The Society of S

The Society of S by Susan Hubbard

If you haven’t read the book already and plan on going on to read it then I shall try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible. The Society of S is the tale of 13 year old Ariella Montero, who has been shielded from the rest of the world by her father, Raphael Montero. She was not allowed out to meet other children, was home tutored by her father and brought up to believe she had a disease which could harm her if she didn’t keep to a strict diet and didn’t go into crowd. The book is split into 3 sections detailing a different part of Ariella’s journey to finding out and becoming who she really is. At times Ariella comes across older than she actually is, and you find you have to remind yourself she isn’t 17 years old, rather a 13 year old with great intelligence and conforms to what people expect of her to begin with. Susan Hubbard has a great writing style, which really lets you connect with the protagonist and shows you how her mind works. Her use of references to Authors and Poets really creates a voice for her characters and shows the relationship the protagonist and her father share. In the final 2 sections, we are introduced to a number of easily disposable characters and the plot becomes very rushed as if Hubbard is trying her hardest to make a plot. We aren’t introduced to the Society in which the title of the novel speaks of, until very near the end and even then it’s only a fleeting few paragraphs. I will give this novel 3.5 stars out of 5, as I found there was not a particularly well developed plot that engages the reader. However the protagonist Ariella makes up for it I feel, with her strong personality and intelligence. But not enough to bring the rating of this book up. I feel the only reason I might go on to read the sequels, is to find out about the loose ends that are brought in towards the end of the novel. But even that cliff-hanger is easily resolved if you paid attention to a comment toward the end of the first section.

The Society of S.
Source; Goodreads.com

All Time Low concert review.

All Time Low

On January 18^th, two friends and I went to see pop punk band All Time Low with supports, The Maine and We Are The In Crowd. At concerts like these, you can always guarantee to see some interesting looking people, who hate you for no apparent reason. But then again, there are also the people that make you feel completely at home and you don’t even know them.

We Are The In Crowd

The atmosphere at this concert was brilliant; everybody was so excited you could practically hear the collective sound of everyone’s heart beating out of their chest. The first to play was We Are The In Crowd, who aren’t all that well known over here in the UK but nevertheless they still put on a brilliant performance. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t have high expectations of seeing this band but their songs are catchy and the singer, Tay Jardine, is a lovely lady who really got the crowd involved.  Don’t get tricked into believing that they are  Paramore but with different members, because they really aren’t. Their songs aren’t quite as heavy as some of Paramore’s songs and their style leads more towards the pop side of the genre pop punk. I can honestly say that their performance alone made me want to go home straight away and buy their albums. Their performance gets a very well deserved 7/10.

The second support to play was The Maine, and by this point in the night, everybody was overheating but well prepared for the headliners. The Maine are a band of 5 men (I use the term men lightly. They’re like children.) From Arizona, USA. They’ve been in the industry for about 5 years now, and it was my first time tonight seeing them. It was one of the top 3 greatest performances I’ve ever seen. You can honestly tell that they love what they’re doing as it shows in their music, which had everybody dancing and singing along. They talked to the crowd, got them to laugh and really connected with us all. They played about 7-8 songs, most from their latest album Pioneer, but some of their classics from Black and White, and also Can’t Stop Won’t Stop. Front man, John O’Callaghan really puts his heart and soul into the songs he performs, as do the rest of the band. All in all I’d give their performance for the night at a 9/10.

