Last night we got into the spirit of Artful with the launch of a new Music Tourist Board monthly at The Good Ship in Kilburn. It's gonna be the venue for FOUR NIGHTS of artful in October (three of them by the fab as fug Maps Magazine to raise funds for Oxjam). We couldnt have chosen a better venue, that's gotta be the friendliest, most rock n roll place in North London town!!!
Dexy played at the Luminaire along the road the other month and said they were really nice there, too. No wonder people had I Love Kilburn badges on!
Satoko and I went to see him at The Good Ship last week (where he gave us a copy of his excellent new EP) and accidentally got to see The Human Value, who I'd really wanted to see and didn't realise they were on the bill. We thought they were REALLY cool...
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. Really liked the place then. The unusual TV studio style sunken stage, the over hanging "deck", the laid back vibe. John the captain of The Good Ship wasn't around that night, which was a shame, had heard so many lovely things about him. It wasn't all that full, but it didn't feel awkward or nothing, and I got to see my friend Purple Spice who lives up the road, too!
Yesterday evening, on the way up to soundcheck, I was full of the usual fear when putting on a night. Would people enjoy it? Hell, would anybody come? Had an idea that there would be some people there as the previious night in Hoxton, loads of people had turned up to see Pop Levi (including Jools Holland's lot) and they'd all been so gobsmacked that the band couldnt actually make the soundcheck as they now had a day's worth of press today what with this being their last day in London and them being back in USA in three days time.
Satoko and I found Lenny Love when we got through the door, and then met Captain John of The Good Ship - it's true, the guy's a legend. Talk about making us feel welcome, he was one of the gang within minutes! The fear disappeared and we just spend the rest of the night enjoying ourselves. Not only were ALL the bands really high quality entertainers. Bless Venus Kicks for coming up from Deptford to play one of their best sets (I think), and The Boundary, who's singer couldn't make the show but who went to the effort of recruiting two temporary band members to play a great show, and to Seeing Scarlet, wow what a band! and then Pop Levi was like seeing a mega star up close, he was enjoying himself so much on stage and the people were enjoying him so much, back. Fack, that was a great night.
Karen Toftera is one of the Artful photographers, she braved feeling a bit under the weather to come and be there, and to help Jane and I out on the door as well as get some pix. Satoko was DVD Roadie, there is a huge white space behind the stage, we filled it with Mansun between the bands and Seeing Scarlet videos before they came on, it looked fantastic.
Big hurray and thanks to Chris Chinchilla, Deep South and friends that mixed Sarf London vibe in too, it really was a party. We got to even chat some ideas for Artful but mostly we drank, sang, danced and hugged. Yeah, I even danced, and I don't much, I'm just a little old lady off home to her cross stitching usually but once Dirty Sounds put on "I Want YOu Back" by the Jackson Five on, the place turned into something resembling the end of the night in old Paradise Bar days, it was supposed to be the last tune but everybody yelled for more so it was "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen (complete with lighters from the dancers up on the Deck) and then loads and loads of hugging.
I was supposed to have taken initial listings up there, plus put up two posters for October, which I found in my bag when I got home, but the main thing of it was the spirit of the night. So yeah, it was an Artful preview cos the vibe was back.
So glad that all the bands really enjoyed themselve and loved the venue, too. Great feedback from friendly strangers that had come out to play, too. And I haven't even got a hangover this morning. How good is life sometimes!...
Dexy played at the Luminaire along the road the other month and said they were really nice there, too. No wonder people had I Love Kilburn badges on!
Satoko and I went to see him at The Good Ship last week (where he gave us a copy of his excellent new EP) and accidentally got to see The Human Value, who I'd really wanted to see and didn't realise they were on the bill. We thought they were REALLY cool...
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. Really liked the place then. The unusual TV studio style sunken stage, the over hanging "deck", the laid back vibe. John the captain of The Good Ship wasn't around that night, which was a shame, had heard so many lovely things about him. It wasn't all that full, but it didn't feel awkward or nothing, and I got to see my friend Purple Spice who lives up the road, too!
Yesterday evening, on the way up to soundcheck, I was full of the usual fear when putting on a night. Would people enjoy it? Hell, would anybody come? Had an idea that there would be some people there as the previious night in Hoxton, loads of people had turned up to see Pop Levi (including Jools Holland's lot) and they'd all been so gobsmacked that the band couldnt actually make the soundcheck as they now had a day's worth of press today what with this being their last day in London and them being back in USA in three days time.
Satoko and I found Lenny Love when we got through the door, and then met Captain John of The Good Ship - it's true, the guy's a legend. Talk about making us feel welcome, he was one of the gang within minutes! The fear disappeared and we just spend the rest of the night enjoying ourselves. Not only were ALL the bands really high quality entertainers. Bless Venus Kicks for coming up from Deptford to play one of their best sets (I think), and The Boundary, who's singer couldn't make the show but who went to the effort of recruiting two temporary band members to play a great show, and to Seeing Scarlet, wow what a band! and then Pop Levi was like seeing a mega star up close, he was enjoying himself so much on stage and the people were enjoying him so much, back. Fack, that was a great night.
Karen Toftera is one of the Artful photographers, she braved feeling a bit under the weather to come and be there, and to help Jane and I out on the door as well as get some pix. Satoko was DVD Roadie, there is a huge white space behind the stage, we filled it with Mansun between the bands and Seeing Scarlet videos before they came on, it looked fantastic.
Big hurray and thanks to Chris Chinchilla, Deep South and friends that mixed Sarf London vibe in too, it really was a party. We got to even chat some ideas for Artful but mostly we drank, sang, danced and hugged. Yeah, I even danced, and I don't much, I'm just a little old lady off home to her cross stitching usually but once Dirty Sounds put on "I Want YOu Back" by the Jackson Five on, the place turned into something resembling the end of the night in old Paradise Bar days, it was supposed to be the last tune but everybody yelled for more so it was "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen (complete with lighters from the dancers up on the Deck) and then loads and loads of hugging.
I was supposed to have taken initial listings up there, plus put up two posters for October, which I found in my bag when I got home, but the main thing of it was the spirit of the night. So yeah, it was an Artful preview cos the vibe was back.
So glad that all the bands really enjoyed themselve and loved the venue, too. Great feedback from friendly strangers that had come out to play, too. And I haven't even got a hangover this morning. How good is life sometimes!...