Saturday night (29 November) marked the first official celebration of Sound Bite, HUNGER’s music mini-magazine celebrating the up-and-coming musical talent we’re Hungry for. We partnered up with Johnnie Walker Black Label for a night of live performances, delicious whisky cocktails and dancing, set against a backdrop of one of the world’s most iconic music venues, Abbey Road Studios. Complete with a bespoke Johnnie Walker bar, stage and DJ booth, the room was packed out with the party-goers lucky enough to have made it to the front of the queue and through the doors of Studio 2.
Behind the artists on stage, stood Johnnie Walker’s emblem, the ‘Striding Man’. It was, quite literally, a glowing reminder of Johnnie Walker Black Label’s ethos of ‘Keep Walking’, and its commitment to standing behind the artists shaping the sound of tomorrow. From Lleo’s LGBTQ+ lyrics to Alexa Joyce’s mission to simply get people dancing again, Saturday night at Abbey Road Studio 2 was the ultimate example of this philosophy in action — a real celebration of the creators pushing UK music culture forward, one bold step at a time.
Guests got an exclusive peek of the inaugural issue of Sound Bite as a standalone print. Taking the form of a ’90s poster-zine, with ‘Feel The Rush’ singer Asha Banks as its cover star, Issue 1 compiles the first four Sound Bite supplements — including brand new content from our November issue, Here We Go Again.
DC kicked off the performances with a lo-fi set featuring personal tracks about his East London background, family and grinding for what he has. Then, Alexa Joyce turned up the volume with a high-energy pop set with a disco edge — complete with a fur coat and hot pants in her signature Studio 54 style. Then, ‘serotonin’ singer Lleo took to the stage, channelling early 2000s Avril Lavigne with their distinct pop-punk sound and blonde-blue hair, climaxing in the artist’s favourite tune, ‘i love a girl’. Finally, the night concluded with an electric set by “not rapper” Ben Kidson, which had guests packed to the front, jumping, singing and filming the last performance of the night, eternalising the night in their memory banks.
The evening also featured four signature Johnnie Walker Black Label serves, each name an ode to one of the artists performing on the night: Alexa Joyce’s Disco Inferno, DC’s Lemonade Plane, Lleo’s Sweet Calabasas and Ben Kidson’s Back on the Botanicals.
The party didn’t stop there, though. DJ Spatial Awareness kept the kinetic energy going throughout the night with zingy electronic tunes, made all the more atmospheric by strobe lights dancing around Studio 2. Abbey Road was a dream location not only for the artists playing, but the guests who spent the evening inside the studio’s emblematic walls. Overall, Sound Bite x Johnnie Walker Black Label was a spectacular night that left party-goers energised, ready to keep dancing long after Abbey Road’s iconic doors had closed and Hungry for more.
- Image Credits@emshootsbands, @augustini.photo
- With Thanks ToJohnnie Walker Black Label
