The Ginger Line

 

Rachel Love and the Loveables at the Betsey Trotwood

If there has to be a last gig of the season, yesterday's could not have been better. Held in the bar of The Betsey Trotwood, with the ever-brilliant Joao doing sound and under the watchful eye of Razz the owner, as the winter blustered, drizzled and thumped outside, the warmth generated by the venue and its audience fought back valiantly.

There is something about these little gigs in stormy weather that intensifies the whole experience, I think for the people listening as much as for the performers. It was pretty full but not uncomfortably so; Debsey and Hester (the other Dollymixtures) were there (and so was Hester's lovely sister Roz, who was a librarian at the University of Westminster when I worked there). My nephew and niece (with her partner) came, and Offsprog Two and her partner. Little Bruv came. The Would-Be-Goods came, Dave came, and various other London stars put in a twinkling appearance.

It was quite an emotional afternoon on many fronts. I was very worried about it, but need not have been. Everyone listened 100% to my songs, every word and every chord. I don't care about any of the past slights, unfairnesses, double-crosses, jealous behaviour, none of that. To have this amount of respect for my songs at this stage of my life makes me the richest person in the world. Who would want to be an empty-hearted billionaire and miss out on this degree of intimacy? 

And as for Rachel and the Loveables, having supported them for three gigs in quick succession, this was a comfortable triumph for them. The sound was perfect; you could hear every single note of their arrangements and such is Rachels' onstage persona, everyone felt as though they, too, were in the band. 

I have to say that The Dollymixture were one of the most under-rated bands of the 1980s. They took the whole girl-group ethos and processed it through an English DIY lens in a direction that a lot of of the punk-inspired bands could not see or hear at all- and the rock critics definitely couldn't. The tightrope that they walked between amplifying and celebrating their nuanced friendship (which has endured for decades), rock-solid song writing, and subtly parodying the way people saw them was astonishing. Always, always, they were underestimated because they were feminine. Did people not clock the fact that they did a cover version of the song Femme Fatale by Lou Reed? Or that they supported The Undertones on tour? The underestimation of their skills and intelligence lies firmly in the laps of the idiots who thought they could manipulate the group, or who didn't understand what they were doing. Some of these people were women journalists, too. It's called internalised misogyny, I believe. Shame on them!

That was quite a big rant for a Sunday morning. Let's return to yesterday afternoon, where Rachels's band the Loveables did her songs proud with spot-on harmonies, fabulous and relaxed playing, and a commitment to doing their absolute musical best for their song-writing legend bandleader. Every song creates a mini-world of its own, and there are a lot of unexpected twists and turns both in the music and the lyrics. Every second is thought through yet performed in such a way that it all seems spontaneous. I know the songs well now, and I was singing along very loudly in my head; it was all I could do not to leap up on stage and join them, but I'd had my turn. Instead, my heart swelled with pride and love for the defiance of a woman who has had her fair share of life's setbacks, but can turn out a performance to rival the best of anything. As the set progressed, the band grew more and more confident and by the encore they gave us a blast of sheer joy. The gig ended with a huge roar of appreciation.

The audience were with them the whole way through, and I bet they were as glad that they had been there as I was. We all went home with rosy cheeks and a sparkle in our eyes. 

Damn the cold and the wind: Vitamin Rachel sorted the day out!

Interview On WTSQ Radio

This interview was done with the wonderful ally of independent artists, Josh Gaffin, a couple of weeks ago. To my knowledge, it's only the second time Thrush has been played on the radio; the other time was secretly on a Birmingham radio station in the 1980s!

https://www.mixcloud.com/starshapes/helen-mccookerybook-on-wtsq-881-fm/

Boxer Travelling On Tube

 

Give Me That Pastel De Nata, Porto

 

London and Bristol

 I went back to Steven Appleby's exhibition with my friend Joan last Wednesday. It's such a funny and subversive collection of work. I was just admiring the quality of the lines when he appeared with a couple of colleagues. The conversation turned to people who had criticised his drawing skills in the past, and I rather clumsily told him about Billy Childish's comment when he visited some song writing students that I was teaching: 'I'm going to show you how to play guitar very badly, very well'. I'm not sure if the meaning of that transmitted as well as I meant it to: but 'very good drawing' is often very boring drawing. There is so much more to it all than accuracy and photorealism. Steve's drawings are beautifully light and airy, with a contracting earthiness about the subject matter and humour, far beyond the land of Good Drawing.

