“Everyone is being so quintessentially English and not sitting next to each other” grumbled one woman as she and her boyfriend tried to find a place to sit before the gig started. How true it was – what’s more English that sitting in a 134 year old church, on wooden pews that make your bum go numb?

However who we’d gone to see wasn’t English – oh no. He was Ben Kweller,Texas’ finest singer songwriter to hit these shores for a while. But we’ll get to that in a couple of moments.

Once we’d navigated our way to the gorgeous chapel (with some of the nicest venue staff I’ve yet to see – take note, Academy venues), we took to our pews, complete with hot-dog and settled in for half an hour of Carrick, lead singer from “Everybody Else“, an LA three piece. After being amazed and awed by how skinny his legs were (seriously, they bewildered us for a good few minutes), we slowly fell for his wistful tunes, strong voice, and interesting bow-tie.

However, we were really there for Ben, and a couple of minutes after 9 he ambled on stage, joined by Kitt Kitterman, the sort of guy you don’t want to meet down a dark alleyway. Plowing through a set full of material both from his previous albums and his forthcoming “Changing Horses”, it seemed that whilst he worked incredibly hard the crowd were a bit subdued… whether that was due to the nature of it being a church, or just the collection of people is hard to guess, but either way there was no doubting Ben’s efforts.

Throughout his 90 minutes on stage we had such gems as a cover of Neil Young’s “From Hank To Hendrix” and “Different But The Same”, which was dedicated to Kitt as “he quite likes playing it and we don’t play it that much…”. To be honest, the 90 minutes flew by a bit too quickly – we would have been quite happy to sit there for a few more hours, hearing his whole back-catalogue, however everyone’s bums would have been completely numb by then.

The highlight of the evening wasn’t one of the established songs that everyone knew. Nope, it was one of the new ones, “Homeward Bound”, the closing track to “Changing Horses” and written by Willie Nelson’s parents in the 1950s and one little gem that has sat around for 50-odd years before Ben recorded it. It fitted the chapel perfectly, just needing a little choir and it would have been complete.

Shortly before closing out with “Penny on the Train Track”, Ben announced that he’ll be back in London on May 15th at Koko as part of a proper tour for “Changing Horses” – definitely a date to add to your diary.

To be honest the rain and coldness is kind of making us not want to go to gigs at the moment, preferring instead to wrap ourselves up warmly at home. But if we did, this is what we’d be bouncing at.

Monday: The biggie tomorrow is of course Led Zep at the O2, but you’ve more chance of meeting Santa than getting tickets for that. So instead, forget the dinosaurs and try something new and exciting like the spiky Foals who are playing an instore set at Rough Trade East on Brick Lane at 8pm. It’s free but in order to get in you need to email instores@roughtrade.com asking to be added to the guestlist. Over in West London, if you didn’t win our competition, you can go to see dreamy folk-indie Noah and the Whale at Bush Hall or Spiritualized play the first of two nights up at Union Chapel.

Tuesday: It’s all a bit Scandanavian today. Icelandic bandmum make sweet sounds at the Scala while over in the Astoria maniac Finnish metalheads Apocalyptica rock out. Swedish indie kid Jens Lekman supported Josh Rouse on Sunday night but today plays a headline show of his own at The Luminaire in Kilburn. American hipster remixer Girl Talk should be a lot of fun up at Barden’s Boudoir (£6, here) and Londonist favourites They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them will be at UCL.

Wednesday is a night for big names with the Manics completing their 2nd night at Brixton Academy (£26, here and Kings of Leon playing Wembley Arena. Electro popstars Dragonette are at Barfly (£6, here) and much loved young American singer Jenny Owen Youngs plays Borderline (£7, here)

Thursday: Back to the 90s with The Verve at the O2 (£32.50, here and My Life Story at Shepherd’s Bush Empire (£15, here. For a London newcomer check out the hotly tipped Sam Issac and his single launch party at Water Rats.

Friday: presents a clash of the indie giants with Bloc Party raving up at Ally Pally, Kaiser Chiefs getting some chanting going over at Earls Court, impressively supported by We Are Scientists (£27.50, here and er, Shed Seven (!) at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

We always recommend ethical gig trading site Scarlet Mist as your first port of call for tickets particularly when they’re sold out, so check them out and beat the touts. Failing that Gumtree is always a friend.

