Bouts of Belle Weather

A terrible redtopish strapline but it's still fairly early the day after the night before. After spending the afternoon at the Olympic Park with older kids I arrive home alone and with younger one at a sleepover Debs and I have a rare opportunity to paint the town red. Yay! Not finding any enticing films at the Clapham Picture House and seeing that the Brixton Ritzy is in the middle of industrial action as they won't pay a London Living Wage and the Bedford comedy looks a little pricey we push the boat out and decide to venture across the Balham / Streatham borders into south Brixton to the salubrious Windmill pub. We pick up Simon en route, unfortunately Jules is suffering and can't come out to play, and, after a bottle of prosecco and admiring his back passage cleaning (oh for gods sake grow up), we cycle down to the Windmill. The rottweiler on the roof gives us the customary welcome and Simon pays for the three of us getting change from a tenner. It's about half nine but pretty empty still and we wait for ages for the first band. Not a problem as we have the luxurious arm chairs, sofa and table to sit round and over small glasses of lager and G&Ts we natter away about stuff. The place seems to be having some electric problems and the stage lights keep dimming but after a while the place is full and the lights are working and Bellwether take the stage and we trek round to see them.

Bellwether look like a standard four piece rock band churning out pretty grungy fare with a sprinkling of big blues guitar that's more british blues than american venturing into heavy rock riffs and a few pops at psychedelia. It gets a fair few heads nodding and I think I saw a couple of guys slipping into air guitar poses. If all this puts you off don't let it as the band have a certain edge and sound fresh and new. The grungyness is great and the band seem to be really good musicians (I'm not an expert) and definitely have a really tight sound. Sounds like they've played together for years but I think they said it was their second gig. I think they're local. Drums and bass drive the sound along really well leaving the big guitar player (his guitar is big, not him) to riff and slide up and down the frets whilst the singer, who's got a great voice that seems a little odd at first but grows on you and fits the sound perfectly, anyway the singer also adds to the big rocky guitar sound. Excellent start to the gig and more than makes up for only having 2 bands tonight rather than the advertised "plus others tba". After too short a while they're off and of course no encore, this is London early 21st Century after all. We retire to the outside / inside room with it's retro (very old) sofas and are entertained by an oldish guy who claims he's bored and depressed with no friends then relates very chipper stories of his life and jumps up to say hello to everyone who passes the door. The crowd is thinning out a bit but the main attraction is yet to come...

Bouts are from Dublin and serve up a refreshing slice of post punk grungy pop. Lazy description I know but how else to describe a range from Talking Heads NYC art funkiness verging on 80s poppiness and launching into all out hard core thrashy grunge all the while driven by wickedly throbbing and sharp basslines. Another tight rhythm section for the singer to soar over and the main guitarist to rock out to which he did a couple of times on the dancefloor and at the end relinquishing his guitar and jumping off the stage to yell the chorus lyrics over and over into the mic. I say jump off the stage but it's really a low step down which wouldn't catch the average toddler off stride. The crowd wasn't that big by now or pressing towards the front. In fact the only stage botherer was young Simon who seemed transported back 30 years into a club and was bopping about shaking his booty much to the surprise and a little mirth of the young trendies behind him who could only bring themselves to shimmy a little and that self consciously. Debs had a bit of a dance at times and I felt a bit of movement although you wouldn't find any discernible dance moves in there. I think the small glasses of lager had gone to Simon's head as when the guy shouting in the mic went back on stage and left mic next to Simon he took it back and couldn't resist a couple of unintelligible shouts into it. Five minutes of fame indeed. Bouts finish the set and the crowd don't waste their breath calling for an encore, apart from us three optimists but there again our indie grunge desires have been sated for the evening. Not sure who I liked best if I had to choose. Bellwether had a more consistent edginess and I suspect I would enjoy them more as they develop but there again Bouts had moments of excellence and they seem a little more polished, not necessarily tighter, and crowd friendly and maybe destined for greater recognition. Definitely will try to see both again and value for money at 150 pennies a band cannot be argued with. After finishing our drinks we go outside to liberate the bikes and tell one from each band how good they both were and the guy who puts the gigs on. Easy cycle home to find I've had a work / home keys mix up and have to knock up downstairs at half past midnight to let us have the spare set. Mortified we creep upstairs and quietly chat about the night listening out in case we woke the bairns below. So an embarrassing end (my fault) to a great night. Cheers Simmo and keep practicing those 80s dance grooves!

