After an unusually quiet JAMM night the month before, I was a bit worried about the turn out, but the night was a big one!


The bands were amazing - in particular the Portico Quartet, who use a weird instrument called a 'hang' - it looks a bit like the aliens in the Smash mashed potato ads!


Headliners Morton Valence also turned in a superb, high energy set. Top night!

Photos from Offline at Brixton JAMM, THURS 27th APRIL

On Saturday we put on an Offline DJ-only event at our fave pub in Brixton, the Prince Albert, and the night was a stormer!









The night ended with me and Dubversion having a CD 'face off', with each daring the other to put pon ever cheesier songs.
I managed, Shampoo, 'Trouble' by EMF, Shirley Bassey and Elvis and a load of other stuff that only sounds great when you're drunk.

By 2am we had every single person in the pub - including the bar staff - dancing! Top night!

More photos

Offline @ JAMM, this Thursday!

There's more! Check out the bumper bill of top acts at our Brixton big night this Thursday. Come along - it's FREE!


THURS 27th APRIL Brixton JAMM
8pm-2am. 261, Brixton Rd, Brixton, London SW9
Nearest tubes: Brixton, Oval, Stockwell
FREE ADMISSION!
Map

JAMM website
Click for large flyer

LIVE ACTS [10pm - midnight]:
11:30 MORTON VALENCE
'Morton Valence ought to be the next big pop sensation' incendiarymag.com
'irresistibly infectious... the audience were utterly entranced' The Times
'utterly inspired' Mojo Magazine
'the most interesting and intriguing band on these shores' Metro

11:00 THE TACTICIANS
"A stripped down union of a happy-pills popping Hefner, post 'Wake Up' Boo Radleys and Dodgy"..."a band destined for greatness" XFM Radio.

10:30 PORTICO QUARTET
Incredible Southbank regulars with a unique, uplifting sound that mixes minimalism, jazz and hiphop making it a bastard to categorise. But they're chuffin' good.

10:00 THE DIRECTION
'Nattily scruffed' (XFM) indie/punksters.

8.30 - 9.30pm ENTERTAINMENT
VIC LAMBRUSCO'S CABARET HOUR
'Abrasive political comedy' - Time Out
A full bill of top notch stand up and poets including:
RICHARD TYRONE-JONES: Twisted urban gothic from Dudley
PAUL BIRTILL: the misanthropic Merseymouth
RHIANN EDWARDS: giving it to the Clapham Tamaras
PLUS A SHEDLOAD OF TOP DJS!
Including Dubversion (PROD), IanW (How Does It Feel To Be Loved), Han, Editor, Skim, hiccup, LD Rudeboy... more to be announced.

More info: Offline website

Testing!
Posting up from my fab Treo 650 phone using mo:blog!

PHOTO ARTICLES:



New photos of the bizarre-but-kinda-cool-transport space age interchange at Vauxhall Cross, London



Some more snaps of surviving Victorian Cabman's shelters in London



Looking west towards the site of the WTC from Broadway, lower Manhattan.

More photos slowly being added to my New York Photo Gallery

TECH REVIEWS

"Aimed at aspiring superstar DJs, bedroom mixers and club jockeys, Numark's entry level CD Mix 1 combo is a convenient package offering dual CD transports and a basic mixer."

Read about the decks that have been powering recent Offline nights at Nu Urban Towers and the Albert - we like 'em

Check out my Numark CD Mix 1 DJ Player Review



"Although a well equipped smartphone or PDA can let you leave the laptop at home, bashing away at those itty-bitty keypads or attempting to write lengthy emails with a fiddly stylus can soon become a chore.

Thankfully, there's a range of keyboard accessories available, with one of the most popular being the ThinkOutside Stowaway Infra-red Keyboard (also sold as the Palm Wireless Keyboard)."

I've had one of these nifty folding keyboards for ages - read more about it in my ThinkOutside Stowaway Infra-red Keyboard Review

More tech reviews here

Enjoyed a top night out at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, London on Saturday night.

With a frothing review in Time Out declaring the Working Men's Club to be the (ahem) 'best club in London,' the queues were hefty, but a quick bit of guest-listery got us out of the rain.



Inside, it was rocking 50s all the way, with a dressed up crowd getting medieval on the Axminster, while Manic Cough ripped out a feisty Blondie/Siouxsie/Slits meets 60s slab of pop noise.



The Actionettes and the Action Men put in another storming set, we got drunk and - once again - managed to get a cab home!

The Actionettes at Viva Cake

A few low-res pics taken with my new Palm Treo (don't worry, I'll be boring you guys shitless with all the details soon)


Friday night: down the Albert and then off for some Smiths/Motown/indie boot shaking action on the dance floor of How Does It Feel To Be Loved, at the no-nonsense Canterbury Arms.

A new aaiee! cover your eyes! the world's gone orange! paint scheme has sadly seen the disappearance of the old distorting fairground mirrors that used to hang on the wall, but at least the amazing illuminated Manhattan skyline survives.



Saturday afternoon we wandered around London and spent hours in Foyles bookstore in Charing Cross Road. There's a really good jazz record store and cafe on the first floor. And tons and tons of books.



My bookmark!

Years ago I took a, frankly, pretty average shot of the Foyles neon sign on my old, super-swivelling Sony F55E camera.

Last year, they wrote to me asking to license the image for their range of bookmarks - and here it is!



By the campfire at Nu-Urban Towers. Saturday night was party night in Brixton, and an open fire in the garden gave the evening a mini-festival swing.

I drank lots of Lowenbrau Lager (bought because I liked the blue colour of the cans) and woke up with a hangover (bad) and smelling of wood smoke (nice).



Talking of partying, my birthday celebration/mini-Offline at the Albert last week was fantastic fun.
See the drunken evidence here

It's been a hectic few days - and it's my birthday today. Woohoo!

Thursday 30th March



On Thursday, I put on another Offline club night at JAMM, Brixton.

Compared to the monthly shambles that was the Dogstar, it's a pleasure to put on bands here, with the venue sporting a fantastic PA, great lights and a proper stage.

Trouble is, the place looks completely closed from the street so there's no chance of attracting any passing trade - in fact people who arrived outside were texting me to say that they must have got the date wrong because it looked closed!



The cabaret was great - and thanks to the decent PA we could actually hear what was being said - but the stars of the show for me were Molloy. They rocked!

Fri 31st March



On Friday we had to meet up with an Actionette in some hideous cocktail bar in the City that was so bad we waited in a nearby pub instead.

Then we headed up to the lively Lower The Tone lesbian/mixed night at The Oak Bar, 79 Green Lanes in (shudder) north London.



The gig was great fun. I got pissed, danced about and to cap it off we managed to get a cabbie who was prepared to go south of the river!

Sat 1st April



On Saturday it was my birthday party at the Prince Albert, Brixton and the place was packed to the rafters!



Belinda baked me a lovely cake with a Welsh flag (!), loads of my mates DJ'd, people danced, I got drunk again and had a fabulous time.

So good in fact I managed to forget all about the extra digit that now has to be added to my already-weighty tally of years...



Celebrating birthdays is great fun - I love it. Getting old isn't so hot though...