Tyla and Dogs d'Amour at Bull and Gate

389 kentish town, NW5 london

Some times there are gigs you go just for the sake of doing something that day, instead of staying in your place, or maybe to keep someone company. Typically on those you have no real interest in the band playing, and the real motivation is the night out and the beers that come with it. And also typically those are great nights, even the best ones.

Dogs D’Amour last Saturday was one of them, and , I can say, one of the best gigs I’ve been in London. The one to praise for the chance was Cesar, who loves Hard Rock, no matter how out of fashion it may be.

The band has more than 25 years history on the stages. To be accurate, the singer and frontman, Tyla, has been on the stages for that time, as he is the only remaining member of the original band. He always was the core of it, though, and he proved why well enough that night.
Their music is pure hard rock with some glamm dosis, something between Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones, if you want. Just a video to show what I’m talking about…



The gig had basically three parts. Within the first one they rocked some of their more famous hits, and they showed off as a pretty compact and solid band, with a particularly outstanding bass player and a drummer and guitarist that did their work alright. After several hits, the drummer and the bass went to have some drugs to the dressing room and Tyla and the guitarist stayed for performing some unplugged staff, with acoustic guitars both. Here they mixed some of their classics with Tylas more recent solo songs, and even they performed a new single that apparently is going to be released in his new solo album. The concert at this point became certainly touching, as you can see someone who used to fill big venues -3,000 to 5,000 people – playing for a band of guys no bigger than 200 or 300, and at that point you realize that even while that music is not trendy any more, it is still great music that has its public and fans. The songs remembered me some of the acoustic albums of Bruce Springsteen, but with a classic British ironic wink .

The last part of the gig came when one of the acoustic guitars proved to be out of tune, reason that Tyla cashed in on to get the band together again and play another handful of classic themes. They didn’t do any encores, but at that point, having paid just ten quid, everybody was more than satisfied.


The band playing before was not too remarkable: more hard rock, but lacking the quality that the main band naturally has. They did something completely unexpected, though: on their last 10 minutes melodic song an artistic dancer came with them and, dancing on her tiptoes a complex-to-define modern artistic dance, did at the same time a strip tease. As the song was good, the girl was awesome, her dancing was pretty suggestive and elegant at the same time, and her tits were just perfect, that was one of the highlights, if not THE highlight, of the night. Again, for 10 quid you usually don’t get a stripper working in London.

And about the venue, the Bull and Gate, the place is worth a post on the blog on its own. Located in one of my favourite areas in London, Kentish Town, the place is split in two main buildings: a venue room with space for about 200-250 people, and the main pub. The venue is ok, a square room with a fairly good acoustic that in this occasion was decorated with Tyla paintings – yes, he is a painter, and a poet with a couple of books published too. About the pub, I really like it. It is one of those old looking pubs with plenty of decoration, a central bar with an even distribution around it, including some sofas, tables and chairs, and most importantly, fairly prized beers starting at 3,10 the Carling. The atmosphere before gigs obviously depends of the band playing that night, but as the range they cover is always rock-related, you may expect the classic leather-attired chaps completely covered by tattoos in every single skin gap. Good mood everywhere. My friend Vlad says that those days that no band’s playing it is much quieter, and he is a guy to be trusted. Even being quiet I reckon it is a very good option, though.