Okay you lovely lot, who are deffo coming The Festival of Discovery this weekend across Devizes, and who, deffo, going to pay us a visit at Albion Place, yesterday I highlighted all the wonderful acts we have performing on Saturday, but we do it all again on Sunday too…..
So here’s what we have lined up on Sunday, and it is equally as amazing as Saturday, so don’t over do it the day the before, and find us, same time, from 11:30 until 5:30pm at Albion Place in Sidmouth Street. Here’s who we have playing for us; ooh, I’m so excited and couldn’t hide it even if I wanted too!
From Devizes and performing as Tamsin Rose, at fifteen Tamsin already has built an impressive portfolio both as a singer-songwriter and guitarist, and acting. Tamsin attends Stagecoach, and has performed in numerous stage shows and musicals, including the poignant lead as Anne Frank for the Wharf Theatre.
Lois is from Devizes, currently studying at Sixth Form near Winchester. Lois is our youngest writer for Devizine, ever! She also performs at open mics.
12:40: Indigo Avenue
Indigo Avenue is a duo consisting of Rufus Townsend and …….. Rufus is Trowbridge based, and the guitarist for Devizes-own riot grrrl band Steatopygous, who have recently toured with The Pump’s Sketchbook Records.
Alife is sixteen, and a singer-songwriter from Warminster who has already taken on stages in Warminster, Frome and Trowbridge. He busks in Bath regularly, sharing his original music and covers with the world. His original music follows a blend of indie rock, with RnB and chill guitar music.
This summer Alfie was invited on stage by frontman of the Kooks, Luke Pritchard, to play guitar with the band in front of thousands of people during their set at the Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall.
Orla is a singer-songwriter from Bath, and she brings with her Jack Hughes, as an acoustic duo who have been performing together for a few years in various bands. Orla played Womad’s launchpod stage, and I met her first at Courting Ghost’s Three Trees Festival at Trowbridge Town Hall.
In our review of this brilliant festival I called her performance “clearly one to watch. With crystal vocals she gave us some divine originals, including a particularly poignant one called Mouthwash, and made Crowded House’s principal her own.”
Seren is a folk singer-songwriter from Warminster with a voice you won’t forget.
Seren performs a mixture of original songs and covers. “My favourite covers to perform are Fast Car by Tracy Chapman, Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield, and Black Star by Radiohead,” she tells me. “I first started performing in May 2024, and since then I have performed at CorFest 2025, Swinterfest, and have supported Irish folk musicians in Salisbury including The Henry Girls, Daoirí Farrell, and Tim Eady and Mike McGoldrick. I am inspired by a mix of artists/musicians and genres such as folk, indie, pop, indie rock, and jazz.”
Seren regularly performs with Meg Hoy, who performed as our headliner on Saturday.
Poppy Rose is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, and vocal coach from Bath, known for original acoustic pop. We’ve been reviewing her recordings for a few years now, but I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting her in person, until now. James of BBC Introducing in the West played her newly released and completely unique EP, Let’s Go Swimming.
Ruby is a Scottish born singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist currently residing in Bradford on Avon. Ruby is likely no stranger to Devizes, regularly playing our venues and festivals here, as well as busking with bagpipes.
Ruby grew up playing music anywhere she could. From her first performance at the Edinburgh fringe festival, to Celtic connections and many folk festivals around Scotland, Ruby’s background created the best foundation for her ongoing career in music.
Her second EP released in August 2025 has created a stir. Her debut single Caller Unknown, with help from Tim Burgess of the Charlatans and produced by Freddie Cowan of The Vaccines, was first played on BBC6. Ruby’s other music has found its way into Celtic music radio, Radio X, BBC introducing South West, BBC Bristol, Cornwall and Devon as well as Bath Radio and Radio Wilts and many local radio live lounge sessions. Awarded the Best Female Solo Artists at the 2025 Wiltshire Music Awards and Second Place Instrumentalist as a Highland Piper, opening the awards event as the special guest.
To clear up any confusion, Trowbridge’s old town hall is no longer the town hall, but The Old Town Hall. I have no idea, nor care to know if there’s a new town hall; that’s irrelevant. Whilst still owned by thecouncil, it was refurbished and reopened as a charity funded arts centre and cultural hub last October…..
I met a great bloke there called Tom, he used to run Bath’s venue Moles, now he’s steering events at this glorious grade II listed building, originally opened in 1889 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. It is an utterly stunning space of Victorian splendour with acoustics from the heavens; nice to note it’s in good hands.
In equal splendour was the reason I’m here, for the 10 Hills Spring Music Festival. Congrats if you spotted the deliberate mistake, there were only ever seven hills; I’m rounding it up as if it’s a score out of ten, perhaps I should add an extra hill or five onto that for good measure!
If forced to find a nick-picking fault with this event, I could suggest a lack of chairs inside the hall, considering the higher end of the age demographic in attendance. But the concentration was on the music, an elaborate concert-festival, and the quality and quantity of this was absolutely mindblowing, if not particularly diverse.
7 Hills regularly organise music events at The Night Jar in Bath, including an annual festival. Chris Hoar of Courting Ghosts explained he, “reached out to them initially to say I was planning a festival in the newly renovated Old Town Hall, just to check it didn’t clash with them, and Matt said let’s do it together in Trowbridge as a spring festival.” And here we are finally in spring, I’ve been looking forward to this.
Americana, folk-rock was the order of the day, everything uniformed to the influences of Courting Ghosts. So if you wanted to go looking for a dance tent, this wasn’t for you. But the standard of music was sublime throughout the day and into the evening, and that’s what made 7 Hills so spectacular.