It’s probably fair to say that the couple of hundred people who wandered up to the Union Chapel in Islington last Friday were expecting a fairly low-key affair. Arguably the biggest name at the Little Noise Sessions gig in aid of Mencap was to be the compere, Radio 1’s Jo Whiley, although we accept that a few of the audience may have been a bit excited about US indie rockers We Are Scientists. Not really worth bringing an autograph book along for, though.

So we can only imagine the audience’s surprise when none other than stadium rock uber-deities U2 took the stage as a warm up act. Well, when we say U2, we actually mean a couple of members of the Irish rock band – the gobby one and the probably-balding-slightly-Welsh one (a.k.a. Bono and The Edge). But hey, the wry-smiling one (Adam) was apparently in the audience, even though the widely-fancied-by-men-and-women-alike one (Larry) was nowhere to be seen.

Once they had retrieved their jaws from the floor, the audience were treated to (presumably rhythm-section-free) versions of “Stay”, “Desire”, “Angel of Harlem” and “Wave of Sorrow”. Old skool!

In related news, it would appear that rumours of a U2 residency at the O2 next year are a load of old nonsense. Oh well.

Picture of Bono and The Edge (from a completely different gig) taken from JJ Booth’s Flickr photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 licence.

Cult canadian star Feist is back in the UK playing a sold out date at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Monday night. Now “1, 2, 3, 4″ is all over an advert it might be tricky to find tix but we reckon the ever reliable XXX. Kill Hannah bring their Chicago rock to Kings College with here and American R&B lothario Robin Thicke will be crooning over at a sold out Koko.

The Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green plays a special solo show in the ever impressive surroundings of Union Chapel on Tuesday (£12 here.) New Atlantic signing Ruarri Joseph plays one of the final few gigs at The Spitz (£8.50, here.)

Wednesday brings us a veritable selection of Londonist favourites playing at Islington Academy as Chris Corner’s I AM X project takes to the stage supported by the increasingly hyped (and we’ve been into them since way back, Dead Disco. (£16, here. Meanwhile Jack Penate is at the Astoria (£12, here).

Simian Mobile Disco play a sold out gig at The Scala on Thursday and across town the mega hyped play the mega hyped (and worth it) Corsica Studios at Elephant & Castle. (£7.50 here.

And on Friday night, you can go get folky with Joanna Newsom (sold out) at the Royal Albert Hall, get poppy with Gwen Stefani and the mighty CSS at Wembley Arena (£28), or get bleepy with To My Boy (£6.50, here.

Over the weekend, there’s PJ Harvey (sold out) at Royal Festival Hall, Hefner’s Darren Hayman at Bethnal Green’s Pleasure Unit and Juliette & The Licks at the Indigo2.

Whatever you do, we always recommend ethical gig trading site Scarlet Mist as your first port of call for tickets particularly when they’re sold out, so check them out, beat the touts and Seetickets top up fees.

Several big artists put on sale tours and one off shows earlier this week, so be sure to get booking for the following:

Amy Winehouse plays Brixton Academy on Thursday and Friday 22nd and 23rd November, before playing Hammersmith Apollo on the Saturday 24th November. Tickets for all three nights are rapidly going fast at £22.50 a person.

Reverend and the Makers play the Astoria on Wednesday 24th October. Tickets are £12.50 each.

Super Furry Animals play the Roundhouse on Friday 2nd November. Tickets are £20 each.

The Enemy’s already announced headline show at Brixton Academy has been taken over as the NME Rock and Roll Riot Tour, with support coming from The Wombats and Lethal Bizzle. Tickets are going surprisingly fast (considering the bands…) at £15.60 each.

Jose Gonzalez has added a second night in London to his UK tour in October. He’ll be stopping at Union Chapel on Tuesday and Wednesday 23rd and 24th, with tickets all gone for the Tuesday, and Wednesday tickets priced at £16 each.

Those cheeky Liverpudlians The Coral play the Roundhouse on Thursday 11th October, with tickets for their whole UK tour on sale at 10am tomorrow morning.

Like your slightly dodgy, middle of the road electro-pop Californian style? Then Hellogoodbye’s date at the Brixton Academy on Friday 7th December is for you. Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 9am.

Photo of The Coral taken from their Myspace page.