Joan had disappeared round the back to the reading area. We sat and read for a bit; I read the story of the cat's nine lives. The security guard made us both a cup of tea.

That's what a Wednesday should be all about, I think. 

Friday's adventure was the gig in Bristol, preceded by the recording of four tracks off the new album round at Rocker's house for his Dandelion Radio show. Twice round each one, then a cup of tea, then off to The Thunderbolt for sound check. 

The Big However were first on, a band with not only a trumpet but also a cell in their line-up. They were a proper good time Friday night band!

After my set (why did I forget to play Three Cheers for Toytown?) Rachel and the Loveables played a set just as good as the one they did last weekend at The Prince Albert in Brighton, and if anything the sound was even better here because the sound engineer took all the levels down so we could hear Rachel's singing clearly. I'm looking forward to seeing them again this Saturday afternoon.

Last Gig Of The Year: The Betsey Trotwood, Supporting Rachel Love and the Loveables

A support slot next Saturday afternoon 23rd November at The Betsey Trotwood: this will be my last gig of the year.
Tickets here: https://wegottickets.com/event/640220

Tonight At The Thunderbolt, Bristol

Hooray! Bristol tonight supporting Rachel Love and the Loveables, and with additonal support from The Big However

Tickets here: https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Playing some songs from this album (pre-order and preview here:) https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Busker, Whitby

 

Dec Hickey, New Order, And The Blokes

I originally titled this post 'Bring Back Blokes', but got so immersed in miserable reasons about why that was necessary that I had to stop writing and begin again. Instead, I'll jump straight in and write about last night's book launch at Rough Trade East for Dec Hickey's book on New Order, From Heaven to Heaven.

The four men on the panel sat in a line a bit like a girl pop group, but not pop singers and not girls. It was a formation for the delivery of anecdotes and personal histories instead of songs, lubricated by a pint or two beforehand in the local boozer (I did imagine emptying out the microphones after the panel discussion, and finding at least half a pint of ale accumulated between the four of them). This was a chance for a band's greatest fans to take to the stage many years later, and tell the story of that band from another perspective.

The chair of the panel was Guardian journalist Dave Simpson, who came out with nuggets of focused information at just the right times in the discussion; he had the ability to put everything in context, just when that needed to happen. The others were Jon Marsh from The Beloved (I used to do their press for a very short while), and John Wozencroft.

The four dedicated archivists revealed a lot about the tenacity fandom through the lens of their New Order gig-going. There was no one-upmanship but instead, the sharing of a joint narrative between ardent enthusiasts and an audience perched on the most uncomfortable seats in the universe. We heard about those missed last trains after gigs, the hitchhiking split into risky groups, the gig dates, the venues, the information about PA systems: name-checking Rob Gretton a lot. The bravery of the group after Ian Curtis died as they started rehearsing without knowing which  members of the group might be the lead vocalist (even Rob had a go, they said). Gillian Gilbert joining the band on keyboards, without being a keyboard player, because they needed an extra member who got on with everyone.

