Some Voices sing Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet

My work colleague Mylene sings in a choir and having missed her at Koko back in the summer I was keen to see her next show. I bought a ticket thinking that quite a few from work were going along but it was sold out and it was only myself and another guy. This guy went home to change so I went along for the 7.30 start on my own catching the train to Hackney Central. Walking through the damp dark Saint John-at-Hackney churchyard I saw a massive queue snaking out of the grounds and down the road merging with a local bus stop queue. I've not been at a gig with a queue that long for a long time and rather than stand around I pop into the local for a quick drink and to watch some of the league cup on the telly. Getting on the end of the queue which at least is going down I get in just before 8.30. The place is massive - one big square hall with really high ceiling. It has a gallery up high and a massive pipe organ sprouting out from it. I bump into Mylene who is sporting her new hawaiian patterned dress. I forgot to mention that I was dressed up in my hawaiian shirt as I was allocated as on the Montague side and asked to dress appropriately. There were a lot of blokes in such attire so I didn't feel too out of place. After a quick scout up the gallery the show starts with a soloist and I scoot back down to where the seething throng is, well, seething. Soon it gets a little less crushed as the choir leave the main floor and make their way to the stage to squeeze into a crazily small space. There are 200 in the choir. Turns out that all my fellow hawaiian shirt wearers are in the choir so I'm sort of left on my own now.

The event is a choiral rendition of the songs from Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet film which I haven't seen. We have a three piece band supporting them and a guy up in the pulpit quoting Shakespeare every so often I guess to help us along with the story. So the story gets going and wow what a great sound 200 singers make. They are all really into it and the two halves of the stage, split down the middle by antagonistic families, are swaying in time away and toward each other shaking their fists and generally hamming it up. Brilliant. The songs range from disco dancing (Candi Staton's Young Hearts) a bit of indie (Radiohead Talk Show Host) and some really moving solos and surround sound choirals. At one point some of the choir are up on the gallery and one guy in particular sings a great solo filling the room without a mike. Obviously toward the end it gets a bit atmospheric and I find tears in my eyes when they break out into Hallelujah. Reminds me of being at church when a kid with my family. Moving. The choir leaves to rapturous applause and come on for one more before clapping the conductor, the band, us and of course themselves. I finally spot David and have a quick drink with him and his mate and Mylene and beau before heading off into the night. A great show. I find out later that they were 3 choirs only brought together for a couple or rehearsals as a group. Incredible how they all kept such a together performance and seemed so professional. Can't wait for the next event...

St John's church with snaking queue

The show begins

The choir - Some Voices indeed

The choir again

The gallery and organ - the guy at 11 o'clock was fantastic

Medieval techno

Having got four free tickets each Simon and Jules get two friends along, who I last saw at the Tooting Tramshed for Simon's big Hawaii birthday bash, but only the gigging stalwart Pete takes one of my four. Other offers turned down due to work or cos it's too far from south London or too cold. Or both. We meet at 8 in the Shacklewell Arms and after a chat and a drink go into the venue's back room for the band. There's only one on tonight who are the Finnish K-X-P. Pete and I are excited by the prospect of two drummers which means there is little room for anyone else on the tiny stage. The three boys take the stage from the front as needs must and with their hoods up to a man we hardly see their faces the entire set even though they're about 6 foot away. They start off fairly slowly and understated with one drummer using sticks and the other alternating between gong type big fat hitters and jazz type cymbal worrying. With near noodling slacker grungesque guitar a lot of head nodding starts in the audience. Well the little of it I could see as we were pretty close to the stage. Row two if anyone was counting. Row one and a half for a while. Anyways the tempo picks up and during a couple of numbers we are moved along nicely from our comfortably numb Pink Floyd era into a more inner city unit vibe as the hooded claws come over all psychedelic with Hawkwind space rituals masters of the universe gazing the only interruption being Nik Turner vocals channeled through the guitarist. That's about the only singing he does sort of shouty with loads of echo bouncing his yells around the space. At one point the cowl slips off our singer and we see his hair for half a song but it's soon back up. You're not that bad looking mate. Maybe he's embarrassed as he's wearing what looks like a studded leather apron like some medieval outcast from The Hobbit films. My vegan principles are appalled but Pete says he's drinking soya milk so either he's a carnivorous straight edger with a lactose intolerance or he's got a faux leather apron on. Either way he looks a bit odd. Maybe at this point I should say something more about the music after all that's why we're here and try to avoid lazy comparisons. The drummer at the back, see pics, who is hidden behind the pointless stage set from those at the side, seems to be the one driving the beat forward with some pretty damn sharp and metronomic stick work. The drummer stage left (that's to our right) with the fat sticks I don't know the name of does a lot of cymbal work and generally fills in the percussion gaps. Not that he's just a filler as what he does is an instrument in it's own right. Having two drummers in a three piece band is pretty brave. These guys really drive the set along and give us the foot tapping beats. Apron boy varies between strummy grungy shoe gazing head nodding riffing and noodly straight in front gazing guitar neo-licks and big smile ceiling gazing keyboard synth soaring at times and smacking us around the chops at others. Yeah they are good. A few within my range get moving and must admit I was shuffling about and nodding my head like it was a Wednesday night of old and me practicing me headers which I was never that great at but Pete do you remember that glancing header which was entirely meant oh no of course it was just before you arrived and you never believed me or the boys that I done it. Sorry bout that but it's the sort of meandering that listening to K-X-P puts you in. Back to lazy comparisons. These guys are pure festival small tent techno merchants who need to be seen after a heavy day's trudging about in the mud early hours just when you want to get some smooth vibes but really need a dose of full on psychedelic techno beats to squeeze that last bit of energy out of the day. And then some more. So those who can't imagine early Pink Floyd and ain't seen Hawkwind in full force with Nik T taking over I guess you could file next to Hookworms. Possibly. Or early Sabbath when they were understated and played pure blues albeit with a ridiculously heavy vibe with a little jazzy meandering if they'd formed a band now and had to use synths and get all techno to engage the kids. I think it was Pete who summed it up as we were walking back to Dalston Kingsland: Medieval Techno. Spot on. Go see them while they're this good. It will not last in it's present form as the reformation will cast aside all hooded catholic genre mongers such as the mighty K-X-P

