London Crawling
Holiday In The Sun!

London, August 1997. Heat! Humidity! Pepto Bismol!
Parklife. Citylife. Sunbeams everywhere. Get some water, get a fan!

Saturday August 9th: Upstairs at the Garage, Highbury Corner. Victoria Line to Highbury & Islington.

A black box venue, with powergirl DJ's! On stage:

n-fed - we came too late to judge ...

Snowpony - with bass+drums+vocals+sampled sounds and noise-bits. Katherine Gifford (ex-Stereolab), ? Shields (brother of the My Bloody Valentine-Shields?), plus someone (?, sorry, don't know the name, from Quickspace Supersport). A kool live experience, a bit monotonous on records. A rougher Portishead. Go see them play live (they've recently toured USA, with Luna). Or check out their singles: Easy Way Down and Chocolate In The Sun (released on See No Evil). Or the Rough Trade Singles Club 7", The Little Girls Understand Snowpony, Come & Sit Here On Your Daddy's Knee b/w Who's Gonna Be Your Daddy When I'm Gone? All songs by Kath. Breast is best! And; buy a slim-fit t-shirt...

Gin-and-Tonic. Ignition. Overdrive. Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh ...... The night turned black. End.

Wednesday, August 13th: Get on the bus? Got on the bus! London - Manchester. A rainy day, a long ride. To a most famous venue, a so-called theatre where dreams are supposed to come through. Not this night. Well, some of them did. Been there! The home-boys scored, the visitors didn't. Back to London by bus, by night. Close to hell...but we survived.

Heat still on. Hot. Sweat. A pint of cider, please. And some dry-roasted peanuts.

Saturday August 16th: The Bull and Gate, Kentish Town. Northern Line to Kentish Town.

A friendly pub with a back-room stage. One night, four bands:

She Said - from Northern Wales. Formerly known as Dogman. Then a quartet, now a trio. Vox/guitar. Bass/b-vox. Drums. Powerful. Thight. Good songs, neatly arranged, strong vocals. A bit like The Posies. Really sympathetic. Watch out!

Blow - from where? A promo-babe on vocals. Not a bad voice. And doing a funny run through the audience. A bit schizophrenic musically. Indie-ethno-jangly-pop. Two guitarists, a bassman, a drummer. The turquoise Rickenbacker-man tried to smash up his guitar. A sun-induced tension coming to the surface? Nervousness?

Egg Timers - a local band? A quartet fronted by a barefooted young lady. One man on keyboards, a bassplayer, and a links drummer. Quirky music. Charming. Joyful. The singer jumping and smiling. B52's? Available soon/now on single.

1.000 mph - top of the bill. Why!? Some U2-Britpop-mixup-wannabe-pop-stars of misunderstanding and clumsiness. The vox-man was so wrong. I say; give'em an enormous speeding ticket!

Then we met our friend «Henry», from the outskirts of film. A minor star. Finally we went home, passing an up-town rumble.

Sunday August 17th: The Half Moon, Putney. District Line to Putney Bidge, then a short walk across the River Thames. Luna Kafé staff at a venue called Half Moon? Hmmm. We came to see Kidnapper. They couldn't come, but we were the last ones to know. We got to see:

Solarburst - a quartet from all over; Hull, Worthing, Australia... Living in London, being a band for just six months. Not bad! Not easy to describe their music: semi-desperate vocals, half-weird, calm rock, showing glimpses of orginality, with some bluesy parts. Not acting like pop-stars, but a sympathetic four-some. By rehearsing and gigging they will grow. Best of luck!

Gaz - a quintet doing mostly cover-versions. Terrible sound, terrible everything! Crap! Goodnight!

Final day. Exit England. We'll be back!

With thanks to Pingo & Hans Olav (Mr.Kirk)

Copyright © 1997 Håvard Oppøyen