And the cassettes! Recordings of sound checks passed on to the band so they could remember how to play the songs later that night. Trading, and not trading of bootleg recordings (each man has a stash of cassettes that they wouldn't share under any circumstances). Why did they make so many recordings? Because the songs changed all the time, sometimes instrumentals acquiring vocals before disappearing, sometimes songs only being played once or twice before being dropped. It was the rawness of the live recordings that they loved: the commercial recordings came nowhere near to the gig recordings with their atmosphere of liveness, the sound of the venue and the sound of the crowd. The audience laughed when the panel described their dismay when the band's set got longer than one side of a cassette, leading to the 'cassette-flip moment' of rapidly turning the cassette over during a gap in the set. Dec described recording the sound check at the end of side two, to prevent inadvertently taping over the set proper when he flipped sides!

This was much more than just listening in to a conversation in a pub: it was an insight into a world of engagement with a band that has lasted for decades and given an extra stratum of meaning to the lives of four blokes. No toxicity here, no misogyny, no anti-woke rhetoric: there was no need. There was something utterly graceful about the whole thing.

Book here: https://shop.damagedgoods.co.uk/pro.../from-heaven-to-heaven

Supporting Rachel Love and the Lovables, Prince Albert, Brighton

Life can be both brutal and incredibly beautiful, often delivering servings of both in nanoseconds of time.

Steve Sound Engineer was a fixture in the Prince Albert, and it was very odd to walk in and find that someone else was doing it. Steve died suddenly last year and took a lot of musicians off-guard: he was an absolute dude. But I knew the new guy- from gigs at the Con Club in Lewes, and he was very good at his job too. The dial of life has turned one turn, and the machine still works...

Oddly, I'd invited Steph-The-Saturday-Girl from Gallery 57 along, but she couldn't come because she was travelling back from India. Who should be on the train to Brighton but a very tired and jet-lagged Steph! 

What a coincidence!

Asides aside, when we got to the pub, Rachel and her boys were just finishing their sound check (see pic). Even informally, they have their own bubble of reality that makes them transcend just songs and guitars'n'things. I love Rachel's songwriting, whether there is an audience there to love it with or not. They live up to their name, in more ways than one.

After a nice dressing room catch-up with Caryne, Dave, and Mark from Asbo Derek, it was time for me to get on stage. Argh- dark! I couldn't see my guitar neck. I played three songs from the new album and had some bar chord near-misses (sorry for the guitar player jargon), but was delighted by the reception, especially because I could hear someone laughing at the funny bits in Three Cheers For Toytown (mainly because I'd forgotten they were funny). Remembering lyrics is such a trial- a bit like Maths homework, and that laugh was a welcome reminder of why I wrote the song. 

Hooray for Sunday afternoons! 

All sorts of pals came along: Sally and her daughter and partner, Andy and Jane (so nice to see them after so many years!), Jonathan from Assistant (he had thought he was going to still be in tiger makeup from a children's party, but he looked normal), Lorraine Bowen (wouldn't it be nice to do a couple of gigs together? I sang the praises of Amy Rigby, same), Dorothy Max Prior and her partner Foz, Stephen Clements, and of course Mark. And Hester, who I haven't seen for ages! 

There was a baby in the audience too. 

Then it was time for Rachel. You must just listen to her songs. The harmonies are divine, the chord sequences are just so gorgeous, and the set is full of surprises, with some spiky stuff in there alongside the very poignant paeans to her late partner. No two songs are alike and the band are ultra-tight; they completely transport you away from gloomy November to somewhere light and full of dreams and imagination. Oh, we so need that right now!

Come to see the same line-up in Bristol at the Thunderbolt next Friday, or at the Betsey Trotwood on the afternoon of Saturday the 23rd, which will be my own last gig of the year.

(photo of Rachel by me, photo of me by Jane )

And Another

... with Dexter Bentley and Manu Louis at Resonance FM. I played three tracks (Three Cheers For Toytown, The Ginger Line and Almost There) live from this album, which is coming out in early December: https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Dexter played Records and Tea, Sad Boy Style and Honcho from this album: https://damagedgoods.co.uk/discography/the-chefs-records-tea-the-best-f-the-chefs-and-lost-second-album/

We also had a good chat about music, bands and other stuff. Manu Louis was also on the show and he played an electronica set that was really great to listen to.

