20/10/2018 Warner E Hodges Band @ the Hope & Anchor

Out to gigs 3 nights in a row - 4 gigs in 6 days. This used to be nothing unusual, but it's taking me a while to get back into the swing of things. Maybe there aren't so many shows happening these days that I want to go to? I think more gigs are slipping under my radar unseen these days - MySpace used to be great for keeping track of things before Tom sold it and it was ruined after being taken over. Twitter is of limited use, and Facebook is shit There are certainly less venues - partly thanks to CrossRail. However, there are certain small venues that seem to survive through everything and the Hope & Anchor seems to have been around forever. The small room downstairs where the bands play has changed dramatically though - with the bar and stage now in completely different places! About the only thing that hasn't changed much is the toilets, although they are even more disgusting now. However, it's easy (for me) to get to, a reasonable price on the door, and the ales on tap on the ground floor aren't too outrageously priced - it's a good place to visit with a nice vibe and a rich musical heritage. U2 played their first London show here - to 7 people! There are a lot more people than that here tonight....

It's good to see the return of the Darrel  Bath Band after the guitarist playing solo gigs for a couple of years or so. The rhythm section are good and solid. Darrel has a great feel for the guitar and is one of the most natural players I've ever seen, but to be honest this isn't one of his better nights - I think he may have been slightly 'over-refreshed' on this occasion.

 

Darrel has a rich back catalogue to draw from, both from his solo albums as well as bands he's been in such as the Crybabys and Dogs D'Amour - plus the odd blues standard. There is no reference tonight to his punk past in bands like UK Subs and The Vibrators though.

The place is absolutely rammed for tonight's headliner - hence the lack of pictures - there just wasn't room to wield a camera! Jason and The Scorchers guitarist Warner E Hodges has once again assembled a mighty fine band to back him on his European tour. Not only is he sharing the stage with another Jason - this time Jason Knight on bass - once of Lick That, Planet Of Women, and more recently The Haunting AD and Binge Drinking. but also on second guitar is a new and very capable addition in the form of Ben Marsden from The Main Grains. Put together this lot make a shit hot rock 'n' roll band!

Although Warner is known for his country-rock background, with his solo act he takes things right back to his ROCK roots. He is a huge AC/DC fan and one of their songs opens the set. Along with a bunch of his own songs we also get some unexpected covers by Black Sabbath (War Pigs) and Queen (Tie Your Mother Down).. Also a louder and faster version of John Denver's 'Country Roads' -  It's all pretty rockin'  stuff and enormous fun!

19/10/2018 - Part 2. JoanOvArc @ Big Red

So after hotfooting it from Camden Assembly to Big Red on Holloway Road I find I am actually in plenty of time to catch JoanOvArc doing what they do best - rocking out on front of a live audience. This is something the band absolutely love!

JoanOvArc have played here before and always draw a good crowd. The good thing about this venue is that it's a ROCK bar, and as well as their own existing fans, the regular and random punters here who have no idea who the the band are tend to be quickly won over before the band have finished their first song!

I've seen JoanOvArc many many times over the years, and they are always great - tonight is no exception. Anyone thinking a bunch of girls are going to play lightweight music or a load of soppy ballads are in for a shock - a BIG shock! This band rock hard from their first song. If they weren't so loud you would hear a lot of jaws hitting the floor when people hear how good they are.

Earlier, before the band took to the stage I bumped into a shady but familiar looking character at the bar. Having seen him at one or two previous JoanOvArc shows I guess what was going to happen later, and sure enough it did. Midway though their set the girls were joined on stage by actor John Altman AKA 'Nasty Nick' from Eastenders.

This will have come as no surprise to existing fans of the band as John appeared in a Christmas video singing the old classic rock & roll cover 'Wild One' best known as being sung by Iggy Pop. Mr Altman has previous form in the rock business after taking over from the late Gary Holton as singer with the Heavy Metal Kids - so he knows what fronting a rock band is all about. Sorry for my pictures being so shit - the smoke machine makes it very difficult to to take pictures without using flash and my camera's autofocus is shite in poor light.

JoanOvArc have built an impressive back catalogue of their own songs over the years, some of which remain live favourites to this day. Last time the band played at Big Red it was to launch their new album Ride Of Your Life - this time they are here to promote their new charity single in aid of the Pink Ribbon Foundation -  Girls Wanna Rock  And to that end they are joined on stage by another special guest - Steph the star of the video who also fronts her own band Flowerpot. Needless to say, JoanOvArc go down a storm at Big Red - effectively playing to their 'home crowd' even though the band originate from Stevenage.

