A star studded line up helped the Arts Council England to celebrate the early success of their A Night Less Ordinary ticket scheme at the Royal Court Theatre. The evening was hosted by Mackenzie Crook (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Office) and a young audience got to watch an exclusive 20-minute rehearsed reading of part of a new play, Spur of the Moment, by Anya Reiss. The reading was directed by Jeremy Herrin, Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre and included Russell Tovey (History Boys, Being Human), Gina McKee (Notting Hill, In the Loop), Simon Paisley-Day (Entertaining Mr Sloane, The 39 Steps) and Flora Spencer-Longhurst (The Unforgiven, Wallender). Will Drysdale and Dimitra Rizou report.
Here is an interview with Mackenzie Crook, star of The Office and Pirates of Caribbean, which I filmed and edited for the England Arts Council for their A Night Less Ordinary scheme. This project provides free theatre tickets for under 26 year olds across England:
A small group of campaigners took part in a silent disco outside the Astoria in central London in a bid to get more information about the venue’s replacement.
The Astoria shut its doors for the last time in January after a £16 billion Crossrail development finally got the green light.
The deal included guarantees that a venue of similar size would be built in central London to make up for the loss of one of the capital’s best loved music venues.
Facebook groups and a petition have been set up to pressure Westminster Council and Crossrail into announcing who will be responsible for the new build.
Despite their attempts to find out more information, protest organiser India Walker told 6 Music they’re being kept in the dark:
“We’re going to keep writing to Boris Johnson and Crossrail and Westminster Council until we find out who is responsible because they each are saying each other.
“We’re going to bug them until we get a similar venue built.”
Organisers were probably hoping for a larger turnout for the Astoria’s final send off, but perhaps the hail, rain and higher profile G20 protests in Hyde Park took some potential silent disco-ers away.
One protestor told 6 Music why she was there, “I came down, just to remind myself of what good times I had within this building. It’s a shame that it’s going in its entirety, I was hoping they would keep some of the front.”
Another added, “I think we haven’t got sufficient information about what’s going on.”
A police riot van and some security fencing were on stand by, however, the protest was peaceful with campaigners handing out flyers and dancing to the sounds coming from their MP3 players.
Rather fittingly, it was a silent goodbye to a now silent venue.
One of the trendier corners of East London played host to the first ever Topman CTRLevent on Wednesday night.
Acclaimed electro popsters Metronomy acted as curators and their handpicked line up ensured the crowd, packed into The Hoxton Bar and Grill, were thoroughly entertained.
Koko Von Napoo
Parisian electro-synth four piece Koko Von Napoo opened the evening.While their name doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, their music certainly lingers in the memory.
The band overcame their early out-of-town nerves and visibly grew in confidence as the set progressed.
This is well crafted electro-pop, with an intelligently used palate of synth sounds. Think of a New Young Pony Club / Those Dancing Days hybrid with a colder, more considered delivery and you’re not far off the mark.
Lead singer, Toupie, sings in a brittle style reminiscent of former Long Blonde, Kate Jackson and although the rhythm section strayed a little at times, a decent run of gigs should soon iron out any creases.
Perhaps still a killer single short, on tonight’s evidence Koko Von Napoo are a band well worth keeping an eye out for.
Your Twenties
Irresistible singles, however, are certainly something Your Twenties are no strangers to.
Fronted by Metronomy’s Gabriel Stebbing, the five-piece (although tonight only four) make sun drenched, guitar driven music to lose yourself in.
Most of the allure stems from Stebbing’s relaxed, almost crooned vocals, one part Morrissey to one part Brian Wilson.Flowing melodic lines are elegantly accented with tight harmonies and a surprisingly good falsetto.
The song writing is bulletproof in places and echoes the economy of Vampire Weekend and early Strokes with a nod to The Beatles never far below the surface.
A relatively short set included, recently re-released single, ‘Caught Wheel’ and crowd favourite ‘Gold’ before closing with the extraordinarily catchy ‘Billionaires’.
During an endearing performance, Stebbing appeared a little nervous and cringed as he fluffed a keyboard line, but rather than detracting from the set, as you’d imagine, it was refreshing to see a distinct lack of posturing.