Monday sees Portland, Oregon’s new indie-rock darlings The Thermals play Dingwalls with support from Siberia’s SonicFlyer. Tickets are still available from See Tickets at £8.50 each plus booking fees. Tellison play their “disarming melodies and big-hearted guitars” at the Camden Barfly, with support coming from Encyclopedia, The Xcerts and Gavin Osborn, with tickets only £6 each.

Popular Canadian singer-songwriter Feist plays Scala on Tuesday night, though tickets are long gone unfortunately – Scarlet mist may come up well though. Swedish garage-rock supremos The Hives play a sold out 100 club. Finally, man of the moment Newton Faulkner plays Union Chapel in Islington for what is sure to be one of the events of the week. Tickets are surprisingly not sold out, and are £12 for each seat.

The Jazz Café plays host to former Sugababe Mutya Buena on Wednesday night, though tickets are sold out. Manchester post-grungers Nine Black Alps play Old Blue Last. Goodbooks play Buffalo Bar along with Lupen Crook and Sky Larkin for their second birthday party.

The O2 sees Scissor Sisters hijack it for three nights starting on Thursday, with support coming from Amadou & Mariam. Some tickets are available at £30 or £23 each, dependent on the quality of the view. Mercury nominee, and probably outsider to win, Maps plays Club Fandango, with support from One Night Only, though tickets are sold out now. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain plays Spitz, with fewer than 50 tickets available from We Got Tickets at £15 each. If a sweaty mess of screaming girls and squealing guitars is more your sort of thing, then Towers of London play the Electric Ballroom. Tickets are £12.50.

Indigo2 at the O2 plays host to Aimee Mann and Jenny Owen Youngs on Friday night, with some standing tickets available at £20 each plus fees. Finally, Basement Jaxx play a global Gathering warm up at Brixton Academy. Support comes from Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip and Duke Dumont, and whilst tickets are sold out there may be some available through places like Scarlet Mist.

Photo of Feist taken from Cathy Crack’s flickr stream.

Monday night sees Tom “Squarepusher” Jenkinson bring his experimental drum’n'bass with a heavy jazz fusion influence to Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre. Evan Parker supports, and this is sold out unfortunately, though be sure to check back for last minute availability or other sources. Lily Allen places her summer session at Somerset house, with support from Mark Ronson. Tickets are long gone, though Scarlet Mist may be useful for some. The Dykeenies bring their art rock to play Bar Academy, Islington, with £9 tickets still available.

Mika and Patrick Wolf play Somerset House on Tuesday, again sold out, though if you prefer something a bit more rock based perhaps give the Bravery a go at the Electric Ballroom. Tickets are £14 a go and are still available. Ra Ra Riot play Club Fandango at Dublin Castle along with Clap Disco, Stricken City and The Mod:Elz. Tickets are £5 each.

Hip Hop producer RJD2 plays Scala on Wednesday night, with tickets £12 a go from the usual outlets. Cajun Dance Party graces the Luminaire, though tickets are sold out. The Rakes and Pigeon Detectives play the iTunes festival, with tickets by prize draw only, and finally Americans Silversun Pickups play the 100 club.

Thursday night sees The Roots play Somerset House for their summer session, whilst DJ Shadow plays indigo2 for his last solo show of the year. Brett Anderson plays a one off exclusive acoustic show at the Union Chapel, and Mr Hudson & the Library play at Westminster Reference Library.

Gym Class Heroes play The Forum on Friday night, whilst John Peel favourites the Fall finish off a four night stand at Islington Academy – tickets are £15 a night or £50 for all four nights. Finally, Amy Winehouse is scheduled to play Somerset house, however whether she turns up is quite another matter. Nipping down to The Hawley Arms in Camden might be a better bet if you want to see her.

As a wise man once said, “Bloody hell, it’s Soft Cell!” Well, actually, it’s not Soft Cell. It’s just Marc Almond solo. And the man wasn’t all that wise. It was Alan Partridge. Either way, though, Monday gives you a chance to see Marc Almond of Soft Cell at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It’s his 50th birthday party, so buy him something nice.

For those whose prefer sax to synth, septuagenarian free jazz legend Ornette Coleman plays Southbank Centre with his quartet, while to balance the week-starting age spectrum, American avant-pop youngsters Menomena play Old Blue Last.

