Thursday's Offline Club at Brixton was one of the best for a long time. We had a great line up with the incredible MORTON VALENCE, a massed throng of ukes with the DULWICH UKULELE CLUB, fast-rising hip-hop with LADY LYKEZ and the floor filling skiffle delights of THE SEVERED LIMB - plus underground no-budget independent film screenings with FLIXATION.

Here's a few pics

And this is why we do it!

More photos here. Next Offline is at the Brixton Albert on November 20th.

Labels: bands, club, clubs, offline

Fuck that was fun.

It was like stepping back to old school Brixton, with a selection of curious bands, a fantastically mixed clientele and a great atmosphere.

All that was wrong was the beer prices.

Labels: brixton, clubs

I can't remember the last time I was blown away by a club, but Shunt was one of the best clubs I've been to for a very long time.

We went down to watch the Actionettes play and I thought I was in for another run-of-the-mill tarted up under-the-arches kind of club, but how wrong I was.

The night started ominously with the security staff insisting on scanning in my ID - but inside the security was very, very light.

First off, the space is absolutely MASSIVE. And I mean huge! There's tons of space and it takes ages just to work out where everything was.



There was a mini rolling skate rink with people running around like nutters. The Actionettes danced on two stages simultaneously - one of them 20 foot in the air. It was really exciting - it felt like the sort of underground parties that Jagger might have gone to in the 60s.



The all-girl Monks tribute band The Nuns played on another stage. There was a cinema playing Nancy Sinatra.

There was snooker and table football. The crowd was mixed. The music was fantastic - 50s, 60s and a smattering of dance - and the DJs looked sharp as fuck.



It was one of the best nights I've had out on ages. It's such a shame that the club's closing soon (it's going to be replaced by - you guessed it - shops) but if you do get a chance to go - don't miss out!

Labels: club, clubs

We pay homage to one of London's finest clubs, which closed a few years ago.

WARNING: this feature includes some seriously shocking hairstyles and yours truly clad in vast amounts of leather and PVC.

Here's a few examples:







See the full horror here: Gossips Club, Dean Street, London W1

Labels: clubs, london

Link

One of London's finest music venues is set to be demolished by the summer, thanks to the long-delayed CrossRail project which needs the land.

I've seen some great gigs at the Astoria and it also used to be a bit of a regular haunt in my RAWWWCKKK! phase, where I hung out with hard drinking, poodle-haired chums in the upstairs club getting on down to Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Guns and Roses and other fist in the air head-shaking types...

So now the Astoria joins the Hammersmith Palais as another great lost London gig. Bummer.









Some great gigs at the Astoria:



Amy Winehouse, Feb 2007


Le Tigre, April 2004.

Labels: astoria, clubs, london

Link

I had a top night last night at a Hat Party at the Canterbury Arms, Brixton. It's a real fun night out - folks generally make a bit of an effort and the music's no-nonsense 'ave a laugh all night.

More pics: Hat Party

Labels: brixton, clubs, photos

This was certainly a first for me: I was in the Songbird folkie club in Dalston tonight and two cops charged on, started taking pictures and declared the evening closed because of overcrowding and - get this - being "too loud".



What kind of fucker could possibly complain about the noise from a *folk* club? At 11.30pm? In Dalston, in an industrial zone?

I blame the gentrifiers!

More photos

Labels: clubs, photos, police