Pure Youth/Daisy Chains/Lee Rasdall-Dove

The Winchester, Bournemouth

It’s a Tuesday night in Bournemouth and along with my right-hand man Ross Ferrone we find ourselves at The Winchester to come and check out a London band “Pure Youth” whose tunes we have heard previously online and made us curious. Also, a new band from Lymington called the “Daisy Chains” have bagged themselves a support slot. Ross was impressed after he saw them recently at the Thomas Tripp in Christchurch so I wanted to experience them for myself.

The evening opens with local singer/songwriter Lee Rasdall-Dove who provides the perfect laid back start to the evening with some acoustic guitar expertise. Lee delivers a set that includes covers “Firestone” by Kygo and a note-perfect version of “Hold by the River” by James Bay. Lee has an impassioned vocal delivery and clearly impresses the sparse Tuesday night audience. The set was mainly made up cover versions; on a night like this I would have much preferred to hear more of Lee’s original material.

Daisy Chains 1

The Daisy Chains have clearly made an effort with their matching black t-shirts and red skinny jeans and for some reason I expect them to sound very different to what they do. Kicking off with “Street Life” they have a unique sound with elements of pop, rock and funk fused together. They have a great youthful energy emitting from them and they perform like they are playing in a much bigger venue to a much larger crowd.

A new track called “Honey” was quite possibly their best tune played tonight, from their forthcoming new E.P. It’s a delightful slice of “Coastal Pop”; a very danceable tune capable of really bringing you in the more you listen. They end with another really high tempo tune called “Southside Disco”, all about where they are from. These guys defiantly have something really different here and are quite possibly one of the South’s brightest hopes for stardom.

Pure Youth 1–2–3

Pure Youth are a brave band driving down from London to Bournemouth on a blustery Tuesday night to play to just a handful of people. They have the set cut short by an insistent venue manager who needed the stage for his after party DJ’s. Yes; very frustrating, but by no means a reason to be downhearted. When you think U2’s first gig in the UK was played to just three people in a small London pub.

Pure Youth create an epic uplifting sound using twin guitar effects and synthesisers, coupled with the perfectly matched vocals of frontman Dave Hibbert. The 4-piece managed to easily impress everybody in the room and could very easily captivate a much larger audience with songs like the touching “Where Love was Found” and huge sounding “New November”. We were rewarded with sadly just a thirty-minute set, let’s hope we see them down South once again in the near future.

Set Lists
Pure Youth
Earth
On Our Way
Wasted Days
Today
Where the Love Was Found
Driving
New November

Daisy Chains
Street Life
Stay Young
Drug Pop
Lust
Mascara Culture
This Desire
The Breakfast Club
Cherry Red
Honey
Someone like Me
Southside Disco

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