Kensal Road.

I had a spare Friday night with a choice of 5 
different bands on Myspace who wanted me to go 
see them in London none of whom I'd seen before. 
I ended up choosing this gig on the grounds that 
it was the only one I could walk to!!
That said I arrived at what is now called the 
Labroke Grove Blag club that is actually on 
Kensal Road on the old Island in between the 
canals known as Portobello Dock that was owned 
by Richard Bransons father and might still be 
owned by the Branson family! This place has a 
different name every time I go to it, but still 
I got in just as the first band finished whoever 
they were, and seeing as the singers girlfriend 
turned up after me I guess they couldn't be that 
good! Next on was Alex Konstonoplooosiosis or 
whatever the name on his mums t-shirt was, who 
was a folk singer whose set was a mix of covers 
and originals the covers that we were meant to 
sing a long to were by the sort of acts I don't 
listen to so don't know who they were by but 
would guess James Blunt, Paulo Nutini that sort 
of stuff and he did a very bad Elton John song 
as well, he was ok but not going anywhere, the 
best thing he has going for him were the 3 girls 
who seemed to adore him!!
Next on and having come all the way from 
Coventry were King Hermit who are a typical 
bunch of Cov style cheeky Chappies making very 
catchy sing along indie who had managed to 
ensure half the audience were wearing there t-
shirts! Yes they are very much a t-shirt band 
and had three or four witty designs.
They opened with Bandits that seemed to be what 
some of the Cov contingent were accusing the bar 
staff of being charging them £4 for a bottle of 
cider Fookin hell I could get two bottle for 
that back home style rantings!!
The first song that got there fans singing along 
was She's a Deceiver that has a big chorus and 
stomps along like it should have been in the 
charts in the early 90's and could give the 
Holloways a lesson or two on catchiness..
Scare tactics could have been about how to get 
your mates to buy you more beer but I think was 
about what happens when everything goes to hell 
all at once, a good song that could well be a 
single, but no where near as much as Home Cooked 
Cookin' should be, this song was the highlight 
of the show and had almost everyone singing to 
it! a great song and it got a good cheer 
afterwards and its still in my head , they 
cooled down a bit with Fire When ready and 
finished the set with Home Sweet Homeless that 
was preceded with an announcement that this is 
there last british show before they go to New 
York next month to conquer the states!!
Home Sweet Homeless should be played alongside 
The Loyalties Sofa Surfing UK as two songs that 
perfectly encapsulate the peripatetic nature of 
the touring musician.
I want to see King Hermit again and in the not 
too distant future I hope.
Then it was time for Pandora, yes that's Pandora 
and not The Pandora's more's the pity as I'd 
love to see The Pandoras again if there ever 
sober and clean enough to perform that is!! 
Pandora who needed to be heckled to give us her 
name is a female fronted rock band who are in 
need of some advice on image and direction as 
the drummer and bass player seem to be styled on 
Edgar and Allen in The Lost Boys with the girl 
looking cool in a camoflage corset and tight 
jeans but with her voice they really ought to be 
a goth rock or moody goth band in a Mazzy star 
meets All About Eve style, not bad but I want to 
see them in a couple of years time when they 
have figured out what they really want to sound 
like.