The voting process for the Wiltshire Music Awards goes live today; there might be some other voting thing going on too, but this is far more important!
In conjunction with Wiltshire Music Events UK, I’m delighted Devizine will be actively assisting to organise this new county-wide music awards. We’ve mentioned it a few times now, but today the moment has finally arrived for you to cast your votes. Nominations are open for the ceremony from 1st May 2025, and will close on 10th June 2025.
The award ceremony will take place in Devizes at the Corn Exchange, on Saturday 25th October 2025, tickets are here. We hope it will continue annually, this all depends upon your input. Please get voting, and we call upon everyone actively involved in music scenes across the county to get involved too.
Here’s some FAQs about the process, and other than to say I’m mega-excited about it all, and to please share this news far and wide, there’s not a lot else I can waffle on about it for now; everything relies on you all to help us find the talented in Wiltshire, so get voting!
Who can be nominated?
Anyone involved in music based in Wiltshire or primarily active within the county can be nominated. This includes solo artists, bands, DJs, instrumentalists, music promoters, and venues.
Can I nominate in more than one category?
Yes, you can submit nominations in multiple categories. However, each artist, band, group, DJ, or venue may only be nominated in one category overall, so please choose the most suitable one.
Who decides the winners?
A panel of music professionals from across Wiltshire will review the shortlisted entries and select one winner per category. The panel’s decision will be final.
Snotty nose, change of weather, otherwise I’d have dragged my sorry ass down to Underground, formerly Level III in Swindon for last weekend’s Children in Need fundraiser with our heroes Talk in Code, and these Malmesbury guys, The Dirty Smooth. Instead I stayed in, feeling sorry for myself; man flu, the struggle is real….
Rub salt into the wound, why don’t you, Dirty Smooth, and put out a buzzing new single?!
It’s a rare find, a single from The Dirty Smooth, last one was all out Guns n Roses fashioned power rock Black Jack City, last March. A welcomed return then, and Snakebite has a more pop feel, the like Talk in Code are putting out, and their punchy Seed The Spark. Snakebite is tempting, with this archetypal smooth bridge for the band, and it just rolls, slick, give a whirl, do yourself a favour…..
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Perhaps you’ve noticed of recent, my overuse of the word “sublime?” I could apologise, and worry abusing a word lessens its clout, despite happening to like it, but I ask you humour me; I’m going to use it again today, in a thoroughly slamming-my-fist-on-the-desk-like-I-really-mean-it type way! Malmesbury’s purveyors of cool, Will Lawton & The Alchemists have an EP due for release on 3rd March, and yes, I’ll confirm now without thesaurus, it’s erm, sublime!
They’ve contributed to both our Julia’s House compilations and though I shouldn’t pick favourites…. ahem, and to note our roving reporter Andy has had the pleasure of fondly reviewing these guys live. I confess it remains on my to-do-list, but via Alchemy, this new three-track EP, I’ve knocked it up in priority to top of the list, above the heading.
Our given press release enlightens the EP’s title Alchemy“is a reference to the alchemical process of creativity with this EP being a fusing of Will’s masterful song-craft and the band’s dextrous flair for instrumental flourishes and lush, subtly evolving arrangements,” and I couldn’t put it better myself. Not for weird explosions in fogs of coloured smoke, but for the tentative and inventive melodious architecture, this is a Sagrada Família of sound.
It opens with haunting piano and Will’s sonorously equable vocals. An eight-minute masterwork called Daughter, will invoke imaginings of the most memorable parental occasions, the unconditional love, as subtle drumbeats roll over this drifting euphoric sonic soundscape, akin to Pink Floyd’s finest hour.
Alchemic as in experimental, naturally, as the texture of drum timings fragment from piano for the second tune, then conjoin to a fix. The single pre-release out now, Black Bricks, rolls into something exceptional, an unsolidified musical edifice, overlapping layers and smooth vocals on social commentary of the ordinary, bad day. The discomforting, yet almost satirised theme perhaps makes this the standout tune, this is rich and creative genius.
Cast Iron is the final tune, cryptic and abstract, it evokes the quest to fulfil dreams and ambitions and the sense of powerlessness that emerges from this questing. The only downside is it ends, for this is incredibly morish, and leaves you dripping to dry, but quality above quantity is key, and again, this is as smooth as a well-oiled boob! We’re treated to Eastern promise through subtle tabla in the introduction to the finale, amidst these gorgeous established layers of electric guitar, rolling drumbeats, both male and female uplifting vocals, and simple beguiling keys. But what becomes in this song, as best example for the EP, is of no standalone individual element or instrument, rather the composition, for this is the musical equivalent to Da Vinci.
Seriously, Will’s profession as a music therapist means he has a high degree of self-awareness when it comes to the cathartic, healing power of creativity. Ergo, if art students are taught the eight pillars of composition are balance, contrast, focus, motion, pattern, proportion, unity and rhythm, the only images this EP will blissfully summon in your mind’s eye would be BA standard and you’d be exhibiting in the Louvre in no time! This is how to do it; this is painting with sound.
Will Lawton & The Alchemists have steadily built a solid live following with shows across the South West of England, and garnered support from Scala Radio, BBC Radio Wiltshire, BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Somerset, and BBC Introducing for the West. They recently supported Brit-pop legends Space to great acclaim.
The EP is produced by Patrick Phillips at Play Pen Studios, Bristol, mastered by Pete Maher at Top Floor Productions, and released via Supermarine Music. It will be supported with a tour, dates below.
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