The boys with hoods on

They'll never be let into Lakeside for their Yuletide Shoppeing

Footage courtesy of Jules. Ta. But it's Quicktime so you may not be able to play (worthwhile tho):

Ally Pally Courtney Metronomy

Having discovered the brilliant Courtney Barnett earlier in the year by accident on Spotify or DIYmag.com I then failed to see her live at Field Day and Glastonbury. Don't ask about the former and the latter I had her sets marked on my schedule three times but for each was either somewhere completely different just beforehand or the time got lost in the maelstrom that is Glastonbury. Well, you don't really go there to see a particular band do you? So I was very excited that Courtney and band were touring this winter although not sure what they'd be like in the cavernous hall that is Ally Pally providing support to Metronomy. I splashed out on two tickets and seeing as Debbie isn't into deadpan bordering on miserablist singing I thought I'd invite my 17 year old daughter Maya along as teenagers love that sort of thing. So I find myself waiting outside the station in freezing temperatures for my fashionably late daughter before trekking up the slopes to Alexandra Palace and into the venue. Weird being in the palm court with Maya going to see a band instead of letting her run around like a mad thing which is what we were doing last time I was here with her a decade ago. Security don't like the look of me, what's an old git like that coming to see Metronomy for I guess was the view, and I get a full on frisk with Maya probably worrying about anyone she might know (a) seeing her go to a gig with her dad and (b) seeing her dad get practically cavity searched on the way in. After my "bouncer massage" as I like to refer to body frisks we quickly skip past the hall of stinking burgers and real ales making for the main hall where we catch the last few songs of...

NZCA LINES. The NZCAs entertain us with a modern interpretation of 80s electronica which is pretty competent and grabs the attention of the few punters that have come in early to support the support acts. After negotiating drinks at the empty bar we go down to the front to see out the last couple of songs and give them some applause along with the rest of the crowd. They seem very appreciative that we've come early to see them, it's only just 7.30, and they're a good act to warm us up. More so than the dodgy DJ who is pretty uninspiring. As with all big stages it takes more time than it needs to to set up a couple of guitars but soon enough Courtney and band had finished tuning up (they obviously can't afford to take roadies round the world) and after another few minutes the lights dim and to loud applause the stage is taken by...

The minimalist NZCA Lines

COURTNEY BARNETT and band. Maya thinks it's a shame that these bands named after one person are a little unfair but I guess that CB is the songwriter and driving force. As I said I was a little unsure as to how Courtney's whimsical yet poignant lyrics and often understated sound would come over in a big hall with high ceilings. From the start they filled it up with noise. Fantastic noise. The first few numbers were straight out of the rock and roll rule book and I was surprised by what a big sound they project. Each song seemed to go on for ages, I didn't time them, with great contributions from each of the band members and Courtney's voice really being thrown out there. I wasn't prepared for full on rock posturing and guitar solo near on noodling and it blew away any worries I had about them. Courtney plays a really big rhythm guitar sound sort of deep twangy country (appropriately as it's an anagram of her name give or take an E and what's that between friends) or old big blues vibe which is a brilliant sound around which the others play. The bassist drives everyone along and every so often breaks out into something a little more funky reminiscent of Zappa getting funky or Parliament Funkadelic getting rocky. Drummer keeps us all nodding with a tight beat and is obviously on cue with Courtney as she brings the songs up and down in tempo and noise levels. Particularly impressed with the lead guitarist who varied between full on rock blasting, screaming guitar solos over the rest of the band and more gentle twiddling and infilling in the middle of the set where we're taken down a notch or two from the full on start of the set. Every song is a classic and as they build up to a crescendo the whole band are rocking out like they've been watching too many Deep Purple videos on the tour bus. Towards the back of the set Courtney introduces the excellent Avant Gardner which I've spent far too much of the last 6 months listening to. This was my acid test - how to put across such a lo fi slacker song with those lyrics in Ally Pally Ballroom. Just right is the answer. Ain't this just the best verse of the 2010's so far:
I take a hit from
An asthma puffer
I do it wrong
I was never good at smoking bongs
I'm not that good at breathing in

