Church St East
Woking, Surrey
GU21 6HJ
Bringing excellent live music to Woking has always been our aim and it continues with another amazing night of acoustic excellence including Tobiah Thomas, George Wilding, Armstrong & TBA
For £5 you get to see the best in the emerging original live music scene in your local venue. Both need support, these excellent artists need a creative space to platform and promote their work and local venues can’t exist without their community support. Join us for another great night in Woking’s unique creative space for live music and arts. We hope that we can say we have a permanent space but in the meantime please enjoy it while we have it
You can find out more about these excellent artists here …
Silk and velvet, light and love, natural and nuanced: these are among the indelible impressions of English singer-songwriter TOBIAH. Her stories are as pure and genuine as the voice that carries them, resolving life’s experiences into hope and strength, and in a way that everyone understands.
Manchester-born TOBIAH was advised in her early teens to trade in the family piano for a guitar. Just two months later she performed at the local folk club, singing the first of what would become a catalogue of over 100 songs. She later caught the attention of manager Brian Freshwater (Joss Stone, Foy Vance) and continued performing and developing her unique style which found her signing to EMI/Chrysalis Music, working with a host of talents including Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, Rod Argent and American Idol producer Derek Bramble.
Her first single, Hope in America, reached number one on many UK radio stations, heralding a period of songwriting for U.S. artists including Will Smith, for his record label. But as trends in music shifted, TOBIAH stayed true to her roots and began producing the music herself in her small studio overlooking the inspirational South Downs.
George Wilding is an English singer songwriter. Born in 1996, he now lives in Avebury, Wiltshire.
He taught himself to play the guitar after his younger brother started having lessons, and was writing his own songs by the age of twelve. He had shown no particular interest in music in his formative years other than a tendency to hum words rather than speak them.
Shying away from talent shows, he preferred instead to gain experience performing at local open mic slots where he has developed a loyal following. He describes his songs as abstract stories.
He caught the eye of local musician Nick Harper who asked him to perform at his charity gig Avebury Rocks in 2011 for the Love, Hope and Strength Foundation. Along with Nick, he is the only performer to have played each year since, supporting acts such as Newton Falkner and The Levellers.
This brought him to the attention of musician and songwriter Gary Saunders, who had moved from London to Wiltshire, and had built a reputation for performing, production and arranging. For his EP Being Ragdollian they enlisted the help of Stu Rowe at his Lighterthief Studios in Swindon.
Gary and Stu chose a number of musicians they had worked with over the last couple of decades to help bring George’s songs to life. Andy Phillips, a long time collaborator of Gary’s, was brought in to play drums; Stu’s brothers Pete, who owns The Ladder Factory Studio in Shrivenham, recorded the drums through a vintage Trident desk; and Mikey, who took time out from touring with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, played keyboards on the tracks.
All these veteran musicians were blown away by the strength of George’s material and it is very rare to find the kind of songwriting craft George possesses at such an early age.
We are proud to present this local band who are gaining popularity and momentum as they gig around the South East and beyond. First met at our open mic night doing a stripped down set from their usual full rock stylings they have agreed to come and do a feature set at our acoustic sessions so more people can get a chance to see what they are all about and why people are raving about them.