So long Astoria

Well, this is it folks. London's Astoria, a live performance venue since 1976, is to close its doors for good on Thursday 15th January.

In March this year, then mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed rumours that the theatre was to be bulldozed to make way for the Crossrail underground line, despite loud protests and a petition of more than 35,000 signatures. Livingstone alleged at the time that a new live music venue would be built in the area to replace the Astoria, but will Boris Johnson honour that promise.... don't hold your breath.

In a double blow, nearby flea pit the Metro is also to close. Organizer of their infamous Blow Up night, Paul Tunkin, told NME, "At present we are looking for new premises to relocate the venue to but have yet to find one suitable. Ultimately it is another nail in the coffin for central London's live music and club scene."

You'd been hard pushed to find a music fan in greater London who has never been to the Astoria, first built as pickle factory and converted into a cinema in 1927. The legendary venue has hosted early gigs by the likes of Nirvana and Radiohead and is first choice for big names such as the Rolling Stones who are looking for a more intimate spot than their usual stadiums and cattle sheds.

Barry Hyde, the lead singer of the Futureheads, spoke thus of the venue: "Venues should be dirty, they should be a bit smelly because smelly things happen in venues. Sweaty people had fun and the Astoria was always something you’d look forward to."

***UPDATE***

And the last ever party at the Astoria is going to be hosted by..... Manumission?!? You mean infamous Ibiza party night Manumission? Really?!? Apparently there's going to be "a fusion of rock and dance acts" (for "dance" read "90s era rave") and "a carnival of cabaret", presumably with their standard "bleeding edge sexuality". See you there... or not.

Electric Ladyland

Electronic music, by virtue of its very provenance, is never going to be especially warm and human. For Ladytron, this issue both defines their menacing, industrial sound and made their recent live show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire an oddly remote and lifeless experience.

Hailing simultaneously from Glasgow, Liverpool and Bulgaria, Ladytron have been peddling ominous electro since 1999. Their most recent album Velocifero has garnered some ecstatic reviews, vaulting the band from supporting Nine Inch Nails to selling out numerous dates on their own worldwide tour.

Alas the London date of said tour doesn’t quite get off to an explosive start. Thanks to the misjudged bass rattling our ribs and overwhelming pretty much everything else coming from the stage, opener Black Cat doesn’t quite pack the punch it does on record. The exotic Bulgarian lyrics do manage to lend a considerable degree of foreboding to the opening proceedings, but Ladytron fail to blow the crowd away as they had probably hoped.

As they work their way through Velocifero, the band maintain an icy aloofness and fail to conjure up much in the way of stage presence. Although no doubt crucial to their dark and brooding image, this approach means the first half of the set feels oddly flat. Whacky, attention-grabbing stage antics are obviously not what makes a good live show, but I had expected Ladytron’s futuristic electroclash to be more engaging. Not a smile, not a move, they could well be robots, but then that’s kind of the idea with the ‘tron…

Their cold otherworldliness is exemplified by Ghosts, in which Helen Marnie dispassionately and unapologetically articulates ‘doesn’t mean I’m sorry’. Her flawless diction and nasal voice are quite distinctive and a linchpin of Ladytron’s sound, but lack any glimmer of humanness. Tracks like Runaway, however, reveal the emotional vulnerability beneath the detached exterior, the lyrics detailing twisted relationships and emotionally desolate lovers.

It is only as the show passes the halfway mark that some of the magic (and light) of Ladytron’s music starts to shine through. Kletva sounds positively dreamy and evocative, whereas in set-closer Seventeen singers Marnie and Aroyo really start to look like the formidable team they’re often billed as, alternating between staring each other in the face and looking blankly out into the crowd in a seamless visual display of cohesion.

It is in the encore song Destroy Everything You Touch that the band finally seem to take off, having spent the entire rest of the set slowing and ponderously gathering momentum. Marnie for one leaps up and down and finally dares reveal that she’s enjoying herself.

Ladytron certainly have the tunes and by all accounts the touring experience, but alas this cyborg takes a long time to warm up.

Photo by Hidden Shine on Flickr

Levi's One's To Watch, The Fly, 28/10/2008

Past Ones To Watch shows have seen the likes of The Kooks, Editors, The Wombats and more recently Foals emerge from Camden’s sweaty-armpit that is Barfly to play under the bright lights of Brixton academy. A transition that comes mere-months after treading the beer-stained stages for LOTW shows. A fact that in no way went un-noticed by an excitable crowd packed in tight to see openers A Grave With No Name. How much of the excitement was down to the band and not the seasonal weather peppering the streets above is hard to tell but the Mt Jade Three piece certainly made a case for themselves.

