1234 Shoreditch

I realised last year, while attending a big show at the O2, a bit painfully far away from the sweaty pit, that THAT would be the last time of me on a standing seat nor in such massive venue. A bit later I also learnt how I much more enjoyable small bands were, when playing at touching distance in very scruffy pubs (and potentially stalking them a bit during their first promo gigs.

Just as has been happening on the previous weekends, it all started with a Tweet, or more precisely, with a retweet. It all occured because of the guys from Don't Panic: They gifted me with a pair of VIP tickets for 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch Festival this last Saturday and I couldn't be more happy about it.

The venue: Shoredtich park. One of those dark black holes of unexplored London in my map and ridiculously close to places I very often visit.

The deal: small bands, up-coming groups in a 1-day urban festival organised in different small tents an an outdoors main stage. Or according to the Evening Standard: 'A line up so Hip that it's band will probably be out of fashion by the time they leave the stage'.

I took it as a fresh Saturday lesson of new music for me.

The first gamble of the evening came with La Femme, as I had vaguely read about them on the Internet the day before while trying to figure out what was essential to see. From second 2, we knew we were at the right place although they didn't announce their name until passed the second song.

I didn't understand a word of what they were saying, but it was not necessary. Their attitude was enough to keep us dancing throughout all their set, constantly commenting that we should check them out back at home.

My lack of expertise on the subject unables me to describe their music, but I could say they were some sort of 80's French Block Party. And I liked them a lot.

Time for freshen up a bit after Out of nowhere I spotted a terrific leather studded jacket.

A bit unconsciously, followed the guy and ipdiscovered that he was surrounded by more people wearing black outfits. I'm fact, a very big group was wearing a similar t-shirt. It said THE PUKES. That when we looked at the program and realised that THE PUKES were playing in around half an hour just there, at the Rat Pit.

On the meantime, we went for a walk to the Artrocker tent were we saw a bit of Nightmare Air but was not engaging enough. Right there in the middle of the tent, I quickly needed to an alternative to our current position, so my right hand went straight to my face, emulating me throwing up. It was too noisy for words, so it was the only efficient way of saying 'Let's risk it and let's go to see The Pukes'.

Still a bit confused about the name, we walked back to the Rat Pit and made our way into the sweaty and crowded front row, unveiling the true meaning of the band's name: Punk with Ukuleles.

The Pukes, a band of probably 15 musicians playing all sorts of different Ukuleles and a drum set. Such display of said tiny guitars could perfectly be the entire catalogue of Thomann Guitars or the entire stock of all the music shops around Denmark St.

Just as mix matched he ukuleles were, so were the musicians. And that's what made them absolutely enjoyable, such diversity and eagerness. They were having so much fun playing that so was all the tent. It was pretty good.

Got a badge from them.

I kind of want to buy an Ukulele now.

A bit after dinner time and making full use of the golden wristband, we bumped into the guys of London On The Inside. It turned out to be absolute perfect timing, as my limited bands-to-see references had run out an hour ago and they helped me with that.

While refilling our glasses and catching up with random business, they spotted Charles Rowell from the Crocodiles showing up in the little golden-wristband yard so they stopped him for a little chat, while me standing with a bit of a poker face. And that's how the first induction of the day started....

We went to see the Crocodiles show, apparently secret, filling the worrying 1-hour gap between Dirty Beaches (yes, we was also sort of headlining) and The Duke Spirit.

First thing I loved was Brandon Welchez's energy on stage. Pretty full-on. Nice moves by the way.

The guy was enjoying himself, and so were we.

Then I further learned that they are related to the Dum Dum girls for marital reasons. Small world!

Americans, from San Diego by the way.

The second induction from LOTI involved a female. According to them, there are 3 big women in the music industry that totally ooze fierceness and sexiness. The first, I can't remember, the second Alison Mosshart and the third Leila Moss from The Duke Spirit.

Back into the yard, refuelling, discussing about what said above, they run into a blonde woman and brought her to where we were. I was introduced to her but my second poker face of the moment was just happening so I didn't catch her name. But it was there, while chatting with her that I realised who she was, as very well described by the guys.