Tuesday marks the first of two nights that the Bella Union label brings its dreamy indie pop to Royal Festival Hall with showcases featuring some of the best talent on its roster. Founded by the Cocteau Twins in 1997, these gigs celebrate the label’s 10th anniversary. Tuesday night features Howling Bells, Fionn Regan, My Latest Novel and Beach House, while Wednesday continues with Midlake, The Dears, Stephanie Dosen and The Kissaway Trail. Tickets for both nights range from £15 to £20 and can be purchased from the Southbank Centre web site.

If you’re not going to the second evening of Bella Union anniversary festivities, you can spend Wednesday with the Animal Collective. The experimental indie rockers make a welcome return to London, this time with guitar virtuoso Marnie Stern in tow. With their sound forever evolving, even if you were fortunate enough to witness one of their previous London dates, you’ll still want to come to The Coronet for this performance as, more likely than not, it’ll be something completely different this time around. Tickets are available for £15.50 here.

Wednesday doesn’t begin and end with the Coronet, however. The Hammersmith Apollo plays host to everyone’s favourite New York City new wavers, Blondie, while Birmingham boys Editors play their entry in the ICA’s iTunes Festival. Although with so much happening in one night it’s hard to pick just one event to attend, if forced to choose, we may just have to put our money on the Stones Throw label showcase. The never-disappointing US hip hop imprint brings its European tour to Cargo with founder Peanut Butter Wolf leading the pack. How can you resist when a whole night’s worth of dope beats only ends up costing you a tenner (tickets still available here)?

Mogwai play their Somerset House date on Thursday with support from Malcolm Middleton, though tickets are unfortunately sold out. In the event you miss Marnie Stern at her Wednesday gig with Animal Collective, you can catch her on her own at Barden’s Boudoir for only £6 (tickets available here). The bittersweet honesty of American singer and songwriter Daniel Johnston comes to London this week as he performs Thursday at Union Chapel and Friday at The Windmill in Brixton. Indie pop kids should find much to delight in at Borderline when Something In Construction brings The Silent League, Loney, Dear and more for the low price of £6 (tickets available here).

Friday takes us back to Somerset House for another sold out show, this time featuring Kasabian. Another instalment in the legendary FWD series hits Plastic People as Youngsta dishes up the dubstep. Lastly, you can get a £15 education in the old skool with South Bronx teacher KRS-One at the Jazz Café in Camden.

And on that bombshell…

Photo of Daniel Johnston courtesy of jbecker’s Flickr photostream.

Busy week for presales with everyone announcing their autumn tours. All tickets are on sale on Friday at 9am, unless otherwise stated.

Klaxons are finishing off a triumphant year with a date at Brixton Academy on Wednesday 5th December, though expect more dates to be added quickly.

They sold out four nights at Brixton earlier this year, now those mad Canadians known as Arcade Fire have announced a date at Alexandra Palace on Saturday November 17th, for a stay that is sure to be extended.

The Twang plays Brixton Academy on Friday 26th October as part of their jaunt around the country, bringing their cheeky Brum antics to a bigger stage than they’ve been used to so far. The Enemy also play Brixton on Wednesday 17th October, though hopefully they won’t be trying to get away, away oh away from this date.

Prince has announced even more London dates at the O2. He now plays on 24th and 25th August, and 6th, 16th, 20th and 21st September as well. Tickets tomorrow at 9am.

Deptford pansies Athlete play two nights at Shepherds Bush Empire on Thursday and Friday 11th and 12th October following on from their previous date at Koko last month.

Like your music a bit heavier than Athlete? Then Biffy Clyro, Enter Shikari and Lostprophets have all announced shows. Enter Shikari play Brixton Academy on Tuesday 6th November, and Biffy play on Wednesday 21st November. Lostprophets play the Astoria on Wednesday 22nd August ahead of their set at Reading and Leeds that weekend.

Two special acoustic shows have been announced for two bands that normally wouldn’t be caught dead playing them. Ex-Suede front man Brett Anderson plays Islington’s Union Chapel on Thursday 19 July. Tickets are on sale now. New York rappers extraordinaire Beastie Boys play The Roundhouse on Thursday 6th September.

One of this Londonista’s favourite bands ever, Ladytron, are bringing their electro-dance-indie-rock unique combination to the Bloomsbury Ballroom for a one off show on Friday 31st August. Tickets are on sale now from Ticketmaster.

Seems like it’s an expensive week for tickets!

Photo of Klaxons’ Jamie Reynolds taken from hi-tekznologik’s flickr stream.

