Weavin an rockin

I arrive bang on time, of course, and Maya is fashionably late, of course, sporting her new trendsetting haircut. We negotiate the bouncer with no problems (Maya's forgotten ID) and go straight up to the venue where we sit on the floor of the near empty space wondering if anyone under 40 is going to come along tonight. They don't. Good grooves played tho. Soon a shimmering red outfit takes the stage and the three piece who are Tender Prey launch into a garage inspired set. Studiously watching the bassist I'm thinking yeah I could do that. Well, quite a lot of it. The Tenders have a hit it hard drummer pounding out the beat which must be hot under that hat. Backed up by a bassist who looks like he's just come from some startup workplace who is pretty bang on with the beat (I now notice these things having found out how hard it is). Both fronted by the woman in the shimmering red sequined hot pants type thing who plays a mean grungy garage guitar and sings with enthusiasm and style. They've definitely come from Garageland but that doesn't mean they don't know how to play and their set isn't all thrash or simple rock. It gets pretty funky at time when the bass picks up and the vocals range from shouty to sweet singing. And we get a bit of chat between tunes so we know that at least the singer guitarist comes from the Welsh region of Garageland. A good start and Maya is fairly impressed I think despite still being the youngest here. By a generation.

A quick kit change and the lights dim whilst the four guys take the stage before the tumultuous (well, fairly enthusiastic) welcome for Jane Weaver. She seems to be wearing the same outfit as when I saw her at Latitude including the festival pass on her calf. To be fair the dress is great for projecting images on so no wonder she wears it a lot (see photos below). We get warmed up with a couple of ethereal space rock numbers which is the only time I'm going to mention the Hawkwind influence in this review. Although there is a lot of it in there. Last time I saw them they were missing the bassist and guitarist (stuck in traffic en route to Latitude) so it was a more minimalist set. This time it's a lot more funky with the bass and the guitarist's meanderings and solos give us a less krautrock feel and more, well, let's just say a more space rock feel. Jane plays keyboards every so often and we have a guy on knob twiddling synth duties too. After the treat of a few psychedelic numbers with shimmering guitars and synths Jane tells us she's going into a couple of slower numbers so to sidle up closer to whoever we're with. Maya takes a step away from me. The next couple of tunes really show off Jane's voice which has a great range and soars over the music and out into the hall. Someone shouts "beautiful" which isn't something I often hear yelled at gigs but he's spot on and Jane is obviously grateful to accept the compliment. After a bit more eyes closed swaying about the band go into a more electronic groove verging on out and out dance for a while getting a few of the static punters at least nodding. Must be the ageing audience but Maya and I are about the only ones moving in time to the music apart from a tall beardy bloke grooving to the left of us. We're rocking now and if this was a more mobile audience we could even be dancing. Possibly jumping up and down! Anyways the music is built up to a peak and with the projections we're zoned out and back in the day. Well I am. Maya is sort of just in the today which is where teenagers should be. Great stuff. All too soon the band leave the stage but of course we're treated to a couple of tunes for the encore one having Jane on the guitar. Then the band are off. A great gig and well worth seeing again. Maya's enjoyed it too. We make our way outside through the main pub downstairs which is packed with hipsters about Maya's age. Well, possibly a little older but at least the same generation. They don't know what they've missed.

Jane complete with previously missing bassist

In full flow yeah!

Eyes closed swaying

A rare glimpse of the drummer - just so he don't feel left out

Space outfit

The elusive guitarist

Great dress for projections Jane

Rockin'

Made an effort to dress up. The guitarist that is...

Yay for the drummer

We aren't the mods

Meeting Bruce in sunny St Pancras we decide to eat al fresco rather than sit in a stuffy cafe and armed with sarnie, samosas and four cans of Polish lager we sit out in the little square near Drummond Street opposite the pub. Are lagers are decanted into Stella and wine glasses to blend into the post office crowd. Bruce is so far impressed with the London Costcutter prices and frugality of the evening. Then it's up to Kentish Town to meet our chums at the Assembly House pub which is packed. Eventually Pete, Simon, Olly and Cameron arrive buying rounds the latter then hotfooting it down to town to find his mate. Young uns. Don't ask. We wander up to the Forum just in time to catch the start of the hotly anticipated Steve Ignorant's Slice Of Life. He's ditched the post punk wall of noise rowdiness that was the brilliant Crass and gone all folky on us. I guess you got to move on, or back as it seems. The band are good, guitar, bass, keys, and it's sort of novel to have a mild folk group with a still very shouty and angry vocalist. His lyrics are cutting and funny and mostly very true. Steve's lost none of the energy of old. But a few songs in the novelty wears off and without a hard edged backing band the forcefully delivered lyrics lose their edge. However he goes down pretty well and we all give him a good sending off at the end. Back to the Norfolk lifeboat team I assume. A quick toilet and bar break and the dance floor has filled up for the Sleaford Mods. It's a good mixed crowd here with all sorts of ages and fashions. Not just older men which I was a bit worried about given the age of the Sleamods. The Mods make for a strange stage show. The guy who must write the music and program the sound machine just stands on the left hand side with his arms crossed looking nonchalant throughout the set. I think he went forward a couple of times to press the start button but that looked about it. On the other hand our singer is all over the shop giving it is all shouting over the techno dancy indie beats. To be honest the intensity and presence of the singer sort of makes you forget about the music until you realise that you're jigging about. And then you realise that jigging about a bit doesn't do the show justice and eventually we all ended up creeping forward until ensconced in the fairly civilised mosh pit. The music is raw and the singing more so. It is a throwback to Crass and their angry shouting with similarly political and social commentary lyrics. The intensity of our singer adds to the electric atmosphere as he alternately grips onto the mic stand or paces about with a nervous rubbing of his head repetitively. Whether an act or not it certainly gives you the feeling that he's on the edge and makes for a heady joyful bordering on dangerous vibe. A couple of surfers are hauled over the barriers by security - I'm not sure how the Sleafords take to people invading their stage and thankfully we don't find out as the culprits are marched off stage left. A lucky escape if the band don't like others on their stage. The gig is great and everyone seems to love them. All too soon they're off and after a brief encore the singer leaves with the musician taking photos of us all. After regrouping from the four corners of the dance floor I then manage to lose everyone en route to the pub cos I stop to chat to a Crass T shirt wearing punter. Reunited at the not so old Bull and Gate (at least it's had a not so welcome face lift) we chat away until firstly Pete then Simon sensibly depart. The rest of us are chatting too much to each other and strangers and miss the last tube which is unforgivable and Bruce and I make it back to Balham by bus and taxi following a drunk girls can't decide whether to get in the taxi situation which is par for London. We stay up late supping tea and chatting about the evening.

Feeling fragile the next day I cycle up to Simon's to go see Dulwich Hamlet thrash the Vickers (VCD Athletic) opposition 5-2 with a pretty good crowd of 2,000 which ain't bad for a non league club and four times anyone else in their division yesterday. Lovely and sunny and a couple of pints sorts out any post night blues. Olly comes over in the evening to drink chat and see the end of England's rugby humiliation. Ha. Sunday is the annual Glastonbury festival ticket farce and after not getting them last year it's in trepidation that I'm repeated hitting the refresh button across a range of devices and window. Luckily Prof Melvin does the business and I find out that others have tickets too. Should be a good one. A beautiful day so I cycle round Tooting Common with Jack before settling down to watch Arsenal completely dominate Manure. Sorry Olly. More enjoyable than the rugby.

As no pics of the bands here is Dulwich Hamlet 2-0 up I think

The home end (i.e. whichever one Hamlet are attacking)

Dulwich Ultras