Camden calling - 3rd Birthday party - on the edge of the Olympic village…
The M25 on a Friday weren’t gonna rock…. And it didn’t, but at least we weren’t driving up from Bath like the 4th Suit!…
Friday night saw us play our second (and certainly not last) gig for Alexis Brookes and her amazing homeless charity musical collective Camden calling… The venue was the famous but threatened with extinction George Tavern on Commercial Road… Sitting perilously close to Olympic 2012 ‘‘re-gen’ territory… It reminded me of Charlie Buckets house in the story about the Chocolate Factory, dwarfed in the long shadow of Canary Wharf… You have to fear that this big old run down but glorious East End boozer may not be around for the CC’s 4th birthday. … Let’s hope it is!…
Anyway onto the night that as was as ever, eclectic to say the least. Tonight though took it to new levels - for not only did it contain, punk, hip hop and natty dreads, it also featured an appearance from none other than the Lord’s only son… (The party had been billed as a Hollywood themed fancy dress, with Alex (in Wonderland) and Dekay and D’mans seemingly the only ones who read the small print…) that was except of course for Jesus aka ‘Ben is a dark horse’ who kicked the night off with a spell binding/haunting guitar infused set, laced with a generous helpoing of razor sharp lyrical Whit. All of this was played out to a backdrop of some excellent Daniel Johnsonesque cartoons, projected onto the back wall… drawn (as we later found out) by a friend of the CC gang who’s sadly no longer around to attend such great nights, but at least Tasha Hollywood’s great talent lives on through.
Next up were the aforementioned ‘Baron village dwelling’ 70’s punks - ‘The 4th suit’, with their straight out of the Roxy 1977 assault! The packed and varied line up then morphed further into a more hip hop/urban tip, first with ACcobra, then with the ace Rukas, (“back after a short live sojourn”)… Until finally, the one we were personally really looking forward to - Dekay and D’mans. As we stated in the last blog these dudes and dudettes rock in a ‘street, hip hop, 60’s funk and Californian acid stylee’ that should be way bigger than it is… The nearest way to describe the music would be classic Beastie boys ‘Ill communication’ era lounge funk, be-jewelled by the diamond sharp D’mans incisive lyrical blow darts…
Then, finally it was time for The Scratch - back playing in surroundings that suit us best, tight, hot and edgy. Our latest short sharp ‘best of ‘set, this time included a lightening fast cover of The Ramones classic ‘Commando’, an extended ‘Teen Idol’ intro, forthcoming single ‘Wag potential’, our prog/Shakari skewed ‘No two castles are the same’ and a ‘Critical Mass’ encore that included a shaky legged table top dance and a flamboyant chair twirl finale, that Marc Bolan (who’s 34th anniversary co-incided with tonights events), would have been proud of!
Massive thanks to Alex and the guys for another excellent night, we can’t wait for the next one (even if you just come to see Dekay and D’mans it’d be well worth the train fare). Giant thanks also go out to newbie Scratchers and Scratchettes - Tatum and her gang for trekking across London in their stylish shoes… We hope its the first of Many and you got home safe guys? And last but by no means least, it was great as ever to see McEwan and all the other familiar faces.
Next stop the WAG launch do - 18 Nov. Keep an eye for ticket news and a few extra special ‘deals’ we’ve got going in conjunction… it’s gonna ROCK!
PS Final, final thanks goes out to all those who sent concerned email’s and txt’s re-the loss of ‘THE’ white jacket… thankfully ‘Super’ had it wedged in the crack…. between the seats in his car!
X