Ticket from Toronto: £299. Getting your song chosen for a Mastercard ad: Priceless.

Last Thursday Findlay Brown, whose song Come Home is currently playing to millions of TV viewers daily in the Christmas Mastercard advert, joined a folksy line-up of four artists in the space of three hours at the awe-inspiring Union Chapel in Islington. With a half-hour slot at the start of the evening, Brown had to contend with latecomers and lots of shuffling in the cold wooden pews. But by the time he launched into Come Home for his second number, he had already captured the crowd with his expressive voice and atmospheric melodies.

Sporting a flat cap your granddad would be proud of, Yorkshire-raised Brown screamed ‘Northern lad’ from the second he walked on stage. His quiet demeanour, interrupted only by the odd witty remark in a gruff northern accent, seemed to suit the venue and his music perfectly. His easy professionalism shone through when, his mobile phone having started ringing mid-song, he informed us of this without blinking an eyelid and continued singing as if nothing had happened.

Having read that many songs were written to woo his Danish girlfriend back to him after distance had separated them, it was no surprise to find that love songs were the order of the evening. Brown joked about his proclivity for the genre when he informed the crowd that for his final number, he was going to perform ‘a melancholy love song.’ But elements reminiscent of American folk greats like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young gave several songs a tougher edge, and in Don’t You Know I Love You, Brown wowed the audience with an instrumental finale that reverberated through the chapel like a choir possessed.

The British music scene is currently overflowing with guitar-picking singer songwriters, many of them vapid and uninspiring. But if this set was anything to go by, Findlay Brown has both the originality and the voice to stamp his own sound on the genre, and should have a bright future ahead of him.

Brown’s new EP Don’t You Know I Love You was released on the 4th of December and Come Home will be released as a single in January 2007. You can find out more on his official website at or check out the Mastercard ad at www.myspace.com/findlaybrown.

Words by Kerry Bannister

Last week we went out to watch a man from Beirut with colourful trousers and big hair, sing songs about fat girls, gay affairs, and lollipops. Tonight, we think you should do the same.

Mika was born in the middle of a warzone in 1983 (yes, we realise that makes him disgustingly young), moved to Paris and spent most of his youth in London. What you need to know is that he’s Universal Records great hope for 2007. If you like the Scissor Sisters then you’re pretty much guaranteed to like this boy and his impressive vocal range. He’s tall, good looking, very colourful and seem to be channelling the voice of Freddie Mercury.

His first single, the I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight sound-a-like Relax, Take It Easy was released during the summer and is brilliant. In fact if we’d not got the album sampler for the forthcoming Life in Colour Motion, which is destined to be the accompaniment to your dinner parties as well as your discos, we’d be claiming he’d peaked before we’d even heard an album. As it is, we can agree with a fellow pop pundit, who when leaving his secret gig at Ronnie Scott’s, declared “Bloody Hell, that sounded like a greatest hits set.”

Mika sang 5 fabulous songs (and 1 bizarre one), including the aforementioned Relax. Amazingly everything is this good. Love Today goes all Beck on our asses with Mika chatting away before it turns into a big stomping chorus, Grace Kelly talks about his love of the great screen legend and features the best Freddie impression we’ve ever heard; Billy Brown is a cute, tear-worthy tale of a man who gets married but has a secret gay lover and the gigantic Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) sings about his love for the non skinnies among us and is destined to end up a dancefloor classic. Oh, and the bizarre one? Well it was a song called Lollipop which wouldn’t seem out of place if sung by Gwen Stefani accompanied by part of a musical. We’ve tried to forget it but it seems to have carved a nagging hole in our brain.

We also like this boy a lot because he says things like this

“After I started singing as a boy I started to get jobs everywhere. With the help of a terrifyingly tough Russian singing teacher, I got to be really good at professional gigs. I did everything from recordings with the Royal Opera House to the Orbit Chewing gum jingle. I’ll never forget calling up British Airways to get a ticket, only to be placed in a line, listening to my own voice. That was a painful 8 minutes. I think the other main reason for getting so much work was that I was insanely cheap! My mother and I had no idea what i was supposed to get paid, and no one was in a hurry to educate us. Looking back on it, i think 45 quid for the Orbit chewing gum jingle, could have been a little too cheap.”

Tee, hee.

Mika plays at Dingwalls in Camden tonight, and Union Chapel with the amazing Amy Winehouse on November 24.