This being a headline spot on a two band bill (Flowerpot were supporting but I missed them as I was otherwise engaged in Camden) JoanOvArc have time to play a longer set than usual. So after playing at least an hour of their own original material they launch into a few covers - not just as 'crowd pleasers' but because the band just love playing a few of their favourite rock classics - no 'Ace Of Spades' this time, but they do play a really good 'Whole Lotta Love', and I get embarrassed by being given a name-check from the stage before the band play 'Freebird' - a song which they play an amazing version off - this is one of the few live bands who can genuinely move me with the pure passion they play their music with. Their version of 'Freebird' is really something special.

JoanOvArc are the perfect end to a night of terrific live music spread over two different North London venues - look out for them playing in Camden in 2019....

19/10/2018 - Part 1. Ryan Hamilton & The Harlequin Ghosts @ Camden Assembly

A busy night - a busy week in fact. Out at a gig last night, and tonight there are two gigs I want to go to. Fortunately they are not too far apart - so if stage times permit....

My first port of call is Camden Assembly - formerly The Barfly, and The Monarch pub before that. The building has seen a massive refurb since it closed as the Barfly. The old painted walls outside have been stripped back to the original ceramic tiling - which is actually very nice! Downstairs has been stripped out and redone with new furniture - and new very expensive beer prices! The days of me drinking at this venue and it being reasonably priced are gone. To be fair, at least there is transparency on the bar pricing with the cost of beers being clearly displayed in large letters over the bar - a great improvement on many music venues - where you can get a very nasty shock when you find out how much the pint you just ordered costs! I head straight upstairs - where I find more changes. A new PA system, and the old Barfly stage backdrop has been replaced with some stupid thing with a wall of hundreds of lights pointing at the crowd! Who dreams all this crap up?

Anyway, I'm not here to marvel at this shiny 'new' venue - I'm here to see the act formerly known as Ryan Hamilton & The Traitors. Now as a result of being signed by a record company they are Ryan Hamilton & The Harlequin Ghosts. Don't worry - it's still the same people in the band and the same songs! Like the venue they just look smarter now. Yes, they are all in suits - they scrub up well though. I've never seen bassist Rob Lane in particular look so smart! The important things are unchanged: Ryan Hamilton is in a very 'up' and optimistic frame of mind with the way things are now heading. He is an excellent and very engaging frontman - funny, very natural, and entertaining. He is a man truly in his element and happy to be playing packed out club shows with a very good band.  The style of music is country tinged rock and Ryan has a very relaxed and easy going manner on stage - his banter with the crowd is very natural and he tells some very funny stories between songs. This is an evening of great entertainment and the atmosphere in the room is wonderful. All too soon the show draws to a close - much too early for both crowd and artist. It's a Friday night in Camden and no one want's to go home this early - I don't think it was even 10.00 but the curfew is kicking in and the venue are kicking us all out to make way for the club night. Mr Hamilton doesn't think much of this, and nor do we - but on this occasion it actually suits me well as I have somewhere else I need to be ASAP....

18/10/2018 Saint Agnes @ The Borderline

I'd been hearing good things about Saint Agnes for a while before I finally managed to see them at Camden Rocks Festival last summer. They were one of the best acts I saw at the festival in 2018 and I knew I had to go and see them again. So I find myself at The Borderline this Thursday night. The venue has changed dramatically since my last visit, and not for the better in my opinion. The old bars and split floor level that allowed for good views even from near the back or side have all been swept away - to be replaced by a long and shiny completely new bar area towards the back. What was once an intimate club venue full of character and atmosphere has been refurbed into a bland and sterile room designed to part punters from their money as quickly and efficiently as possible. Past experience of the venue's once reasonable but in more recent times rapidly inflated beer prices mean I don't go near the bar. I took the precaution of a visit to the ex-Marquee Club Wetherspoons down the road first...

The Borderline is packed! I didn't realise the band had already built up such a following - this is a very impressive turnout for a pretty underground band on a Thursday night. The atmosphere is dark and brooding before the band take to the stage - there is menace in the air. Something very dramatic is obviously about to happen. And it does.

The stage set is dark and atmospheric - it matches the band's performance perfectly.