I'll post the link when it's up!

Radio Interviews

I love doing radio interviews and live playing on air. On the 28th of October I did one with Josh Gaffin at WTSQ 88.1 FM; it's a West Virginia station, and he played some Chefs tracks (including Thrush, because as he thought, the listeners wouldn't understand the slang!) and one from my forthcoming album. Josh said his wife has my book She's At The Controls (https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/shes-at-the-controls/), but there was so much to talk about, we never really got around to talking about that. Josh had been an assistant to Lou Reed back in the day, and we had a good old chat about that behind the scenes, and Jonathan Richman too. Big thanks to Josh- I don't think the show is online.

Yesterday, I talked to Dave Hammond at Cambridge 105 Radio. Dave is a total music enthusiast, and is always plugged into what's going on at the busy semi-underground music scene that I'm part of. He also has a fantastic dad, and regularly posts on Facebook about his father's activities and philosophy. We had a good old chinwag; he played Records and Tea from The Chefs compilation, and also three from the new album (Three Cheers For Toytown, It Wasn't Me and Send in the Detectives)

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm off to Resonance FM to play some new songs on Dexter Bentley's show at 12.00 GMT. The link is here: http://player.resonancefm.com so do listen in if you fancy hearing me have a go at some of the new songs!

Then on Sunday I'm supporting Rachel Love and the Loveables at The Prince Albert in Brighton, a matinee that starts at 2.30. Tickets here: https://wegottickets.com/event/624910

It was touching to hear Amy Rigby's Riley and Coe session on BBC6 on Miserable Trumpday this week. Amy (also on Dave's show a couple of weeks ago) was so delighted by the welcome she has had on moving to England and by the support Gideon Coe and Mark Riley have given to her music, that she shed a tear or two. I hope we can share a gog at some point next year, because she's brilliant.

Well, I might tell you about the Hew Locke exhibition next posting.

Three Gigs With Rachel Love and The Loveables

I have the last three gigs of the year coming up, starting in Brighton at The Prince Albert this coming Sunday, a matinee show that begins at 2.30.

Tickets here: https://wegottickets.com/event/624910/

Then on Friday the 15th of November I'll be at The Thunderbolt, Bristol, with Rachel again and The Big However.

Tickets here: https://wegottickets.com/event/623834

Finally, we'll be at The Betsey Trotwood for another matinee performance on Saturday 23rd November, ticket link TBC.

Rachel and me go back a long way: The Dollymixture and The Chefs shared a lot of London stages in the 1980s and I always used to look forward to playing with them because their songs are so good and they are such fun as people (still!).

Expect sunshine pop!

Man Bearing Cross And Guitar, Leicester Square

 

Free Feminist Jingles

Help yourself, if it helps:

https://helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com/album/feminist-jingles

Women Gardeners, Leyland Station

 

Tree Surgeons At The Station

 

Drawing On My Dreams £6.00 For Bandcamp Friday

Bandcamp Friday!
'Drawing On My Dreams' CD only £6.00, digital now £5.00
https://helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com/album/drawing-on-my-dreams

The Ginger Line

That's the London Overground to you!

A Plea For Respect And Peace

 

Roller-Skating Pumpkin, High Barnet Today

 

Flaneusing

Yesterday I met Gina on the Tufnell Park tube platform (our usual meeting point) and we travelled down to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Francis Bacon exhibition. I was really taken aback by (a) how varied his work is and (b) the emotional impact it has. For some reason, most of the work we see is the most 'smeary' and distorted work; he himself said that he imagined a snail crawling across the paintings. But in this exhibition there are paintings of his fleeting salesman lovers in their suits and ties, and a very moving triptych of one of his lovers dying, where a huge, carefully-painted matt back shadow seeps across the canvas in despair. Bacon was a master of indication. Look closely at some of the paintings, and all you see are apparently random brush marks; step back, and the brush marks evolve into a carefully-painted polished shoe. There were crowds of people there, but it still managed to be mesmerising. I particularly liked the rather cruel painting of Van Gogh. Bacon had a streak of parodic humour in him, which you also don't realise till you see these paintings.

