Planningtorock, Tom Rasmussen, Bishi, and Beth Ditto

I really didn't know what to think when I first heard Planningtorock was coming to a hot new venue near my house. I remember hearing a few of her songs on a playlist a while back, but I had no idea what to expect live.

The concert started with amazing visuals on a huge projection screen at the rear of the stage. The image was flowing a psychedelic and slowly morphed into an image of Planningtorock, also known as Jam Rostron, as she took the stage. She was dressed in tight jeans and a large overcoat, sunglasses, and hair flowing over her face. And then suddenly the beat to The Breaks came in and the visuals became even more interesting, with rich patterns flowing over Jam's face as she began singing.

She has a very distinct, low voice but it sounded pretty great live. The lyrics were very meaningful and emotional and I was moved by each song. The production was very heavy, of course, but I really did enjoy it. She did a great job performing live over the mix, and the crowd was really into the show. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and I am planning to see Planningtorock again soon!

Saw Tom open for Rina Sawayama in Brighton 2022, genuinely the best support performance I've ever seen, so much stage presence and brilliant vocals. Seriously fun experience and I'm definitely going to book tickets to see Tom again!

As the lead singer of The Gossip, Beth Ditto has pretty much spent her entire career polarising opinion; in fact, during the band’s mid-noughties heyday, when ‘Standing in the Way of Control’ was a staple of indie discos the world over, it almost seemed as if critics wanted to talk about everything to do with Ditto other than her music. She lapped up the controversy, defying expectations to appear nude on the riskiest NME cover for some time, and went on to be held up as an icon for aspiring female punk singers. Of course, when it does come to Ditto’s musical ability, she’s certainly not found lacking; she has a superb voice, one that’s all powerful funk strut one minute and soulful, often bluesy the next; there’s no one you can quite compare to her when it comes to her contemporaries. She also dipped her toe into solo waters in 2011, with the Beth Ditto EP capitalising upon the solo promise that she’d displayed when she covered ‘Temptation’ by Heaven 17 with Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker back in 2008; she only played a handful of shows in support of that release, but it’s difficult not to see Gossip live shows as the Beth Ditto show anyway.