Darcy Winter's Thursday Blow-Up Concert: French Toast, MOSAICS & Prior Blow the Roof Off the Troubadour

On Thursday, July 17, one of London’s oldest pubs and live music venues, The Troubadour, lit up with an explosive show organized by concert curator and artist Darcy Winter. The lineup featured local bands MOSAICS, French Toast, and The Prior. We were there to feel the heartbeat of the music, trace how it all began, and learn more about the mission behind Darcy’s initiative, Drive Music Media — all in the middle of the action.

Soundcheck for the bands kicked off at 6 PM. The atmosphere in the pub was calm but buzzing — everyone was gearing up for a solid night.

While the acts were warming up downstairs in the basement, our journalist Asya Radko caught up with the evening’s curator and musician Darcy Winter. A few steps up from the main floor, they paused between levels, and Darcy sat down on the stairs.

She knows live music life from both sides — as an artist and as the one pulling the strings behind the scenes. When asked how it all began, she smiled and said:

"It all started about a year and a half ago. I'm an artist myself, and I was finding it really frustrating working with promoters in London — they take all the artists, all the money, and make it really difficult.

So I just thought — right, I’m going to start my own events and put myself on the lineup, just to get into venues. And from there, the two venues I initially worked with told me the events were going really well and encouraged me to run shows for other artists, too.

That’s how I began to grow the brand. I started collaborating with more venues — places like Paper Dress Vintage and The Waiting Room. And now, things have really picked up — it’s a good system, and the artists get to keep all the money from their ticket sales. I don't take anything. And yeah, it's been great."

Musicians are always looking for opportunities to perform at festivals or in pubs, but they don’t always know where to start or what criteria organizers use to choose one band over another.

Darcy gave our journalist a behind-the-scenes look and explained how the whole process works:

"I do get quite a lot of people applying. My main aim is to make sure that, firstly, the artists receive all the money they should from their ticket sales, and secondly, that they get fans who are already likely to enjoy their music. So I try to group acts of a similar genre, so that fans of, say, MOSAICS are more likely to also enjoy The Prior and The French Toast."

Music starts to echo down the stairs — the night is in full swing and the soundcheck is still going. Meanwhile, Darcy keeps talking:

"I don’t base it on social media following at all — it’s not about that. I just make sure they have at least one live video, even if it’s filmed on someone’s phone. What really matters is how they engage with the audience and how good they are live. It’s got nothing to do with streams or anything like that. That’s how I choose the artists."

One of the bands performing on Thursday night, MOSAICS, has a collaboration with James McCartney — a British singer-songwriter and the son of the legendary and deeply soulful Paul McCartney.

The track "Different People" came out back in January, but it’s still winning hearts.

Darcy has been familiar with MOSAICS for quite some time — her connection with the band goes back to an earlier creative collaboration:

"Josh, one of the members — I’d worked with him as an artist before,” she shares. He showed me MOSAICS a while ago, and I’d just been waiting for the right lineup. So I got in touch with Stu, who handles their management. I checked out their social media — they’ve got a really strong brand, and the music sounds great too. It’s actually a really good time for them right now, with a lot of exciting stuff coming up."

The staff start moving up and down the stairs, everyone’s getting busy preparing for the concert, so Darcy and I step aside a little, and she continues:

"Artists often use these events to attract industry attention. These days, we see quite a few industry professionals showing up — there’s a lot of interest in discovering what’s trending.

Every creative preparation has its own pros and cons. Darcy openly names them:

"I usually have everything done before. So the actual night is great and, you know, the artists are usually so easy to work with. The most difficult bit is balancing the venue with the artists and me, trying to make sure that you know obviously the venue needs tickets sales. But then obviously it's hard for the artists too, you know it's really hard to sale tickets. And then for me obviously I'm responsible for both sides. So it's just making sure that it's a really nice process for the musisians and that you sell enough tickets. But the more the brand had grown, the easier the tickets sell now, so people come and see the show as well as the artists. So that's the most difficult part."

Usually, to get on events like these, artists need to already have a fanbase who can come to the show. But Darcy is open to talented musicians who haven’t built their audience yet. Here’s what she says about it:

"Yeah, so what I usually do is — sometimes I have three artists, sometimes four. And if there’s someone I think is really good but still at an early stage, I’ll put them on a four-artist lineup and match them with others who already have a solid following. That way, there’s less pressure on them to sell tickets, and they still get the chance to perform for a bigger audience. I mean, with these shows, you don’t always sell out, but as long as the crowd that’s there is enthusiastic, it’s gonna be a great show."

The first to perform were The Prior, who got the crowd going with their powerful vocals. They were followed by MOSAICS, who absolutely blew the roof off the venue — with Stu’s electrifying guitar riffs, Owen’s dynamic vocals, and Josh’s wild, high-energy drumming. As always, El stole hearts with her charisma on the bass guitar. French Toasts closed the concert with their signature extravagant energy, leaving the crowd buzzing.

Darcy associates what she creates — both as an artist and as a concert organiser — with the word “honest.” And that’s exactly what the audience felt that evening.

Pictures were taken by Allice Harrison, Phill Metcalfe and Erin Slater