"You never finished the chapter but you finished the song..."

I tried reading Stuart Maconie's latest literay release but then some twat in the flat below decided to put on Babyshambles full blast. Now, don't get me wrong, I am more than a little partial to a bit of the Doherty but I cannot read and listen to music at the same time. Instead of concentrating on the words on the page in front of me, I find myself trying to interpret those pouring into my ears instead. So, the book got laid to rest and 6Music turned on to cover any sound of Fuck Forever. The dulcet tones of Steve Lamacq greeted me and presented me with the new problem of how I will never be the female version of the great man. Lammo (along with Blur, obviously) is my hometown hero, being a fellow Colchestarian. At Reading last year, I stood 5 yards away from him and shook a bit. I would've spoken to him but he was deep in conversation whilst taking a break from compering the NME/Radio1 stage. 'Twould have been rude to interpret for the sake of a few bits of advice and me going more embarrasingly fangirly than I would do over any musician. 

This week was mostly spent recovering from Camden Crawl, "dancing" into May (although drinking would be a more accurate description of activities) and losing my Vietnamese cuisine virginity with TEETH!!! 

On Thursday, one of my favourite venues played host to the NME/JD/Adidas House Party with the Rifles, the Rakes and Young Fathers. Except it wasn't in the tiny room most 229 gigs are held in, but in some bigger room next door that felt more like a school hall than a concert venue. Strange. Young Fathers are a Glaswegian hip-hop trio with the best dance moves this side of Metronomy. Dance moves seem to be the in thing at the moment, don't they? No complaints here. Then, unfathomably, The Rakes played. Meaning the Rifles were headlining. THE RIFLES, for gawd's sake. Sub-sub-sub Jam rip offs who no one actually gives a flying fuck about. Headlining. Over the Rakes?! Insanity. Apparently they headlined Brixton academy a few months back too. The world has gone mad. Not that the Rakes are the greatest band to ever grace the Earth but seriously, if you had to choose, you would totally choose them right? Not content with confusing the fuck out of me, Joel from the Rifles then came and stood in front of us and proceeded to suck the face off his girlfriend for THE WHOLE SET. Jesus. Just go put on a Rakes CD and do that in your dressing room and leave me to watch Alan Donohoe's awkward stage movements in peace, yeah? Needless to say, we left after the Rakes had finished and went off to Ally Pally for the turn of the month celebrations. 

Friday, I headed up to Camden to interview aces fuzzy noise purveyors TEETH!!! in a bus shelter on Delancey Street, before joining them for Vietnamese on Parkway. I am not very good at chopsticks. Tofu is good though, and TEETH!!! are excellent company. Sunday, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you, was Gaslight time. Anto Dust played a couple of her sombre lullabies before Kieran Leonard enthralled us with one of, if not the, most impassioned and, at times angry sets I have ever seen him play - raw, unadulterated emotion combined with poetic melody that had me on the verge of tears at more than one point. For once, I think this is not because I am somewhat emotionally unstable but because it was truly, astonishingly moving. 

And that is that. I have spent much of this Bank Holiday Monday sleeping, which I suppose is what they're there for. This week holds reunions and instores and training for Glastonbury, which, by the way, is only 6 weeks away. Exciting times ahead. 

"...with your chin on your knees like you belong"

Listening to this week: 

The Maccabees - Wall of Arms

Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor

Bombay Bicycle Club - I had the Blues But I Shook them Loose album sampler

St Vincent - Actor

The Big Pink - Velvet

The Gaslight

Alright lovers?
RaG spend pretty much every week counting down the days til Sunday. It's the new Friday, y'know. Of late, we've been spending our Sunday evenings in our respective homes longing for our regular folk&blues entertainment to be returned to us and, at long last, it has. Hurrah!
The Gaslight is a lush as night of acoustic wonderment, hosted by our fine acquaintance, Mr Kieran Leonard (who always delights our ears with his beautiful and often dark poetic tales of love and all that sort of thing, as well as fulfilling his compereing role in a frankly delectable manner), held from this Sunday onwards at the Hideaway on Junction Road - just a few minutes walk from Archway underground station. Those of you who attended the night at its former home, The Wishing Well in Hornsey, may have caught some of the following performing (and those of you who didn't missed out on...): Billy Bragg, New Rhodes, Anthony Love, Grainne O'Neill, King Dog... plus more other delightful musicians and wordsmiths.
For the relaunch, The Gaslight welcomes Babyshambles' bassist, Helsinki frontman and Mongrel founder Drew McConnell to add some extra value for money to the already-totally-bargain-tastic £2 entry fee. Come down, show some love, let's stop there before I start quoting The Feeling at you...
Click attending on the below facebook event invitation thingy and magically invite all your friends/acquaintances/enemies without even having to say a word to them. Yay for social networking and its actually quite anti-social paradoxes. Oh, join the relevant groups as well an'that, yeah? WICKED.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=54658522383

Kieran Leonard

If you haven't yet done so, head over to http://www.kieranleonardmusic.com/ and don't forget to sign up to the forum.
The wonderfully talented Kieran Leonard will be releasing his debut EP in early 2009. Have a look on his website and myspace and let us know what you think!
Kieran will be hosting and performing at 'The Gaslight' at the Wishing Well in Hornsey, North London on Sunday, 11 January 2009, 7pm.









© HML