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....
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