There thousands of live music venues in London, and I think that some get a better hearing than others. So, in an effort to redress that balance, in a new series of blog posts I’m going to go through a list of my favourite secret* London music venues.
*only secret to some people of course…..
A lovely little pub and live music venue tucked away in a side street just off Brixton Hill, the Windmill has an excellent reputation with bands, promoters and fans alike for its intimate atmosphere and relaxed vibe.
They have bands four or five nights a week, some nice cosy booths for relaxing when the music isn’t on and an excellent beer garden that hosts a weekly BBQ on Sundays in summer.
One visit and its little wonder why big names such as The Darkness, The Rakes and The View have chosen to grace the small but perfectly formed stage.
Some insist that this laid-back but energetic club – housed under Shepherd’s Bush Green in a former pool hall – is among the best venues of any size in London. It’s certainly worth a trip if you’ve never checked it out, and it’s also the ultimate spot for a late drink after a ‘Bushside’ gig – better than the Walkabout by a factor of about one million.
Hidden in a subterranean lair, with a few fairy lights draped over the iron railings the only clue, Ginglik confers an instant cool boost on anyone bringing a first-time visitor down the steps to ring the doorbell. When you step inside, though, the experience is a welcoming and relaxed one.
As a subterrean basement venue way out in Wets London – these boys have a hard job getting people’s attention sometimes. But I’ve heard on the grapevine that their marketing department are using a new digital marketing software called Bullseye Events Marketing that makes sure their events are all over the web.
With a music policy that supports interesting new electronica and other music, you’ll hear some challenging bleeps and breaks here, but as the night wears on the vinyl favourites come out and the low ceilings and contented shouts give Ginglik a special euphoric vibe.
One of the few remaining ‘old man’s pubs’ in Hoxton, The Stags Head has recently been refurbished, but don’t worry if you’re a fan of worn down-East End ‘nuclear subs’, the land-lord hasn’t turned it into one of those über-cool Hoxtonista fashion bars just yet.
Retaining its 1930′s interior, The Stags Head has all the things you need from a decent local. There’s a smallish collection of beers so you’re not confused by endless varieties of German wheat beer and Russian death lager, the pool table only costs 50p and there’s a spacious beer garden out back for you to while away the afternoon in.
The pub holds regular live music events on its small stage and best of all, it’s just around the corner from our office. Will definitely be seeing you in there!
Free Music in London
October 7, 2009
Oh London. Yes, we know it’s got a reputation for being one of the most expensive cities in the world, but we also know that there’s plenty of opportunities to cash in on the freebies. If live music is your thing and you can’t afford the entry, then there’s plenty of venues that host free music events for your aural delights. Here’s some of our favourite venues for free music!
Pure Groove (6-7 Westfield Smith, EC1A 9JX) is a lovely little record shop that holds free and regular gigs in their lovely space. Their in-stores became so popular that they had to actually up sticks and move to a larger venue. This Farringdon shop-cum-bar environment has had more than its fair share of popular gigs and its notorious atmosphere always attracts a large crowd. Recent in-stores include Mumford & Sons, Noah & The Whale. Check out their site for future in-stores.
The Old Blue Last is a little dingy in an East end kind of way but it always seems to please. Pretty full of your usual East twenty-somethings, its free gigs cater for all and they’ve pulled in some big names: Amy Winehouse, The Foals, Kate Nash etc.. If you like ‘em grungy, sweaty and packed (your venues, that is), then this may just be the one for you..
The Legion (348 Old St) is a laid-back wonder in the centre of the East end. If you like your drinks cheap (happy hour 5-9 every day), showings of old films and bringing in your own food.. bingo! But I digress. The music at The Legion really is rather good, too..
Last but not least, the HMV on Oxford Street holds its own as one of the best free music venues in London. It hosts events by big names that’ll have you queuing around the corner, best if you have some time on your hands. A previous event resulted in madness when Madness re-formed so check out their foray of signings and gigs on their website to keep updated.
Los Campesinos Announce New Band Member and New Single
September 22, 2009
Cardiff based band Los Camesinos have announced the signing of new band member Kim Campesinos ahead of their 2009 UK tour. Kim will take on the role of vocalist and keyboard player, replacing ex-vocalist Aleksandra Campesinos who has left the band to pursue her studies.
Original member Aleks had already announced her departure from the band earlier in the year, explaining her intentions of returning to university after the release of the group’s third album.
Los Campesinos Announce New Band Member
The seven-piece indie-pop band has also announced the line-up of dates in their upcoming UK tour and the release of their new single ‘There Are Listed Buildings’. The new single will be released on one-sided 7” heavy vinyl and be available throughout their tour.
The dates of their upcoming tour are below:
OCTOBER
21 – Coventry, Kasbah
22 – Southampton, Joiners Arms
23 – Exeter, Phoenix
24 – Cardiff, The Gate (SWN Festival)
26 – Manchester, Deaf Institute
27 – Newcastle University
28 – London, Garage (SOLD OUT)
29 – Oxford, Zodiac
30 – Leeds, Cockpit
31 – Glasgow, King Tuts
Andy Bell of Oasis to DJ at The Social
September 18, 2009
OASIS: Definitely Maybe
Oasis bassist Andy Bell is set to become the first member of the band to break cover since they announced their spilt last week. Bell had confirmed that he will play a DJ set at London’s The Social as part of the venue’s 10th anniversary celebrations.
This announcement may silence cynics who believe that Oasis’ spilt announcement is only to generate publicity for an upcoming album. Bell’s commitment to appear at The Social might signal his desire to reignite his DJ career.
