| Subject | CJ & The Satellites + Planet Of Women @ the Water Rats |
| PostedDate | 7/30/2007 |
Two bands I really want to see, both playing on the same night - in the same venue - that makes a change! I'd been looking forward to this show for a while as it's so long seen I've been able to see Planet Of Women. Lead singer Jade has been having some problems with her voice, but hopefully is now well on the road to recovery and with a bit of luck the band's album will be finished fairly soon. There have been some changes to the band's lineup since I last saw them and there is now a different rhythm section in place - and also an extra guitarist tonight. Planet Of Women have recently completed a tour with ex-Rainbow singer Graham Bonnet and are on good form.    Hopefully, their shows will become more regular again now...There was quite an air of anticipation for CJ & The Satellites set. Last time the band played here the place was packed, and once again tonight I see a lot of familiar faces - people who I used to see all the time in the days of regular Five Miles High promoted shows in London, but most of whom I see only rarely these days.  CJ has been pretty busy over the last year - finishing and touring an album with the WiLDHEARTS, and now in that band's downtime doing the same with his own band.  As you would expect, the band rock harder on stage than on the album, but the catchy tunes are still present to hold it all together.  |
Sunday, 23 February 2014
30/7/2007 CJ & The Satellites + Planet Of Women @ the Water Rats
27/7/2007 Loose Thread at Club Fabulous @ Leonards EC1
| Subject | Loose Thread at Club Fabulous @ Leonards EC1 |
| PostedDate | 7/27/2007 |
3 gigs in one night - well that was the plan anyway. I did actually manage to get to all three venues, but only got to see one of the bands I wanted to see - promoters switching stage times around again buggered everything up again!  First port of call was the Dublin Castle to see Mr Derry. I was expecting them to be on at around 8.30. I got to the venue at 8.15 and the first band hadn't even started.  I enquired what time Mr Derry would now be taking to the stage. I was told 9.15 - which was no good to me as Loose Thread were supposed to be on at 9.30 at Club Fabulous @ Leonards over in EC1. I had a quick pint and headed off...I'd never heard of the venue before and it was quite difficult to find - not a bad little place though - although somewhat 'intimate'. Well it would be intimate if it was full I guess. No brown beer on tap, which was a disappointment in what is essentially a pub venue in spite of it's 'club' name - although they did have bottles of Newcastle Brown so all was not lost.  I arrived in plenty of time - to find things were running late and the first of the three bands playing was still on... I missed most the set of first band of the supposed four band bill - one didn't turn up - about normal really. The next band were Rat Pigeon (I think) and they weren't bad. It took me a couple of songs to start to warm to them, but they didn't have anything to really make them stand out. The frontman had a nice Telecaster bass though - you don't see them very often - or Dave Lee Roth 'Skyscraper' T-shirts! Loose Thread seemed to disappear off the radar a couple of years or so ago after a very promising start. The band seemed to go to ground in their native Luton and nothing was heard from them for a long time. Until now. They returned to London for a very low profile gig - so low profile in fact that they don't seem to have actually told anyone! I'm glad to say that Loose Thread are still a really good band - plenty of stage presence and all excellent performers. They are one of those bands you can tell actually love being on stage performing!  Their half-hour set consisted almost entirely of new songs, but they still maintain the quality - a song called 'My Favourite Time' stood out as being a particularly good tune.  I only noticed one song from their terrific split album (with Rat:Daddy) 'Dirty Stars' on the sadly now defunct Changes One label, but the band proved they can still come up with good new songs.  Hopefully, this gig marks the start of their comeback to the London scene and they can start to build up the following they had before in the days of the old Five Miles High promoted gigs. They will have to make sure they actually tell people next time they play in London though - although they have their own MySpace they don't seem to have cottoned on yet that MySpace can actually be quite useful to promote themselves....  My carefully calculated plan involved rushing off to the 12 Bar Club after seeing Loose Thread to catch Love and a .45 and the brilliantly named Tits Of Death. Needless to say, things didn't go according to plan. Due to things running so late at the previous two gigs I'd been to, I arrived at the 12 Bar to find Love and a .45 in the street outside having finished their set. To make matters worse, Tits Of Death (who had been recommended to me) had cancelled at the last minute and weren't even playing - so that was another wasted journey! I decided to cut my losses and headed home - at least leaving early enough to avoid the chaos and delays that usually go along with the last tube. |
26/7/2007 Towers Of London @ the Electric Ballroom
| Subject | Towers Of London @ the Electric Ballroom |
| PostedDate | 7/26/2007 |
