Charge: Guildhall School’s Electronic Music Showcase
Tickets
About this event:
- Category:
- New Music
- Event type:
- Booking required | Free | In-person
- Admission:
- Free, but booking required
- Date, time and location:
- , 8pm in Grow, Main Yard, 98C Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN
Event information
Doors open 7pm
Live performances from 8pm
Admission: 18+
For the third time, Guildhall School returns to Grow for Charge, the annual summer showcase spotlighting artists from the Electronic & Produced Music (EPM) department.
Following last year’s edition, Charge is back with another eclectic programme that reflects the breadth of the department’s sound - from indie rock to trip-hop-infused cello & vocal compositions, through to jazzy alt-pop.
This year’s line-up brings together a cohort of artists actively making waves across London’s indie and alternative scene: some fresh from radio play, others building momentum at the city’s most loved grassroots venues, and several stopping through ahead of festival appearances this summer.
Free but tickets required from EventBrite
Programme & Performers
Known for high-energy shows at venues like The George Tavern and Windmill Brixton, Common Ideal blend anthemic melodies with heavy riffs to create an electrifying live experience that has taken the band all across the UK, and countries like France, Belgium and Portugal. Composed of Sal, Joe and Aaron, the power trio are praised for their tight stage craft and immense sonority. The band have been building momentum through consistent live shows in London and a recently released debut EP, which the band took on a UK/EU 15-date tour in the latter part of 2025.
Looking into 2026 Common Ideal are ensuring to keep driving the London alternative rock scene forward and are looking forward to releasing more music and playing festivals this summer.
VERA SACRA makes music that sits in its own world - weaving together cello, tape, synth undercurrents, fragmented beats, and the sounds that fall in-between. The project of Sheffield-raised, now South London-based, producer and cellist Emily Marks, VERA SACRA explores the fragility of relationships and searching for a sense of home. Intrigued by spirituality and devotion, she constructs soundscapes through manipulating cello electronically, blending neoclassical textures with delicate vocals, melodic intricacy, and focused production. Her writing crosses a range of styles - from soft ballads to deconstructed club and surreal ambience - kept cohesive by her cello.
In 2025, she released her debut EP ‘sacred spring’ - a collection of bedroom demos formed over a period of transience and frequent relocation between Sheffield, London & the Baltics. Over the past two years she has carved out a space in London’s experimental music where she is known for her intimate sets blending cello, improvisation and electronics in spaces such as Stoke Newington Old Church, the Horse Hospital, Avalon Cafe, Windmill and the George Tavern. She has also performed at Salford’s Sounds from the Other City and Sheffield’s beloved Gut Level, No Bounds Festival and Float Along Festival for BBC Introducing.
The Glowworms are a band and recording project featuring Dov Sikowitz, Sam Hodder, Dan Fawcett, Cass Begg and George Lavender. Somewhere on an axis between stories and hymns, between the organic and the distorted, The Glowworms’ sound is warm and full of colour.