The Maine

Finally it was time for the big moment, the main event. Everybody waited in anticipation to finally see the headliners All Time Low, and the welcoming they received was spectacular. This was my 4^th time seeing them, and they have yet to let me down. They were in high spirits tonight, making their usual jokes, pointing people out in the crowd and insulting one another. This was the tour for their latest album, Dirty Work, which whilst the actual recorded songs weren’t brilliant, when heard live you were converted and actually started to like the sound of them. The band themselves are very energetic, jumping across the stage and diving into the crowd, it’s a surprise they have the energy considering they tour 9 months out of the year. They played all of their classic songs such as Jasey Rae, Popping Champagne and Six Feet Under The Stars, they also played new songs which don’t particularly get played live a lot, along with songs from Dirty Work such as Guts, I feel like dancin’ and Time Bomb. To add to the atmosphere the lighting was absolutely fantastic, their light designer, Jeff Maker II is truly brilliant, he was lighting up the back drop and making words appear across an LED board which had the crowd laughing. The Guitarist Jack always jumps into the crowd, and the reactions this gets is pretty scary but so much fun as well. You could tell that there were people in the audience who were there just to try and ruin the night for other people, you could also tell that the parents that had accompanied some of the younger children were slightly uncomfortable with the language being used by the front man, Alex Gaskarth, but it didn’t spoil the night for anybody. Overall, All Time Low’s performance warrants a 10/10 because they get better and better every single time, and they always put on a brilliant performance.

Greg Spero Gig review.

Chicago meets Lanercost.

On the 5^th April 2012, walking into Dacre Hall at Lanercost I didn’t know what to expect of the musician Greg Spero, having never heard his music before. However if the atmosphere of the audience was anything to go off, then I was feeling positive anticipation. We arrived at Dacre Hall at 7:10pm so we had 20 minutes to wait until the show began. Dacre Hall itself is an old stone building with a spectacular wood panelled fire place and quite a small venue.  

Soon enough the main lights were all turned off, and in the centre of the room where the band was set up, a spotlight shone. Greg Spero, a young man from Chicago, who is exceptionally talented on the piano, was putting on a performance and he was backed by Andy Champion on the bass and Adrian Tilbrook on the drums. They started off by performing the song ‘Hills’, a catchy song that sounds even more beautiful live than it does on Spero’s album ‘Acoustic’. After playing the first song, he spoke to us about his adventures so far in England, and his excitement about playing for us at a sold out show. The next 2 songs he played for us were ‘Autumn Leaves’ and ‘When I fall in love’, which are just a couple of examples of the musical talent that Spero possesses. He then proceeded to play the song ‘Universe’. The song ‘Universe’ is a beautiful piece of music that you find yourself getting lost in whilst listening to it, but not only do you get lost in its beauty but Greg seemed to completely immerse himself into the performance.  The first set ended with a cover of Miles Davis’ ‘Blue in Green’ which completely compliments the original, and even that is an understatement. Local Saxophonist Roz Sluman joined in with some of the performances. Simply saying that she’s brilliant doesn’t do her justice, the crowd loved seeing her perform and she honestly was amazing.

 The second half of the night’s performance was set into motion with a cover of The Beatles song ‘Blackbird’ which added a new twist to a classic song; whilst still complimenting it with Spero’s musical grace. The second song to be played was a cover of ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ performed by Judy Garland and Harold Arlen, which like the original was very beautiful. After this came the song ‘Footprints’, which is a lovely little number that sounds absolutely great. Then he performed ‘Latin Fusion Blues’ which can also be found on album ‘Acoustic’, it’s a more upbeat song but it’s catchy and performed brilliantly. A rendition of ‘Sly’ by Herbie Hancock followed ‘Latin Fusion  Blues’ and it was just as wonderful as the original, along with all the other songs this shows off his obvious talent. The final song Spero performed for us was ‘Stella by Starlight’, this song was the perfect song to close with, it’s upbeat and you remember it once it’s finished.

He obviously puts his heart and soul into the performances, as they sound absolutely wonderful. Greg comes across as a very charismatic man who interacts well with the audience. He asked the audience what they wanted to hear and the fulfilled their requests. This in my eyes makes him a good performer. Obviously Spero isn’t the only person to thank for an evening of wonderful music, there’s also Andy Champion, Roz Sluman and Adrian Tilbrook who all performed splendidly. The evening was absolutely fantastic, and I completely recommend listening to Greg Spero as his music is truly beautiful and he needs to be heard.

Spero's acoustic album universe.