7/12/2014 London SS & Tango Pirates @ The Dublin Castle

Sunday night finds me back in Camden at the Dublin Castle - one of the area's better value for money music venues as regards door and bar prices. The first band I manage to see are Tango Pirates.

At least half the band members have changed since I saw them earlier in 2014, but Danny Fury is still fronting the band - a role he seems to take to naturally.

The new guitarist was pretty good, and the band now seem to be heading in a much more rock 'n' roll direction compared to their previous more 'arty' and alternative style.

When Tango Pirates have finished their set I return to the front bar to sample the ales - after finding the price of Weston's Old Rosie has gone up considerably. While at the bar the comparative peace was disturbed by a nutter climbing onto a stool and launching into a rant to bemused punters about have if we want to be entertained we need to head for the back bar immediately!

Fortunately, I was heading that way anyway...

...and yes - it's the same nutter, but now he's on the stage!

Said nutter is actually Jimi the singer with infamously named London SS. It's good to see him back with the band after leaving earlier in the year and guitarist Brady taking over vocal duties for a gig or two.

Original guitarist Brady (in the blue suit) was staggering around the front bar earlier apparently rather the worse for wear, but when he's on stage he plays pretty well tonight. He's been around a bit since he played in the influential Hollywood Brats - glam-punks before anybody had even heard of punk rock. Then he was in the London SS with other musicians who later rose to fame in bands such as The Clash, The Boys, Generation X and The Damned. Brady is the only member of the original band in the current version - reformed by him in 2012.

Also (sort of) on vocals for one song tonight is Dave Kusworth (see seated on the stage above) making what I suspect is an unplanned appearance. He is definitely the worse for wear. Maybe Jimi is too - he's certainly fueled up on something - maybe it's just rock 'n' roll? He's the craziest frontman I've seen in ages - Iggy Pop mixed with Freddie Mecury and determined to whip the place into a frenzy!

It's impossible to keep the singer on the stage for long - some of the time he's not even in the same room!

The band's sound mixes punk. glam, hard rock, and old school rock 'n' roll - I'm not going to even try to think of a name for it. However, it must have impressed some people as tomorrow the London SS are signing their first ever record deal - maybe something of a record as the band first formed in 1975 and have never released anything? It will be interesting to see what 2015 holds for the band...