Afterwards, I introduced Gina to the joys of Bills restaurant. It was perfect for a dreich day, and we stuffed our faces before heading to Carnaby Street where there's a Jeanette Lee punk photo exhibition, a collage of large black and white photos from back in the day. I photographed now-Gina next to then-Gina.

Last of all we popped into Third Man, the label she is signed with. They were listening to the first mixes of her new album, by coincidence. It's all yellow and black in there, very stylish.

When I got home, I did an interview for Josh Gaffin for his afternoon show onWTSQ 88.1 FM in West Virginia about The Chefs compilation. He actually played Thrush on air! It was 1 p.m. in West Virginia and 5 p.m. in High Barnet; we had a good old chinwag about songs, bands, music and all sorts of otehr stuff. It will go up on Mixcloud soon and I'll share the link.

Isn't it funny to be this old and still be doing this? Making records, getting them played on the radio, writing songs. Speaking of which, I need to learn some of the songs from my new album. I have three more gigs this year, all with Rachel Love and the Loveables, and two live radio interviews too.

I'm going to do that now.

Fish and Chip Shop, Hoxton

 

God Is In The TV Review of The Chefs

Great review for The Chefs!
But how did they guess that Mary McCookerybook is not my real name? 😂

(it's been changed now)

https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2024/10/23/the-chefs-records-tea-the-best-of-the-chefs-and-lost-second-album-damaged-goods/ 

First Airplay from Showtunes from the Shadows: Three Cheers for Gideon Coe!

Three Cheers for Toytown was played by Gideon Coe last night!

Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0023w7r

And the album is here: https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Time To Move On

 

Three Priests On The Underground

 

Just Arrived: Showtunes from the Shadows Puppet Badges

Buy one or a whole choir!

Spookily Hallowe'enish, not by intention.

https://helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com/merch/showtunes-puppet-head-badge

Goat Does Not Want To Be Washed, Rothesay Country Show, Isle Of Bute

 

A Friendship of Bus Drivers, Blackpool

 

Stephen Appleby at Space Station Sixty Five

Tucked away in a yard off Kennington Lane is Space Station Sixty Five, an airy little gallery with exceedingly friendly staff. If, like me, you wondered what happened to Steven Appleby after apparently disappearing from the pages of The Guardian newspaper, then this is the exhibition for you. It's the exhibition for you even if you didn't wonder that. It's full of funny, warm and often slightly disturbing art that massages your sense of normality while quite comfortably straddling the boundaries between that, and what some people would regard as deviance.

There is so much to see and be inspired by here. Steven's line drawings seem to have been drawn with a pin: wiry black lines on a white page, sometimes with a smudge of colour flown in. Sometimes, they read from left to right, sometimes upside down and the right way up, sometimes tempting your eyes to dart about, as though it is you yourself having these thoughts and daydreams in your mind's eye. 

The text is part of the whole, playing with words and ideas (why didn't I think of that? Maybe I did, but Steven has articulated it in real life). Everything is challenged, just when it's looking really cosy. The work is sexy, sexual, real, and dreamy all at once, with a 'normality' in the representation of humans and a sense of humour underpinning the whole that makes you laugh your way into hidden areas of your soul.

Steven's been working as an illustrator, graphic novelist, musical collaborator and practically anything else creative you can think of. I bought his graphic novel after being riveted by just a quick glance inside it. There is much more here than just the line drawings, too. What a breath of fresh air he/she/they is. He doesn't care what you call her: what a wonderful reaction to the screaming bigots! 

It made my day seeing this. 

I messaged the Offsprogs straight away to go and see it. I'm going to go again (it's on till December), because it turned that frown upside down, especially because we went to the Regency Café for a late lunch afterwards. 