In the meantime…

Check out his Myspace

Download Relax and Grace Kelly

and use this funky music player to

listen to two acoustic tracks from forthcoming EP Dodgy Holiday

Good news for fans of the Union Chapel in Islington as a music venue come about today, as the venue announces that they will be re-opening on May 4.

Last year, the chapel shut down as a music venue following arguments between the Church and the promoters about the consumption of alcohol within the holy building. Added to this major problem, were complaints from neighbours about the noise levels. A compromise has been sought out though, and although you will be able to buy alcohol you can’t drink it in the main space. Whether this will be a major problem is yet to be seen, but we think it’ll certainly be a change in culture from the normal beer in hand gig. Noise wise, for the moment the venue will be acoustic only

The first gig on May 4th will be a performance from Sound Stage and a chamber orchestra, coupled with Charles Dance reading poetry.

Find out full details about the venue and future performances at their webpage.

“Will the drummer and the keyboard player please come to the stage”. It’s could be considered an inauspicious start to the show but kudos to Kaibosh for laughing off the fact that half their number are still queuing at the bar. Indeed you’d be forgiven for thinking that had half the band still been the other side of town it wouldn’t have overly worried them.

On stage they play with a confidence that doesn’t quite belie their relatively short life span but already it’s apparent that these guys are going to be able to stand their own on a much larger stage than that of 93 Feet East. Certainly with new tracks like Curse This Day and it’s epic Foo Fighters style chorus you can easily imagine Kaibosh at next year’s Reading given a few lucky breaks.

Live they take a much darker and heavier sound than is on their debut EP And Now For Plan C with only final track Los Ojos retaining the Chilli Peppers funk of the original. Tracks like I Took That From You, which the guys have kindly let us have a copy of for you to listen to, lie more closely with the dark musings of Soundgarden and QOTSA. Although frontman Jim Wilkins resembles less the hulking Josh Homme and (he probably won’t forgive me for this) more of an energised Grant Nicholas.

We recently popped the Londonist Music questionnaire to the guys to find out a little about them and this is what they had to say:

*With Jim Wilkins and sporadic e-mail interjections from keyboard Chris and Ross bass…

Who’s In The Band? I sing and play guitar, Chris does the keys, Ed plays the drums and Ross plays the bass… and we’re looking for another guitar player at the moment.

What Do You Do In The Real World? One’s at the Beeb, one’s a press officer, one’s in IT and I do media stuff.

Describe Your Sound To Us Hot and cold, gritty-dark-edged-rock tempered with soul-twinged-melodic vocal, a vitriolic dry slap across… oh I don’t know. Answers on a postcard to info@kaibosh.co.uk

How Did You All Get Together? Chris and I played in a band together called Shabeen at Leeds Uni, Ed went to school with Chris in Oxford and we met Ross randomly after all moving to London…

Who Are Your Influences? As always very mixed, I’m into Jeff Buckley, Mars Volta, QOTSA; Ross is into Stereolab, Guided By Voices, Grateful Dead and Mudhoney; Chris is into Ray Charles, Deep Purple, Black Crows, Debussy and Ed’s into his Dr John (and much more but he’s in Krakow at the moment so can’t speak for himself!)

What’s The State Of Play With The Band At The Moment? Our EP is in HMV Ox Circus, Sister Ray, Select-a-disc and Rough Trade at the mo and few other shops (through Criminal Records). Now that we’ve crafted our sound more, we hope to start pushing our music out there – we’ll aim for radio play, getting some bigger gigs, supporting high profile bands and basically begin to get some more widespread recognition. We also hope meet some like minded bands and do some gigs around the country. I think we’ve moved on a lot since our first EP and I’m excited about getting our new stuff out there.

Where Can We Hear / See You Next? Wednesday 20th at the Pleasure Unit in Bethnall Green, and 23rd / 24th July @ The Truck Festival in Steventon near Oxford

What’s The Big Game Plan For The Band? Really concentrate on developing our style further (we’ve only been going for just over a year), keep writing good and ultimately honest music, hope that some people will identify with it and maybe some day buy a van rather than carting equipment on public transport! Fundamentally, we’d like to generate genuine and original material that people can feel passionate about with us.

