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Echos of the past - the Koko playlist for Mersey men Echo and the Bunnymen |
Yeah Yeah Yeah - complete Madness
CAMDEN CRAWL 2009 - FRIDAY MADNESS
Edinboro Castle/Dublin Castle/
Inverness Street/Various
MADNESS'S World Tour of Camden was a combination of improvised busking and a glorious return to their roots.
Their first stop at the Edinboro Castle was halted by technical problems so they promptly made their way outside and showed that they could still remember how to play unplugged.
They received a hero's welcome at The Dublin Castle, where they hailed old friend, landlord Henry Conlon, whose father allowed them to play their first gig inside. It was a historic moment for them to show how they may have a little less hair (Suggs excluded), but that their songs hadn't aged, and their loyalties hadn't changed.
After a few more stops, they played to thousands in Inverness Street, a glorious and fitting way to show how far they had come, yet still remained inches from their beginnings. ROISIN GADELRAB
BLEECH
Inverness Street
YOUNG siblings Bleech played their first ever acoustic gig outside a record shop in Inverness Street.
The sisters, the latest proteges of Blur founder Andy Ross, are a striking contrast, Jennifer O'Neill with cropped blonde pixie hair and Katherine with flowing auburn locks. I only caught their last song but the catchy hook attracted me and others from a distance and I was sorry to have missed the full set. Despite Katherine, having only done her drama A'level the day before, the girls were focused and on form as they headed on to their plugged-in appearance at the Underworld. RG
GOLDIELOCKS
The Black Cap
THE day before the Crawl, Croydon rude gal GoldieLocks was complaining on Twitter about her sore throat.
She must have dosed up on Lockets or something because by the time she hit The Black Cap she was in full voice. Although she says she's not a born performer and you can see a hint of self-doubt and shyness in her performance, she did a great job, mixing up the styles, grime, rap and tunes from Adulthood "for the three people here who've seen it", she told the crowd. RG
HOCKEY
The Roundhouse
POOR, beautiful Hockey were cheated out of the crowd they deserved, thanks to a last-minute pull-out from The Enemy, leaving a depleted Roundhouse audience.
When you write for a newspaper, you're often told write every story as if it's the front page. Well Hockey treated this gig as though it was Woodstock and put on the show of their lives. Their stunning, decadent, hit Too Fake - a recent Grooves Record of the Week - was captivating live although new single Learn to Lose doesn't quite match up. Still, I'd keep an eye on these guys, and put them in a smaller venue to fully appreciate them. RG
THE VON BONDIES
Electric Ballroom
THE Von Bondies, powering up the Electric Ballroom held up well against the logistically challenged Madness hysteria over the road with swaggering indie-rock, some great schoolgirl squeal backing vocals and, frankly, saying the F-word a load of times.
ALLAN LEDWARD
DANNY AND THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD
The Black Cap
UBER-talented multi-taskers Danny and the Champions of the World got the Black Cap’s weekend off to a flyer.
Superbly idiosyncratic folk-rock, with brass, strings and flute, the stage over-crowders are even forgiven their lumberjack shirts and dodgy waistcoats underneath the pub's glitterballs. AL
IDLEWILD
The Dublin Castle
IDLEWILD in Dublin Castle intimacy looked set to be one of the shows of the weekend, but it never quite happened.
Mid-set, in a shock moment of musical adultery, they confessed to a tryst in Chalk Farm later that night, and lost our love in an instant.
It was probably why we were deprived of the gifted sensitive-type indie-rockers’ classics, American English and Shapes. AL
MELODY NELSON
Tommy Flynns
TOMMY Flynns, a hub of sweaty rock, shook to the sonic splendour of Melody Nelson – angry guitars and hair to match. AL
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN
Koko
EIGHTIES legends Echo and the Bunnymen brought their Scouse psychedelia Schtick to a rammed Koko, with Roundhouse refugees swelling the numbers even further.
Ian McCulloch, a pioneer of the egomaniac frontman, treated a new audience to the Bunnymen's Doors-inflected sounds with Lips Like Sugar, Back of Love and Cutter.
The luscious Bring on the Dancing Horses in the decadence of Koko goes down as one of the moments of the weekend and it was all sweetly wound up with the poignant anthem, Nothing Lasts Forever. AL
FIGHT LIKE APES
The Purple Turtle
HEAT, sweat and raging hormones were the order of the day at the Purple Turtle as the kids bopped up and down to the energetic pop-punk of Fight Like Apes.
A good old knees-up was had by all as the band blasted out tracks in anticipation of their upcoming tour. And if their Crawl gig is anything to go by, expect great things from the Dubliners. APRIL WELSH
THE CHAPMAN FAMILY
The Black Cap
THE Chapman Family are a band of brothers who are “as much influenced by folk as they are as hardcore punk.”
This definitely shows. Flitting effortlessly between noize and twee, miserablist indie, these brothers are no one-trick pony. Their multi-instrumentalist cover of Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ was particularly impressive and had me prancing about, despite my usual indifference towards that song. AW
THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Roundhouse
KAREN O's voice and energy are still as impressive as they seemed when I first heard Fever To Tell.
She paced the stage in a dramatic kimono, before stripping off to reveal a baby blue and black PVC playsuit, suspending her rock credentials just long enough to remind the crowd her parents were in the audience.
Date with a Knight was an immediate crowd favourite, and the material from the new album didn't disappoint either, Soft Shock and Zero especially. Gold Lion and Cheated Hearts showed off that more melodic side to the band, and Maps had me close to tears. Bit of a shame not to see more tracks from the first album getting an outing (Pin, Rich, Black Tongue, Y Control) but what can you expect from sucha short set just after the band has released a new album. BEN WHITE
CIRCLE SQUARE
The Monarch
ALTHOUGH Circle Square is probably one of the worst band names I've heard in a while, the band itself definitely does not disappoint - the singer comes down somewhere between New Order and Depeche Mode, and the basslines place them close to Aeroplane.
I highly recommend checking them out on MySpace, Hey You Guys especially, which I remember absolutely loving. It's been remixed by the Juan Maclean... A killer combination. BW
PEGGY SUE
The Monarch
I'M told Peggy Sue's set was a bit of an unusual one - mainly B-sides, with none of their more well known material, but it was still an absolute corker.
They closed with The Sea The Sea and it sounds as good on their MySpace as live. BW
COUNT & SINDEN
Dingwalls
I'M so glad I managed to persuade my friends to skip Echo and the Bunnymen for Count and Sinden's DJ set.
Although the venue was a bit empty at the start, the moment they started playing it pretty much went off.
C&S rattled through a mix of their own productions (Afrojack, Rocky Raver, The Fear Count Remix), as well as some more well-known tunes (Township Funk, Mars, Sound of Kuduro), and some stuff I had never heard before. An amazing end to the day, and big props to C&S for managing to absolutely destroy what was, at the start, a half empty venue full of bemused looking rock fans. By the end it was absolutely rammo, and no one was looking bemused. BW
THE HOLLOWAYS
The Bull and Gate
THE Holloways played a 'secret' gig for Gaymers as part of the 'Grassroots' series. Introducing new band members Mike Baker (guitar) and Ed Harris (drums) they played a set filled with old and new songs; some so new they hadn't even been named yet (provisional title for one of 'Alcohol') and proved the disasters that befell them in 2008 have left them unscathed.
Alfie Jackson and Bryn Fowler have kept the raw emotion, and fun, that The
Holloways are all about, inviting audience members for a 'kick-about' in Tufnell Park after the gig. The Holloways are still at the top of their game. DAN AITCH
Photos courtesy of Dan Aitch
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