And the sun was shining too.

Official Release Day: the Chefs Compilation

Big thanks to Damaged Goods, Alison Wonderland, Lee at Yuba and not forgetting Claire Barratt whose photograph graces the front cover.

https://damagedgoods.co.uk/discography/the-chefs-records-tea-the-best-f-the-chefs-and-lost-second-album/

Man With Book And Golf Clubs On Tube

 

A Hi Five From The Barnet Bee

 

Twang Twang!

Four days to go!

https://damagedgoods.co.uk/discography/the-chefs-records-tea-the-best-f-the-chefs-and-lost-second-album/

The Cardboard Luthier Strikes!

 

Jesus Is Lord, Stratford, London

 

Gigs, Gigs, Gigs, Gigs, Gigs, Gigs, Gigs

Let's start with last Sunday at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, London, where The Irrepressibles were playing to promote their album Yo Homo!

Apologies in advance for my poor photography.

Regular readers will know that it's Jamie McDermot's encouragement that got me back performing music in 2005 as a an artist. I was his University lecturer, and I'd been going to see all the bands that the students had formed that year. The Irrepressibles were coming out on top of a very high standard of student music and songwriting, and I stopped him in the corridor to ask him when their next gig was. 'Why not come along and support us?' he asked. I could think of a million reasons why not, including the fact that I'd only ever played solo twice, it was more than 25 years since I'd played guitar on stage, and my guitar was in its case under my bed covered in a thick layer of dust. But I also felt that I wasn't a proper lecturer if I wasn't prepared to do exactly what the students did; I said yes, and did my first proper gig as a solo artist trembling with fear and playing the only three songs I could play without a band in front of students whose songwriting work I had marked in the past. Stress.

Going to see this latest incarnation of the band at the 100 Club in London was a no-brainer and to my great pleasure, Joe Davin from Brighton was playing bass with them too, joining a line-up of guitar, cello, viola, violin, grand piano, drums and Jamie also on guitar. Jamie has possibly one of the most beautiful male voices on earth (next to Kenji's) and always sends shivers down my spine when I hear him live. The band is multi-sexual as befits Jamie's philosophy, and the audience was a very safe space for gay people to feel comfortable. My favourite song was the one described as a country song, but with its pizzicato strings and harmonies it reminded me of the very best of 60s girl group songs. There was another, Destination, the first of the inevitable encore, that was a sure-fire hit in my estimation. They are on tour at the moment, a definite 'band of the moment to see and hear'. It's probably silly to say this but I feel massively proud of Jamie.

On Wednesday, I treated myself to seeing Joan as Policewoman at the Union Chapel in London. I love her early songs, and I've been listening to her more recent music on Riley and Coe's shows on BBC6. There was a very odd etiquette at the venue; people had reserved swathes of seats with their coats and bags, almost all of the 'good' seats, and it was embarrassing to wander around looking for somewhere to sit when it looked as though seats were empty. This was a level of passive aggression on a level with people reserving sun-loungers around the swimming pool at holiday destinations. I can understand the relaxed attitude of the staff because it is, of course, a church most of the time. But for someone like me going to a gig on my own, if felt hostile. Luckily I found a seat in front of a pillar, and was able to see most of it. Next to Joan's fantastic voice (at times like an extended dog-bark in timbre), she had a remarkable drummer. I watched him damp his crash cymbals so he didn't overpower the dynamic of the songs, and his flexible playing was a marvel to watch. In one song, he picked up on the rhythm and cadences of the main vocal and lyrical line in the song, and played with impeccable tempo throughout. This made listening to the music really relaxing (one of the bad things about doing a lot of recordings and the constant use of a metronome is that you become really conscious of variations in tempo when you both see music live and play it yourself, unfortunately. You become very tuned-in to unintended wobbles in timing). The whole level of professionalism was astonishing and gave the impression of ease, and a flow to the songs that was inspiring. There were of them on stage: Joan on vocals, piano, guitar and synth, and additional guitarist and the drummer both of whom sang, and they created a lush soundscape. At times they veered towards jazz, but then they returned to the off-the-wall melodies and rhythms that Joan is so well known for. I left with a smile in my heart. No photographs, I'm afraid- I was too far away.

