Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ULTIMATE Caity gears up for L of a tour
iIn the space of a year Caity Baser has gone from playing to tiny crowds in her Brighton base to spinning off on a massive tour of Britain and Ireland.
Fashioned from the Taylor Swift-billy Eilish-olivia Rodriguez mould of intelligent pop that pulls from vast points of reference, the 21-year-old has the voice, attitude and style to join the big league propelled by her new album Still Learning.
Her tour takes her round the parts in venues of all sizes and culminates in the Hammersmith Apollo after having performed to around 40,000 people.
Impressive stuff for the young singer but she’s not getting any grand ideas about herself just yet – despite the widespread appeal of her music, her ambition and obvious talent.
In fact, Caity is keenly aware of where her burgeoning success comes from – her fanbase – and is doing everything in her power to keep prices as low as possible. She explained: “As I hope people know by now, I like to make everything I do as accessible as possible to everyone, and I wouldn’t want someone to not come to one of my shows because of money – especially with everything that’s going on in the world at the moment.
“We’re all in this together and without all of my fans none of this would be happening. You got me here, so you should be there at my shows.
“Being on stage is my absolute favourite place to be, ever. My shows have been crazy – within a year I’ve gone from playing my first show to 150 people, to huge sold-out shows, massive festival main stages, everyone shouting back all the lyrics to me... which is still crazy to think about. But it’s only made me want to go bigger and better for this tour.
Caity Baser plays Limelight 2 on Sunday. Doors 7pm, tickets from ticketmaster.ie.
It’s impressive that Stendhal is able to hold its own in these uncertain times. More impressive still is that it actually seems to be bucking the trend by managing to secure some massive names for the summer festival in Limavady.
The trick is to be creative – look round for acts that will have maximum impact rather than chase the latest, fleeting chart-topper – and the organisers seem to have a knack for doing just that.
Who’d have thought a farmland in the Roe Valley would be bouncing to the slick disco beats of Sister Sledge, the cut-and-paste folk of Turin Brakes or the legendary reggae of the Wailers? It’s hard to credit but they have all been headliners at Ballymully Cottage Farm since Stendhal came into being in 2011.
This year sees even more legendary figures grace the main stage at the festival with headliners including The Orb, Heather Smalls from M People, a Hot Chip DJ set and Gomez’s Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball celebrating 25 years of their seminal genre-crossing Bring It On and Liquid Skin albums.
Four top-quality acts, all very different, who will know how to get a festival crowd pumping.
But generally the acts down the roster are what give a festival its identity and Stendhal has a beautifully curated mix. There’s something for everyone with the one constant being quality.
There are still loads more to be announced but already friends of Ultimate Ulster are marking out who they are hoping to see. These include Derry singer songwriter Reevah, The Seeger Sessions Revival, Ye Vagabonds, The Showhawk Duo, Problem Patterns and Moon Landing (many of whom have featured on these very pages over the years).
But what grabs me most are a couple of supergroups – When
Ireland Rocked, a collaboration between The Answer’s Cormac Neeson and Pat Mcmanus formerly of Mamas Boys, and Dead Goat, a kind of local supergroup of supergroups featuring Mark Mccausland of Mckowski and The Lost Brothers fame, Stevie Scullion of Malojian and The Breeze, Decky Mcmanus of The Basement and The Breeze and the brilliant Matt Mcginn.
Festival Director Ross Parkhill says after 14 years it is becoming more and more difficult to top the line-up year on year but is confident this year will prove to be Stendhal’s best yet. He added: “We are so pleased to