Howdy, would you like to play at one of London's friendliest venues where the sound is truly excellent? Want to be on bills that have been put together with a bit of thought? Want to be paid all the door rather than some insulting percentage as lots of venues see fit to do? Read on. Please mail me rather than leave a comment.

I am looking for bands for the following shows in March and April, the list is getting smaller...

Saturday 21st March
Melodic, indie, post punk, similar

Thursday 26th March
Upbeat, folky, bluesy, Balkan, indie

Friday 3rd April
Blondie, riot grrrrl, similar

Tuesday 7th April
Surfy, lively, melodic upbeat.

Saturday 18th April
Indie, postpunk, melodic

Thursday 23rd April
Highly melodic indie like The Las or similar

Friday 24th April
Electro pop

Saturday 25th April
Heavy riffs, maybe grungey or similar

Thursday 30th April
Talking Heads or similar, danceable indie

We have recently had the whole venue sound treated so it is sounding very crisp. These are inhouse run shows at The Good Ship in Kilburn so we need bands who are happy to promote massively. We will pay you all the door less a tiny cut to the sound engineer; we wouldn't ask otherwise. Message me and I'll be back in a jiffy.

If you do not fit any of those but you are a similar sort of band and want to play beyond May then please get in touch too.

cheers
John

Warning, even though I have edited myself in the subject I may not be able to as I rant on.

Last night at The Good Ship I had a load of people in who ranged in age from 18 to about 45 with a couple of older folk and Michael who must be at least 70 but loves it.  As much as we love him.

All walks of life, posh folk, local geezers and geezerettes, few indie haircuts, a good old mix.  Dancefloor jumping and lots of smiley faces, lovely.

And then at about half past midnight a couple of chaps came along and said they were with a party in one of the gastro pubs not a million miles from us and as they were in a large group could they have it at a bit of a discount.  I said we'd let them in for £3 rather than the usual £5 (free entry before 1030 kids!) which the 2 reconnaissance mission people said was cool.and 10 minutes later their crowd turned up.  A bunch of about 20, mostly pretty drunk, quite obnoxiously loud.  Well dressed in a kind of 25 going on 45 sort of way, the women a little bit fond of their own voices, probably all on loads of coke.  Anyway for the next 15 minutes I had to deal with most of them asking could they have entry for £2 instead and could the birthday boy get in free etc.  A couple of the people in the party were all right and one especially was ace; giving us the cash and telling the rest of them to stop being so fucking tight.  Good lad. 

Anyway, I got reports from the bar staff of general obnoxiousness, one girl ordering 5 drinks and then going to ask a friend for some money and not having any so then disappearing.  I heard this same yuppie bitch trying to get all psychology on some poor lad who was just drunkenly raving.  They lasted about an hour until the vast majority of them left no doubt to reconvene at one of their houses to shovel up some more coke and talk more shit about how they great they all are and what a funny experience they had amongst the proles.

Obnoxious, self obsessed, snob cunts the lot of them.

Anyway, I feel better now.  Have a lovely week everybody.

 

cheers

John.x 

 

PS.  I am soooooo trendy that what I am listening to isn't even in that database, haha.  Where's your child by Bam Bam, check it out, very darkly humourous.

 

Rightyho, I have heard 100s of bands since I stumbled across myspace in late summer 2005 and none have had the immediacy or the long lasting appeal of Awful Sparks.  Listen to their tunes and I dare you to not have a smile on your face.  They are a breath of the freshest of air and I'm delighted to say that they are headlining The Good Ship this Thursday.  They cite Steve Malkmus, Talking Heads and Minutemen which is all very nice but to me they bring to mind The Rakes and Madness which works miles better than it sounds.

Also playing are sewage punksters The Rank Deluxe who play a riotous live set and our 3rd set of London punkateers Soundbite who promise to stick pins up your posterior.  Ooh.

All at The Good Ship this Thursday 5th January.  Forget all those new years resolutions, they are for sheep anyway.  This gig will be ace.

 

cheers

John   

Opening a bar is a lot of fun but much more hard work.  Not that I am one to moan of course.  A bar should be an extension of one's front room an elderly Irishman remarked to me many years ago and he was absolutely spot on.  Not that I have a jukebox in my front room but it should be a place of solace where everyone feels welcome.  There again would you invite someone wearing a Chelsea top into your house.  No, probably not.  Maybe we should have a sign at the door saying "No football tops, no Burberry and Aquascutum".  I do hate saying no though. 

No, I mean yes, I think we will continue with our liberal policy.  99% of the people who have come through the door have been really cool and I think those who potentially may not be, rub well off those and so the mix has worked well.  Some pubs like The Good Mixer or Spreadeagle in Camden work well cos they attract all sorts of people.  Too many other pubs these days are aimed at one section of the demographic.  Gastro pubs.  Let's put our prices right up to keep out the poor.  Council estate pubs: Let's have some hard geezers sitting round making any strangers feel uncomfortable so that only our sort are in here.  No, we will open our doors and welcome everyone.  I think i will take that Oasis CD off the jukebox though...

Now, one thing I had not vouched for was the amount of nonsense that you have to listen to.  I am all for people giving advice or tips, in fact I welcome it; most of our best ideas come via customers.  However, the big lad who would not take no for an answer when I suggested I was not into his "Abba night" will live long in the memory.  "On a Tuesday, on a Tuesday" he kept screaming at me.  As if that was going to seal the deal. 

Customer of the week last week was El, short for I cannot remember.  Swedish girl, just moved to Kilburn with her gay looking friend Matthew.  She kept on asking me was her English good enough to get a job (it was) and after I sang her my special Swedish song she asked for a song for her personally.  I improvised "LA" by The Fall.  El, El, El, El, El, A A A A A A, Swede, Swede, Swede, Swede.  I was quite impressed with myself but she was quite underwhelmed and suggested I make another one up for next week.  Oh, the demands...