Best festival of the year I could jest, because it’s my first, still, I believe I’m going to be hard pressed to find a lineup as good as this, and the craziest element was, while I knew most of the local acts booked for the afternoon, I was in the dark about the later ones, but far from disappointed.
Jess Chivers
Perhaps the only one I saw to deviate from Americana was Jess Chivers, who delivered a great set on an acoustic stage adjacent to the main one, as this had subtle elements of punk. This second stage assured consistent entertainment whilst bands prepped on the main stage. I believe because I needed sustenance I missed Phil Cooper’s set, drafted in due to a cancellation, and a few others before my arrival, but Leander Morales polished off the acoustic stage with an energetic and poignant set.
Thieves
Sadly I missed Fly Yeti Fly, meeting Darren on the stairs as I came in. Love this duo too, they remind me of Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields in the Blue Lagoon! My arrival, I hoped, would be timed for Concrete Prairie, as it was, lovable bluegrass collective Thieves were doing their wonderful thing on the second stage, while the prairie tuned on the main, under the stained glassed lancet; confirming I’m going to love this event.
Concrete Prairie
Make no mistake, Concrete Prairie was on fire, I expected no less. Undeniably the liveliest set at the festival, they gave us the classics from their 2022 self titled debut album, finishing on their magnum-opus, the incredible crescendo-hugging Devil Dealt The Deck, but between them blessed our ears with some new songs from their forthcoming album. While Joe set no date for its release, the songs came across livelier than the sombre mood of the debut album. They’re perfectionists, providing me with faith there will be no sophomore slump.
The band were incomplete too, Phil Cooper taking bass, and original fiddler in the band, Georgia, filling in for her replacement. Still they rocked it, and I’d have been content if I had to go home straight after them!
Courting Ghosts
Obviously with Chris Hoar at the helm, Courting Ghosts would play, and I could imagine no other following the Prairie, even if their overall mood is more sombre; this is music for the soul. Counting Ghosts surely set the mood for the remaining acts, this smooth Americania with influences from both country folk and jazzy soul. They gifted us a new song, to be the title track of their next EP, Baby, I Bleed for you, and sparks flew.
Orla
Everything chronologically from now on would be new to me, but all of it flying miles above my expectations. A great example came from the acoustic stage immediately after the Ghosts. Orla is a young singer-songwriter from Bath, and clearly one to watch. With crystal vocals she gave us some divine originals, including a particularly poignant one called Mouthwash, and made Crowded House’s principal her own.
Matt Owens & The Delusional Vanity Project
Former Noah and the Whale, Matt Owens & The Delusional Vanity Project followed with a dynamite set. As evening set in a professional precedence, I figured this was going to get continuously better. Multiple AMA UK Award winner Hannah White, the best yet, intertwined devout stage presence with a heartfelt singalong, she captivated, projecting her pure lyricism like dripping honey. I especially liked the tune with the reggae offbeat, but overall, I left wondering if, or how it could possibly get any better.
Hannah White
If I’m now a Hannah White fan, and all presented before us was of a quality so high it would be impossible to fault, it should be no negative reflection in comparison to suggest something here wasn’t entirely my cuppa. No doubt, any Ohio artist signed by Peter Gabriel is going to be of an excellent standard, and soloist and loop pedal god, Joseph Arthur certainly is, it was just the bar was set so high by Hannah it levelled off here somewhat.
Joseph Arthur
So, despite the highest of qualities, I wondered now if, for my personal tastes, anything could possibly top Hannah, and casted a preconceiving critical eye over Our Man in The Field as they set up. They certainly had an impressive ensemble, seven piece with an upright bassist, organist and everything. The lead guitarist had something of a Bill Wyman debonair, while the frontman presented himself as a funky truckstop dweller. Grasping tight to my newfound adoration of Hannah, this would be interesting, if nothing more.
That’s when the vibe hits you best, when it’s a surprise! Our Man in The Field has the perfect Americana balance, components of country, but with such soulful jazzy swagger, they had me off-guard and now totally hooked, the first to entrance me wholly. Our Man in The Field is sublimely captivating.
Our Man in The Field
Shit, I realise now I should’ve put more trust in Chris’s knowledge! He has presented a lineup which, despite me thinking at numerous intervals, he’s not going to top this, he somehow did! I made up my mind then, I had to witness the final act even if an asteroid hit The Shires shopping centre.
The Delines, self-labelled as “retro country soul” from Portland, Oregon headlined. With everything previous so hyped in the hamster wheel of my mind, it mattered not if this suited me, I could leave now, more than content. I couldn’t leave. I imagined myself off the lines, driving one of those poetic American roads, planning to stop off to drink my soul away at a roadside bar, but when you walk in a band playing in a back room is so inspiring you figure life is too short as they blissfully cure your blues.
The Delines
This was gorgeous. Utterly brilliantly steady, smooth with no need to fire up, just drifting with narratives akin to Guthrie, jazzy and soulful as Springsteen’s early recordings and the Asbury Park scene, on a Gil Scott-Heron level, and topped with the honest banter of a band in their prime; there was no need for them to apologise for Trump, there’s two bridges between us, they can break the political one, but cannot ever do the same to the creative arts one. I wished my friend Chrissy could see this, this is what her band Burn the Midnight Oil should attain to, this was blended bliss, American music without borders.
Impossible for me to compare what Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee was like at Trowbridge Town Hall with the events now being run at it, but 7 Hills felt like it could’ve matched it, even without cherries cooked in flaming brandy, and the range of community events at the venue breathes positive new light into Trowbridge town centre.
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