What is Hilltop Sessions?

Hilltop Sessions is a series of monthly live gigs featuring a range of independent artists performing original material. They take place at the Lewes Con Club, (usually) on the first Thursday of every month.

Who is behind Hilltop Sessions?

Hilltop Sessions was created – and is curated - by Lewes based artist and musician Maia Eden and her husband Oliver Dudok van Heel, a member of pop-up busking troupe The Magnificent Kevens.

How did Hilltop Sessions come about?

We (Maia and Oliver) met through a shared love of music and had been talking for a while finding ways to bring quality music into people’s lives. When the pandemic hit and we realised how much we missed live music and how much the pandemic threatened musicians’ livelihoods and careers, we created Hilltop Sessions to give musicians a platform, once restrictions were lifted.

What type of music can you expect at a Hilltop Session?

We don’t want to limit the sessions to one style of music. Our first series of sessions includes legendary new wave pop, indie, piano ballads, indie-folk, rap and electronic music.

We don’t necessarily expect Hilltop Session audiences to come because their favourite artist is playing – though fans are very welcome! We hope people join us on a Thursday evening because they want to discover something new that they may not otherwise be drawn to. In other words, come with an open mind and let yourself be surprised. Think of it like the musical equivalent of monthly  surprise case of wine or crate of beer!

Our role as curators is to make sure that we bring quality singer-songwriters to each session. If you leave a session thinking ‘This was new and it was great’, we’ve done our job.

Are you looking for established or unknown artists?

A little bit of everything. We were delighted to have Chris Difford perform at the first Hilltop Session as he is an amazing artist and songwriter, but for the most part we will support artists who aren’t quite as well-known but are very good at what they do. A typical session will usually involve one headline artist with at least one album under their belt and a good following and one support artist who may not have recorded anything yet, but has already written some cracking songs and is ready to share them with a wider audience.