Revelling in reverb, AGWNN’s shoe-gaze dirge filled the atmospheric air with every slight strum of bass. A bass which vibrated deep within the heart of every transfixed punter and added to the glow of red light that soaked the venue in a warmth. Stand out track, ‘And We Parted Ways At Mt Jude’ captured the essence of AGWNN perfectly. A searing wall of white noise only punctured by the beauty of entwined lost melodies.

Next up were Broadcast 2000, the brain child of musical visionary Joe Steer.
Backed by a group of friends armed with instruments very rarely seen on your average indie tour, the band wasted no time in endearing themselves to the expectant crowd. ‘Don’t Weigh Me Down’ a we say you say call to arms briefly stirs the tune appreciation glands within but it’s not until ‘Get Out and Go’ is unleashed that we see any real visual signs of excitement I.E feet moving in different directions and hands up in the air like they just don’t care. Check your bad self’s.

Broadcast 2000 really are a band to behold. They command attention with every passing second of their woozy Anti-Folk frivolities. Glistening with pitch perfect production and sprinkled with the ting and tangs of the Xylophone ‘Run’ closes a spell-binding set in the best way possible.

And so, with two scintillating performances in the bag Rogues are left with the unenviable task of closing tonight’s proceedings and boy they do it with panache and swagger. They have, in ‘Not So Pretty’ and ‘Carnival’ two cracking pop tunes that showcase their New Order –esque 80’s invention and hooks plucked from the deepest darkest depths of Julian Casablanca’s soul. It’s new-wave as we know it and undeniably love it.

Much can be said for the emergence of 80’s inspired bands this year. Mystery Jets, Ladyhawke, Friendly Fires, Late Of The Pier and Calvin Harris ...err ok not Harris but you get the picture. It’s been a stella year for donning shoulder padded blazers and spunking out hits from synths of desires. So much so every Dom, Rick and Barry’s jumped on the Ford Capri bandwagon with the belief they’ve got the key and the secret to actually being any better than the next band on the production line.

So how refreshing it is then that Rogues, four beautifully crafted chaps from Aberystwyth, emerge from the wintery fag-end of 2008 and stake a claim for the most exciting prospect of 2009.

Photo's courtesy of www.louiseroberts.co.uk

Peggy Sue, The Social, London.

"Oh, I'm not going to be able to watch daytime Television, I miss those days", Shrieks Katy.
Welcome to the "busiest week in Peggy Sue's history, ever." A week in which they take to the stage 7 times, play instore's, appear on ITN news and release their debut EP 'Body Parts'.
"I said that not realising it was actually going to be true, I thought I was being over the top but apparently not."
Already today Peggy Sue, aka Rosa Rex and Katy Klaw, have sat through more interviews than they've ever had, which is probably why when 4or The Record turn up at The Social, a cabin-like hot box of a venue, the girls are nowhere to be seen.
You see, the promotion of a bands debut EP wouldn't normally warrant the kind of exposure and excitement that surrounds the latest release from Peggy Sue and the Pictures, so called because Peggy Sue have acquired the backing of Left Of Picture (veterans of the UK folk scene), but this is no ordinary release.
It's one that captures the sound of a scene that’s at the forefront of the industry's thoughts. As well as Peggy Sue, the likes of Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn, Noah and the Whale and Jeremy Warmsley are all flooding through the door Kate Nash and Jack Penaté spectacularly smashed down for them last summer.
It's something the girls are aware of and hugely excited about. During a whirlwind 12 months they were whisked off on tour with Kate Nash, an experience that went a long way in shaping and preparing the girls for what was to come. "Touring with Kate was fantastic but we hardly saw her" sighs Rosa. "She would be like, "I can see you for 5 minutes" and then she'd go off to do another photo shoot or interview. She'd come do her make up with us and then she'd go and that would be our quality time together, poor girl."

It's something they encountered again at SXSW when they hang out with fellow Anti-Folkists and good friends Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn. "Our normal day was a gig or two then we'd kick back, have a BBQ and hang out with Laura and Johnny and watch them go from gig to gig and interview to interview" remembers Rosa. So there must be a part of you that's enjoying the roles being reversed tonight? "Yeah it's amazing, we're so used to being the support and having busier people around us but tonight it feels like we've made the step up" says Katy. And the promotion plans for the EP would certainly back that statement up.




