Alfie Love London, Londonist Loves Alfie

By london_ken Last edited 223 months ago
Alfie Love London, Londonist Loves Alfie
alfie four shows.jpg

There's a serious amount of lurrrve for Alfie in the Londonist Music Dungeon at the moment. A great new album is out in a couple of weeks and the trailing single Your Own Religion is out now. We don't normally buy singles if we're going to buy the album (and you will want to buy the album) but it's worth buying the CD single because it also contains the excellent video. Aural and visual entertainment at its best. Vinyl junkies will be pleased to know there's a 7" version of the single, although the only visual enjoyment you'll get is by trying to hypnotise yourself watching the record spin round and round and round and round...

Our more active readers also still have a chance to catch the band at one of their three remaining gigs in London this week. Tonight sees them play one of our favourite venues, 93 Feet East. Thursday sees them at The Windmill, Brixton, while Friday's festivities take place at the Hope & Anchor in Islington. Tickets are £7 and, if you go through We Got Tickets, you'll only have to pay a 70p booking fee per ticket. Tickets are e-mail based so you should be ok to buy them for tonight's gig.

We were at the Western leg of the NSEW tour last night, in the Half Moon in Putney. Whilst the crowd were somewhat shy, the band visibly cream-crackered, and both needing a bit of warming up, what is obvious is that Alfie have outgrown this kind of venue. Whatever acoustic tags were foisted on them in the beginning can safely be ignored. The gentler songs in the set (Isobel, Bookends, Hey Mole) have acquired a meatiness to match the songs from the new album, while the new songs are simply awesome. The tear-jerkers Where Did Our Loving Go? and Kitsune, the instant pop classics Your Own Religion, All Too Heavy Now and Crying At Teatime, the folksy Look At You Now and 'Til The End, all demonstrate a band at the top of their songwriting game, with ideas in abundance and a canny way with melody. They've also cracked the live arrangements and there's unexpected power to the sound, incongruous with last night's surroundings.

Seriously, do yourself a big favour and get along to one of the gigs this week, and while you're at it, get a ticket for the gig at Scala on 7th September. You will not be disappointed.

Last Updated 02 August 2005