Alex Castle — Live in Woodstock
2025 London Tour Diary
I kicked off the summer with my first-ever trip to London, where I spent two weeks criscrossing the city with a single goal: to play as many of my songs for as many people as possible. With no connections or bookings to start, my expectations were relatively low: I showed up with a list of twelve leads, and I told my friends that if a third of them panned out I’d be happy.
As it turned out I ended up playing thirteen stages in ten nights (I doubled up on three of them) — most of them open mics, with a couple of proper bookings that came out of open mics — and met so many fascinating, talented, kind, generous people. It was the most inspiring and exciting two weeks I can remember.
As a songwriter and solo performer it’s great to draw a good crowd that appreciates what you’re doing. But going in cold to a crowd that definitely doesn’t know you, and then watching the heads gradually turn and the crowd noise gradually quiet is a different kind of buzz, and I was lucky enough to feel it more often than not on this trip — London’s audiences, even at open mics in pub basements, are the most attentive and appreciative I’ve had the opportunity to play for, and I can’t wait to go back.
A little taste of my adventure below:
New EP Streaming Now!!
PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY, END TIMES is available now on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, and anywhere else music is streamed.
A hilarious, heartwarming, toe-tapping, six-song cycle of pandemic despair and recovery, PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY, END TIMES was written by Alex Castle, produced by Ethan Klee and features drums by Todd Perlmutter.