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Blog: Indie Daze
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For LO! I was due to meet Mr Paul Myland in the pub next door to the Kentish Town Forum ready for our attendance at Indie Daze 4, and all-dayer featuring Indie Bands from Back In The Day. All sounds very NON-FREAKY, until you realise that the pub next door to the Kentish Town Forum is the recently refurbished BULL & GATE, site of MANY MANY GIGS for me. It has now been turned into a GASTRO PUB and so has been a) knocked through b) CLEANED.
Being there again was UTTERLY WEIRD. The main bar area is pretty much the same, except with tables rather than booths, but the back bar and the live room are now all joined up too. The oddest thing is that the TRANSITIONARY TOILETS which you used to walk through to get to the venue have now GONE and there were people sitting there EATING THEIR LUNCH, seemingly unaware of how much CIDER and BASS and DREAMS had been passed away there over the years.
Even walking up to the doors did my HEAD in, as all the many times I had gone there before to SEE gigs or to play them myself flashed through my BRANE. This was the place where I first met The Bands On My Bill! Where I first foisted a DEMO TAPE on Mr S Lamacq! Where I did my first LONDON gig! It says on the pub's website that they recognise their musical heritage by having a COCKTAIL PIANIST play upstairs on Sunday afternoons, but where is the BLUE PLAQUE for Jon Fat Beast eh? At least they had gone to the trouble of having CRAZYHEAD lurking outside, although by the time I'd got my pint they had GONE - they were playing next door as part of the all-dayer, so maybe they were just hanging around for that? If so: COME ON BULL & GATE, pull your finger out, at least employ some members of The Fighting Cocks to charge people to get in!
Anyway, once Mr Myland arrived I calmed down a bit and we began our day in the manner in which we expected to carry it on i.e. by having a bit of a natter while I drank some LAGER and he drank SOFT DRINKS. He is doing Sober October and would be SORELY TEMPTED by the prospect of allowing alcoholic beverages to enter the temple of his body at various points of the day, but I am proud to say he RESISTED throughout!
The original plan for the day had been that I would meet him in distant CHARLTON, where Posh were supposed to be playing that afternoon, but this had been thrown into disarray when it turned out that Charlton had three players called up for International Duty, so the match had to be postponed. This DID mean, however, that we got to see the last song by Salad (who turned out to feature TWO people I knew!) and Thousand Yard Stare, who were GRATE! I had heard of them way back in the late 1980s but had never consciously listened to any of their records. I'd done some REVISION in the week before the gig and had liked them a LOT but they were even better live - I especially liked the way the singer told everybody to be sure to PACE THEMSELVES throughout the day. GOOD ADVICE!
So good was the advice that we TOOK it, going off for a bit of a wander and bumping into Mr P Golder, who I believe shared our intent never to knowingly watch any members of The Wonderstuff if we could help it (NB Miles *unt was on next). Mileage and I strolled down to Camden for a PINT (me) and SOFT DRINK (he), then went to line our stomachs at The Maharani before heading back to Kentish Town in time to catch the last song by Apollo 440. I am pleased to report that they, like most bands, did THEIR HIT last, and had apparently been BRILLIANT. I received this information from Mr D Barnett who we next bumped into. It's almost as if we were at an Indie All-Dayer or something!
There was a definite JACKING UP of PRESTIGE for Voice Of The Beehive, who came on next - they had a ROADIE! Everyone else had been plugging themselves in, and we wondered whether maybe Woody From Madness (who was back on the drums) had bought his DRUM VALET with him? Anyway, they were Quite Good, although it must be said that THE HITS were SEVERAL times better than the NON-HITS. Having said that, I was surprised to find that they had one more hit than I realised, as I'd forgotten about "I Walk The Earth"!
The final act were The House Of Love, who were the main reason we were there at all - we'd originally discovered the gig after talking in the pub about how GRATE they were - and, again, were Quite Good. They are not the CHATTIEST of bands, and it was funny to find that Terry Bickers, who is meant to be the KRAZY ROCKER, was VERY POLITE throughout, with Guy Chadwick not saying much at all. Most of the set was Pretty Good, but unfortunately for the rest of the setlist "Christine", "Shine On" and especially "Destroy The Heart" were SO VERY AMAZING that it put the other songs to shame. COR, they were dead good!
We tottered out and off to the tube, where we went our seperate ways, though not for long. This weekend coming we meet again for even MORE gig ACTION as we're going to a church hall near Peterborough to see Richard Digance! He has a pretty high level of ROCK to live up to, but if anyone can do it I think Digance can!
posted 9/10/2017 by MJ Hibbett
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