Leftwich at the Lexington

Like many people, I love a good freebie. Whether it’s a prize draw on STA Travel for a backpack full of travelling essentials or a Facebook event promoting a movie release with a free DVD, I’m more than likely to take a few minutes to enter. My policy with these things is that you can’t win if you don’t give it a shot - plus someone surely has to win. Right? 

This does, of course, sound laughably obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people moan about not having any exciting opportunities, only to admit they rarely attempt to actively find anything themselves. I figure that it takes no time or effort to fill in a couple of boxes, and the potential reward is often interesting enough to warrant a cosy little daydream for a moment or two (only recently I’d all but written the dates in my diary for a top prize trip to the Antarctic. I didn’t win). Plus, my luck has started to change somewhat recently – I’ve managed to win tickets to the iTunes Festival at Camden’s Roundhouse two years running – so I have a little more faith in the effort of perseverance than I once held. I have a general list of websites I flock to on a regular basis, where I casually type in email address, name, sometimes my age, sometimes a simple a/b/c answer, then hit send and sit back happily, with the knowledge that my noble little entry could quite possibly be selected at random from the virtual pile of other eager entries, and carry me off to a 5 night stay in the Bahamas.

Ok, so I haven’t won a draw as exciting as that yet. But a couple of weeks ago, I did receive an email congratulating me on winning two tickets to an exclusive gig in Islington, courtesy of the Guardian and Spotify Live. The musicians featured were Marques Toliver and Benjamin Francis Leftwich; a pleasant resolution for me, as Ben Leftwich was one of the only musicians I really wanted to see at Iceland Airwaves, but who couldn't perform (I'm not going to lie, I was a bit annoyed). Standing in the tiny upstairs venue of The Lexington amongst a crowd of only fifty or so other people was the perfect location to hear him play. With no band behind him and an obvious desire that evening to play some of his songs without even a microphone for amplification, Ben Leftwich delivered a great set, and also managed to rock a very appealing Christmas jumper. I'm not great at the musical analysis (plus I was too enamoured of his very delicious voice) so I'll let Ben do the rest. Hit play, sit back, and relax...