Melting Vinyl dedicated to bringing creative artists to Brighton & Kent

In a series of streamed performances and with arts council support, Melting Vinyl is giving a new generation of exciting artists the opportunity to perform at the beautiful and historical setting of St. George’s Church, Brighton, a unique professional space that is usually reserved for internationally profiled touring artists.

Over the last twenty-four years, Brighton-based independent live music promoters Melting Vinyl have grown from a small one-woman operation to a well-established and highly respected organisation with a name synonymous with supporting female artists and presenting innovative and electrifying quality live shows.

With a passion for grassroots independent music at it’s heart, Melting Vinyl has always sought to offer a platform for local emerging artists and bands, often in a peripheral but essential role as support for the main act.

This new series of shows from St George’s celebrates our grassroots musicians and places diverse artists who wouldn’t ordinarily come through the door at its heart, as the main event, where they can perform against a beautiful backdrop with outstanding acoustics to complement their music.

Having worked alongside St. George’s Church since 2001, Melting Vinyl is looking forward to opening the newly painted doors and connecting once more with this heritage building and its inhabitants.

Each show will be recorded by Mat Benzie infamous sound engineer in Brighton’s internationally renowned camera/light artist Innerstrings.

The second artist in the series of grassroots artist streams:
Singer-songwriter Bella Spinks released her debut album, ‘Homeostasis’, in 2018 on Sublime Recordings. Showcasing her signature piano style and inventive vocals, she has drawn comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Carole King and Regina Spektor, but the album’s unique, compelling and hypnotic world is all her own.

Hailing from Brighton, Bella grew up listening to Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Jonatha Brooke. “I write songs, play piano and sing” she says, but that’s only half the story. As a young person she was enamoured by the journey of age and transition, and for Bella songwriting became a way to transcribe those feelings, to explore how they made her feel and to help process what they meant. “There are many novel experiences that no one quite understands. We are constantly trying to find balance in life, and this is such the central part of my songwriting”, she explains, “to be able to craft something that can illustrate an experience of a world you can control, a world you can oversee, to create stories and to know their endings.”

It is this theme that is threaded throughout the narrative of ‘Homeostasis’: ‘Noble Lie’, the story of Plato’s ‘Myth of Metals’ in which he suggests a way of keeping a society in check, the fascinating story of two identical twins separated at birth and their unique journey back to each other in ‘Sister’ and ‘Laurel Tree’, which was inspired by the Greek myth; the idea of roots being planted by a riverside so that the tree would grow forever.

Bella played her first gig at Brighton’s Concorde 2 at only 12 years of age and has since gone on to support Ellie Goulding, The Staves, Rae Morris, Ron Sexsmith, Low Chimes, Sea of Bees, Viv Albertine, Laetitia Sadia, Alex Winston, Basia Bulat, The Apache Relay, Foy Vance, Jake Isaac, Robert Ellis, and Husky. She has also played Together The People and Norwich Sound & Vision Festivals and Communion show in London, Brighton, and Leeds.

‘Homeostasis’ was produced by Matt Ingram (Laura Marling, Lianne La Havas, Denai Moore), with whom Bella found a kindred spirit, “Instead of using conventional instruments all the time we tried to be inventive with what was available… making sounds from bass drum cases, walls and boxes”, and also features string arrangements by Tom Hobden (Noah and The Whale).

This is the 2nd of 7 streams, keep an eye out for our future announcements of grassroots artists streamed at St George’s.