Earlier this week I found out I won tickets to The Musos, a awards ceremony for musicians entirely voted for by other musicians. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with a number of smaller acts named to perform, and a realistic expectation that even if bands like Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Gorillaz were nominated, I’m sure they had better places to be. I had a pretty good night all around but I will admit that if I had to pay the £20 then I think I would have felt seriously cheated.
Everything about the night seriously screamed B-class although I suspected this going in. If anything, I hoped I would at least come away learning about some new band with the worst case being just another tube ride around London. The event was held at Koko, which in itself, was worth visiting. The club is located just around the corner from the Mornington Crescent tube (on the Northern line) and still looks like the Victorian theatre it used to be in the 1800s with three separate floors and numerous private booths along the side. The wall behind the bar on the bottom floor is backed by red lighting, casting an alluring shadow to all the bottles lined up on the glass shelves.
The awards went out pretty quickly and most of them, with no surprise, went to a few lesser known acts. Several went to some better known acts such as Gaz from Supergrass winning Best Vocal for 2005 and the Kaiser Chiefs for Best Live Act, but to no surprise, were not there to collect it. There were several bands that performed that night, most of them not really that memorable. I really enjoyed the act by the href=”http://www.indielondon.co.uk/music/mu_dogs_biog.html”>Dogs (and some other act I didn’t know their name) who were the most professional and probably better rock acts. I was stunned by the last band whose passionate, almost psychotic, lead singer seemed to strangely negate the lack of energy the rest of the band members exhibited. His jumping around, falling into the group of photographers and general strange behaviour won no credit from me. They also coupled with a visibly drunk Shane McGowan (from The Pogues) to perform an awful rendition of She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain. I was quite happy at that point to ease my way back through the crowd to make my exit.
Details: The Musos
Highlights: Free tickets to see some new rock bands. Dogs (and some other band who I thought were the Artic Monkeys) were pretty awesome acts as well.
Room for improvement: Organisation was terrible, it was extremely cold inside and Shane McGowan, one of the “bigger” acts was completely trashed.
The Kua Rating: 5 out of 10
That would be “Shane McGowan”, who was thrown out of the Pogues for being drunk all the time.
The “Shane McGowan and the Popes” singer.
Well there you go! Obviously I didn’t know him that well but it certainly doesn’t surprise me.
fuckin knobheads,trashed or not he`s the only one whose music will still be played in a 100 years,his music has true substance,acquaint yourselves you might then see!
Johno, perhaps he is a talented musician, but I regard any musician as extremely unprofessional if they turn up to any gig so drunk they can’t put on a decent show. There are heaps of bands out there I’d rather go see that actually care about their audience just as much as their music. Thanks for the comment.
Well put patrick,but to be honest there is that much shite in music nowadays that even a useless shane mac gowan is light years above a band who supposedly do care about their audience,besides it wasn`t a gig in macgowans mind but an awards ceremony which for that man means free drink and nothing more.Try and catch the upcoming pogues gigs and you`ll see a vast difference.Also look into history and you`ll see genius has a price.
Slan
This is true that there is a lot of bad music out there, but like most things, is all subjective. I suppose I reserve my final judgement (not necessarily my current opinion) until I get to see people in their best. I will admit that, yeah, it was definitely a B-grade awards night and can completely understand where MacGowan was coming from. I’m unfortunately going to miss The Pogues’ gig as I have something else on but I will have to look out for the next opportunity. Cheers.
Miss a pogues gig cos you`ve something else on!You are a mad bastard Patrick,especially with an Irish name as you do.Still you did mumble something about subjectivity.Absolutism,now there is a drink!
Slan a chara
Yeah, unfortunately like most things here, it’s something I’ve had in the works for quite some time. You sound like quite the idealist and perhaps you sound like a person I could definitley have a drink with! He he
Just thought I ought to point out that The Arctic Monkeys didn’t actually play at The Musos…it’s small errors like that that leap out of the page!
Ok, my bad and thanks for letting me know. I had a hard time keeping track of who it was actually performing because I hadn’t heard of many of them before. I have no idea who they are now! I’d appreciate it if you could tell me who played on the night.
Apart from Dogs the other bands were Metro Riots (probably the ones you were thinking of…very much style over substance IMHO – just another ‘London Scene’ band), Young Offenders Institute and The Lancaster Bombers. At least the Bombers have a message to push (http://www.thelancasterbombers.com)
The Lancasters were fucking awesome, they all looked fucked on drugs and drink and that to me is rock n’ roll, not one of the other bands that night came close to their energy, the singer is like a weird cross between Jagger and Iggy and they are an angry bunch which is why MacGowan loves ’em – jesus, no-one seems to get punk anymore 😉
MC