Media. As they say in the trade. Only got a couple of lo-fi shots of the support so you have a gratuitous one of the Olympic Park instead of Bouts. Am sure you'll see pics of them in a more widely read music blog sometime soon as they are quite attractive.

BELLWETHER: Poor quality but you can see all the band's heads except bassist

BELLWETHER: Better quality but just the singer

BELLWETHER: The bassist's face - fame for him at last!

As I hate to disappoint and failed with Bouts photos here's some I made earlier in the day...

Aquatics, Orbit, Stadium, Shard, The City

Art in the Park

Orbit against the clouds

View from my desk - Upton Park just right of the crane on the left hand side - in the foreground Stratford Shopping Centre a more pleasurable experience than Stratford Westfield which is on my side of the bridge

Sunshine On A Cloudy Day

Or I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud Part II.

Claire who I've mainly known as a festival buddy offered me a ticket to go see Sunshine Underground at Birthdays at the now beard achingly trendy Dalston which is so cool even Shoreditch and Hoxton residents say they live in South Dalston. It's a single ticket which she got for free on line I think as part of a pledge crowd sourcing thing for the new album. Anyway it's very much appreciated Claire. Thanks.

I get off the train at Dalston Kingsland into a murky darkening evening with a light sprinkling of rain and glancing over at what would be the start of Ridley Road Market, which looks as grimy as I remember it from years past, I wander north towards the gig passing the Dalston Rio independent cinema where I spent many a lonely night when living opposite a pub and above a chemist on Stoke Newington Church Street. A useful combination. The gig starts at 9.30 so I hang around by myself for a while in the bar before descending to where the gig is, of course underground. The DJ's spinning naughties pumping dance tunes and the atmosphere is good and expectant. Quite a mix of folk in here tonight and all up for it as I assume they've all pledged for the new album. This is a one off cosy gig before an autumn tour. The club is nice and sleazy with a vogueish industrial edge and the sound proofing egg cartons peeling off the ceiling.

The band come on to applause and launch into the set with everything going down well amongst the crowd whether old or new. The songs that is, not the age of the crowd. The four piece Sunshines deliver a quality tight set which starts off in a fairly funky Nu Wave flavour reminiscent of Talking Heads. This gets punters down the front dancing and it doesn't really let up although we could've had a bit more movement towards the back folks. We are treated to a great set of indieesque funky dance with some psychedeliky rocky parts thrown in for free. I can't help thinking Klaxons but maybe that is a little lazy and doesn't do justice to either the Sunshines or the Klaxons. The front man chats a bit to us even asking a couple of girls their names in an odd Liberace Live in Las Vegas sort of a way. They finish on a high leaving us shouting for more, well, the more optimistic of us, but of course no one does encores any more so we're left with just the hour of music.

Sunshine definitely Underground

Once out of the underground pit it's hardly sunshine not even moonshine but at least the rain has stopped and it's an easy journey home. I really enjoyed the gig and am so grateful for the ticket that I rashly text Claire offering a Glasto cocktail and even offered one for Mark. Hopefully they'll forget by mid June...

British Sea Power supported by East India Youth

No, this isn't a treatise on British imperialism and how the empire was built by dividing colonial factions to support British interests. Although that may be more interesting for the reader. I'm thinking of Bruce here which brings a chill shudder over me as I'm missing his big party. Soz Brucey I'll make it up to you. Somehow. Sometime. This is a week in Wood World with a review of BSP EIY before which you'll have to wade through some self indulgent nonsense. Then some more afterwards. I've put in lots of pics though to stem the boredom.

