Blog: Wallington

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On Saturday night I headed to the Deep South (of London) on a lengthy journey to WALLINGTON.

Wallington! It's basically next door to Croydon, which is AGES away. Living in Stratford I've become used to pretty much everywhere in London town being dead easy to get to, but this took nearly an hour and a half over three different forms of transport - the Underground, the Overground, and the Wombling Free... sorry, I mean the normal TRANE. Still, by swiping my Oyster on the Interchange thingy it ended up only costing me £3.20 to get there and back - amazing!

The gig was organised by Mr A Brook, who used to run Studio Sonic on Denmark Street, where I used to go many many years ago to record demoes at lunchtime. He first asked me about it over a year ago and I couldn't go, then sent me some dates last MAY to choose from. Thus this gig had been booked TEN MONTHS ago! I don't think I've booked ANYTHING that far in advance before!

The venue was unusual and, once I'd worked it out, IMPRESSIVE. At the front is a tiny little cafe with three tables and at the back is a small gig room, but in the middle, I discovered, is a CONTROL BOOTH which changes the whole thing into a fully functioning high tech recording studio that just happens to have a cafe attached! It was amazing!

The gig itself was fun, if a bit quiet. It started off with the chap who used to be in Goldheart Assembly - I couldn't tell you what any of their HITS were but he was really really good. Proper tunes, really good singing, it was thoroughly enjoyable! After that was the marvellous Ms J Lockyer which was GRATE because a) she is and b) it's always nice to have someone to talk to at these things (Mr T Eveleigh was also there, which made the whole thing very pleasant). Then it was me and I did THIS:

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Hey Hey 16K

(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock

In The North Stand

That Guy

It Only Works Because You're here

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

The Lesson Of The Smiths

I enjoyed it (apart from completely cocking up Hey Hey 16K - someone had mentioned it beforehand so I thought I'd have a go, but made a right old mess of it), not least because I was SITTING DOWN. I haven't done a gig sitting down for AGES but the stage was so high and the atmosphere was so relaxed that I thought it would be OK. It was! The audience were RIGHT up for it and I had a lovely time!

ALAS once it was all over I had to DASH off to get home, arriving another 90 minutes later just in time for a night cap. A very pleasant end to the evening!

posted 16/3/2015 by MJ Hibbett

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