Quite unusually for the outspoken group, not one member has made a public appearance since the split was announced.
Entry to The Social’s anniversary celebrations is free and other acts expected on the night are The Lea Shores, Honrada and This Feeling DJs.
Apple (finally) lets Spotify launch iPhone app
September 7, 2009
Spotify are finally launching their hotly anticipated iPhone application. After much ‘umming and arhhing’ from Apple (who have the rival paid for music service iTunes) the company have allowed Spotify to go ahead with the launch. Spotify’s mobile offering will be available on on Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and phones using the Android platform, but at a cost.
Although the application is free to download, to use it you must be a premium subscriber, which means shelling out £10 a month on a Spotify subscription charge. The plus side is that when you stream music from your computer, those annoying adds wont keep popping up all the time. That Roberta was really starting to get on my tits.
The app itself is beautifully desgined and the best part is that users can save over 3,000 songs in playlists to listen to offline. That means that you can listen to music “for free” anywhere – even on the London Underground.
Now that really is pretty snazzy!
Iggy and the Stooges to perform Raw Power in London
August 29, 2009
The legendary Iggy Pop has reunited with former Stooge’s guitarist James Williamson to play their iconic album Raw Power, live in London.
Sadly, fans of the punk trailblazers will have to wait until mid next year to hear the team back together. The re-formed Stooges have booked only two concerts so far, only at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in May 2010.
As a huge punk fan myself, I’ve got to admit to being a little bit surprised that this reunion is even possible. Iggy and Williamson had a notorious falling out during the recording of Iggy’s 1980 album solider, and it’s been thought that they haven’t been on speaking terms since.
Hopefully this announcement means they’ve put an end to all that bad blood. It looks like we might even see some new recordings soon, although that may not be a good thing.
Radiohead track leak – real or fake?
August 13, 2009
Radiohead fans have been all of a flutter this morning as a leaked track called ‘These Are My Twisted Words’ has been circling the net. After the release of tribute track this week in honour of WWI veteran Harry Patch and Thom Yorke’s announcement of no more Radiohead albums, this new track comes as a bit of surprise.
Some bloggers and newspapers are now even suggesting that this new song may not even be new, simple an unreleased B-side or that it’s not even by Radiohead at all.
Listen to the full version right here and make your own mind up:
Johnny Borrell gets his own radio show
August 11, 2009
Jonny Borrell is to host his own radio show?! Seriously? Who the hell would give that man another self flagellating podium to prance around on?
Ah Xfm. That makes sense. The Razorlight frontan was previously heard on the station during a month-long stint in January this year and he’s now signed up to present a 10 part weekly show which begins on 6 September.
The show will be called, Songs They Don’t Play on the Radio – lets hope this new show signals that radio stations across the country will start associating that brilliant title with Razorlight themselves.
NME have today revealed their list of The Future of cool, with their Top 50 list of music’s rising coolsters.
It’s definitely a mixed bag in terms of musical genres but an overall pleasing list, particularly with the inclusion of Twitter and PopJustice. However, without sounding like a holier-than-thou music nerd, I thought Animal Collective were cool 5 years ago. And I think that even the twee indie kids who read NME have known they were going to lead the charge in musical change long before their stonking Glasto 09 performance.
The Future 50 2009 in FULL:
1) Animal Collective
2) The Knife
3) Trent Reznor
4) Dizzie Rascal
5) Omar Souleyman (AGE)
6) The XX
7) Jack White
8) VBS TV
9) Little Boots
10) La Roux
11) Blocks Recording Club
12) Dan the Automator
13) Mattias Arrelid
14) Bradford Cox
15) Norwich
16) Nick Zinner
17) Mike Sniper
18) Pop Justice
19) Twitter
20) The Big Pink
21) Platform Magazine
22) Ray Tintori
23) The Dream
24) Gigbaby
25) Salem
26) Micachu
27) Bandstocks.com/Patrick Wolf
28) Take That’s stage show
29) Sonic Boom
30) Beck
31) Greg Kurstin
32) Sweden
33) Seb chew
34) Hyperdub
35) Rostam Batmanglij
36) Lady GaGa
37) Project Natal
38) Aldene Johnson and Hannah Marshal
39) Opera
40) Stephen McGregor
41) 3OH!3
42) Blackout Crew
43) Sonar Festival
44) Star and Shadow Cinema
45) Cooly G
46) Diesel-U-Music Radio
47) Yo Gabba Gabba
48) Invasion
49) Xenomania
50) Gaggle
Stephen Fry admits illegal downloading
July 13, 2009
Last night Stephen Fry took a break from whizzing all over America and spending every second of this life on Twitter to join in with the festivities surrounding the Roundhouse’s iTunes festival.
During a talk in between acts such as, he launched an attack on the music and movie industries over the way they have acted to defend their copyright – It seems to have taken everyone by surprise, especially his announcement that he frequently downloads music, film and TV illegally.
Although he seems to have realised that it would cause quite a stir, asking the BBC’s technology editor Rory-Cellan Jones (via Twitter!) if he had left himself open for attack.
He attacked big corporations for some of their actions in the past (claiming that buying illegal DVDs was the same as theft, and the pointless prosecutions against illegal music downloaders etc) but perhaps missed the point of what’s happening in the music industry right now.
I think everyone knows that illegal downloading will continue, and that the routes for experiencing new music legally (e.g. Spotify) should be greatly explored as these seem to be of great benefit to the artists involved. Nobody wants musicians to go without their cut, but the less money that goes towards the big companies, the better.
Stephen Fry at the iTunes festival last night
