Last night I attended the XFM Winter Wonderland concert at Brixton Academy, a charity gig for the Shelter organisation. I had bought the tickets off eBay a while back and hadn’t realised that it was the same day that I arrived back from Vienna, and despite being exhausted I still went to enjoy the awesome performances of The Go! Team, Athlete, Richard Ashcroft (from The Verve) and Supergrass. The event was actually spread over two days, with Sunday’s headliners including The Kaiser Chiefs, The Editors, Hard-Fi, and Maximo Park. All of the bands I saw were quite impressive, but still couldn’t quite top the one-hour set from Supergrass making the two tickets completely worth the £35 I paid for them. XFM writes up a better and more in-depth review here.
Porcupine Tree @ The Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Last night I went along with Ben to see Porcupine Tree a band that Gerrod had put me on to a while back. It was my first concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, yet another Carling sponsored music venue in London. The venue itself is the smallest I’ve been to so far, but with a just a bit more capacity than The Arena back home. This venue has three floors with pretty much every seat or position having an easy view of the main stage.
I’m terrible at trying to describe bands, so I won’t try, but I think that if you like any of Porcupine Tree’s albums, I definitely can recommend you to see them live. Somehow their songs are delivered with much more vibrancy than what a recording seems to give them, allowing them to drive home their songs, if not sometimes perhaps a little bit too loudly. The front man last night held a much better conversation with the audience, all who seemed to be fairly big fans and predominantly older (think late thirties, almost early forties). It’s also one of the first times, I’ve ever seen someone perform in their bare feet.
After watching them last night, I realised that I liked a lot more of their songs from the In Absentia album over those from Deadwing, perhaps because I think the former tends to be more melodic with less of the heavier rock undertones I tend not to favour in the latter. It was a great night for a Wednesday and a big thanks to Ben for getting those tickets ages back.
Festive Good Food Show @ Earl’s Court
One of the reasons I tell people when they ask me what brings me to London is the food. Although I have some doubt about the freshness of certain types of fruit and vegetables, I’m still impressed by the variety and availability of so many different foods and produce. As a result, I thought it would be good to go along to the Festive Good Food and Wine Show held at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre today. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, with a visit to something similar to this back home keeping me occupied for about an hour before I got bored. After going along today, it was definitely the sheer number of produce retailers and distributors, the numerous celebrity cooks and the huge sprawl of stands that kept me entertained for most of the day.
Some of the celebrity chefs that I got to see included Curtis Stone (from Surfing the Menu, Saturday Kitchen, and Dinner in a Box), Jo Pratt (from Great Food Live and Elle Magazine), and my favourite of the day, the world renowned Rick Stein (from too many shows to list). It was almost quite surreal having watched someone like Rick Stein overseas for such along time, and then being able to see him be just as passionate about his food live as he is on his shows.
Although each ticket is worth a fairly hefty £14 you easily make up for this with the excellent demonstrations and all the samplings around the place, everything from dips, oils, breads, sausages, cheese, chilli ice-cream, and chocolate products. In addition to all the food, there is also much in the way of drinks including cordials, liqueurs, whiskeys, flavoured vodkas, London produced Gin and the variety of wines from all over the world with sampling. With many of the hosts encouraging people to sample all these wares at eleven in the morning, it’s no wonder there’s a number of people staggering around by the end of the exhibition. A great way to taste some fabulous nosh, sample some interesting drinks and just kick back for the day. Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering, yes that is a fountain of chocolate for fondue.
Franz Ferdinand @ Alexandra Palace
I’ve had tickets to see Franz Ferdinand since early September and last night’s show at Alexandra Palace reminded me of why I wanted to see them so desperately. The Palace is yet another one of London’s heritage buildings, easily fitting the most people in relation to any of the other venue’s I’ve been to so far. However having said that its capacity is impressive, its flat floor also means that it is much more suited to the exhibitions and conventions it is normally the home of, and not so great for seeing someone as great as Franz.
The support acts for the night included The Rakes and The Editors, two excellent indie rock bands who I can now thoroughly recommend but whose performances were far surpassed by the main act. The only other time that I’ve seen Franz was when I went to my first Splendour in the Grass two years ago, and even then it was difficult to make it inside the tent. When I saw them that time, it was just as they were getting big with their first hit, Take Me Out, and their progress reminded me heavily of the success that the Australian band, Jet, went through.
I like to think that there are so many other reasons that make them such great performers other than their catchy pop rock tunes which no other band seems to be able to reproduce. I am always impressed by bands that acknowledge the quality of their support acts, and Franz thanked both of their support acts probably with the understanding that it is difficult to make it in that industry, while at the same time, demonstrating their humbleness. Another great reason to see them live is that they have a fantastic stage presence. Last night for example, the largish stage was quite bare, yet for every moment of the concert, it seemed to be constantly filled with all their energy and solidly performed music.
