Words by: Juliet Hurwitt
Photos by: Andrew Merritt
To say The Harlington in Fleet, Hampshire, was buzzing was an understatement. Months of preparation, urging people to buy tickets, moving the start time to accommodate a guest, accumulated in what was, I would dare to say, a perfect launch night for Hollie Roger’s Everything’s Fine album.
The opening guest was Ross Stewart with his acoustic guitar. A Scottish singer-songwriter who now lives in Norwich. His thirty minutes was filled with six varied songs opening with the upbeat Stones Don’t Bleed to the more chilled vibe in Fall From Grace. One of the nice things about seeing live acts is that you get to hear what the songs are about; Tangerine in the Sky we’re informed is his ‘obligatory break up song’ written when he was a very upset 16-year-old. Everyone listening could truly feel their heartstrings being tugged, and I felt that many a person just wanted to give him a comforting hug. The title track of his EP Purpose was when we were asked ‘who’s for singing’ to get us warmed up for Hollie. The audience happily sung-a-long to “without a purpose I’m falling apart, without a purpose I’m lost from the start, without a purpose I break my own heart, am I insane?” Now for a special treat with a yet unreleased song Brother in Arms with another interesting back story. This time it’s about a professional discrepancy and someone upsetting him alot (not the exact words but you get the drift) with lyrics like “ain’t no brother of mine” you knew he was pretty peeved. All too soon it’s his final song for tonight, Sweet Morning, during which Ross stood at the front of the stage, continued singing while clapping and encouraging the audience to join in a cappella style. Invitations to meet him at the merch’ stand were met with a queue of people making purchases, which as we all know is key for these emerging artists. What a wonderful start to this event and you could feel the happiness in the room.
A thirty-minute turnaround, then six musicians took their places on the stage. There was a definite theme amongst their attire, and this theme was orange: shirts, t-shirts, a dress and later a suit! Next came what I can best describe as a Public Service Announcement from the speakers, along the lines of, “please rest assured we are under control as you may experience emotional turbulence, but please remain seated and be assured that Everything’s Fine”. Onstage walked Hollie Rogers with a huge smile, wearing orange trousers and long waistcoat, and was met with cheers and clapping from the audience. She picked up her guitar and began tonight with the opening track of the new album, Bad Woman, a mid-tempo bluesy number. After the second song Hollie paused for a chat and told us how nervous she’d been about tonight, from the start of the Kickstarter journey to finally having the finished album. There was also a short quiz ‘guess what my favourite colour is?’ Er…. orange?!
From her first album Criminal Heart was the song Strange about all the great things we have in life, but there’s still things we can’t control “…and it’s strange that I’ve fallen so in love with you”. From the Everything’s Fine album was the slow and instantly sway-along-to She (not Sheep as I thought I’d strangely heard!). The audience obliged by joining in on “we got everything that we want” and requests from Hollie to “keep it going”, which everyone did.
Now it was time for the first guest of the evening. This was someone Hollie had met in school when she was a teacher by day and musician by night, weekends and any other spare time, in any pub or venue that would host her. Hollie asked the other teachers if they knew anyone who played cello, and the name Thomas Holden was suggested. Tom was only 16 at the time, and a very gifted musician. They’ve now been playing together five to six years, and tonight continued the collaboration. As the other musicians left the stage, Tom joined Hollie with his ‘giant violin’ aka cello. The duo played The Coast Road from the first album, a beautifully worded, gently sung song, that had everyone mesmerized, including one of the other guests we later discovered.
When Hollie moved to London, she was amongst the final 10 in a competition to write a song about London. Not coming from the city herself, she struggled to find inspiration but found three songs that she listened to on repeat, out of which eventually came City of Colour. It was a great song that invoked the daunting feeling of moving to the city, so it must have won the competition for her? But no, the winner was none other than tonight’s backing singer Daisy Chute (a very accomplished musician in her own right) with London’s on Fire (available online).
The band returned to the stage and played the title track from the previously mentioned first LP Criminal Heart. A faster paced track that got the audience bopping again. The next guest had come directly from a gig of their own, an afternoon session down the road in Staines. This was why Hollie’s start time was pushed back so Brave Rival had time to get to Fleet. There was a joke from Lindsay Bonnick about not getting the ‘orange’ memo, as she felt under dressed. Her red/orange hair more than qualified for the occasion. So, which and who’s song would Hollie and Lindsay sing? The inspired choice was Blondie’s Call Me. Apparently, this was unrehearsed, but you wouldn’t have noticed. Naturally, this went down very well and had the room singing and dancing.
A couple of songs later, Ross Stewart was welcomed back on stage to perform More than Gold, a track that they’d written together. This duet had a rockier sound to it and the audience enjoyed it as much as the blues tracks. Not yet on an album (that I could find) but Unholy Trinity does appear on Everything’s Fine. It’s about a threesome that was aptly co-written, and performed tonight with Daisy and Ed (Blunt – who by-the-way disliked wearing orange!) and their tri vocals sounded wonderful together. Was it based on a true story? We shall rightly never know.
The final special guests for this evening was the Budapest Symphony Orchestra! Yes, that’s correct, a full orchestra playing Spaceman with the seven musicians already onstage. Okay, so it was a clever, pre-recorded film shown on the screen at the back of the stage, but it was very effective and original. The Budapest Symphony Orchestra are also credited on the song, so a genuine inclusion. Genius.
All too soon it’s the end of the show, (pre-encore) which ended with another public service announcement, along the lines of, “… you will be experiencing feelings of joy, nostalgia, and denial, but everything continues broadly fine.”
Rapturous cheers, clapping, and standing ovations ensued as the band walked off stage. Clapping and cheering continued, the house lights stayed down, eventually six orange-dressed musicians returned to the stage, and a minute later Hollie joined them. However, she was no longer dressed in orange but in the most amazing glittery, shiniest, brightest, sequined suit! Apologies later posted on social media for not warning us to wear sunglasses! The special guests were back too, Tom, Lindsey and Ross, who all joined in for the title track of tonight’s focus album. Final photos were taken, goodbyes waved, lights went up, and everyone left the venue in no doubt that indeed Everything’s Fine.
If you haven’t heard the album(s) yet, then I urge you to do so. Many people had already bought it (assisting chart placing), and others like me rushed to the merch stand to buy a copy of both. They’ve been on rotation in the car ever since. As always, check out and follow on the socials, and look out for other live dates coming soon. This gig was sold out, so I envisage that the future is an even brighter orange for Hollie Rogers.
