Photos from the afore-mentioned birthday party-cum-club launch at Elixir ...

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Main gallery is here.

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Another weekend, another 80s night ... [grin] This was a free club night for Emma Darkmorte's birthday, featuring a number of DJs (Kirlian, Scott, Demondaz and me) and a set from the Thought Criminals. 134 people through the door, and it looks like it might happen again sometime ...

( Setlist )

(Second set appears to have gone a little 'metal' - I blame the people who were encouraging me (and the one who requested Def Leppard). Or should that be credit?)

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Another Whitby, another 80s night, another venue, another set of decks with Miss Kitty and I behind them. [grin] This time we were in The Shambles. A pretty large venue, with the possibility of ample ventilation and cooler areas, you say? Hah! Once again, the WGW mob did the job with their sauna-effect creation. Mention must also be made of Giolla's new leggings. The windows survived the elephant, and the floor joists survived Jump, allaying fears that we would end up in the market downstairs. Even the skipping didn't cause the decks to stutter. And the walls and windows ran with the blood sweat of the crowd ...

( In time-honoured tradition - a playlist ... )

Thanks again to The Shambles for hosting us, Jo Magenta for booking us, and my copilot Miss Kitty for picking exactly the right tunes at the right times. (Any tunes that were not right, or not at the right time, were selected by me.)

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And now links to the last two galleries - Last July's festival-opener at The Resolution on the Friday afternoon, and the general photos of assorted folk taken over the course of the weekend.

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Gallery links:

Last July

Other Whitby photos

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The second batch of photos from November's Whitby - Saturday night's bands at the Spa, including The Death Notes, Dark Shadows, Rhombus (performing as Rhombus 'XL', with a fiddle player, backing vocalists The Rhombettes and guest vocalist Anne-Marie Hurst), Voltaire and Chameleons Vox.

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Gallery links:

The Death Notes

Dark Shadows

Rhombus

Voltaire

Chameleons Vox

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About six months ago, some bands played at the seaside. I took my camera along, and took photos of some of them. Which have since mouldered upon my hard drive, and have only now been released to the half-light of whichever venue you're viewing them in ...

Here are the photos from Friday night at the Spa - Berlin Black, Cryogenica, Devilish Presley, The Mist of Avalon and Abney Park ...

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Gallery links:

Berlin Black

Cryogenica

Devilish Presley

The Mist of Avalon

Abney Park

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Last weekend another attempt to break South London was organised by Digamma Tau Phi - five DJs at Release nightclub in New Cross, each playing an hour or so of music, with a remit of "alternative" ...

( And what we played was ... )

End result: £275 raised for Alzheimer's Research UK, and the possibility of another one in a while ...

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If you're not up to anything on the night of Saturday 17th March ...

( ... you can always come to this: )

And yes, that is me among the list of DJs, and, as it says, profits to charity. For more information, for them as is on FaceAche, there's an Event, here.

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On 17th February, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing held a launch gig for their new album, a possible contender for 'longest album title yet suggested', This May Be The Reason Why The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing Cannot Be Killed By Conventional Weapons. It actually comes out on 12th March, but they were taking pre-orders, and it seemed like a good idea for a gig.

The Bowery is a dark and dubious venue on New Oxford Street, with an even darker and more dubious cellar level, where the gig took place - which was completely filled with people by the time that the bands came on. Support was from Leicester's Axis Mundi, who are friends of Marc from The Men ... They describe themselves as 'acid house heavy metal' (among other things), but sound to me more like Anthrax crossed with Pendulum, and were rather good, although not at all steampunk, possibly to the confusion and dismay of others. They should also probably be kept away from the UV-fluorescent paints in future. Or possibly just away from the public. TMTWNBBFN performed a mix of old and new material, including at least one song never before heard, and a couple of ones not played for quite a while, closing with Andy O'Neill surfing across the crowd to the sound desk. Or at least, surfing halfway, and then being carried overhead to the back by myself and Mavis. Not sure whether that counts, mind.

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Gallery links:

Axis Mundi

The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing

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A couple of weeks ago I, and a few of my colleagues, made the short walk to St Olave's Church in London, site of Samuel Pepys' grave and also the inspiration for Dickens' "St Ghastly Grim", in order to attend one of their regular recitals. This time the performer was our former colleague, the medieval harpist (harper ?) Leah Stuttard, playing a programme of 15th Century harp music based on research made into the records of George Cely, son and nephew of the principal builders and benefactors of St Olave's.

George was a meticulous note-keeper (possibly to prove to his father his fitness to carry out the family mercantile business), and not only did he note the sums paid to his music teacher, Thomas Rede of Calais, for his harp, lute, and dancing lessons, he also noted the titles of some of repertoire the songs that he learnt. These notes are now in the Public Record Office, and formed the foundation for some extensive research by Leah into the tunes, which were mostly songs well-known at the time in England, appearing in manuscripts across Europe, although rarely in English translations. In addition, he notes learning some European tunes, including a dance from Flanders - presumably useful accomplishments for a young merchant whose life would have required a fair amount of cosmopolitan travel.