It was Leila herself.

And minutes after she was jumping into the stage. Oh wow!

And there she was, full on with her band. Not a disappointment at all

I came across lovely characters.

I swear I didn't plan the photo. Just happened. I just really liked her headdress.

After running off the big crowd back to the sweaty Rat Pit as I was slightly certain that I knew the band Zulu (for a moment I thought I was mistaken them with Zulu Winter) . We listened to the first song and then we shoot off back to the main stage, as it was clashing with one of the headliners. We got a bit confused. They were quite peculiar. The are on my list of bands to double check at home.

By the time the sun was hiding, it was show time for more girl action on the main stage.

Deap Vally. Guitar and drum set. Just in the style of the White Stripes.

The singer, Lindsey Troy  has an amazing voice.

I said about up-cycling...

And time for the Buzzcocks, the headliners of the festival and part of history. I couldn't miss it.

Steve Diggle giving it all with his white Telecaster. I'm kind if liking them a lot lately.

Pete Shelley

I sang (we ALL DID) along 'Ever Fallen in love'.

We managed to squeeze in to see Citizens! At the Artrock tent, but I was so tired I didn't even take a picture.

All in all, 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch was VERY good. I missed it last year, when The Raveonettes were playing, so managed to show up this year. In my opinion, the concept was ideal: small bands = bands discovery. Urban location = no awkward muddy camping nor taking days off. And price, well, I did not pay for the entrance, but 20 pounds for the whole day is rather good value for money for the whole day (and apparently better organized than the year before).

Let's see what they bring next year. That will be another story.

Random

This weekend was quite random.

First, on Saturday, I reserved my afternoon for a mysterious experience in Hoxton. I think I found it through this week's Le Cool newsletter, and as soon as I read the description, I signed in to get my slot for the day. Actually, it was the fact that it involved finding out about the location by means of clues sent days in advance and reading about it what made it quite interesting for me.

The event was called Traces, and it was basically a very elaborated art/furniture/jewellery display by upcoming artist inspired on the location and the theme around it.

The clues lead, drop by drop (actually, a few of them spreaded around the area, literally posted in random places) by email and Twitter, narrowing the location around Shoreditch and providing with a big of insight and history about the area, but specifically in the corner of Hoxton Overground Station. Just there in the corner: a derelict Victorian Pub in 32 Cremer Street, formerly called Harwar St. The team made a research on the archives to find out that the upstairs part of said pub, used to be a brothel (and one of the reasons was that it was a normal practice at the time, not to specify on the registry of the establishment the type of activity carried out). From them, the team developed a story, some characters and found the group of artist to base their pieces on it.

The result was a candlelit building, hidden behind a green main door, with a dense atmosphere very well recreated with the help of dried flowers, wood and all sorts (plus the +30 degrees hitting the streets of London at that time, that made it more victorian-realistic but a bit unbearable).

Everything was touchable, smellable and obviously observable. Actually, the story was so elaborate that there were (fictional) love letters from clients to the girls showing their love and subsequent anger for being ignored, very clearly portrayed in the evolution of the handwriting (the last letter of the admirer had a very clear upset calligraphy).

Such a peculiar way of exhibiting artists artwork. Definitely worth popping around, but what a pity not to be able to capture some images of the rooms.

Some more info about the pieces here.

Although for some reason I was expecting a treasure hunt or more mystery solving in there, I thought that showcasing pieces this way is a really good idea. Much more engaging, fun and different (oh well, and FREE).

 

And then my usual Sunday street art hunt, that normally ends up in Shoreditch, as it the epicentre for most of the pieces of a big chunk of artists. I went straight to Ebor St to, first of all, take evidence of the new Flip's piece.

 

 

Nice fluorescent squid with a furry cat (?) on top. Flip

Being already in the area, I remember I read about the Mexican Festival going on this weekend in Rich Mix, so I decided to pop around to sneak in and get the latest edition of the free musical magazines around.

As per usual, I took a look at the downstairs part, where the cafeteria is, as it always shows interesting little exhibitions. Actually, I went there back in May to check CityzenKane's stuff within touching distance and I loved it.

