Live music at the Dice Club

Old Blue Last 38 Great Eastern St, EC2A 3ES

The first rule of the Dice Club is anybody speaks about the Dice Club.

:D

This interesting event is one of those itinerant clubs here in London, broadening music perspectives of all those who have what it takes to go out on Sunday. As my friend Victor works everyday but Sundays, for me it is a great chance to go to several gigs at least once every two weeks, which is when the club gathers...

Well, this sound as a quite stupid thing, doesn't it? We had pretty good fun. First of all, the place: this last time, at the Old Blue Last, in Shoreditch. Shoreditch, in the borough of Hackney (East London), is one of those buzzing areas in London that so easily you can love or hate. Ugly, dirty, with loads of petty fried chicken takeaways, it also hosts some of the most interesting clubs, bars or pubs in London. Quite close to Old Street as well, it is a great place for start the night out and move to the latter later on when the clubbing moods are high.

The Old Blue Last is a nice place to enjoy a night out. It has a couple of floor, the ground one where the pub itself is and the first one, where gigs take place. As an advantage compared to most places with this structure, they have a bar in the fist floor, so you can enjoy the music and have several Becks pints at the same time. And I say Becks because of the three different beers I tried, I have to say that one was the only really drinkable, I'm afraid.

The sound quality was average, even bad I'd say. That didn't matter too much, as we were there for fucking-loud-and-punk music, but maybe for a different type of concert it may be a relevant problem.

What about the bands? Here we go...

1. Joy-Rides

Awesome band, the most punk thing I’ve been into for a while. Joy-rides do not play punk music, though. Indeed, they do not play music. They use noises, loud instruments, in a weird and difficult to describe mixture. They used a megaphone in several songs, so the frontman was able to go and blend with the crowd, offering his sweat for free to everyone who wanted to be around.

All the instrument were quite discordant, and melody is a word they have to learn yet. But Energy is not. The singer transmitted really a lot every single time he pushed through in any song, specially in the anthem ‘I do what I like!’. This mate, covered in black plasters, completely wasted and trying to guess which was the next song every time, and the very well-looking bass player (she was completely drunk), were incredibly good inspiring the audience. They had a song the drummer was not good enough to play (as he was drunk as well), so they got the Guillotines guitar player to perform it… they seemed to be very good friends, both bands.

As stated, they did not play good music. They are mind blowers. But we all enjoyed the show. And that is the point.



2. Vile Imbeciles

Vile Imbeciles proved to be good musicians, lack of real spirit. Quite noisy as well, they did not really generate a big impression, even while they were much better musicians than Joy-Rides.




3. The Guillotines

Great band, and a cool mixture of both previous bands best elements as well. Good music (Great Music, indeed) and loads of energy. The very beginning was a declaration of principles: they asked the crowd if we where drunk. Nooooooooooo, we answered… so they got a scotch bottle and they started to pure booze in the front rows thirsty spectators, me one of them.


After feeling the hot stuff in our throats, everyone was ready for a great gig, and they didn’t hesitate to perform their best. The guitar player and Joe Coles (the singer) where brilliant, but all the other guys where really good as well. Bass player look (Heidi Heelz) was kind of the Crow Medicine singer, and, at the end, everything finished as a great huge punk party. Really good stuff...



Complains? Well, the delay all the gigs started with, granting me a bad hungover the next day. Such a hard life...

Credit Crunch in London

Call me cruel if you want, but yesterday me and a friend, before the Metallica concert (see previous post) went to Canary Wharf, to Lehman Brothers building, in order to see if any broker was living with all his stuff in a cardboard box. I know it is not a funny thing (mainly for the one who losses its job), but watching wasted yuppies queuing, some of them crying, some of them in shock, that was quite a picture.

Indeed, I don't know if people back in Spain realizes how big this thing is. Yesterday 5.000 Lehman guys were virtually sacked just in London, Merril Lynch (what the fuck... Merril Lynch mate!) was saved at the last moment, and who knows about AIG... people are even starting to talk about Goldman Sachs, wether its assets and securities situation is much better-off than all the others one... and tax-payers are funding former overwhelming risks (see Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or Bearn Stearn in the States, and Northern Rock in the UK): capitalism on its worse and most unnaceptable version. Or like my friend disier says, the new trend in 'neoconomics': corporate losses nationalization.

All those Lehman guys had all their bonus (the biggest chunk in their income) paid in equity that is completely worthless now. FT is talking about 100,000 employement cuts in the medium term just in London. Those guys have no real chances to get a new equivalent job in the short term. A quite bizarre image were people waiting in line in Starbucks to hand their cv to some recruiting consultants who where just waiting there... we are talking about 2,000 pounds designer suits wearing guys.

Maybe here in London a particle accelerator was not needed to create a black hole.

But let's be optimistic. There is still beer in the pubs :D.

