30/10/2010 Bermondsey Joyriders @ The Hobgoblin among other things

Subject	Bermondsey Joyriders @ The Hobgoblin among other things
PostedDate	10/30/2010
	A busy night for me. There are about six gigs/events I want to get to, but fortunately three of them are in easy walking distance of each other. A few minutes after getting off the train at Kings Cross I'm at the Water Rats. To be honest I only watched Delta Unit out of curiosity as I knew I could blag in for free. They are good at what they do, but a bit indie for my tastes. I enjoyed a few pints of Spitfire on my other recent visit to this venue, but tonight the real ale pumps are out of use so I don't hang around for a drink.  My next port of call is the Hobgoblin in Islington. It's only a ten minute or so walk from Grays Inn Road, and on the way I pass the Lexington. I had been planning to catch the Urban Voodoo Machine show here tonight.  Unfortunately only found out today that it had sold out in advance  - which at least made picking my choice of gigs to attend tonight slightly easier. A couple of minutes later I arrive at the Hobgoblin. Like it's namesake in Camden the place is a bit of a dive, but unlike the Camden boozer (formerly the Devonshire Arms) the 'own brand' real ale is of better quality. Of even better quality is the band. The Bermondsey Joyriders are on good form and sound excellent tonight. Their down to earth working class brand of rock 'n' roll is actually well suited to dives like this, although the band are good enough to deserve better. I've already missed part of the band's set when I arrive as they started earlier than the expected 10.30 stage time. I think I still caught most of the band's set, and got to hear some of my favourites like 'Cafe Racer', 'Who Are Ya', and their Johnny Thunders tribute 'Part Of My Problem'. The band's punk pedigree is fine, featuring ex-members of Cock Sparrer, Chelsea, and now The Damned with Rat Scabies on drums. Their set combines punk attitude with old school rock 'n' roll style and a high standard of musicianship - with Garry Lammin's slide guitar in particular giving the band a distinctive sound of their own. If you like real rock 'n' roll with spirit and attitude then you can't not enjoy this band's show. It's a bit early to go home on a Saturday night, so I jump on the tube and head into the west end. I soon find myself at the Intrepid Fox. However, they are charging a fiver on the door so I give that a miss as I wasn't planning on staying long before heading deeper into Soho. A few minutes later I'm at that sleazepit the St Moritz club for Decadence. For some strange reason they only serve Newcastle Brown in tins here - what's that all about? It doesn't taste as good as it does from a bottle and they charge you £4! Still, the music's good and the people are cool -always good meet some friends in there among the usual suspects.  I don't stay that late though - it's one of those nights where things aren't quite right for me - things aren't quite aligned somehow. As I went to a gig with more of a punk vibe earlier I'm not really dressed for this infamous glam/sleaze haunt. Other people are dressed up for Halloween, but that's actually tomorrow night so I'm keeping my powder dry until then - I don't want to go out looking the same two nights in a row.  It's been a slightly weird night that didn't go as planned, with not getting into the Voodoo show and then the Intrepid Fox as planned - and also not really dressing that appropriately for the varied events of the evening - you're not really going to turn up at a punk gig in some dodgy pub dressed up like you're going to a glam show are you? Then again, isn't punk supposed to be about breaking the rules and not doing the right thing. Funny thing is that punk soon turned into something that had very rigid rules of it's own and a 'uniform' that 'proper' punks are supposed to wear - meaning the more 'punk' they try to look the more they are actually conforming to a stereotype and turning themselves into an ironic cliche. Anyway, why has this turned into a rambling rant? Time tograb a bite to eat and start thinking about tonight...