Photos from 22nd January, 2009

Took a roll of film with the old lomo camera. Some of them turned out pretty nice. A selection...

Greg from Lofty Heights, during the "experimental" ending to their set

Sweet Baboo


Withered Hand coming out to play. I forgot to wind the film, but let's say it was intentional.

Withered Hand

Withered Hand

Music, music, music....

Finally starting to feel human again after an extremely busy and music-heavy weekend. It all kicked off on Thursady at The Luminaire with the Hexicon single launch party. It was great to see Hexicon at a proper venue, with proper sound and all that jazz. They boys were on top form, excited that the single was out and that an album release seems within reach. I can't remember exactly how long, but their album has been several years in the making. I've listened through it a good few times and I can only say it has been worth the wait. It sounds great!

Hexicon rockin out with guest appearances form Elizabeth of Allo Darlin and Virgina (former member of Allo Darlin')

The Luminaire is a difficult venue to fill and unfortunately there wasn't a huge amount of people there for the support bands, but by the time Hexicon hit the stage there was a respectable amount of people in the room. They played pretty much all the tracks off the upcoming album, and despite them all being great, the highlight for me was Cutting Limes, a newer song which hasn't made it on to the album, but which is absolutely incredible.

On Friday was my big night. Withered Hand at a completely sold out Wilmington Arms. Unfortunately Time Out did a biggish write-up of the gig after we had already sold all the tickets, so a fair few people showed up at the venue, only to be told they couldn't get in. But, I can't really complain too much. It was a sold out show after all.

Withered Hand soundcheck

Lofty Heights started off the evening with their melodic folky ballads. With a stripped-down set-up of only guitar and lap steel, it was a perfect start to the night. Sweet Baboo was great as usual, but unfortunately the room started to get a bit rowdy and a fair amount of people paid him no respect whatsoever and kept talking throughout his set. It was really a shame, since he is one of the most amazing British artists I've heard in a long time and really deserved better than that. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do in those situations, except for trying to tell people to shut the fuck up. Which I did. Anyway, he coped with it admirably and didn't seem too disappointed afterwards.

After two quiet bands it was time for Withered Hand, with a full band – drums, bass, guitar, cello, banjo, backing singers – the whole schebang. By this time, most people, myself included, had had a fair amount to drink and the band couldn't really do anything wrong. They stomped through pretty much every song I've ever heard (except the Christmas Song) and people were singing along and even requesting repeat plays. Finally, after a whole hour on stage and past the curfew for music they finished off the set with a cover in homage to Vic Chesnutt, who I'm sure you know recently passed away. A great ending to a great night.

On Saturday evening , we headed down to The Flowerpot on Kentish Town Road, where Internet Forever were playing a free show. Unfortunately, we got there in time to see the support band, who were one of the worst bands I've seen in a long time. The Flowerpot is an odd venue. It's not very nice and on a Saturday night any music venue with free entry in this part of town will be a bit of a "weirdo magnet". Anyway, Internet Forever took to the stage and played a short-but-sweet set to a not terribly excited audience. Not the best place for them to play and I would really like to see them at a proper venue…or just in a nicer place really.

Internet Forever

Apologies for photo quality. These were all taken with my phone. Proper photos from the Withered hand show should be up soon.

We have a flyer!

And what flyer it is! Made by the multi-talented Paul Rains of Allo Darlin and Hexicon fame. I'm soooo looking forward to this night. It's gonna be magic. Tell your friends!

Cheapo tickets available from wegottickets - http://www.wegottickets.com/event/63485

Ho Ho Ho! Some ideas for pressies!

I haven't posted anything here for over a month. I simply haven't had time.

So, what's been happening in Nik land. Well, the new Moustache EP is almost finished. We've recorded all the songs and only need to add some keyboard bits and do some mixing. Paul from Hexicon will be doing some of the artwork, which I'm rather excited about. Woot! Hopefully it'll be ready before the end of the year, but it probably won't. Haha. We're just not very efficient when it comes to these things.

The next Allo Darlin' single, The Polaroid Song, is officially out on 7th December, but as far as I know you can pre-order the seven-inch already. If not, you should at least be able to get it at Allo Darlin' shows, the next of which is tomorrow at Jamm in Brixton. Both songs are absolutely incredible and guaranteed to make you want to dance the winter blues away. Irresistable bouncy pop songs and just the perfect stocking filler for just about anyone. Oh, and the artwork! Let's not forget the artwork, since it consists of Polaroids taken by me :)

The single cover, a Polaroid of Elizabeth taken in Brooklyn a couple of years ago.

What else is new in music land. Oh yes, the new Eagleowl single Sleep The Winter dropped into my mailbox the other week and what a stunner that is! The Edinburgh gang has really outdone themselves this time, with two glorious songs of alt-folk-fuzz-bliss that recalls Low at their very best. Hell, I much prefer it to Low. Yes, I said it. So, keep an eye out for Sleep The Winter, which is released any day soon. Another perfect stocking filler, perhaps to be used to calm down after the energy burst that is The Polaroid Song. So, in short, Allo Darlin' provides the perfect soundtrack for tearing the wrapping off your presents on Christmas morning and Eagleowl might be better suited for sipping mulled wine by the open fire in the evening. Or, I guess you could reverse the two and open your presents really slowly to Eagleowl, then get drunk on mulled wine in the evning and dance manically by the open fire to Allo Darlin'. Either way, they're both pretty awesome ways to spend Christmas.