Last weekend (first in April) saw the full opening of the Olympic Park and I went along with Lily-Rose on the Sunday to check it out and to be on hand to trouble shoot any technical problems in the new visitor centre. They did have a problem and I didn't sort it out. Anyway we blagged a free visit up the Orbit with it's amazing 360 views of London and wandered around the Park taking in a festivalesque atmosphere laughing at the kids playing in the interactive fountain, watching jugglers and acrobats and listening to a great gospel choir. Albeit a bit preachy. But I guess that's the point of gospel. A visit to the peaceful north Park greenery then back into Westfield for Yo Sushi!

The City Spires

Olympic Park looking up the Lea Navigation

Water attracts kids

Entertainment

North Park Spheres

Monday and Tuesday I'm mainly working at home due to Easter holidays. The council are resurfacing our road and with all the cars off it you can imagine what it was like when first built with a wide thoroughfare and the old cobblestones poking through the hard core. How on earth have we allowed cars to take over our living spaces? Wednesday at a conference so not been in the office much at all then to 5-a-side where disaster strikes! Half way through the match going for a 50-50 challenge I kick my right foot into the pitch hard and it feels like I've broken three toes. I hobble about a bit then, as happens, the adrenalin kicks in and I carry on indeed scoring my only goal of the match. A good one too taking the ball off one of the more skillful lads and slotting in from an angle. After the match I take off my boot to find a blackened big toe nail which makes me queasy and both impresses and amuses my team mates. A visit to the pub and a cycle home makes me think that it's not so bad after all. Lovely new smooth road surface too. Last cycle for a few days though.

Next day I'm hobbling about with my big toe swollen and red and the nail black. I'm sort of hoping that it falls off and am now carrying big plasters just in case. Early evening meet Pete and mate Todd at Mornington Crescent and we make an earlyish start at Koko in order to catch the support band...

East India Youth delights us with a set very similar to when I saw him back in February and it goes down very well with the audience which I did wonder about as BSP fans are an older set and don't look like your usual avant garde technoheads. The set starts easily at first until EIY grabs his bass which is the cue for some crazy sampling of said basslines causing EIY to freak out and headbang and for us to be treated to full on techno dance stomping which for each track seems to finish way to soon. See Feb review for more detail. Must see him at a festival hopefully with longer set time to really draw out those techno beats. At the interval we sup a beer on the balcony overlooking Mornington Crescent and I find out that Todd has impressively been the NZ cycle team mechanic and ever more impressively gone down a Welsh hill at 60mph just last weekend. 40mph is my top speed (at least in recent times) and scared the bejesus outta me.

East India Youth

British Sea Power play a really hard edged set and as it's packed and I'm paranoid about my toe being stamped on we wander upstairs into the gods of this beautifully tall old music hall where I guess the atmosphere is not quite the same and you don't get the full effect of hard core rock and roll. Nevertheless the BSP get us dancing, well shuffling about and nodding to their whimsical brand of rock music which we like a lot, thanks for asking guys. I last saw them 3 years ago and they'd gone all anthemic on us but tonight they're back in the rock and roll freak out groove. Although not an expert I'm pretty sure they play a mix of old and new however the sea songs seem to be foreone unless they've rocked them up a bit. I'm happy to report that they still adorn the stage with foliage although a distinct lack of it on the punters. Guess we're all too worried that it'll be confiscated at the door and that we'll be reported to the constabulary for contravening some non foliage plucking by law. The encore is well deserved and we're treated to the surreal sight of a 10 foot brown bear taking the stage and bopping about shortly joined by a polar bear. Looks like two childrens TV characters have wandered onto the stage and a suitably weird way to end the evening.

