First gig this year for Brighton's Yumi And The Weather

Yumi And The Weather – the music project of Brighton-based singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ruby Taylor – hasn’t performed since December last year.
Yumi And The WeatherYumi And The Weather
Yumi And The Weather

But Ruby finally gets the chance as part of the new series of concerts Live Is Alive! taking place in Brighton Dome and via livestream over four consecutive Saturday evenings from October 17 to November 7.

Each event will feature local emerging artists and bands, programmed and presented in collaboration with grassroots music venues.

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Brighton Dome will host the small-scale performances in its Concert Hall, open to audiences for the first time since closing in March. Tickets are limited to 250 each night, presented in a cabaret-style seating format, as well as offering a live stream for viewers to watch online.

Ruby is on the first night, October 17.

“My last gig was December last year. It has been so long!” she says. “I am just really excited about this first gig back being at the Dome. We had a tour booked and it got cancelled. We were going to have ten dates. It was going to be end of April, early May, and I was touring with an artist that was coming over from Australia. That didn’t happen.

“It was a pain, but I am not used to gigging too much. This would have been the first few proper dates, but I have always loved recording. Really it was just the stress of having to reorganise dates. That was the saddest thing and was just a waste of time. And then you get used to not doing anything, and it becomes a routine. You get adjusted to it for a while. You get used to the quietness. And then it is OK and things start happening again and you get back into the vibe.”

Ruby put lockdown to good use: “I wrote an EP, a five-track EP which is coming out in December, and I did a lot of painting, and I started looking into the virus and just hearing all the different people saying different things.”

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The EP won’t be directly about the pandemic “It is more about not thinking too much about the future and not being scared of not really knowing what is going to be happening, about being strong. That’s the main thing it is about. It is about not letting the darkness take over. It is about not letting the fear take over. It is a hopeful EP. It is also quite funny. There is one song where I imagine Boris Johnson singing one of the verses. In the music video I wave my arms about a bit!”

The full line-up for Saturday, October 17 offers West African fusion, funk, ska, electropop – an off-the-wall ode to Brighton’s cultural diversity and next-level underground talent.

Immersion is presented by CHALK Live, promising “enthralling, unique musical soundscapes.” Although the influence Tangerine Dream and Popal Vuh is detectable, Immersion have evolved their own far more personal sound, lining up an “amalgam of fascinating textures and limpid melodies.”

Bakk Lamp Fall is presented by Latest Music Bar. Bakk Lamp Fall translates as ‘light into darkness’ in the Senegalese language Wolof. Their music is a contemporary fusion with strong roots in the Baye Fall tradition from Touba, Senegal. The line-up combines a West African percussion section with some of the finest UK instrumentalists, led the vocal power of singer Khadim Sarr.

Yumi And the Weather is presented by St George’s Church

The Bar Stool Preachers are presented by The Pipeline, promising a night of high energy, bringing their unique blend of political power and equality to the stage.