"2010 - The year of a new full album!!!"
Belated Happy New Year for 2010, Hope you all had a great festive season! After another year of around 60 gigs this year the main goal is to make a full album. Discussions have been underway since before Christmas with producers and studios and musicians, I will let you know here, when all the t's have been crossed and i's dotted. I've wanted to make a full album for a while and so I'm very up for it and writing like crazy. In addition I'm listening like crazy, since we are considering a few songs from other local composers and maybe a couple of covers too. We aim to record all of the songs that we choose and then finalise what ones make it on to the album. Anyway, as I said I'll keep you posted here:)
"Room13 - 2009 Guilfest Review"
Another Guilfest and another set from Laura Colegate and, because it’s almost become part of the weekend for us, another R13 review. Some times she plays this festival with a backing band, others, like this year, it’s just her and a guitar. This solo performance does allow those watching to focus on her impressive voice, one of the reasons we keep coming back. Again, as we found last year, the enjoyment of this set is slightly spoilt by the thud of music coming from elsewhere on the site, but that is really the only negative. She doesn’t appear to be the most confident of speakers when talking to those in the tent, however her singing more than makes up for this. Of her own material, the laid-back ‘Light In Your Eyes’ is not only a highlight of this set, but of the weekend. She closes her set with two covers, and is joined on stage by a guy called Terry who does the honours with guitar playing. First up is Tom Petty classic ‘Free Falling’, followed by what was clearly a topical addition to the setlist of Michael Jackson’s ‘Man in the Mirror’. Although the solo performance is perfectly enjoyable, with some of the material on her Myspace site featuring additional instruments, a personal preference would be to see this live, but that would be trying to review what wasn’t there, what was did very nicely thank you. www.roomthirteen.com
"Guildford Brit Awards 2008 - Nominated in the Best Songwriter Category!"
YES!, there's a new special Guildford Brit Awards taking place, especially for local songwiters and performers. It takes place at Farenheit 55, in Guildford Town Centre on Wednesday 3rd September. The organiser, Byron johnson, promises there will be limos and red carpet, just like the real thing! I've been nominated in the Best Songwriter Category and at this moment I don't know lots more, other than it should be fun. We've all been asked to dress up formally for the event which will recognise local talent in the areas of perforamnce and songwriting. I'll keep you posted here, when I learn more about the evening. Meanwhile you can checkout their mypace zone at www.myspace.com/strangersonatrain
"Room13 - Guilfest Review"
There were a couple of firsts for this reviewer when entering the Surrey Advertiser Tent on Saturday afternoon. With the rather intriguing sounding Farmer Giles Barn Dance happening each night after the music came to an end, round the edge of the tent were bales of hay. I’ve seen and done a lot at festivals in the last decade, but not yet watched someone from the comfort of one of those things. Given the laid-back style of Laura Colegate, the hay bales added to the ambience of the occasion, something that was countered quite drastically by the thud of the Funky Ends Stage next door. The other first was seeing Laura Colegate. We’ at R13 have caught her for the past couple of years at Guilfest, and have always considered her a genuine undiscovered talent, but this was my first chance to see her for myself. Last year the full band that accompanied her detracted from the impact of her fantastic voice, so it was a relief to see her take to the stage with only an additional guitarist and a bongo player for company. She got an impressive turn out of what could be roughly estimated as a couple of hundred people, and her easy on the ear, acoustic folk received a great reaction. The most thought provoking moment came when she did a version of ‘Valerie’, the Zutons track made even bigger by Amy Winehouse. Given that the music industry seems to wet their collective pants the minute Winehouse stops slurring, falling over or generally making a fool of herself long enough to actually sing, imagine how popular Laura Colegate could be if she actually got noticed. She’s the perfect artist for ‘Later with Jools Holland’. The other track to really catch the ear is the brilliant ‘Anything Better’. It has something of a Texas feel to it, and is made for the Radio 2, Virgin Radio world. As the set comes to a close, yet again we’re left to reflect on how Laura Colegate has the voice and the songs to be achieving much more than she actually is. If nothing else, we look forward to catching her again at Guilfest 2009. www.roomthirteen.com
"Guilfest - feedback 1......."
