Harmonies and Heartaches Charity event moved the city that never sleeps, with an emotional day dedicated to mental health awareness in the rock/metal scene held by a lineup of growing, underrated talents that raised over £700 for Mind Mental Health Charity.
The event, hosted by leading press and events manager, Kristofer Billingham, displayed a lineup of the local scenes finest talent with A Titan a Deity and Maggie Cassidy being personal standouts. Although their sound contrasts drastically, with Birmingham’s own A Titan A Deity playing on a Progressive Metal sound that is unfamiliar to the local scene, and Maggie Cassidy delving into a “dirty pop” rock style, similar to Deaf Havana or Don Broco, both bands marvelled the crowd and left a lasting impression on the audience for their great stage personality and unique aura.
With their high energy, intense performance, A Titan A Deity set the mood for the rest of the evening, managing to engage with the crowd and get them off their feet. Fans flocked to the stage as the lead singer, Luke Whyle, stormed in screaming “I want everyone’s heads fucking banging” to which the room’s energy skyrocketed. For a growing Progressive Metal band in a local scene that doesn’t popularly favor that sound, the Birmingham based band have impressively established themselves to cultivate a base of dedicated fans, who could be seen across the room, decked out in merch and singing along to every word. I appreciated the vocal range of Whyle, who seems to really push himself during every performance to hit all the notes and maintain a high-level stage presence. Lead Guitarist, Ben Pinkus and Rhythm Guitarist, Ashley Cooke, did not hold back, with searing guitar riffs filling the room as Drummer, Dan Walton carried the tempo of the song. Their live songs were all upbeat, high tempo and had phenomenal breakdowns that turned the room upside down with excitement and I found that the level of energy and passion they brought to the stage is something I personally haven’t seen in bigger bands for a while.
Maggie Cassidy then took the stage, again with fans storming onto the floor to get as close of a glimpse of lead singer, Jamie Coupe, as he filled the room with his strong, booming vocals. With their catchy beat and meaningful, insightful lyrics, Maggie Cassidy brought a fun, light and high energy feeling to the room as they bounced across the stage and had everyone in the room dancing around and nodding their head. Similarly, for being a fresh, growing band on the scene, Maggie Cassidy have respectably established themselves in a heavily saturated industry that churns out pop-rock bands like a vending machine. Yet, after seeing them perform, it’s evident that they have their own unique flare and personality to their band with little instances of individuality in their song that sets them apart from every other single band. After speaking to Coupe in an interview, and watching their set, It’s clear that Maggie Cassidy have a devoted interest into Mental Health Awareness, with Coupe taking a moment of their performance to make a deeply emotional speech about awareness of Mental Illnesses and to share his own story of struggles with depression and suicide.
Whilst this event highlighted some of the UK’s poorly underrated talents, it also highlighted the serious issue of Mental Health and the lack of work done toward Mental Health awareness in the scene. Almost every band during their set promoted the event and it’s importance, or shared an instance of their struggles with mental health to emphasise the importance of events like these. A solemn mood captivated the room, with emotional scenes of fans embracing into one another comfort and bands comforting fans as they all shared their stories and struggles.
In summary, Harmonies and Heartaches highlighted the significance of smaller bands and what impact can be made when they all join forces. It was also made abundantly clear that there are some definite growing talents in the scene who are grossly underrated, I.e. A Titan A Deity and Maggie Cassidy. But most importantly, it’s clear that events like these are impactful and need to regularly happen in the scene more often and possibly at a higher level, with bigger bands stepping forward to promote mental health awareness.
We also managed to grab A Titan A Diety and Maggie Cassidy for interviews after their sets to discuss what it’s like to be a smaller, growing band and to understand the importance of Mental Health Awareness to their band:
A Titan A Diety Interview:
Maggie Cassidy Interview:
