R51 - 2017

April 23, 2017

R51 - 2017

Yes again I am making another post about R51, you can check out my previous posts here and here if you can't quite get enough of this incredible band, like myself.

In January the Daily Mirror Northern Ireland wrote an article about Seventeen artists in 2017 to watch out for and R51 were of course one of the bands mentioned.
"During 2016 we've watched R51's ascent to stardom with an outstanding new EP and an increasingly confident, explosive live show. Singer Melyssa Shannon is an incredibly engaging front woman - a real whirlwind of charisma and brightly coloured hair. The next level surely awaits. LISTEN TO: Elephant, the lead on their most recent EP is enormous"

The Guardian wrote an article about live venues in the U.K. and R51's lovely guitarist Aaron was pictured under The Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast. Give it a read if you want to read about some incredible venues, here.

In February at Output Belfast Conference & Showcase, R51 played at Voodoo, Belfast.

They then played another show at Voodoo supporting WASPS single launch. You can check out Matty live from the drum kit here.

Queens Radio named R51 - 'Elephant' on their local playlist for March 2017.

New merch available at https://r51broadcast.bandcamp.com/merch

They created a profile on Spotify with all of their tunes available to listen to; R51 on Spotify

They also got a spot in a Northern Irish "All my locals" playlist on Spotify; All my locals

On the 23rd of May, R51 then released "Heavy Friends" and a Facebook teaser trailer and Matty also uploaded the actual Heavy Friends music video on his Vimeo page.

In May, they played three songs at a Go Girl showcase Women's Work.

To promote their new single, Across The Line and David O'Reilly on BBC Radio Ulster played the first ever full length spin of "Heavy Friends"; it appears at 9:21.

The Thin Air also wrote an article to help them promote the single; read it here.

Blackstaff Music Belfast included "Heavy Friends" and "Vitamin C" on their Blackstaff round up, which is a podcast and playlist of local talent. Check out their original post to find other amazing artists.

Across The Line on BBC Ulster Radio had "Heavy Friends" as their track of the day.

20th of June they supported Jealous of The Birds in Limelight 2 which Blackstaff Music Belfast wrote a review of which you can read here in; Treason Magazine.

24th of June, they played a show for Drone Mansion's DMTV

And there's a live snippet video of this; here.

In July R51 announced their Russian Tour;

ATL of course wrote an article about it. And they decided to have a fundraiser gig to help them gather some funds to get them to Russia.

They played Sunflower Fest and headlined the Barn Stage on Friday 28th of July at 22.00-22.45pm. I was of course SUPER excited for this as the band invited me to join them on stage during "Heavy Friends" to shoot out some confetti!!! I got to live out my rock star fantasy. Luckily Matty uploaded an Instagram video and a Facebook video of the night so I can relive it forever.

Gigging NI wrote a review about Sunflower Fest and named R51 Act of The Day which you can check out; here.

Mel & Jonny also played a little something for ATL which you can see; here.

Sadly in August, Anton the bass player and long standing band member, announced he was leaving the band. R51 wrote a lovely post about him but also welcoming Carl as their new bassist; here.

In September, R51 held their fundraising gig and it was such a blast.

And then that was them away to Russia, some of the venues made some awesome posters for their shows.

ChordBlossom wrote an article; R51 Prepare to Rock Russia.

Matty's sister Helena also took some great photos from their gig for ChordBlossom which you can see; here.

There are so many photos from their Russian tour that I couldn't fit all them on this post so here is my fav one and a link to all their Instagrams so you can check their pics out.