Cassia – Live at BBC Introducing – Reading Festival – August 27, 2017 – BBC Radio 1 –
One of the great offshoots to festivals this year, or at least a lot of them, has been the presence of new talent, seemingly everywhere. For those of you who think the reservoir has dried up – I hate to break it to you; there’s a lot of talent out there, and a lot of it is brand new and a lot of it needs to be watched.
One of those bands featured prominently at the BBC Introducing Stage during this years Reading Festival was Cassia, a new group from Cheshire who only got started in February of last year and have already been tabbed by BBC Radio 1 for single of the week with their debut, 100 Times Over. Cassia have all the earmarks of being a successful band, very much in the mold of a Trashcan Sinatras (a band that made the 90s bearable for me and still make things bearable) with a dose of jangle and Indie-Pop and well-drawn lyrics. Tight band, great vocals – good all-round.
Right now, they are in the midst of a tour around Britain between this month and the end of October. What the future holds is anybody’s guess – they are so new they are still getting over the positive reception and the BBC nods.
Cassia were one of the 90+ bands playing at the BBC Introducing stage between August 27-28. I haven’t had a chance to hear all of them, but I suspect there are many nuggets in the mix. it’s gratifying to know that there’s room in a festival setting to expose new talent to the audience. And even though the Introducing Stage format is a little competitive, the exposure and being able to listen to everything that’s offered lets the audience come to its own conclusions. So I am putting my money on Cassia as a band to watch in the coming months.
Here are two samples of what they were up to at Reading, with the promise of more on the way.
Fingers crossed for a bright future.