Lucien Moon to play Westlife support slot at Cardiff Castle next month

Singer-songwriter Lucien Moon will open for Westlife next month when the acclaimed boyband headline Cardiff Castle in Wales.

The Northants musician is set to release his new single next week and will be warming up for his Welsh gig with a headline set at The Black Prince later in June.

Talking about the forthcoming gig in the Welsh capital, Lucien Moon said: “I’m really looking forward to it, it’s an amazing opportunity. I’ve been doing my research on the venue and it’s amazing, it’s an iconic place some huge names have played at.

“I hope it’s going to lead onto bigger things as long as we put on a good show.

“We’ve got half an hour which is a solid set. A couple of weeks ago we played at the King’s Coronation event in Northampton at Delapré Abbey and it allowed us to run through the whole ‘Cardiff’ set.

“After a few more rehearsals, we’re hopefully going to be able to smash it.”

Earlier this year, the Kingsthorpe based musician got in touch with promoters Cuffe & Taylor about the possibility of performing at one of their gigs in the region this summer.

They came back with the offer of opening for the Dublin boy band on Wednesday, July 5.

Moon said: “There’s going to be about 9,000 people there, it’ll definitely be the most people I’ve performed to.

“Luckily, I can take a full band so we’re going to have bass, guitar, drums and keys and we’ll be running a bit on tracks as well.

“Most of my band is from Birmingham, but we’ll have Alistair Wilkinson on drums who is also a Northants lad, we’ve been playing together for about nine years now and he’s a big believer in my music.”

Influenced by the likes of Craig David, Justin Timberlake and Maroon 5, Jamie Benkert - who performs under the name Lucien Moon - has been singing since childhood and started writing songs as a teenager. His sound melds pop, RnB and jazz influences.

His latest single, What I Needed, is released next Friday.

The track was produced by Mitchell White and features DJ Ironik. It follows The Swimming Pool Sessions EP – an acoustic compilation of some of Moon’s past singles which was released earlier this year.

Talking about his new single, he said: “This is quite a different track, it’s got quite dark chords and is gritty and quite anthemic.

“It’s something to get the year rolling, which is mad because it’s June, but when you’re making music it can take so long to get to the point of release.

“It’s more moody than my other songs like Fallen which is a very upbeat summer track.

“After this we’re going to be coming back with a proper summer track again which is upbeat and funky.”

The song tells the story of a toxic relationship, “Where the other half makes you feel they could ‘drop’ the relationship at any point,” explains Moon.

“It’s about been fully aware that someone is no good for you.

“That one person in your life, it doesn’t matter what they do to you, you keep going back to them.”

Before Lucien Moon and his band head to Cardiff, he will play a ‘warm-up’ gig at The Black Prince in Northampton and he’s urging people to come along and support the show.

Explaining he hasn’t played a hometown show for some time, he said: “I’m really excited to be playing at The Black Prince, it’s an amazing room and arguably the best venue in town right now.

“I really want to get as many people down as possible, see as many faces that I haven’t seen for years as well as the familiar faces who have been supporting me.

“We want to pack it out and have a really good night of music and get everyone riled up for Cardiff even more.”

Looking beyond next month’s Cardiff gig, Benkert said his plan is to continue to work on as many new original Lucien Moon songs as possible and play more shows.

Lucien Moon headlines The Black Prince in Northampton on Wednesday, June 28. Doors open at 8pm.

Support is TBC. Tickets are on sale now and cost £8 before fees via https://www.seetickets.com/tour/lucien-moon-live-at-the-black-prince