists on offer this evening, these being Miler and Nierra Creek.
First up were Nierra Creek who are flatmates consisting of Somerset songwriter Ryan Deag and Swiss producer Sebastian Müller, who are now based in Brighton. We first encountered them at The Folklore Rooms on 19th December 2023. Our reviewer that night was Peter Greenfield and he ended his report on them by stating: “Judging by the audience’s reaction, they enjoyed Nierra Creek’s electronic soundscapes very much”. Our next encounter was on 22nd June last year and again was at The Folklore Rooms. This time around the reviewer was Christian Le Surf who concluded his report by saying “As Ryan struts in front of the stage, he and Sebastian power towards the end expertly, leaving me on the biggest high and patiently awaiting the final act of the night…!”.
Eight months down the line and we are reviewing their theatrical show with a trusted DIY approach, but tonight it’s my turn and my debut encounter with the lads, who last September released their 4-track ‘You’ve Got This’ 7” EP on wonderful red vinyl. The tracks on the EP (‘Move Together Now’, ‘Conversations With Friends’, ‘Lately’ and ‘People’) were written in the remote country landscape where Ryan grew up. This helped shape the story of isolation and the craving for social connection. The lyrics elicit the feeling of expressing oneself whilst simultaneously feeling disconnected from the world. A self analysing and introspective deep dive that almost anyone could relate to.
Tonight we get a half dozen numbers, half of which are culled from the EP. They commence at 8pm on the dot with ‘Move Together Now’ which vocally reminded me of the brilliant Nation Of Language. In between each tune, there are what seem like in-the-field recordings of birds and scratching type noises, which adds to the intrigue of the performance. Tune two is the unreleased ‘Burn Out The Fire’ which has a decent electronic backbeat which is accompanied by seriously echoey vocals, which meet in the middle of Nation Of Language (and dare I say it) James Blunt. Selection three, ‘Lately’ (from the EP), interestingly starts with Ryan playing his Gibson guitar with a violin bow. After which, an electronic heartbeat sound came in and sounded like something that could have been found on OMD’s ‘Organisation’ album. It’s a mellow number, but Ryan’s vocals are delivered with real feeling, including some foot stomping.
They are now at the halfway mark, and next gave us a skippy beat style uptempo number, this being ‘Conversations With Friends’, from the EP. This featured some decent guitar twanging. They signed off with two as yet to be recorded tunes, these being ‘Born A Child’ and ‘I Try’. The former kicks off with both lads merrily strumming away on their guitars and after which Sebastian gives his modular synth some decent knob twiddling, as the backbeat kicks in. On ‘I Try’ Ryan samples layers of his vocals on top of each other and then he sounds not too far away from Glen Campbell and the electronic music sounds very much like Nation Of Language which is a big plus in my book and it’s the standout track of the set and at 8:30pm they were done and received rewarding claps and cheers from the punters. An act I would like to see again, maybe at one of those quarterly Midnight Salad events at The Rossi Bar, as that would be ideal for them.
Nierra Creek:
Ryan Deag – vocals, Guitar, Roland SP-404
Sebastian Müller – vocals, Guitar, modular Synths,
Nierra Creek setlist:
‘Move Together Now’ (from 2024 ‘You’ve Got This’ EP)
‘Burn Out The Fire’ (unreleased)
‘Lately’ (from 2024 ‘You’ve Got This’ EP)
‘Conversations With Friends’ (from 2024 ‘You’ve Got This’ EP)
‘Born A Child’ (unreleased)
‘I Try’ (unreleased)
Next up are Miler who up until recently were called Harper. But with artists now out there with the same and similar names, it was time for a change for this Brighton based outfit. For the record there’s actually a DJ called Miler, but we are tonight talking about the new Brighton band. The band lineup has also undergone an adaptation and so this evening the musicians are Calista Morgan (lead vocals and guitar), Nat Kardas (guitar), James Bowden (guitar), Mikey Squire (bass) and Joe Thorpe (drums). We have reviewed Harper a number of times over the last few years, with our last one being here at the Green Door Store on 25th September last year, which was covered by Peter Greenfield, who at the time said that “I enjoyed Harper’s set.”
Miler craft confessional dream-pop infused with elements of shoegaze and grunge. After a few trips around the sun building momentum on the city’s vibrant live circuit, the band have honed their ethereal sound and their recent name change marks the first step in a journey towards formally introducing themselves and unveiling new music. Already known for their immersive and spine-tingling live shows, Miler have headlined venues like Green Door Store and The Folklore Rooms, shared stages with Brighton favourites such as Van Zon, Cordelia Gartside, The Leaning and Baby Gem, and recently played alongside Lime Garden and ladylike for The Hope & Ruin’s 10th birthday celebrations.
Tonight we get a 31 minute live set comprising seven numbers, commencing with ‘Blister Pack’ and ‘Your Best’. The sound on these should keep Fleetwood Mac fans happy, and although this quintet have only been together for a short space of time, it’s already evident that they are already in harmony, and that there’s a powerful depth of sound going on. For tune three, ‘Dogwoods’, Joe notably uses different drumsticks to begin with, these being with felt balls at the tip, which certainly changes the sound. Meanwhile, Calista’s vocals are effortlessly delivered and they’re powerful too. ‘Sauchi’ is introduced as being the next song and this has a rockier vibe than the previous numbers, but still benefits from a full-on sound.
‘Dear Sweet’ is next introduced to us and this starts with echoey guitar, which is often heard in Richard Hawley’s repertoire. Calista’s vocals then crash in and they have an almost American twang to them, with a borderline Country music feel. It’s the best tune thus far and bodes well as it’s a newbie, plus it has some nice guitar shaking going on. This track then segues straight into ‘Think Of Me’ and this tune highlights that Calista has certainly come a long way and is now more confident than ever. They bid us farewell by playing ‘Killer’ which has a Patti Smith vibe to it. In fact my colleague tonight was rather taken aback and commented that it was the best he’s ever seen them…praise indeed!
Miler:
Calista Morgan – lead vocals and guitar
Nat Kardas – guitar
James Bowden – guitar
Mikey Squire – bass
Joe Thorpe – drums
Miler setlist:
‘Blister Pack’
‘Your Best’
‘Dogwoods’
‘Sauchi’
‘Dear Sweet’
‘Think Of Me’
‘Killer’