O2 Arena: Seek and Destroy

O2 Arena. Greenwich, Greater London, SE10 0, UK

Yes, they did it again. My first concert in the O2 (the best concerts venue I have ever been in my life), and it had to be Metallica. And not the 'St Anger' Metallica, not at all... we are talking about the old Metallica, it is, the new Metallica, or if you prefer it, Death Magnetic Metallica. Whatever you prefer.

The O2 is an amazing place. It is true you feel as in El Corte Ingles as you go by the automatic stairs, and it seems quite as a commercial Mall with so many shops, restaurants and bars. But once you are inside of the venue itself, the sound quality is the best ever. And visibility is incredible, wherever you sit down (or stand up, if it is a Metallica gig what we are talking about!).


Just some ingredients for the best metal recipe on earth:

1. Tickets prized at 5 pounds. Wherever you had your location (because the O2 is just as a cinema, you have your numbered sit), it was just 5 quid. You had to register in Metallica´s website, though, or have a friend as good as Cesar, who got the tickets for me :D

2. Be a cheeky bastard. Leave your sit and, with your three friends, go to the VIP area. Row 3, just 20 meters far from James Hetfield & Co. All the superb chicks around us were famous, I am quite sure about that. In fact, we talked about buying Hello! magazine in order to check who they actually were...


It was a funny thing cheating the VIP area bouncers, too. So Spaniards, we were there...

3. Drink beer. It´s just 3.50 per pint. I remember the last concert I was in Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid (9 euros), or in las Ventas (no booze there)... yes, this is a much more civilized country. Moreover, Becks 4 is damned good!

4. Enjoy the checklist. Just one song from the last 3 albums (apart of the very last one, of course):

- 'That Was Just Your Life'
- 'The End Of The Line'
- 'The Thing That Should Not Be'
- 'Of Wolf And Man'
- 'One'
- 'Broken, Beat And Scarred'
- 'Cyanide'
- 'Frantic'
- 'Until It Sleeps'
- 'Wherever I May Roam'
- 'For Whom The Bell Toll'
- 'The Day That Never Comes'
- 'Master Of Puppets'
- 'Blackened'

- 'Stone Cold Crazy'
- 'Jump In The Fire'
- 'Seek and Destroy'

Yes, no balads. No Nothing Else Matters (I cannot listen that song anymore since Lucie Silvas horrid cover). No unforgiven (neither unf. part II or part III). Just trash metal. Just Metallica. Back to puppets and ride the lightning days.

5. Enjoy the sound quality. The best ever, and we are talking about a 25.000 spectators venue. You could listen every single instrument in every single song. Amaaaaaaaazing.

6. "Put the fucking cameras away, put the fucking phones away. You will not become famous on YouTube with a stupid Metallica low quality video. Just enjoy the experience, enjoy the metal show. You can call you mom later". James Hetfield dixit as "silly 2.0" teenagers where watching the gig by their cameras instead of by their eyes and ears.

I loved that part :D

7. SEEK AND DESTROY!!! (This was the last song, when they launched all the Metallica balloons. Appreciate the quality of the sound of the home made video... imagine it on site, 12 rows closer than this "silly 2.0" guy who was not VIP enough... paradise LOL)



8. Feel you are a good person just for once. All the tickets money went to a charity.

9. Good friends. Cesar, Cesar and Kara: I met you quite recently, but you are legends!! (pictures of the four of us coming soon, I forgot my camera)

and 10. Go back home by boat ;)

Reflexión

¿Qué sale de Platero y Tú, tabaco con un poco de mezcla, Heraclio Fournier, 16 chinos, treses que hacen de reyes y doses que hacen de ases, dos botellas de whisky y dos de ron, todas ellas llenas y a la par vacías un rato después, y cuatro amig@s?

Acertaste. Una entrada en castellano en un blog que se supone está escrito en inglés.

Enhorabuena buddy!!!

Translation (requested by a friend):

The outcome of Platero y Tu, skunky smokes, Heraclio Fournier, 16 chips, 3-cards becoming K-cards and 2-cards promoting as aces, whisky&rum bottles (2x2) earlier full and now depressingly empty, and, of course, four friends?

You got it. A Spanish written post in an English written blog.

Congratulations, mate!!!

PS: Sbs, te salva que hoy no tocaban cervezas... :D

A new little piece of me: bookofcarling.blogspot.com

Mates,this is the opening ceremony of a new blog:

http://bookofcarlingplease.blogspot.com/

Yes, you guessed it. I speak about books on it, more accurately, about the last book I have red. So you might expect some kind of compromise between posts in this email and in the other one as I cannot be partying and reading at the same :D

It is written in Spanish. It is difficult enough for me writing about pubs in English, but there is no chance I might get something average talking about books.

Cheers!!! or... Books!!! :D

Just Camden Town

Let’s forget about pubs, just for one post, even knowing I might risk the respect of some of my groopies ;). Let’s talk about something equally good, if not even better: Camden Town.