Who Would You Most Like To Support Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals, Death From Above 1979, Muse, QOTSA, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Black Crows

What’s Your Ultimate Label To Be On? Someone like Fierce Panda / Rough Trade who has the contacts and experience to support you and help you grow but won’t smother you with a commercial agenda…

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to? Too many to mention, Radiohead, White Zombie or Helmut at Reading 95, Roni Size in Leeds, Biohazard at Brixton Academy, Motorhead at The Royal Opera House (Jim), Menlo Park at Union Chapel, Underworld at Tribal Gathering (Chris), Cornelius at the Royal Festival Hall (Ross)

Have You Ever Thrown A TV Out Of A Hotel Window? I once threw myself out of a beach side bungalow.. does that count?

Would You Like To? Most definitely, so long as it wasn’t my TV.

Any Great Stories From The Road? We witnessed the early stages of a threesome in after-party hotel room – none of the band were involved and we most certainly didn’t stay for the proceedings. We knew the guy involved and he was eternally grateful for the room. Keyboards Chris also has a stalker, a young man who clutches a plastic bag and watches his every move… he watched Chris intensely at last years Truck Festival so he may be there this year too. We have photographic evidence.

Recommend One Album To Our Readers You Don’t Think They Will Have Discovered. Swordfish Trombone by Tom Waits – my dad introduced this to me when I was quite young, took a few years to absorb, but its well worth it. Ross recommends Insignificance by Jim O’Rourke… he’s a genius apparently.

Why Should Londonist Readers Go And See You? Playing live is extremely important to us – we don’t wear suits and ties so we’re not afraid of getting our clothes dirty. The performances are always honest, passionate, a bit sweaty and getting better every time.

So What’s Your Favourite:

Venue To Play In London? Electric Ballroom in Camden, The Verge (now called Bullet) in Kentish Town has a nice sound, The Garage in Islington is intimate, Nambucca in Holloway is local, Bar Lorca in Brixton is dingy but cool and the small room at the Islington Arts Factory where we practice on Tuesdays.

Venue To Go To In London? The Garage, Acoustix at The Bedford, Chapter 1 in Stroud Green (live semi-improvised / semi-open mic blues and jazz on Sundays), back room at 93 Feet East…

Record Store? Select A Disc (Berwick Street),FOPP

Shop (non-music)? Mash on Ox Street, Jaipur Design on Goodge Street, bargain bins of Woolworths (you’re sure to find your heroes of yesteryear being sold for tuppence), Friers Delight on Theobalds Road

Market? Spitalfields, Camden Stable Market or Borough Market (for crazy licensing laws – Ross)

Place To People-watch? The Workers café in Upper Holloway for genuine Shaun Of The Dead moments

Place To Chill-out? Landseer Pub (N19) for Trivial Pursuit and great Sunday Roasts

Place To Get Lashed? Among others, J3 in Angel, Angies of Holloway, Mini Bar (by The Garage, great line-up posters from festivals past and weekend DJ’s playing 90’s alternative classics), Legion on Old Street, Big Chill on Brick Lane.

Place For A Post-gig Kebab? Effe’s on Great Portland Street or any 1 of the 463 on the Holloway Road.

View In London? Above my friends Alex and Jolanta’s flat in N19 at the top of the Holloway Rd. It’s about 5 floors up and at a real vantage point. You can see the whole of London and at dawn it’s breathtaking. Just try not to fall off.

Form Of Public Transport? Bus – at least you can see some scenery. Keyboard Chris takes his bicycle everywhere, but that’s far too ‘extreme sport’ for me.

What Advice Would You Give Ken Livingstone? “Thanks for letting the tubes run later on New Years Eve, but there still seems to be a few problems down there – would you mind looking into it, no hurry, in your own time.”

What London Place Or Thing Would You Declare A Landmark? Tate Modern, Elephant & Castle shopping centre, that bloke who says “are you a sinner or a winner” on Oxford Street (Chris). Oh yeah, and our drummers ex-beard.

The World Is Ending In 24 hours. How Would You Spend Your Last Day In London? Get rid of Greenwich (after housing and relocating all its residents first of course) and hence destroying GMT in the hope that whoever was planning to the end the world wouldn’t know when the 24 hours was up. Sounds like basis for a great film. I think….? The GMT Conspiracy, The Greenwich Menace, …. moving on swiftly?

Have You Ever Been Sick On The Tube? Not the tube, but on the 12.45am from Liverpool Street to Brentwood. There’s nothing more disconcerting than a packed train, severe nausea and a whole 5 mins to go before the next stop. Never been so happy to see Manor Park in my life.