I'm starting the new year with a bang, by putting on a show with an incredible line-up. Withered Hand, Sweet Baboo and Lofty Heights will be playing a Records Make Great Pets night at The Wilmington Arms on 22nd January. A flyer will be coming soon, but advance tickets are available now for only FIVE POUNDS from wegottickets. Another great stocking filler!

I can't really begin to say how excited I am about this show. Withered Hand's album Good News is definitely a candidate for album of the year and I can't think of anything that could beat Love In The Time Of Ecstacy to my song of the year title. Here's a clip of Withered Hand playing that very song at some birthday party in Edinburgh.



Awesome! Yes.

I don't need to tell you about the awesomeness of Sweet Baboo. Steve played the last Records Make Great Pets night in July and simply blew everyone away. Lofty Heights are from London and if their performance at the Duke of Uke's easter alldayer is anything to go by, this should just be stunning.

All bands have new releases out, so get yourself to their respective websites and get ordering.

I think that's it for now.

Allo sweet whispers

Another weekend just flew past. I don't know what happened to time, but it seems to pass alot faster these days. Anyway, Friday night was incredible. At first, there was the usual fear/paranoia that goes with putting on shows. What if nobody shows up? What if the sound guy doesn't show up? What if the wrong type of crowd shows up? What if nobody likes the bands? What if I don't like them? So, I spent the first couple of hours running around thinking about stupid things, like where the chairs should be and where the table for taking door money should be. Should I do both the door and merch? How many pages should I use in the notepad? Seriously, I think about these things....and many many more. Phone call from the headliner, who's running late. Panic, panic, panic, even if he even told us before that he didn't really need to soundcheck. Anyway, two out of three bands were there, so soundcheck could start. Let's Whisper and Allo, Darlin' did their thing. Greg (from The Lofty Heights) was on sound duty and it all sounded fine. Glass of wine, a beer, sweets. After a while, quite a few strangers had already been up to ask about stage times, so I could finally relax a bit. Sweet Baboo showed up eventually, along with his brother and the biggest keyboard known to man. They soundchecked in about six minutes, so in the end we had plenty of time.

Doors and the place started filling up quickly. First up : Let's Whisper.

Let's Whisper used to really feel like a side-project. Whenever I've seen them in the past I've been left feeling like The Smittens are the real band and LW was there for songs that didn't really fit anywhere or for those times when the other Smittens weren't available. But on Friday, things really felt different. Colin and Dana were on top form and all the songs sounded great. The new songs are as good as anything by The Smittens and I'm now really looking forward to their upcoming album. They were joined on stage by members of One Happy Island and the full-band thing really worked as well. So, Let's Whisper are most definitely a sugar sweet indiepop force to be reckoned with. They were running out of time and still hadn't played When You Were Eating Ice Cream, so I let them run over a bit. It's always heartbreaking to ask bands to stop playing when everyone is having such a great time, but I don't make up the rules.

Let's Whisper has a myspace and you should pop over and say hello. They're also playing on the steam train at Indietracks at the weekend.

Next up was Allo Darlin, hot from supporting the Lucksmiths at the Scala the week before and also from a glowing review in The Guardian, with Jude Rogers calling Henry Rollins Don't Dance "the best indiepop song for years". Woo zaa. They went down a storm as usual.


Woot. Look at that! Again, they ran over and I started to feel increasingly worried about the headliner, Sweet Baboo. Luckily, I know from soundcheck that they were super quick to set up and indeed, they were up and ready to go in ten minutes.

I'm new to Sweet Baboo. I know the guys in Little My recommended him when we were up in Cardiff earlier in the year, but I hadn't really listened much to him before the show. His website is well worth visiting though, since it features a simple video for each song on his absolutely incredible, new album, Hello Wave. Go on. Watch them all - http://www.sweetbaboo.co.uk/

They played an incredible set and despite the music was rather different from the first two acts, he had the crowd's full attention. Their brotherly bickering made for great in-between songs banter. SB is not really music for dancing and parts of the audience sat down on the floor, just enjoying the songs.

His set flew past and before I knew it, I had to tell them to wrap it up :(

But, but...that's how it goes. It felt a bit short, but I don't think people were too disappointed. After all, it was only a fiver and he's back in London in a couple of weeks.

So, another successful Records Make Great Pets night. Thanks to everyone who came down to Betsey. We have some exciting plans for the future. I hope they work out.

Another awesometastic show coming up!

That's right. We're putting on yet another show and this one should be very special indeed.

We're doing it upstairs at The Betsey, which is a lovely little room. It should be great. Come and join the fun.

Sweet Baboo will, or should if there's any justice in the world, be massive this year. With an extremely impressive summer of gigs ahead of him (Truck Festival, Green Man etc) and an amazing new album we're extremely excited about having him with us. Simply gorgeous folky pop songs.

Allo, Darlin' has played every night I've put on and here they are again. They just keep getting better and better. With a great new single under their belt, this should be another great show.

One word to describe Let's Whisper: cute. But, not annoying cute, just awesome 'fluffy kittens and puppies and ice creams and hugs' cute. Acoustic lovelyness that's catchier than...I was going to say swine flu, but that would be inappropriate...so just really catchy.

Sweet Baboo myspace
Allo, Darlin' myspace
Let's Whisper myspace