I'm not that good at breathing in

I'm not that good at breathing in
Rock and Roll indeed! The video is great too.
Anyways, all too soon Courtney is waving goodbye to the steadily growing and appreciative crowd and they exit stage right to thunderous applause. Wow. They nailed it.
I go off for a quick comfort break climbing the stairs down which the women are queueing. As Maya says, the toilet ratio is so unfair, or words to that effect. The boys room is getting invaded by women as I leave and I meet Maya downstairs. She tells me that she was fiddling on her phone and when she looked up Courtney herself was passing going through a guarded door. As we peer through seeing if we can see the band her and the drummer come back out and I collar them to tell them what a fantastic set they played. Very appreciative they linger for a chat asking if we're from London, Maya was born a mile away, and Courtney says that she really likes my shirt. The brown one with white flower design. Very chuffed and feeling well cool I tell her that I have a shirt like hers (black with white polka dots, like the other guitarist had) and ask if they'd seen the view of London from the terrace before it got dark. After a giving a quick history of the Peoples Palace and it's two razings to the ground by fire their interest is replaced by gazing around abstractedly and as someone else has come for a chat and we decide to leave them to it. Ruing that I didn't ask for a selfie with the two rock and rollers Maya seems quite happy that I didn't as my shirt related street cred points would've been cancelled out by cheesy grinning. Phew, thank goodness for the youth keeping us oldies in check. We go back into the main hall wondering how the packed outer food and drink hall will fit into the packed main hall. Quite easily as it turns out but it was getting pretty tight down towards the front where very soon we were treated to the entrance of...

Courtney and friends making sure the timings right

CB band singing heartily

The band rock out

METRONOMY who are resplendent in white suits (boys) and white jump suit (drummer). A bit like my concern about CB I wondered how Metronomy would fill the hall especially with their new material which is hardly stadium rocking stuff. Also concerned as most bands who decide to wear matching suits, white ones at that, are probably on their way down. I guess they always have coordinated their dress. Again, my fears were allayed from the outset. I'd seen Metronomy a few times but not for a couple of years having missed seeing them at Glastonbury, there's a theme with this gig, but heard them as the tent they were playing in was far too jammed. Ramsay and Jo fought their way in but Debs and I chat outside with others. If my memory serves me right. Back to the music. They play a brilliantly diverse set mixing old classics with new tunes that hold their own in the big space. They range from keyboard based rock, pure full on funk (great bassist fit for Parliament) through to the poppier side of what I guess is dub step (James Blake-ish) and into pretty full on rave dance. Getting the crowd going for every song and although not everyone is dancing madly enough are grooving around (sorry Maya!) to make a party atmosphere. We even get a rendition of Here Comes The Sun which goes down well (the DJ had played the Beatles before they came on). The light show is great and the white suits and music furniture fit really well visually. We get a lot of chat as usual introducing the band about three times to great applause and giving them each a bit of space for soloing. All too soon they are off but we know that they'll come back on. When they do they apologise for the the parts of the audience who could see them crouching by the side of the stage waiting to come back on, obviously not a back stage as such, and after the first song of the encore say thanks very much for coming out on a cold evening and asking for a show of hands for those having to get night buses. Then a show for those who are being picked up by parents. Maya looks sheepish as she is already with her parent and I laugh about it. Then we are told they'll say goodbye now as the next two songs won't allow any chat. They launch into a couple of full on dance tunes finished up by a song I'd forgotten about the very danceable You Could Easily Have Me which gets just about everyone jiving or grooving or whatever the youth do these days. Not a lot of twerking thank god. Soon enough they finish and with a last farewell and waving with big grins they're off. We hit the freezing night air and along with a few thousand others gaze out over the lights of London whilst wandering down the hill to the station. After farcically running between two platforms up and over the footbridge as they keep on changing the platform numbers Maya and I eventually get on a train and I walk her home before getting the tube back down south. Weary but happy.

Funky bass and throbbing lights

Odd keyboard synchronisation going on on the right hand side