Admittedly, this was not their best gig, more job like, with Metronomy’s Joseph Mount deputising on the drums.They were also missing a keyboard player since the last time I saw them, most noticeably absent during the chorus of ‘Caught Wheel’.
It remains to be seen whether Stebbing can balance his two bands and devote the time required to get Your Twenties firmly in to the public domain.The songs certainly deserve it.
Kamerakino
Following the crowd favourites was always going to be a hard task, but German six-piece, Kamerakino , took to the task with aplomb.
One of the most individual bands in recent years, they create rousing, violin-led gypsy punk over disco bass lines.
Lead singer Pico-B staggers around the stage, spitting his lyrics into the microphone and looking the crowd directly in the eyes.He’s an absorbing performer and seems to be the perfect frontman for the brilliant lunacy that surrounds him.
The heavily pregnant bassist holds down a contagious groove, whilst the keyboard player seems content dancing as if no one’s looking throughout the duration of the set.
Kamerakino operate completely in their own world and that’s what makes them so charming. It’s an attitude that has certainly won them fans, including Franz Ferdinand’s Nick McCarthy, who played bass on their debut ‘Paradiso’.
The thought of a corporate clothes shop sponsoring gigs may leave a slightly nasty taste in the mouth, but if the first event is anything to go by they could soon create a devoted following of their own.
The success of the Topman CTRL events will depend on the quality of the curators and their connections with upcoming bands sitting just below the radar.
The Big Issue and Gigantic team up to help homeless through ticket sales
Today saw the launch of The Big Ticket Shop, an online ticketing service provided by The Big Issue magazine and independent ticket agency, Gigantic.
The collaboration will mean gig-goers can buy tickets for events, such as Sonisphere, Hard Rock Calling and Blur directly from the magazine’s website.
Publisher, Lisa Woodman told 6 Music how the ticket shop will work: “20% of the booking fee will come to The Big Issue, so simultaneously to purchasing your ticket, you are also helping the homeless to help themselves.
“The money raised from this project will go into The Big Issue pot, which helps to maintain the social enterprise.”
Established by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in 1991, The Big Issue gives homeless people the opportunity to earn a legitimate income by selling the weekly magazine.
Gigantic already donate 10% of their profits to Oxfam and company director, Mark Gasson told 6 Music how they feel about The Big Ticket Shop: “We’re really excited about it, all of our dealings with The Big Issue have been really positive.
“They’re forward thinking people. We like to think of ourselves as being the same and we just hope it can be a fruitful partnership.”
Gasson also explained the thinking behind the project: “When we were setting up the business, we wanted to really set ourselves apart from some of the other ticket agencies.
“We thought this was one way that we could really distinguish and lay down a marker as to what Gigantic’s all about.”
Keeping company with quality acts, such as Mumford And Sons, Jay Jay Pistolet and Laura Marling has done Cherbourg’spedigree no harm, but does their brand of bittersweet, acoustic, folk-balladry deliver?
The debut EP, ‘The Last Chapter Of Dreaming’, from the London-based four-piece is pleasant enough, melodically strong, intimate and anthemic, reflective and optimistic.
If it were a colour, it would be a brooding, rich blue, with hints of both darker and lighter shades gliding just below the surface.
The songs (about lost love, lost battles and lost friends) are all acoustic-led ballads, peppered with pretty violin figures, solid backbeats and four-part vocal harmonies.
However, for all of the band’s melodic skill and gusto performances, I can’t help feeling I’ve heard this sort of thing several times before.
It struck me that Cherbourgsound a little something like Snow Patrol would sound if their lead singer were to find himself on a pirate ship for several months, having fled his friends and family in a last ditch attempt to mend a broken heart.
On his hypothetical journey, it seems as though he recruited a band of suitably hairy, folk inspired musicians/pirates, to sing along with his sea salt flavoured shanty’s.
The fresh air, deck scrubbing and mast climbing, may have turned his voice from a tenor into a slightly deeper baritone, but it’s essentially music coming from the same place, only packaged rather differently.
Cherbourg cite Arcade Fire, Elliott Smith, Iron And Wine and Tom Waits as influences.While there are elements of all these artists in their sound, this debut EP doesn’t reach anywhere near the same levels of passion, poignancy and insight that their heroes are capable of.