Tonight is just the first of four special gigs organised for what they call as the "4 corners of London". Tonight is West then they take on The Enterprise (North), The Betsy Trotwood (East) and The Windmill (South) Four venue's Time Out magazine cheekily described as central, central, central and central. Not that the girls mind. They just take it in their stride and even find it funny, a humour that’s apparent in their music and no wonder when you discover who their influences are. "Definitely Jeffrey Lewis in terms of Anti-Folk and The Moldy Peaches, we love them” and it's that humour and those influences that they take into 'Body Parts' a record that's an obvious departure from previous release 'Television', a Seven inch they released just after Christmas. "It's a chance for us to explore new instruments and new sounds" beams Katy and "It captures a folky side to us that's always been there despite the punky element that came with our first two singles 'Television' and 'New Song'" finishes Rosa. "The new instruments we brought in, the Banjo and Violin really helped us to bring out that Folk sound as did Left Of Picture. They're a band we've played with a couple a times and we just really love how folk they are. There's loads of Folk out there at the moment but it's all influenced by different genres. Left of Picture however are quite down the line folk and we really love it that we now have that injection in our music" she continues.
As well as the two previous very different releases, the girls had also released monthly incidental recordings that again captured their fun side but only cemented how hard it was to pin them down to a genre. Fully aware of this they realised just how important it is that they've put down on record four tracks that so undeniably spell out the direction they're heading in terms of sound. "Television and New song were at two ends of the spectrum, one being our punky side the other our prettier one. We knew that it never really came across as what we were really like. So with 'Body Parts' we're delighted it says a lot about us and what we do and what we sound like. It’s captured the real Peggy Sue in our opinion" and with that Rosa and Katy look at each other and share a smile that's still evident when they take to the stage in front of a packed out venue.




As each glistening track goes by a swooning audience falls that little bit more in love with Peggy Sue who captivatingly play with their untainted heart on their vintage sleeve and with a passion and exuberance that 4or The Record very rarely comes across. Each track off the EP sound life afirmingly joyous and only adds to the excitement of possible future releases. "We definitely feel ready to make an album but first we're gonna release another EP before the end of the year, Steven Ansell (Blood Red Shoe's) is going to produce it. Plus we may cover Be Your Own Pet for our next monthly recording but that’s only in the pipeline. We've got 30 to 40 songs at our disposal and at least half are good enough for an album" say's Katy "Plus bonus tracks", "Yeah, and Itune releases" giggles Rosa.
It's clear that tonight’s taste of being the busy band has left an impression on Peggy Sue that will only serve in propelling them into major Indie starlets. And with the thump of beating hearts and echo’s of admiration undoubtedly still ringing in their ears from tonight’s breathtaking show, Peggy Sue will be winning overeven more crowds not just over the next three nights but well into the foreseeable future.

Feature by Daniel Wade
Photos by Richard Anderson

You know it's summer when...

a clap of thunder rumbles indiscriminately over Vampire Weekends' Mansard Roof' ceasing any enjoyment of the record from the outset.
This happened yesterday, on a day when the weather was about as consistent as a Glastonbury punters bowl movements.
I tried to listen to the rest of the album but it's sunny disposition failed to sit comfortably amongst rain battered window panes and heavy,brooding skies. So I put on 'Hits' by
The Birthday Party and Nick Caves antagonistic, gothic drawl became somewhat of a fitting repost to a slate-Grey London afternoon that teetered on the edge of pathetic.
























Like many bands evolving from the defunct-punk scene, The BirthdayParty reveled in a creative freedom that saw their mutant concoction of punk and jazz-blues vie for space in an already over-crowded melting pot of post-punk, new wave and new-romantic bands.
There distaste for commercialism and insistence for making music on their own terms, i.e. a hybrid of dark-wave and post-punk meant the door that welcomed the likes of The Fall, Gang of Four and Joy Division was held firmly shut in the face of The Birthday Party. This only had the effect of spurring Nick Cave on to push their experimental sound even further,which ultimately made The Birthday Party one of the most influential bands of the last 40 years.


It's only been apparent in the last 2 years just how influential The Birthday Party were.
Int he summer of 2005, The Horrors spawned from the dark breeding's of Cave&Co released their debut LP 'Strange House' to a generation that thought interpol were as dark and dangerous as it got. The album was an instant cult hit and a string of live shows and support slots, notably with the Arctic Monkeys, caused ripple's of discontent amongst the Fratelli loving beer-boys but galvanised the art and book club recluses into kick-starting a scene that reeked of individuality and creativity.Since then, a whole host of bands have not only picked up the baton but they've run with it, passed it on and smashed it round the head of every irrelevant scmindie act out there, leaving them bloody and useless on the strobe light-lit dance floors of the UK.

Here's our pick of the bands that are heading the most exciting scene in music today, Dark Wave:

Ipso Facto











Televised Crimwave













Lord Auch












KASMs
















SCUM