WM: Will Manning

Thursday night in West London, some people stay in and watch TV, others go to the pub, some just work through the night but the music lovers head to the Notting Hill Arts club for their infamous Thursday night YoYo’s. On the bill is new Warner signee Smiler.

After reading Smiler’s twitter late Thursday afternoon I saw him say “They want me to take 100 names off the G list, I said no, get down before 8 tonight #yoyos” at this point I panicked, I wasn’t planning on even leaving my house (30 mins away) until 8:30 – plans immediately changed.

After driving around Notting Hill for what seemed like eternity my friend and I turned up to YoYo’s expecting it to be rammed, there was actually about 60 people there, when I last went and Delilah performed I could barley move – this was odd I thought. Turns out that set times had been pushed back by 20 mins or so and all the “cool” people were yet to turn up, I was a little bit keen.

A female by the name of Ella Chi hit the stage with her full band who sounded insane, so so tight, so full of feeling, it was a great vibe. Her voice was also extremely listenable, from the first beat of the drum my head was off… banging throughout her 20 minute set.

Ella Chi – Never Were The One

After Ella’s set I headed to the bar as I was told Happy Hour would start in 20 mins, seeing as Ella’s set was 20 minutes long it was bang on time, I got there and apparently Happy Hour was over – more like happy 3 seconds.

10:20 and the man we all went to see Smiler had hit the stage kicking off with the very strong Rocksteady taken from his latest mixtape All I Know – the crowd were loving it and so was Smiler, he had worked hard for this moment, after milling around on the underground scene for some time this was his time to shine and prove his worth, clearly Warner had already seen the huge potential, a very good decision in my eyes because his stage presence was like an experienced pro and his band were unbelievably tight.

Smiler – Rocksteady

Bless My Soul was another track which showed the crowd how much this meant to Smiler, admitting after that he got “kind of lost during that one.” I think the crowd got kind of lost too as the energy levels were high, again, my head and my foot were in a world of their own.

Smiler also brought 3 guests on during the night, one by name of Sam Roman, the hilarious Bigz who threw some amazing faces and weird gestures which I was loving and also a female singer called Amy and I can’t for the life of me remember her sur name but she had a great voice.

All in all we left feeling very satisfied, Smiler had destroyed the place just like I had expected and I had heard a new talent, Ella Chi. Thurday night had never sounded so good.

Thanks to the man that is Tom Dark at Warner.