Last week was a busy week for me running around Berkshire and London shooting a school over in Slough and a deli in Soho. It’s be a refreshing change from music photography shooting everything from sport to still life over the last 4 days. Of obvious reason I can not put any photos of the school shoot but instead I will wet your appitites with one of the food shots I shot in the lush food emporium and deli Foxcroft and Ginger situated on Soho’s Berwick street.
Shake, Rattle and Bowl
London club nights are 10 a penny and I feel like I’ve seen 9. Shake, Rattle and Bowl however is a club with a difference. My newly crowned ” Favourite Club Night in London ” Shake, Rattle and Bowl provides it’s quiff sporting attendees with table football, karaoke and 13 bowling lanes not to mention 2 rooms of good old fashion music to get swinging to. You’ll find me shaking my finely toned arse on the stage this Saturday ( 3rd April ). I suggest you join me and twist.
For more information check out their website:
Do you remember when you were last so excited about a new album release that you took a day off to get to the record store as it opened to buy it? For me that was 9 years ago and I’m threatening to do the same for The National’s new album “High Violet” . You want proof? I’ll be standing outside Rough Trade East bouncing around like Tigger on a cocktail of crack and cheap speed on 11th May. Till then join me in playing this mp3 on repeat:
Progressive rock with a pinch of Kyuss, teaspoon of Patton and drop of electronics. Experimental stoner influenced rock I here you say? Yeah, I’d never heard anything like that either till I stumbled across Agent Elf. I think it is about time you stumbled across them as well. Lucky old you they are playing South of the Border on Old Street with good friends of mine the groove laden Sedulus tomorrow night ( 19th March 2010 ).
Get your arses down there…
It’s been years since I been to The Forum. In fact I think the last thing I think I saw there was a very disappointing set by Lacuna Coil which involved quite a bit of in-sync head banging. Which I suspect was the death of Nu-metal for me.
Tonight however both Ellie Goulding and Passion Pit impress me greatly. Ellie has been hotly tipped by the BBC and half the world. Forgetting the bad reviews of her new album ‘lights’ she put on a great show which wasn’t just full of filler. Charisma is something Ellie has bundles off she comes across sweet and caring with suits her music so well.
Passion Pit are not a band I’ve paid much attention to if I’m honest but they blew me away with a energetic set, great lighting show and providing me with the opportunity to shoot iso400. I don’t even remember the last time that happened…I love The Forum’s lighting engineer. I want to buy them dinner.
Click for more of Passion Pit and Ellie Goulding
The Soft Pack are certainly not something normally I’d rave about. Coming from a teenage Doom metal head’s point of view they are positively pure filth. I’m not longer that teenager though, I must admit this. I like garage punk and I love The Soft Pack. These guys were cheated tonight by a crowd of mancunian-a-like brit bopping Q readers. Talked over and ignored the American’s put on a show that had me tapping my foot through the swagger and knee bending.
Click for more!
Someone buy Karl Middleton some cling film we want Earthtone9 back. Copro Records’s Earthtone9 produced Alt Metal in an era when Nu-Metal was just a toddler. These boys hailing from Nottingham stood out as a band that took influence from 1990s deities such as Tool and Deftones and mixed them with the then thriving UK Hardcore scene. Vocalist Karl Middleton became famous for his live performances sporting only as pair of pants made cling film. If that wasn’t enough for you Earthtone9 can take some of the credit for Welsh super stars Lost Prophets’s huge success for dragging them around the UK as a support act. Please come back guys I have an undying desire to see Karl’s ‘Special Pants’….
I’ve had a love/hate relationship with The XX ever since they came on the scene. I’ve loved the album and I’ve hated it and now I love it all over again. This remix lives up to everything I’ve heard by the masterful Matthew Dear ( If you don’t know him check out ‘Deserter‘ ). He’s like the stuffing to The XX’s turkey breathing life and beefing up their minimal sound.
She Keeps Bees
Wandering the dark backstreets of Camden is not something I’d normally recommend to anyone but it is the only way you’ll find tonight’s venue. The Black Heart has proved itself to be a hidden gem of Camden Town by simply walking around the corner to find a giant black heart swinging from the wall. It’s the black cherry on the cake that stripped down ranchy blues rock duo She Keeps Bees are joining us tonight courtesy of The Allotment.
The Allotment are treating us to a three-strong line-up of female fronted rock bands this evening. Both Lulu & The Lampshades and surprise guests Peggy Sue & The Pirates smash out sterling sets; filling the room with personality and showing off quirks such as playing a typewriter with drumsticks which is only emphasized by the excellent village fete atmosphere provided by the organizers.
She Keeps Bees are nothing short of their reputation as thumping southern styled blues when they get going with their first song ‘Release’ from one of my album highlights of last year, Nests. There is something about She Keeps Bees which keeps at least one foot tapping . Jessica’s vocals tonight add to Andy’s thump and make them something slow enough to be sultry and gritty enough to be ranchy. The anthemic ‘Gimme’ engulfs this intimate venue with their raw garage groove and heads are nodding involuntarily. They show a slightly more country side to the pair with ‘Wear Red’ a loosely strung song with a belting vocal hook that still has it’s foot firming in the proverbial blues door.
I can’t help feeling tonight She Keeps Bees are better suited to a smoky New Orleans dive or the corner of a steamy New York street more than this twee The Allotment show but they pull it off well, even if it’s just by Jessica’s charm between songs. They prove that there is room for more than one boy/girl outfit in the blues rock world by giving a outstanding show which I would be happy to relive weekly.
I’m quite well known for being musically fickle. I prefer to think of myself as a musician on tour with groupies ( thats the music ) throwing themselves at me, how could I say no? In response to my musical slut-bag-ness I’ve decided it’s time I started doing a sporadic “band of the day” section here. Today I’m shocked and excited at hearing HTRK an Auzzie band from Melborne that sound like The XX covering The Cure’s ” Pornography “. This band is lazy, minimal, dark and insanely addictive.
HTRK launch their new album at Cargo on 21st Jan with support from Factory Floor.