Akayzia

Akayzia Parker plays to a full (suburban) house
The leafy west London suburb of Pinner became the centre of the musical universe for fans of upcoming urban folk singer Akayzia Parker, when they descended upon Mandy Harkness’s comfortable home to hear an impromptu concert.

Rising star Akayzia drew a sizeable crowd last night for an intimate living room gig organised by the BBC.

The last major musical event to take place in Pinner was the birth of Reg Dwight - better known as Elton John - more than half a century ago.

The gig was recorded live for BBC Radio 5 Live’s Up All Night Show with Dotun Adebayo, which saw Akayzia and fellow band members Adam East and Tobias Humble give an acoustic set of material from her forthcoming album.

The unconventional gig was arranged after Mandy Harkness called the BBC after hearing Akayzia’s music on Adebayo’s show in September. Akayzia and the BBC put their heads together and came up with the idea of bringing Akayzia’s music directly to Mandy and offering her very own home-made gig – in her living room.

“All I can say is this is what you get for contacting the BBC,” says Mandy during an interview with Adebayo.

“Thanks so much to the BBC for arranging this and thanks to Akayzia for coming all the way out here, we’re all having such a fantastic time.”

A very gracious Akayzia showed her gratitude to Mandy and her highly welcoming family for having her and went down a storm with the crowd of friends, family and press who cheered her on to performing two encores even after the BBC had stopped recording.

“I definitely like playing to a full house,” says Akayzia, “but this puts a whole new spin on things. This is slightly different to the venues I’m used to playing. It’s nice and clean and warm and there’s even carpet.”

Akayzia – who also has a huge fan base on Facebook – and her entourage were sworn to secrecy about the gig for fear of attracting unmanageable thousands to Mandy’s home
- The London Paper

Ray Lamontagne,Akayzia Parker Live Review @ Hammersmith Apollo (London) - 08 Feb 2007

Photos:Daniel O'Connell
Live Review
Support act Akayzia Parker from London came onto the stage at 8PM prompt, featuring vocalist Akayzia Parker accompanied by guitarist. The style was acoustic/ nu-soul, and was quite pleasant, but you just got the impression that a rhythm section would have helped lift some of the numbers which started to blend after a while. By Akayzia's own admission, tonight the band were "naked" going out as just a duo. All-in-all, a job well done.

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