This was going to be an interesting show as a couple of key members of the band had walked out just before this tour started. Both lead guitarist The Rev and drummer Snell had been sacked in Japan last year while on tour - in rather unpleasant circumstances.  They were persuaded to rejoin after the dismal show at the Borderline where only brothers Donny and Dirk Tourette performed. However, all seemed well again for a while with some excellent shows at the 100 Club, Purple Turtle, and the Proud Gallery (before the show was stopped) and a sold out gig at Islington Academy. Apparently all wasn't well after all, and The Rev and Snell decided enough was enough and walked.  The Rev in particular was always going to be a very difficult member to replace - whatever the brothers say. There aren't many guitar heroes capable of filling his shoes and there is no doubt he was one of the things that made the fans keep buying tickets.Understandably, the band didn't want to cancel the tour - so they drafted in a couple of their drinking pals at short notice: Kristian Marr on guitar and Aaron Attwood on drums. I wasn't expecting too much to be honest, after reading some very poor reports on shows earlier in the tour. I arrived at the Electric Ballroom to find an all girl band called Sammy playing - I only caught their last song but they struck me as would-be popstars trying to be 'rock' and gain some credibility. No one seems to have ever heard of them before and they had to 'buy on' to the tour... Towers Of London sold out London's 800 capacity Islington Academy only a few months ago, so playing the 1000 capacity Electric Ballroom didn't seem too ambitious - but that was before Rev and Snell left... Tonight the Electric Ballroom looks half full - if that. They didn't even bother opening up the long bar at the back. You can draw you own conclusions... To be fair, the show was actually much better than I was expecting - although it was certainly the least good of the many Towers shows I've seen. (apart from the Borderline fiasco). The air raid siren intro started, but then instead of the usual opener of 'I'm A Rat' we got 'On A Noose'. Was this because apprentice 'guitar hero' Kristian couldn't master The Rev's distinctive lead intro to the usual show opener? A disappointing start to the show, but to be honest one couldn't really expect a couple of the band's mates drafted in at the last minute to learn the whole set note perfect in a couple of days or so. I think they did quite well overall in the circumstances, although there were two or three songs where the new guitarist (sporting an 'R.I.P. Rev' sprayed vest) was definitely lacking. He did play well most of the time though and did make an effort to put on a show. It has to be said that he is no way in the same class as The Rev though. As for the drums - well it could have been anyone bashing away at the back. It remains to be seen if this lineup will play again - the new guys are supposedly just stand-ins filling in for the tour. The rest of the band were OK, but I've seen them all perform better at plenty of shows - the circumstances were a bit awkward though, so they can't be expected to be at their best on this tour. When the rest of the band left the stage and left Dirk to strap on an acoustic guitar to perform 'Fuck It Up' I decided it would be a good moment to take a piss - and found half the rest of the crowd either heading for the toilets or the bar. I've always thought it rather ironic when I hear that song... The setlist was fairly predictable and consisted of most of the album - it was good to hear new song 'The Bible' as well though - a song which has grown on me a bit since I first heard it - I wonder if I'll ever hear it live again? 'Northern Lights' was a bit poor though and The Rev was sorely missed on this song with his Joe Perry style lead and blues licks. He was much missed with his Slash-like stylings on 'How Rude She Was' as well and Kristian just didn't cut the mustard on these songs.  I have to say I did still enjoy the show overall and it was worth going in spite of my concerns, and I think most of those also present enjoyed it too - the moshpit was still quite fierce. It was certainly a sub-par Towers show, although in difficult circumstances. Donny (sporting a 'POSH BOY' sprayed vest) had the sense not to slag his former bandmates off too much - I think he realises it doesn't make him any friends and only has the effect of alienating some of the fans still loyal enough to buy tickets. He put in the effort to give us a good show and pranced around, climbed on speakers, jumped off the stage, ect as usual.  As for the future - even the band don't seem too sure if there is one. Donny introduced the last song by saying "This is our last song ever". I know better than to read too much into anything Donny says on stage though. Time will tell... |
22/7/2007 Vamps N Gypsies, Bubblegum Screw & Gasoline Queens @ Bar Monsta
| Subject | Vamps N Gypsies, Bubblegum Screw & Gasoline Queens @ Bar Monsta |
| PostedDate | 7/22/2007 |
| Going to see three bands - all at the same venue for once! This was another gig I'd been really looking forward to as it is a good bill, and I haven't seem Vamps 'N' Gypsies for what seems like ages now. OK, it's only a couple of months - but it seems far too long! I arrive at Bar Monsta as the Gasoline Queens are playing. They are a new band to me, but I am pleasantly surprised and find their brand of punk 'n' roll to my liking - fans of bands like the Yo-Yo's should like this lot.  The bass player looked rather familiar - it turned out to be Dave Renegade who I've seen in various bands on the Camden scene over the past few years.  The New York Dolls vibe continued with the next band, who had a marked Dolls influence even though they didn't play any covers. The New York theme was further enhanced by the band appearing to have DeeDee Ramone on bass and Johnny Thunders on guitar!   Headliners Vamps 'N' Gypsies also suffered somewhat from a poor sound mix - apparently the guy doing the sound tonight wasn't the normal bloke and the band definitely normally sound better at this venue - a fact that was reinforced when Flash Danny shared lead vocals on 'Running After You' and was virtually inaudible.    
As usual at a Vamps 'N' Gypsies show stuff happens - rhythm guitarist Danny ends up on the floor at some point, although that's not unusual!
        |
21/7/2007 Lullaby Project & the Bitch Pistols
| Subject | Lullaby Project & the Bitch Pistols |
| PostedDate | 7/21/2007 |
Another multi-gig night, although less ambitious this time - only two venues. I find myself at the Water Rats for the second Saturday night in a row - this time to see Lullaby Project.   Next I head deeper into the West End and find myself at the 12 Bar Club for the London Callin' club. It's well attended for promoter Barnet's birthday bash and the atmosphere is good. Unfortunately, I don't have time to stay to see Viva Las Vegas but I do get to the the Bitch Pistols - an all girl Sex Pistols tribute band.    |
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