The set was extremely well planned, taking plenty of their new album songs and mixing it up with a lot of the hits from their previous album. It was also probably most ideal for an audience that has probably had the widest age range I’ve seen some time, with enough mellow songs to chill out on, interspersed through their harder rock songs that resulted in a fair amount of moshing in most of the audience. Surprisingly Take Me Out was played during their main act while they finished off their night with an encore consisting of Jacqueline (1st album), Evil And A Heathen (2nd album), Outsiders (2nd album), and This Fire (1st album).
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10
Derrick Carter @ The End
The End is a club located right next door to AKA (which I went to for my birthday). I’ve heard great things about this club and I definitely wasn’t disappointed by the experience I had last night. I was heading there with a few friends and was stunned when I heard that Derrick Carter, a famous Chicago House DJ was playing. I wasn’t really expecting to know any of the DJ’s playing and was just thrilled to find out he would be playing the closing set from 3:30am in their main room. Cover is not exactly cheap, coming in at just over £15 but compared to most other clubs and with the prospect of finally seeing Derrick Carter live, was happy to pay the amount.
The End is not as big a club as I thought it would be but thankfully last night was not as busy as it apparently sometimes gets. There certainly seems like a lot more room than what AKA offers next door, with two main rooms and several bars serving the various areas. There are several areas to chill out with some comfy couches in the corners in one room, but with most people just cooling off in the little space between the two rooms.
On some nights (like last night), access is granted for some to move between The End and AKA (also known as ‘As One’). We briefly stepped into AKA but like the last time, found it was overly packed and the music was not as good as what was below in The End. After speaking with a few people at random last night, it seemed that some had come specifically listen to Derrick Carter, whilst many others were just happy to dance to the awesome music he played all night (morning?) long. The crowd was quite friendly and we had an awesome night.
In the middle of time (well sort of)
Yesterday I decided to take the advice of Karl and Caroline and take a trip down to Greenwich with one of the many ferries that cruise up and down the river. It is a great way of getting to Greenwich as you get to see all the interesting sights by the river and some of them even give you a guided tour. Better yet you can get one third off the ticket price (at least from one of the companies) if you show your Travelcard or Oyster card. The other alternative is the Docklands Light Rail (DLR) which is probably faster, but is not as nice a journey.
Although Greenwich is not in the middle of London, bordering on the outskirts of zone two, there is still plenty to keep you entertained. I visited the National Maritime Museum which I found pretty interested because England had the strongest naval forces in the world for such a long time in the past. Stretching out behind the Maritime Museum you can find Greenwich Park which is yet another really nice park to sit and pass the time. Towering above the park, is the Royal Observatory that marks the location of the Prime Meridian of the World, and is the point for Greenwich Mean Time. It is definitely worth going up to the hill for both the Observatory as well as the good viewing location for the rest of London. If you run out of things to look at, you should also probably drop into the Greenwich markets which are housed close to where the ferries drop you off. They are not as big as many of the markets that I have been to, but I’m sure you could find something of interest to buy there.
A Muso’s Muso
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
The Pret-A-Manager Experience
As part of the “He Who Knows” challenge, one of the simplest tasks has been to go and describe the Pret-A-Manager experience, but to be honest, I have never really stepped into one for anything other than a bottle of water until this weekend. Of all of the places I have worked and visited so far, there has always been something more enticing than what any massive retail chain has been able to offer me. Having said that, this weekend, I decided to stop in and finally see what all the fuss was about and fully immerse myself in the Pret-A-Manager experience.
When you walk in, like most cafes or takeaway joints that prepare freshly made sandwiches, the choice at Pret can be overwhelming. Pret specialises in freshly pre-packaged food including but not limited to sandwiches, wraps, baguettes, muffins, croissants, and a variety of slices or cakes for dessert. They also prepare fresh coffee and also offer a variety of sides including crisps (chips for those back home) and the standard assortment of drinks.
With food preparation generally taken care of much earlier in advance, Pret also seems to have the process of serving customers well thought out. In the ten minutes that I spent observing them, three people, including those making coffee, seemed to be doing an excellent service by English standards getting through at least 30 people during a ten minute period. You are either handed a plastic bag for take away or a silver platter for eating in, which you have to load your food into/on to and carry to the small circular tables and high chairs more suited for faster eating and less conversing without evidently being too obvious.
Some people appeared to enter just for the coffee, but it did not appear at the same level as those that follow the Starbucks or Café Nero chains on every corner. I was quite pleased with my lunch consisting of a cup of Italian Meatball soup accompanied with some soup bread, followed by a cup of fresh yogurt, crunchy granola and honey all washed down with a bottle of still water with a trace of lime. Although I would not rate Pret cheap food, you definitely get better food than you would at any fast food joint.
I would not go out of my way to visit a Pret with all of the other hidden offerings London can provide, but if you have a choice between McDonalds, Burger King or Pret, definitely hit the latter one.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10