Subject: guilfest unplugged - the albumn , well the four tracks anyway were worth every penny of the five pounds i gave you . great set , refreshing to hear a girl simply expressing the talent shes been gifted with and not trying to sound like someone else !striking voice ,simple effective lyrics aint been stopped in my tracks since i was in short trousers and heard karen carpenter ! andrea corr has nothing on you girl . if you have any more material please let me know yesterday. dont stop trying for gods sake and as i said ill see you on later with jules in eighteen months time . best of luck laura ...badger
"Guilfest - feedback 2"
Sent: 09 July 2008 08:42 To: laura@lauracolegate.com Subject: Guilfest 2998 – Surrey Ad Tent Dear Laura, Just to say thanks from myself and fellow members of USSU Stagecrew running the Surrey Ads tent for you playing a great set. Nice to know there is some promising talent in the local area. Apologies for not being at the after-show party, as you might expect the we had to be up till silly o'clock in the morning to pack down the gigs we were running. I think you were taken a bit by surprise from my 'Norah Jones' comment, that came from the sound I perceived when you were playing live. When I got home and had the chance to play your CD (excellent by the way), I got Andrea Corr and Natalie Imbruglia vibes... Although after having a quick read of the Guilfest and your websites, I now understand your influences. Hope to see you on 'Later with Jools' and of course hear you on Chris Moyle's show and of course If I'm back in Guildford or London, I'll be sure to try to get to one of your gigs. Best of luck in your future endeavours, Nick P.S.: Yes, 'Music is good for the soul', I usually fit the music to my mood and vica-versa.
"Guilfest - Thank You.......my best yet?"
Though it seems a while ago now, I think it's fair to say this was my best ever Guilfest, as a performer. I had a decent sized crowd in the Surrey Advertiser marquee and they were very supportive, which I appreciated very much. The sound guys were on the ball this year too, thank you! And off course Rupert Oxlade and Chris Nugent provided superb accompaniment and support for me. I think the bales of hay around the perimeter of the marquee added to a nice chilled vibe to the marquee. A couple of my new songs were well received as was the cover of The Zutons, Valerie and my version of Ru's song, Laying Low, which I've wanted to play live for ages. So a big thanks to everyone involved and for everyone for their support, that makes it all worthwhile, Thank You!!! I mustn't forget a big Thank You to Trevor and James in the Acoustic Tent. I performed the set again in the the intimate smaller tent. The sound was great and again a very supportive audience, Thanks! For the record the set list was..........
Anything Better
Talk About It
Valerie(Yes, a cover!)
Laying Low(Written and composed by Rupert)
You're Not the One
Light in Your Eyes(My best selling track on iTunes!)
Something to Say
"Guilfest Confirmed - It's Festie Time..........."
It's official! I'm appearing on the Surrey Advertiser Stage at 1.45pm on Saturday 5th July for a 30 minute spot and again in the Acoustic Tent at 5.25pm the same day for a 45 minute spot. Mr Rupert Oxlade and Chris Nugent will be accompanying me. I have some new songs and I will be performing one of Ru's songs too. Try and get along and remember we have DISCOUNTED TICKETS available, see STORE page for details. I'm so looking forward to Guilfest once again as it's a great chance to hook up with lots of old friends and make new ones. Hope to see you there!!!
"Sunshine, sand and sea inspire me..........."
I had a mini trip to America at the end of last summer and when I returned within weeks I'd started writing about 7 new songs, which I'm still putting the finishing touches to. I have performed a few of them live and if you've been to one of my gigs recently, you may have heard them. I did try going into the studio right at the back end of 2007, but the songs weren't really ready. I think I will be going for a few pre-production days soon and then, assuming all goes well, I'll be recording and this time I'm intending to do a full album, possibly with a cover or maybe two. It really does depend on how the pre-production sessions go. So fingers and everything else crossed, I'll keep this page posted.
Home page picture was taken at The Wylde Theatre, Bracknell, courtesy of Phil C, Thanks Phil!