Then this weekend started with The Wouldbegoods, Panic Pocket and me at The Water Rats in London's King's Cross, a gig organised by Bizarro Promotions who have a knack of matching up bands and music to maximise the pleasure for their punters. Being first on can be tough, but the sound engineer got me a good sound and enough people came early to make it feel well-attended right from the start. It goes to show how important the 'vibe' from the audience is to getting a good show from the artists they come to see; if people are listening and smiling, the whole feel of the gig goes up a few notches. 

Panic Pocket had a full all-female band this time around (they sometimes play as a duo), but their vocals were still to the forefront. They sing along in unison a lot of the time, which gives their songs a pleasingly bratty and assertive sound albeit presented in a very good-humoured and melodic way. It's something about the fact that they are really glamorous too, and have excellent songs. We were dancing, in our little corner. The photo is from the sound check.

This was the ideal venue for the Wouldbegoods in terms of sound. I've seen them too as a duo, and also as a full band at The Bush Hall and The Betsey Trotwood (great sound there, but oh so crammed!). Here, you could hear everything and although it was pretty full by the time they came on to the stage I could see Andy Warren playing bass (yay!), and hear everything else. Their songs are incomparable, really, spanning French pop influences, The Sweet, gentle indiepop, and their own 'world' of songwriting. This is pure quality, and I would be very jealous if I was not so admiring of their sound and style! Every time I see them I find more to hear in their songs, which is the best possible thing you can say about a band. They were simply wonderful, and the encore delivered yet more fabulous song-smithery. I hope this bill is repeated again some time: it felt completely energising to be part of it. The audience included members of The Dollymixture, The High Span, The Loft, and numerous other musicians (hello Kath Tait!) and producers (hello Ruth Tidmarsh!) of note who had come to drink in the magical silver songwriting moments of the evening. Three cheers for the song-writing underground, and all who sail in her!

And so to last night, yet another evening of good music at the Aces and Eights in Tufnell Park. Again, I was the first on, but I was lucky to be playing to a listening room with no background rumble of chat to contend with. Lester Square and Jo came along and Peter Tainsh, too. I felt brave enough to play The Ginger Line for only the second time (breaking in new songs is tough). The second band was The Alter Moderns, a Brazilian duo with a woman drummer/singer Ananda, and a riff-tastic male guitarist/singer, both dressed in red and incredibly energetic. Their music is deceptively intricate: you hear sheer power, then when you listen in to it, the parts are linked in to each other in a really sophisticated way. We made friends! Again, the photo is from the sound check.

The lovely Micko who organised it all was the headliner. In this incarnation of his band, the songs sound on the punky side of power-pop, which is apt considering he writes about subjects like noisy neighbours. My favourite song of theirs is the one about Joe Meek. Micko is a local to Holloway, and has a natural fascination with Meek and his ouevre. The Melletronics got the room dancing and played a well-deserved encore to a crowd of devoted fans. The photo shows them tuning up before they started to play.

Well, that was a full week of music listening and music playing. In between, I managed not only a couple of grim things (don't ask), but also a visit to my brother James's to re-record the guitar parts for 24 Hours and Food as we complete the four tracks for The Pop-Up Chefs E.P., and sent a track to Jem from Asbo Derek requesting him to write and record a miserable rap for the song I wrote about them being missed-out in a live review, The Band That Time Forgot.

Oh music, I love you.

Man Plays Cello On Train To Exeter

 

Biker at Ullapool Harbour 2023

 

Showtunes From The Shadows

Want to take a listen? https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows