Tag: london

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Thursday at The Fringe.

Thursday began in fine style – we were booked to play at ‘Mervyn Stutter’s Pick Of the Fringe’ – a fantastic show that highlights the best of what’s on across the city. Julie had emailed them, and their lovely booking lady Trudy had come to the show on Tuesday and booked us.

That went superbly well – great reception from the audience, lots of promises that people would come along. Yay!

After that, it was flyering time. Lots of it. I think I gave out more flyers than on any day since Saturday. A busy time, for sure.

In the morning, I’d dropped into a junk shop on Dalry Road, where I’d seen a Mama Cass album for £2 in the window, and given that Amy Lame’s show that TSP and I saw last weekend was called ‘Amy Lame’s Mama Cass Family Singers’, I bought it and dropped it off to Amy after her show, who was delighted.

My dodgy knee was feeling pretty bad by about 7 o’clock so I went and bought a ticket for Sue Perkins stand up show – I’m a HUGE fan of Sue, whether solo or in the double act with Mel; their Saturday morning show on Radio London rivals Danny Baker for the greatest radio I’ve ever heard. She’s clearly supremely intelligent and a great observer of the world, and the show was indeed both very funny and acutely observed. She finished on a really poignant note about her grandmother – great way to end a comedy show. Definitely worth going to see.

I nearly missed the gig, as I thought she was on at the Pleasance Dome but was on at the Pleasance Courtyard – not an easy journey to make in 6 minutes on a buggered knee. Ow.

After that, it was back to flyering for a while, then down to the venue for soundcheck and gig.

Another lovely night – similar numbers to last night, so pretty good, but really need a couple of big nights tonight and tomorrow to make some sensible money on this trip.

The Lot is SUCH a great venue – for those of you in and around Edinburgh, you really ought to get on their mailing list, as they book some really top class jazz stuff (I’ve mentioned before that Theo has played there with his quartet) – it’s really lovely, and the food in the restaurant downstairs is top notch. I’m really hoping to come back to the same place next year. Great space, great people, and it’s run as a charity funding venture. What could be better?

After our show, Julie and I were back doing the Midnight Carousel in C Central, compered by Dusty Limits – again, we went down a storm, got an encore, and gave out lots of flyers to many promises that people will come along… Edinburgh promises – not worth the flyers they’re printed on, but we can but hope. :o)

So Today is a usual Edinburgh day – shitloads of flyering and postering during the day, dinner with the lovely J (lovely G is away, sadly, and TSP back in London, so it’s just lovely J and I meeting for clandestine munchies in Henderson’s). Then going to see a beautiful show in The Speigeltent – a Belgian voice and accordian duo, that I’ve completely forgotten the name of, but who are just fabulous, and played at Mervyn Stutter too. Then the show.

Two night’s left – come and see us!

thenewstandard.co.uk

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RIP Gizmo

I mentioned that TSP had to rush back to London – when she got there, The furry ginger one wasn’t well at all. He’d started to behave bizarrely the day before, and by now was showing signs of some kind of real problem with his brain – almost certainly a tumor pressing on it.

She took him to the vets, who offered to give him a steroid shot to see if it would bring down the swelling and stop the pressure, but TSP took what was definitely the right decision, that he’d been through enough. This was the worst she’d seen him – and he’s had some pretty low points over the last 8 months – and it was time to say goodbye.

What shit timing. I’m up here, TSP is in London now, with no car cos I’ve got it here.

Anyway, goodbye lil’ ginger buddy – you had an amazing run, escaped death more times than any animal can reasonably expect, and gave us a couple of years of love and affection that we wouldn’t have swapped for anything.

these two pics were taken just last week…

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The Allotment

My mum came up to help flyering yesterday, and while here, we went to a play. As a general rule, I don’t go to plays at the fest. I don’t really go to plays anywhere. Theatre just isn’t an art form that enters my radar.

But I’d been accosted by a flyering lady on the Royal Mile, who told me about this show, and it sounded fascinating, and I’m REALLY glad we went.

It’s called The Allotment, and is set, predictably, on an allotment, where a well meaning but fairly clueless mature student is conducting an experiment in the therapeutic value of horticulture for her MA, and recruits four asylum seekers to work on it. Their clash of worlds values, her ineptness and cliched outlook make for a fantastic story, brilliantly written, superbly acted and far too good for what you expect at the Fringe.

The theatre company website says that it’s touring in the East Midlands in Sept/Oct, so if you can get to see it either here at the Fringe or on tour, go, it’s fab. I hope they bring it to London at some point, I’d love to see it again.

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EdFringe, Monday, Day off

No main show on Monday – the venue was already booked up when we got our run booked in.

So much of the day was spent flyering and postering on the Royal Mile, and TSP and I went to see Amy Lame’s ‘Mama Cass Family Singers’ – an intriguing and very original show about Amy’s life as a child star. TSP and I were talking about it for the rest of the day, which in a city on the verge of collapse under the weight of shows here, is a very good thing.

After a great show, some not so great news – The ginger fairly aged feline has taken ill again – not good signs at all, so TSP has this morning (tuesday) hot-footed it (or perhaps hot-railed) back to London. The thought that he may well be gone before I get home is one I’m trying not to dwell on – got to be chipper and smiley on the fringe. It’s a slightly odd feeling not having a show that I can feed such information into. If I was doing a solo show, there’d be a whole bit about the cats in it by now… No way to tie that in with this show – I mean, we do do ‘Lovecats’, but Julie’s already got a great intro into that…

So anyway, TSP and I made our first – and last together for this year – trip to the magical veggie goodness world of Henderson’s last night. If you’re at the fest, go to Henderson’s. OK, it’s a bit more spendy than Subway or McFilth, but it’s all properly cooked veggie, mainly organic loveliness. Well worth a treat if you’re audience is in double figures.

so today, with TSP back to London, we’re down one on the flyering team. It’s possible that my mum is coming to visit, so that’ll help (she’s v. good with flyering).

Failing that, tell your friends, or come along yourself!

TheNewStandard.co.uk

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This just in from Ahmad at Darbucka…

I’m going to blog about what’s happening in the middle east soon – it’s too huge for me to rush into without reading loads and doing a lot of thinking. It’s also heartbreaking.

However, this has just come in from Ahmad at Darbucka, about a fund-raising event they are holding on Thursday – I only wish I could be there. I can’t, but you might be able to –

____________________________________________
Many of us are deeply saddened and feel helpless about
the war in Lebanon. To help get urgently needed
medication to Lebanon, we are organising a charity
event at Darbucka. This has been organised in less
than a week not to waste time in getting the
medication to Lebanon, therefore we are relying on
friends to help promote this.

The event will take place this Thurs at Darbucka (182
St Johns St, EC1V, tubes – Angel or Farringdon). It
will start at 6.00 in the gallery with posters
displaying information about Lebanon followed by
entertainment downstairs, – tribunal dancers, DJs,
raffel (first prize -dinner for 2 at the Gallery
bistro at Darbucka, 2nd prize- champagne, 3rd wine,
plus other little prizes). We don’t want to exclude
anyone so we are asking for donations on the door
rather than an entrance fee. Lebanese meze platters
will be available – £5 of the cost will go to Lebanon.

Lots of us are feeling very depressed by what is
happening in Lebanon. This event will include
entertainment to raise our spirits so that we can
continue with our efforts and not forget about this in
a few weeks. This will not take away from the
seriousness of what is happening.

Even if you can’t come, please forward this message to
people you think might want to come.

Asthma inhalers are desparately needed. If you have
any unused inhalers or untouched antibiotics, please
bring these along to the event.

warm wishes
Ahmad and Catherine

DARBUCKA WORLD MUSIC BAR
182 St John Street
London
EC1V 4JZ

Tel: +44 (0)20 74908772
Mobile: +44 (0) 7930 345 288

www.darbucka.com

Tube: Farringdon or Angel

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The disappearance of the best gig in the country…

Ronnie Scott’s is one of the most famous jazz clubs in the world. It’s legendary. The late saxophonist who gave his name to the club was clearly a tireless campaigner for jazz music in London, and for as long as most jazzers can remember, Ronnie’s was a place to go and hang, to meet other musicians, hear some great tunes.

They’ve always done really cheap tickets for MU members, and best of all, they always booked a local band to play opposite the big names. It was pretty much the only serious venue around that booked UK jazz acts for week-long residencies. the money wasn’t great, but it was fabulous exposure, a chance to shift a load of CDs, and a great one for the CV. Without doubt, one of the best gigs that any UK jazz band could get booked for. I’ve seen some great stuff there – Ben Castle’s quartet opposite The Yellowjackets, Christine Tobin opposite Gary Husband….

well now, they’ve refurbed the building, but made a right arse of the booking policy and now have a house band. The James Pearson trio play every night, with a different guest. Yup, just like a regular restaurant gig. There are lots of these kinds of gigs around – house trio, hired in front person, plodding through the Real Book, sometimes playing lovely versions of standards, often sounding a bit bored. It makes a really nice accompaniment to dinner and is a great way to spend £4 if your local pub has put a gig on like that in the back room.