‘The Last Chapter Of Dreaming’ is a solid debut and new song ‘Man’ (inexplicably omitted from the EP), which you can hear on their Myspace, demonstrates there’s plenty more competent ‘songsmithery’ to come from this band yet.
Let me start by admitting that (other than his Murder Ballads collaborations with Kylie and P J Harvey in 1996) Nick Cave’s music has never grabbed me enough to make me listen without lazy ears.
So, when I first heard the singles from his most recent record coming from my DAB, I was surprised to find myself immediately attached to these rich, dark and beautiful songs.
This album is the sound of a once glamorous film noir.It’s cold, threatening and always on the brink of violence.
The hypnotic rhythmic grind that runs throughout the record from the very first beat has the perfect frontman in Cave.His is a salt of the earth voice, which has clearly seen a lot of fast living and its dark, inevitable fallout.
Consisting of stories of men and women falling from grace, the album paints a bleak picture.It’s acutely aware of the harsh realities of human existence and the dark places that having too much desire can lead you to.
Poor Larry
The songs are cinematic in their descriptions of characters with opening song ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ telling the story of Larry, who builds his life on ‘high hopes and thin air.’
It charts his rise and inevitable downfall, a theme that runs throughout the album and is indicative of its title.
In the Bible, Jesus resurrected Lazarus.Cave seems to suggest that modern life beckons all of us from our own ‘tombs’ and offers us unrealistic promises: ‘He never asked to be raised up from the tomb, I mean, no one ever actually asked him to forsake his dreams.’
Lonely narrators can be found in practically every one of the album’s 11 tracks.‘Moonland’ finds a man aimlessly driving in his car, painfully aware of his own loneliness with the cold night setting in.He has no direction, no advice and no answers.
The album’s climax, ‘More News From Nowhere’, finds the narrator stumbling around a brothel, blaming every one of the girls for his sorry state.
He desperately tries to interact with all of them before finally admitting that it’s time to let go: ‘Don’t it make you feel so sad, don’t the blood rush to your feet, to think that everything you do today, tomorrow is obsolete.’
It’s a classic case of domesticity calling the rebel home, something the broken narrator acknowledges, but can’t bare the thought of: ‘Well I gotta say goodbye.’
Sweat, dirt and spit
The sound of the record is based on a traditional bluesy pub rock band, tilted ever-so-slightly off centre in order to give it a fresh perspective.
The backbone consists of fairly standard instrumentation, but the inclusion of unexpected sounds, like steel drums or a hugely distorted violin give it a truly unique flavour.
Several songs are punctuated by filthy, distorted, blues-inspired riffs, covered in sweat, dirt and spit, a sound which marries the vocal delivery and lyrical content wonderfully well.
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! ebbs and flows as every good album should and offers the right mix of instant gratification and personal discoveries that only reveal themselves on repeated listening.
For anyone, like myself, who is not overly familiar with Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, I suggest that this album’s a great place to start.
This is classy music in every sense of the word, which reaches levels that the likes of White Lies or Lily Allen could only ever dream of.
The Strokes drummer announces recording plans for next album
After a three year hiatus, The Strokes have confirmed they’ll start work on their fourth album in February.
Since 2006’s First Impressions Of Earth, several of the band members have been busy working on side projects, leading to rumours of a split.
Bassist Nikolai Fraiture hinted the band would record another album when he spoke to 6 Music back in October, but fresh from a performance with Little Joy in the hub, drummer Fabrizio Moretti confirmed the news.
“I have to go back to New York to work with The Strokes for the next record in February,” he explained.
“Hopefully time will lay itself down, not linearly, but in a mesh form so that I can slip through the holes and come down to the Little Joy timeline and jump back up to The Strokes timeline.”
Fabrizio said it was too early to describe how the album will sound: “Julian has started writing and Nick has got some material as well.
“We’re the kind of band that it’s not finished until everyone’s in one room and everyone’s got their parts perfectly. We’re a very mechanical band.”
The band will begin work next month, but Fabrizio couldn’t say when fans would be able to hear the new material: “It might be in a couple of months, it might be in a year.”
The Big Issue and Gigantic team up to help homeless through ticket sales