If You Could Sink One Part Of London Into The Sea, Which Bit Would It Be? Elephant And castle shopping Centre, Archway Tower or at least the respective architects houses.

Greatest Thing Ever To Come Out Of London? Spaced (Jim), Punk-rock (Ross), The Thames (Chris)

What Advice Would You Give To Someone New To London Getting On A Night Bus For The First Time? If they hear the words “Happy-Slap” they should duck.

If You Could Write A Song About London What Would It Be Called And What Kind Of Song Would It Be? It’d be a ballad with a monstrous heavy metal chorus that highlights the love-hate, on-off, relationship that you have with any huge city you live in. Oh, and it’d have 10 minute saxophone solo thrown in a la Kenny G to accompany a city skyline night shot with the music video… think the soundtrack to 80’s sit-com ‘Moonlighting’ with Bruce Willis and ‘This Love’ by Pantera and you’ve got the idea.

and finally Sum Up London In A Word Chameleonic…

We have a copy of Kaibosh’s CD: & Now For Plan C to give away. All you have to do is email us with the answer to the following question. Do you want a copy of the Kaibosh cd.

A) Yes

B) No

If the link doesn’t work then email us at Londonist.Music@gmail.com with the subject line Kaibosh.

If you’re a band looking to get coverage in Londonist, get in touch with the music team, after reading these handy tips on How To Get Into Londonist’s Music Posts.

All Pictures © Kenneth Yau 2005

Sad news reaches us that the Union Chapel in Islington is to close. The Union Chapel Project (UCP) said that:

…a recent vote by the Church membership to ban the consumption of alcohol in main auditorium, with immediate effect, was carried by a small majority. We asked for time to establish alternative income streams to offset the financial repercussions of this ban and the consequent damage to the bar lead economy. An appeal against this decision was turned down by the Church. This has lead to a breakdown of trust and confidence between UCP and the Church and under company and charity law UCP has no alternative but to cease trading.

We are devastated by this situation. The only way through would have been to have the secular life of the building put on an equal par alongside the religious. To renegotiate this position would have been a long process assuming there was the will to do it and it would have taken too long given the fragility of the financial situation following a very tough year for the venue…

This is indeed sad news. The Union Chapel was the venue of one of our favourite gigs ever: The Polyphonic Spree in August 2002. The combination of a band that comes across as a religious cult and the Union Chapel’s, er, chapel-like qualities was a match that really could literally have been made in heaven. What other venue could offer dancing in the pews, stage-diving off the pulpit, and vocals carrying unassisted by a PA system? The Union Chapel has also hosted gigs by Patti Smith, Bjork, Salif Keita, Ravi Shankar, Beck, and David Byrne.

It doesn’t look likely, but if you want to send in your views on the closure of the UCP to try and sway the opinion of the Church, mail the UCP directly at feedback@unionchapel.org.uk.

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Sad news reaches us that the Union Chapel in Islington is to close. The Union Chapel Project (UCP) said that:

…a recent vote by the Church membership to ban the consumption of alcohol in main auditorium, with immediate effect, was carried by a small majority. We asked for time to establish alternative income streams to offset the financial repercussions of this ban and the consequent damage to the bar lead economy. An appeal against this decision was turned down by the Church. This has lead to a breakdown of trust and confidence between UCP and the Church and under company and charity law UCP has no alternative but to cease trading.

We are devastated by this situation. The only way through would have been to have the secular life of the building put on an equal par alongside the religious. To renegotiate this position would have been a long process assuming there was the will to do it and it would have taken too long given the fragility of the financial situation following a very tough year for the venue…

This is indeed sad news. The Union Chapel was the venue of one of our favourite gigs ever: The Polyphonic Spree in August 2002. The combination of a band that comes across as a religious cult and the Union Chapel’s, er, chapel-like qualities was a match that really could literally have been made in heaven. What other venue could offer dancing in the pews, stage-diving off the pulpit, and vocals carrying unassisted by a PA system? The Union Chapel has also hosted gigs by Patti Smith, Bjork, Salif Keita, Ravi Shankar, Beck, and David Byrne.

It doesn’t look likely, but if you want to send in your views on the closure of the UCP to try and sway the opinion of the Church, mail the UCP directly at feedback@unionchapel.org.uk.

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