Face Of Cheam

If you are a regular reader of this then I apologise for the lack of updates. It just that I am sooooo busy!
Several gigs to report so lets get underway.

Firstly on Friday 23rd November I went to see The Pigeon Detectives at the Kentish Town Forum. Once again we popped into the Pineapple, becoming a favourite, where we turned down the spirit called Julia for a traditional pint. The next place was again a decent haunt called The Vine. They are having a 007 theme night for NYE at a reasonable price (£15 and free drinks) a bit too far to come though. Then we were onto the gig. They were pretty good, reminiscent of the Buzzcocks and The Cribs, power punk pop. The lead singer who does look like a pigeon, gave it his all by dancing around and there was a decent mosh pit although was slightly ruined late on by some young blokes just jumping into each other causing a huge circle to form around them. We didn’t drink in the venue as the bar was four or five deep though we did get some cans for the Thameslink train which was cancelled! Thanks to the tube network however I managed to get down to Victoria for the 11.26 train to Sutton. Result!
Through a friend I managed to get on the guestlist for Jimbob’s gig at the Horn in St Albans. Jimbob as I am sure you are aware is the lead singer with Carter USM and he was doing an acoustic show here supporting a new album which should have been released but wasn’t due to a stapling problem. After having a couple of beers with the man himself we saw him perform in front of a crowd of about 60. Bit of a comedown from selling out Brixton Academy just a few weeks ago. Besides his solo stuff he did my two favourite Carter tracks (Only Living Boy In New Cross & Born On 5th November) as well as covering Hi Ho Silver Lining. All in all a good show and surprisingly easy to get back via Croydon and a bus.

Sunday 2nd December I was at Thunder at the London Astoria. A cracking band who I have followed for about 15 years or so. The set was mainly from their last album, Robert Johnstons Tombstone, and they had dropped Dirty Love which is normally their closer! However, we did get ‘Like A Satellite’ which is a fantastic power rock ballad and the show closed with ‘I Love You More Than RocknRoll’ which is moving up in my list of favourite Thunder tracks. It was also another excuse to have a beer in The Intrepid Fox before hand, although the pub highlight for me was going to the Beehive in Vauxhall to see Birmingham beat Spurs in the last minute with a screamer of a goal!
On the Monday (3rd) I went to a new venue called The Fly which is halfway between Tottenham court Road & Holborn. The occasion was a solo show by Inspiral Carpets singer Tom Hingley. Including the man himself there were 26 people in this basement as he took the stage for a 45 minute set, mainly made up of Carpets numbers including Saturn 5 and This Is How It Feels. He also played the blues standard The Sky Is Crying. At the end of the evening I bought his first solo album for a fiver directly from him!
Bit of a departure on Wednesday (5th) where I had my first visit of the year to Chicagos in Sutton. Normally full of desperate single mums at weekends, this midweek visit, was to see legends, Chas & Dave. In a full set this was a bargain £7.00 and we got all the hits including Gertcha, Rabbit, Sideboard Song, Snooker Loopy and That’s What I Like Mick, before a climatic Ain’t No Pleasing You ended the proceedings. Very good fun indeed!