The music is dark and heavy - imagine if Led Zeppelin wrote the soundtrack to a Hammer horror film.

There is definitely a strong blues influence at work here, and you very much get the feeling you are listening to 'the Devil's music'.

Kitty the singer is quite an enigma and somehow seems not quite of this world - like a much darker version of Katie Jane Garside from Queen Adreena. She invites all the girls in the room up for a stage invasion during one song - a risky idea as unless it's the last song you are probably going to want to somehow get them all off the stage again for the rest of the show. However, I get the feeling that Saint Agnes are not a band afraid to take risks.

Kitty's performance is mesmerising and slightly disturbing - this is a band you will definitely remember if you see them live. Saint Agnes don't just play their songs - they give a real performance.

Some bands just get up on stage and play their songs - often very well, but it's all a bit clinical and sterile. There is nothing clinical and sterile about Saint Agnes - they are raw and visceral - dark and disturbing. Not for nothing do they call their fans 'The Coven'. Well would you really expect anything less of a band with a song called 'The Witching Hour'?

All too soon, the band's performance is over. And it's not yet the Witching Hour. It's not closing time either - some ne'er do well suggests we go to the pub. No one cares if it's a 'school night' - we repair to The Angel nearby.....

15/10/2018 The Brutalists (and some Quireboys) @ Mau Mau Bar

Out on a Monday night again - often the best stuff isn't to be found at weekends so people who won't go out on a 'School night' are losing out. Tonight finds me at one of London's coolest and most intimate venues. Mau Mau Bar in Ladbroke Grove is a tiny and very non-corporate venue with a vibe not unlike the much missed 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street, although this is even smaller! Beer and cider is from bottles and cans only, but not as expensive as you might expect for a West London music venue. The reason I'm here is to see ex-Quireboys bassist Nigel Mogg's new band The Brutalists. The band take their name from the Brutalist form of post-war architecture - an ugly utilitarian form of building - punk architecture? Like the architectural form, this band's music is basic, but in a good way. For his new band ex-North Londoner but now LA resident Nigel Mogg has decided to step away from the bass and try his hand fronting a band instead. He seems to have taken to frontman duties like a duck to water.

Nigel has all the moves, and like his former bandmate Spike would appear to have been studying Rod Stewart closely, but more for his moves than his sound. You'd think Phil Mogg's 'young' nephew had been doing this for years - he certainly looks like a natural. His singing ain't bad either.

The rest of the band are all American and include early LA Guns rhythm guitarist Mick Cripps, although their sound is actually more British. The Brutalists sound very much like a 1970's London pub rock band - but a very good one! They remind me a lot of Dr Feelgood. and if you are a fan of that band then you'd probably be into this lot too. Even though they don't actually sound that much like the Canvey Island heroes. they have a similar vibe about them and are a very tight band indeed.

I really enjoyed The Brutalists set. They are on their debut UK tour along with Dirty Strangers on their 'There's Still Room To Rock N Roll' tour as well as promoting the first Brutalists album. This is one of the best new bands I've seen in ages!

Finishing off tonight's show are The Dirty Strangers. This band have gone through many lineup changes since the 1980's and are very well connected - both Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood have played on their albums in the past, and although this band has quite a punky pub rock sound, they have a bit of a Stonesey vibe about them even when playing without any Rolling Stones members. So what's the next nearest sounding thing to having Rolling Stones members in your band? Having Quireboys members in your band! And so we have Guy Griffin from that band helping out on guitar tonight - hidden on the left behind Dirty Strangers mainman Alan Clayton in the picture below.

As if having one Quireboys guitarist wasn't enough - partway through the set they are joined by ex-Quireboy Guy Bailey! And ex-Quireboys bassist Nigel Mogg looks on from only a few feet away looking well into it all. Wow - 3 current/ex-Quireboys all playing on one night in the same tiny West London venue!

If only all three Quireboys could have all been on the stage at the same time! Never mind, it still feels like quite a special evening and there is a really cool atmosphere in the place. And guess what? It was free to get in!

I had an interesting chat with Nigel Mogg later - I already knew we'd gone to the same school in North London, although we didn't know each other at the time as we were in different years, but as we compared tattoos we discovered we had something else in common - we both have almost identical tattoos on our forearms in tribute to Lemmy.

Mondays may be shit, but Monday nights don't have to be!