Surprise: I came across a lot of little postcards sticked to the walls. The space was empty, but there was Sarah Hyndman. Sarah is actually the person behind the exhibition, so as soon as she saw that I was quite interested, she introduced herself and briefed me into the concept of the Project.

It is called Random Project 2012, and it is a project made by people all around the world. The idea starts from choosing a number from 1 to 100. Each number is related to a specific word, so once chosen, the participants had to design a postcard related to that word and London.

 

 

 

The result is therefore, an interpretation of the views of Londoners and visitors towards that That given word and the city; or literally citing:

Random Project 2012

A growing collection of postcards which are created by everybody. These celebrate 2012 and are visually documenting a historic year. Curated by Sarah Hyndman.

Sarah's idea is to ultimately, by the end of the year, order all the postcards chronologically to get a better picture of the feelings of the participants towards the City, specially to be able to detect the change of behaviour or awareness towards the Olympics games, before and after.

 

Just as Sarah was explaining to me the concept I was getting more and more excited about it. I am aware of how blindly I am in love with London, but some others are not as much. Probably people born and raised here have seen enough of it, or tourist may have a hard time when coinciding with some disruptions in the tube; others may have the most exciting trip of their lives and others may find London just dull and overcrowded.

But it is that essence, the pros and cons, the black and the white, the good and the bad and the colourful range of opinions and points of view in between what makes it exciting. For such an overcrowded yet lonely city, this is a great way of putting together all the thoughts and make it a bit warmer.

 

Bank Holiday.

People may or may not agree with the presence of the Queen in this country, but the fact that the Jubilee is celebrated and involves a Bank Holiday is reason enough to be happy.

 

 

A visitor from Amsterdam and the ticket evidence of his/her trip to the Olympic Site

 

Great British Sunday with a Roast

 

 

 

 

Looks like it is getting a bit crowded at 10 Downing St. One at a time! (Oh, and a bit of summer romance of Boris and David).

 

 

 

 

Somebody was quite happy for Wiggins

 

 

 

Because we all know that diamond is made of carbon. Just as graphite, but different structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

'This is not like home'. Is it better? Is it worse?

 

OH-O. I am in your pants. This one confused me. H2O? Water? I tried to applied my organic chemistry knowledge but couldn't come up with a solution. What can be in your pants with so many OH and O groups? The first thing I though was sugar, but then, it is a bit strange.

 

 

 

London. The COOLest capital! A bet this person came when it was pouring rain. Still, a lovely drawing of the city (observe the fact that is full of pigeons hehe)

 

 

I liked this one a lot. I suppose the given word was SILVER, easily linked to Silver medal for example. But is is funny how this person has related silver to grey silver hair. I would say that this person is quite young but is starting to get his/her first and becoming conscious about it. Still, he/she dignifies them by naming them Silver instead of the ordinary and depressing grey. Good one.

 

Somebody had a nice and peaceful view of the full moon laying on the grass.

 

 

Full-on football fan and fervent twitter user. I loved the way the person captured the reaction of the famous social network with all the hashtags (#Euro2012) involved and the users.

 

 

Academy Awards 2012. 'Most Miserable' performance in a feature film. A hope this person was talking about the closing ceremony.

The impressive thing is that the participants come from all around the world. From Sao Paulo to Mumbai, and all ages.

 

 

The worse thing is that I almost didn't get to see this. Just when I arrived at Rich Mix, Sarah was taking the last pictures to shut the doors of the exhibition in less than an hour.

 

But Random Project is not finished. As I said, the project will wrap up in December, with a big layout of the time scale and the evolution of the city from the point of view of resident and visitors in Postcard format. Needless to say, there is still time to send more, so do it:

 

Pick a number between 1 & 100 and send it to word@random-project.co.uk.
We'll email you your word and full details.

But talking about randomness... what's going on lately at the Sunday (Up) Market in Brick Lane?

 

Climbing walls apparently...

 

Arrow of love? Robin Hood came all the way from Nottingham to see the Olympics? A little Viking invasion?

I will find out, but that will be another story

 

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