British Sea Power with violinist

British Sea Power with big brown bear

Friday I wear my baseball boots to work as the most comfortable for my poor big toe. After work there's an Olympic Park opening drinks do on the park which is very pleasant as the place looks amazing and we are all proud, in a good way, that we all played our part in the transformation from Olympic site to new urban park. Then we're offered a trip up the Orbit to see London at night so for the 2nd time in a week I'm gazing over London thinking about how much I love the place.

My wonderful city at night from Stratford

Olympic Stadium from the Orbit

Olympic Park Avenue South

Interactive fountain, kids gone but a few adults playing in and cycling through once dark

As it's billed, a 24 hour park and tourist attraction

Orbit with Canary Wharf in the background

Saturday I'm on edge as it's FA Cup semi final day. Have tickets for myself and Jack and whilst Wigan are in the Championship, relegated last season after a 4-1 hiding by us, they've done the business on "let's buy a few trophies" Man City twice now. The atmosphere in Wembley is great and we're pretty close to the Wigan fans who make lots of noise often prompting us Gooners to raise our voices. I've seen The Arsenal here quite a few times as they used to play european nights here when Highbury was being done up, before the Ashburton Grove move. First time at the new stadium though. There's a minute silence to remember those of the Hillsborough disaster whose families are still being denied justice for both why the tragedy took place and the subsequent disgraceful cover ups. There are 96 seats left empty and draped with Liverpool scarves in memory. RIP. The minute silence is very soon broken by clapping which I guess is the football supporter's way of showing solidarity and support but call me old school I'd have preferred silence. I remember minute's silences at Highbury where you have literally heard a pin drop. Hillsborough was 25 years ago which was when we won the league after years in the wilderness. Last kick of the game against a complacent Liverpool which I missed was up the Andes at the time with no match reports (way before the internet kids). I guess it would be fitting for Liverpool to win the league this year. Not sure I want them to though! So to the game. We made quite a few chances but not enough and played pretty poorly to be honest. Our midfield seems to have disappeared. The crowd was less inclined to get on the backs of the team than at home games and gave them great support all the way through. The second half was spent standing old school terracing style which always helps the atmosphere. Even after their 60 minute dodgy penalty was converted (aren't all penalties against you dodgy) The Arsenal support was kept up. It's not like the Highbury days when we had a song for each player but we were still well behind them. With minutes to go our BFG (Big Friendly German, Mertesacker, replace the F with a less family friendly word whilst on the terracing) only goes and scores a header from about 3 foot off the ground which is impressive the way he got down to it. Game on. To be honest if Wigan had attacked after their goal instead of dicking about wasting time I honestly think that we were there for the taking. Anyhows we get our money's worth, quantity wise if not in quality, with extra time and then penalties. They're being taken at the goal near us but in front of the Wigan fans so a disadvantage for us. Wigan up first and FLAPianski truly does transform into FABianski by saving the first 2 and as we don't miss any by the time Ooooh Santi Carzooolaaa steps up it's all over. How can the little genius miss. Mass hysteria for us Gooners brought on by relief, happiness and knowing that we only have either Hull or Sheffield United between us and silverware after too long without. How can we possible not become FA Cup winners? Yeah, I know that supporting a football team is a guaranteed way for us humans to experience the exquisite anguish of disappointment but honestly how can we lose? Even the Toffees winning and going 4th hasn't dampened our spirits this evening. We've an easier run in than them haven't we.

Cheap at half the price. Cheers Chris appreciated.

The Army parade the team flags, all a bit weird and champions league like

First penalty kick - seconds from blissfulness

Mutual congratulations between players and fans

If anyone has got down this far, instead of just looking at the photos in true Sunday magazine manner, then you'll be glad to know that my toe seems to be improving although the nail is still worryingly wobbly. There are sports other than football available and today London is going thru the inconvenience of 1,000's of self righteous marathon runners closing our roads. I'm trying to find Paris - Roubaix cycling on telly and I think there's a couple of football matches on. Only Liverpool - Man C and the other semi.