Mencap Music presents Little Noise Sessions 2008
In November 2006, the UK's leading learning disability charity, Mencap, teamed up with Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley to produce a series of exclusive acoustic gigs at The Union Chapel, a stunningly intimate 500-seater venue in London's Islington. Mencap's Little Noise Sessions offered the biggest names, the best new talent...and a few surprises.
Little Noise Sessions swiftly established itself as a week-long, indoor festival mixing established artists like Noel Gallagher and Amy Winehouse with new talent like Mika, Bat for Lashes and Newton Faulkner, all performing stunning acoustic sets to a hushed audience who were, for the most part, glued to their pews.
A surprise appearance on the final night by Coldplay's Chris Martin was the icing on the cake, raising the bar for Little Noise Sessions 2007 and leaving us (the organisers) with the question 'how on earth do we top that?'
Well, as Yazz and her plastic population once said, "the only way is up" and 2007, our sophomore year, was even bigger - we had sell-out headline performances from Snow Patrol, Keane, Athlete, Jack Penate, Kate Nash, The Kooks, Will Young, The Enemy and Biffy Clyro.
We also boasted an exceptionally strong line-up of artists playing second fiddle, among them Adele, The Hoosiers, Robyn, The Pigeon Detectives, We Are Scientists, Rilo Kiley and Billy Bragg, with new and emerging talent appearing in the form of Duffy, The Ting Tings, One Night Only, Laura Marling and Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong.
And if that wasn't enough, we had surprise appearances from Razorlight, The Feeling, Roisin Murphy and...wait for it...drum roll (but not too loud please, this is a church with an 85db noise limit)... Bono and The Edge from U2!
So in spite of, or perhaps because of, the success of 2007 we've found ourselves facing exactly the same question we did last year...how on earth... and once again we'll be using the wise words of Yazz and her plastic pals as our mantra.
The only way is up folks.
See you in church for Little Noise Sessions 2008.
The Little Noise team
