Gigs dur­ing the day­time are such a great idea. Instead of the usu­al beers and warm white wine, at an event run by Day­light Music you can enjoy a cup of tea, deli­cious home made cakes, plus quiche and sausage rolls – there’s also a selec­tion of chil­dren’s drinks too. Then spend a cou­ple of hours lis­ten­ing to live music and still make it home by mid after­noon in time for, well, anoth­er cup of tea.

Day­light Music has been around for many years; I used to head along on Sat­ur­days to Union Chapel on Upper Street where they held their events. Their gigs are gen­er­al­ly set in church­es so typ­i­cal­ly fea­ture more mel­low, sooth­ing music. Post-lock­down, it seemed as though their shows had come to an end, but I was thrilled to dis­cov­er that Day­light Music had sim­ply relo­cat­ed to oth­er venues. One such spot is the very wel­com­ing and com­fort­able space of St John’s Church, Ley­ton­stone, where the mag­ic continues.

Sat­ur­day’s per­for­mance, from 12–2pm, was a Lost Map Records spe­cial, fea­tur­ing Flo Lines, After­lands and John­ny Lynch (Pic­tish Trail) doing a solo set. Flo’s mea­sured and con­tem­pla­tive sounds pro­vid­ed the per­fect start to the day.

After­lands, based in Scot­land, were defeat­ed by Storm Eowyn and were unable to dri­ve down to Lon­don. Look­ing for some­one last-minute to fill the slot, and also make the most of the church’s grand piano, John­ny Lynch called up Alex­is Tay­lor, of Hot Chip. For­tu­nate­ly he was able to make it!

Each per­former played around six songs each. Alex­is includ­ed his lat­est, A Day in the Life of a Tree, a Beach Boys num­ber which he has released with Rachel Kitch­lew & Alice Boyd, in sup­port of the con­ser­va­tion of nature’s most pre­cious and pre­car­i­ous ecosys­tems. This was fol­lowed by John­ny Lynch’s own set, punc­tu­at­ed with a few hilar­i­ous anec­dotes. With his new album on the hori­zon, we were treat­ed to a cou­ple of tracks from it.

Day­light Music has been a fix­ture for 15 years, but like much of the live music scene today, it relies on fund­ing to sur­vive. While Arts Coun­cil sup­port is avail­able for now, its long-term future needs sup­port too. Vis­it their web­site, attend an event, and don’t for­get to grab some of their great mer­chan­dise (and plen­ty of cake) to help secure their con­tin­u­a­tion and keep the music alive.

Look out for more events on their web­site at Day­light Music

Pho­tog­ra­phy ©oliviarosen

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