Leah's instrument is a replica gothic bray harp, so named for the 'bray pins', pegs attached to the soundbox against which the strings vibrate, a musical effect which fell out of popularity in Europe but continued elsewhere, and producing a sound reminiscent of a sitar.

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Main gallery is here.

Examples of some of Leah's playing can be found here, on SoundCloud.

(On seeing the photos, Leah's response was "I didn't realise I looked so hardcore! There wasn't a mirror in the vestry!")

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Two weeks ago, valkyriekaren and I went to Sue and Graham's wedding in Stratford Old Town Hall - a fine venue with a sweeping staircase and a good main hall, with a stage for Paul Sticks to provide music from, a buffet of Indian food, wedding ale from the Disreputable Brewers and the thoughtful supply of crayons for drawing on the paper tablecloths. I took a camera along, and here are the photos ...

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Main gallery is here.

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On Tuesday last week, Centrepoint finally held an event at Centrepoint - in the Paramount Club, up on the 31st floor (the club actually takes up three floors, but that's the one that we were on). The event was a pub quiz, with some celebrity guests (including Sara Cox, Annie Mac, Scott Mills, Hugh Grant, David Tennant and Jonathan Ross) - the event photos are why I was there with my camera, and are covered by my contract of employment, but you can see some of them on the Centrepoint website. These, however, were photos of opportunity - a 31st floor view, you say? Over London? At night? And I've got a camera with me? Don't mind if I do, thanks ...

Unfortunately, what I didn't have with me were a tripod (hand-holding night-time landscape shots is not ideal) or an open window/balcony/darkened room, as a result of which the photos are a) a little blurred and b) there are quite a few reflections from the room, which are less than ideal. (The night wasn't entirely clear, either, which didn't help, although it does add to the Bladerunner-like vista of some of them.)

So, if anyone gets a chance to get me back up there in better photographic conditions ...

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Main gallery is here.

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Friday saw the opening night of a new industrial night, Rivet at Canal 125. I took my camera along ...

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Main gallery is here.

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This was the dessert that cookwitch made for Saturday night's dinner party - a design fork from bread-and-butter pudding, but using emergency ingredients due to oversleeping following a late night ... madeira cake and Jamaican ginger cake in alternating slices, glued together with marmalade and then baked under custard. And it was delicious ...

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The rest of the photos are here.</center>

It was delicious, by the way ...

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March 17th, 2012, the launch night of Shenanigans at Release, New Cross. A new alternative club night, featuring, among others, DJ Hitman (from Renegade Nation), Psyche (from Wrecked and the Betty Ford Clinic), HamstOr (from Inquisition and Divide By Zero) and DJ Soundwave (from Synergy). Oh, and me, from, erm, various places.
Doors are 10pm to 1am, the club runs until 3am, it's only £4 to get in (or £3 if you're NUS or NHS).
To quote those them there promoters ... "Transport connections are all over the area. Easiest route for you 'northerners' is out from London Bridge to New Cross/New Cross Gate (7 minute journey) or straight down the Overground. A night bus (N21) runs regularly back into The City from outside the venue."

Shenanigans: At Least It's Not Morden

FaceBook Event Page

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(Link lifted from silenttex)

[linky]

Not quite sure why no. 5 (which is stunning) was in the "Nature" category rather than "Places". And silenttex suggested an alternative caption for no. 4: "Tried something that didn't work the way I expected. Liked the result."

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Photos from the joint Vagabonds/Reptile New Years Eve Event at Minories ...

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Main gallery is here.

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On 29th October, La Scala in Kings Cross was turned into an engine room of innovation and imagination, a steampunk Halloween Ball with bands, burlesque and much set dressing. The convoluted nature of the venue, with the vaulted ceilings, helped the strangeness of the event. Headliners Abney Park were on fine form on the first gig of their UK mini-tour, while The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing appeared as undead versions of themselves.

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Gallery links:

Professor Elemental

Millicent Binks

The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing

The Boy With Tape On His Face

Jewels Good

Abney Park

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Photos from the penultimate night of Vagabonds, and the last at The Shooting Star on Middlesex Street.

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Main gallery is here.

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Co-piloting the decks with Ms Kitty for an entire evening of 80s¹ at the Metropole on the Sunday of WGW, we were wondering if the size of the room would dampen the classic Laughton's spirit, but the crowd did us proud and managed to recreate the ambience of Whitby's old sauna club. Without the (in)famous queue, the start was slightly slow (rather than a sudden rush of inebriates), but it picked up fairly fast, and by the end the room was filled to capacity, the bar was dry and the crowd weren't ...

( What we played ... )

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