1pm Wednesday afternoon – while all the sports teams are out and about competing in their respective competitions, I am sat in Student Central, waiting for the next Coffee House gig. This Coffee House Session is a typical one: Student Central is pretty empty (come on music fans where are you?!) I’m on the hunt for my (what I estimate to be) fifth coffee – well, mocha, and as usual, I am confused about how to pronounce the artists’ name – just how I like my Wednesday afternoons to be. 😊
Where do I start with Joe McCorriston?! I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but he is honestly one of the best artists we’ve had for Coffee House Sessions. I’ve been attending Coffee House shows since early 2014 (yes, I’ve been at uni that long…), and along with Lee Rasdall-Dove, Guy Valarino, and LewRey (remember them?), Joe McCorriston’s gig here at Bradford is going to be one of the performances that will stay with me for a long time.
In terms of his music, the guitar part of his first song ‘It’s an Addiction’ sort of reminded of me of The Cure’s ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ for some reason. His second song, ‘Alive’, sounded like an acoustic one-man pop-punk band heavily influenced by Blink 182. His songs were catchy and memorable and had you tapping your legs along throughout.
Even though the turn out wasn’t great, Joe still took his time to engage with the audience and explain the meaning behind some of the songs. Two of the other songs he performed were about him becoming an uncle and about the city of Berlin. He said that Berlin is a very difficult place for musicians to play if you don’t have a huge fan base. As a local from Berlin, I knew exactly what he meant and a part of me agreed. Another part was delighted and touched to hear a song written about my hometown.
At RamAir, Joe admitted that he is looking forward to going home and having a bit of downtime on his PS4 after playing 18 gigs in 10 days. As his musical influences, he lists Bruce Springsteen and as I had suspected, Blink 182. There was also a very interesting story about a gig in Hamburg but I’m afraid I can’t go into that here! 😊 When it came to the age-old question about pineapple on pizza, he said he doesn’t like pizza! I am just as shocked as you are, but Joe is excused if he can’t stomach cheese.
Overall, having Joe McCorriston around at Bradford was an amazing experience. He’s super down to earth and he even followed me back on Twitter!
Songs: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Atmosphere in Student Central: 2/5
Watch Joe’s performance for yourself on YouTube:
Author: Doug Schulz
RamAir student radio legend Doug is currently doing is PhD at Bradford after completing his undergraduate in Sociology and a MA in Peace Studies.
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