But, it’s not what I’d expect if I’d just paid £45 (£45!!!!!!!!!!) to see Chick Corea or Wynton Marsalis or whoever.

I’ve not heard James Pearson play. This isn’t about him or his trio. It’s just that the format isn’t an art gig. It’s not fair on the front person to not have their own band there – Theo isn’t going to sound anything like his records with some generic trio behind him. You can’t turn up to a blowing gig and expect them to play Schizoid Man. Ben Castle couldn’t go in with the chart for Mousecatcher General. They’ll just end up playing Satin Doll and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, and it’ll be like any other restaurant gig in London.

So, if you feel moved by this, feel free to boycott Ronnie’s. email them and tell them why, if you like. I just think it’s sad, and will take my custom and my gig money to The Vortex, or the 606 or just about anywhere else instead.

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Two nights at the vortex.

Been to two gigs at The Vortex in the last week – last Monday, I went to see the launch of Ingrid Laubrock and Liam Noble’s album ‘Let’s Call This…’ – I’ve heard Ingrid play before, in a quartet, but wasn’t familiar with Liam’s playing other than through MySpace. The music was exquisite, whether improvising or playing Monk tunes, the interplay between the two was gorgeous, with Ingrid switching between squeally extended range techniques and lovely lush full melodic stuff, with Liam providing entirely unpredictable but completely logic accompaniment – a really really interesting piano player.

The album is released – like so many great UK jazz albums – on Oliver Weindling’s Babel Label, home to such artists as Polar Bear, Acoustic Ladyland, Christine Tobin, Huw Warren… definitely worth investigating.

Then this saturday, Lianne Carrol was booked to play but fell ill, so the lovely and ever-so-slightly mad Estelle Kokot was booked to fill in, and did a fab job. It was also a rather nice London jazz hang, with JazzShark over from NYC, Orphy Robinson calling in, Huw Warren visiting from north west Wales, Christine Tobin nursing a nasty cut in her leg from a bike accident, and the aforementioned Oliver Weindling from Babel Label.

The Vortex is a lovely place to hang out – if you see something on their Programme that you’re going to, drop me a line and I might meet you there if I’m not playing myself.

Dalston feels like it’s a bit out of the way, but if you’re driving from north london it’s really easy to get to, and it’s just round the corner from Dalston Kingsland BR station… Go on, go out and support some homegrown jazz instead of wasting your time and money on an overpriced trip to Ronnie Scott’s.

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Some very successful Recycling

Well, last night’s Recycle Collective gig was an absolute blinder! For starters, it was the biggest crowd we had so far (more than 80, possibly 90…), the air conditioning was just perfect after the sweatiness of London these last few weeks, and then there was the music…

I started off with a solo set – I sat down to play and realised that all my song-remembering space in my head was full of the New Standard tunes, and I wasn’t sure I could remember my own stuff! But thankfully they all went really well – definitely the best solo set I’ve played at the RC. Finished off the set with a lovely and slightly shorter than the album version of ‘One Step’ with Julie. Fab first set, well done me!

Then came The New Standard Edinburgh set – as y’all know, we’ve rehearsed long and hard for this, and it all went off without a glitch… well, without a noticeable glitch. Small screw up on the play out to the last tune, but I rescued it, and I v. much doubt anyone but Julie noticed. Julie sang beautifully, and the audience loved it. What fun!

And Set three started with two solo pieces by Cleveland Watkiss – the first a baroque counterpoint thing that was just sublime, and the second a dub/drum ‘n’ bass/gospel thing that was equally amazing. Two fine trio improvs finished off the evening, and everyone went away happy, Julie and I both sold lots of CDs (Cleveland is his usual style didn’t bring any merch).

I think Edinburgh’s going to be magique.

If you were there, please write a review, and post it in the comments here, or over in the forum – thanks for coming!

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"available in all good record stores!"

Well OK, available at Ray’s Jazz. So maybe not all good record stores, but certainly the best record shop in London!

I’ve mentioned Ray’s on this ‘ere blog before – apart from being a fantastic record shop, it’s also the loveliest indie coffee shop in central london, has FREE WIFI and is situated on the first floor of Foyles, the finest book shop in London.

So all in all, it’s a great place, and you can now buy ‘Behind Every Word’ from there. Or order it over the phone from them on 020 7440 3205 (or just order it from me on line by clicking here!)

Anyway, proper shops, that’s always nice.

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