Blog: Allo Darlin, Hello Dalston

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I zoomed off to fragrant DALSTON on Thursday evening, there to see the mighty Allo Darlin' on their comeback/new album tour.

I was Quite Excited as they are one of my favourite bands EVER and also I suspected lots of old PALS would be there, but as I approached the venue my main feeling was BAFFLEMENT, upon seeing a MASSIVE queue coming down the road from the venue and then round the corner. Had something happened so that the gig was late starting? Was this a very calm and efficient fire drill? And how come everyone was so YOUNG? I mean, obviously the sort of music I like is very much enjoyed by Young People LIKE ME, but it did seem to be a particularly youthful queue for a band who released their first album when many of these people would not even have started school yet.

Luckily I spotted a gentleman of my age (LATE THIRTIES) in the queue who was wearing a Wedding Present t-shirt, so asked him what was going on. It turns out that the place I was going to has TWO venues, and the artist Maisie Peters was playing in the other. "The Allo Darlin' show's already started," he said. "You're not the first person to ask me!"

I left this fine example of indiepop/actual pop LIAISON in the queue with, it turns out, his daughter, and popped over the road to Red Hand to meet Mr S Hewitt. I thought it was a LOVELY bar, not least because it had a HUGE board taking up most of a wall listing all the beers in VERY LARGE PRINT so it was nice and easy to read! We also met Mr B Clancy and Charlotte and had a delightful chat, during which Mr B Clancy insisted - PLEADED some might say - that I mention him in the blog. Mr B Clancy, your dreams have come true today!

After some refreshment we headed over the road for the GIG, where we discovered that they had pretty much RUN OUT OF BEER! I think this was more to do with poor planning than the current Allo Darlin' audience being BEER MONSTERS, but we did manage to provide ourselves with CANS as the evening progressed, so all was well. We also met LOADS of the aforementioned OLD PALS, which was ruddy lovely!

The gig itself was DEAD GOOD, although something about it felt ODD to me. It was only later that I realised that this was because it was just A GIG. The last three times I've seen Allo Darlin' have been a) a highly emotional FINAL GIG b) a highly emotional and tiny warm-up gig for c) a highly emotional and enormous COMEBACK show, all of which had been, not to mince words, highly emotional. This one was the first time in over a decade seeing them ON TOUR and promoting new stuff, so it felt a bit more NORMAL. It was still GRATE though and, as well as the traditional Everyone Going A Bit Quiet during "Tallulah" I also had a sudden BLUB during "Silver Dollars" this time too.

Also, there was CONFUSION amongst our party because it looked like Mr J Jervis was ROADYING. Jerv was, as is THE LAW, on the merch stand, and we knew he was working it for the whole TOUR, so had he expanded into STAGE CREW too? After much looking back and forth we worked out that he was STILL on the merch stand, and that this was someone who just looked like him. As I say, we had supplied ourselves with BOOZE so that may explain the situation.

With the show done there was time for more saying "HELLO!" to pals various and then back to the pub for further BEER and further "Oh I haven't seen you for AGES!" It was a lovely night out to see a fab band - well done everybody!

posted 10/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett

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