Has somebody been in London and not in Camden? Well, maybe. Indeed, the first time I came to London I went to Portobello Market instead. Bloody mistake I’ve tried to solve taking to the former, Saturday or Sunday, sunshine or rain, to everybody who comes for a visit, no matters if it’s a long or an sporadic one. Because Camden is London itself, in its most pure essence. And even being plenty conscious my poetry in English is quite poorer than in Spanish (not saying it is good in Spanish, though), I’ll try to explain as clear as possible in this post what Camden really is.

First of all, Camden is the shops and everything but the shops at the same time. Let me explain myself. You can go shopping to Camden, that is for sure. Indeed, it is my favourite place in the whole city to get garnets, snickers or, mainly, t-shirts. Punkyfish, Goth shops as Fairygothmother, AfterDark or Elizium, Cyberdog, Hexagon, EGL (Elegant Goth Lolita) or Spank, between many others. Most of them are unique shops you can just find up there, so forget about the Zara/HM/GAP way of life. You can always go to Oxford Street if that is your way of life… and you can stop reading my blog as well. I won´t really bother, mate.

But you can enjoy a supreme day in Camden even not going into any shop, even without money in your pocket, or just several spare coins to have some food and a drink. Because Camden is alive… people, colours, weird attires, music –aloud and chilling, up to you-, Blade Runner… ok, let´s go one by one.

Shops are the best asset of Camden Town, this is something completely out of question. There are several street markets (Sat&Sun only) and loads and loads of shops everyday, all grouped in the following:

1. Camden Market, in Buck Street. The first one you find on the left side of Camden Road, pretty near to Camden Town tube station. Similar to Madrid´s Rastro, it has a lot of stalls packed in really very few physic space. Some of the t-shirt shops in the first rows sell some of the finest products in the whole market. Apart of that, it is not worth spending too much time there.

2. Inverness Market. The same than (and in front of) the previous one, but worse. Completely avoidable. Restaurants and pubs in Inverness Road are really good, though. I recommend Vinyl for having a relaxing pint if it is pissing down.

3. Camden Main Street. As you go towards Camden Locks, you pass through one of the most incredible spectacles imaginable. Loads of shops with great outside decoration and, some of them, great products inside. The electrical ballroom is a have-to, with as the Dc Martens shops (the classic boots), the tattoo studios, those classic punks, dealers hushing ‘skunk’ as you pass by, or those great pubs around. Absolutely enjoyable.

It is coooooooooooooooooool!!!

4. Camden Canal. This used to be a great place as well. And I use properly used, as this is the area that burnt a couple of years ago. A real loss, but most of the shops have relocated into Camden Lock or Camden Stables. Nevertheless, hopefully it will be back soon.

5. Camden Lock. The real thing. The hurt of Camden town, with so many classics. I´ll go on it later.

6. Camden Stables. The newest part, and the northern one too. Some of the furniture shops are avoidable, but most of the rest is also incredible. The best of it, though, are the catacombs where it is located. A lovely piece of industrial architecture in London and a lovely place to enjoy the end of the Camden visit.

Well, briefed like that it doesn’t sound such a big deal. Let’s go for my top places in more detail:

a) Cyberdog

Yeah, it is a place for tourists. I know. But it is the best shop I have ever been as well. And, even while I’m not on the posh groove, that is saying quite a lot. There used to be a dancing floor/pub right on the entrance, where some go-go dancers showed up their most intimate issues. Incredible chicks, incredible music (always mixed alive), and incredible bar. Not anymore, as they have used the same space to sell freak products. But the music and the dancers are still there… after that, you just go inside and, in a remarkable industrial environment, you can find the most not-for-human (as they say) cloths. And the spaceship model. And the changing rooms. And the tattooed psycho crew. And everything.

Cyber rave!!

b) The Lockside Lounge.

An incredible pub with a great terrace and a great interior too. Fine music, fine live bands, affordable prices and an incredible vista of Camden Locks. It will have its own post in pintofcarlingplease, sooner than later.

c) Proud Camden Gallery and Bars.

One of the new spaces gained with the Stables Market, this is another place that will have its own entry. I’ve heard some great bands there, the compartment bar is great (although they don’t serve pints, you can always go for the bottled thing), absolutely fantastic photography exhibitions, lastly related with bands as Sex Pistols or Rolling Stones, and a great local and tourists mixed mood. A must.

Goose, the band I had the chance to enjoy

d) The Blade Runner food shops.

I call them like that because you really fell as Deckard there. Asian food served in a foggy atmosphere, with Chinese bartenders, neon, spicy odours and a crazy non stopping crowd. If this is not Blade Runner, let me know what it is then. The food is cheap and fairly good, but on Sundays is quite difficult to find a quiet corner to eat it.

e) The Goth shops.

All of them. I have always been turned on by Goth birds, and I have always have some empathy for that decadent mood those guys have. There was one time I loved that clothing and music as well. And here you can find some of the best pieces of Goth cloths anywhere in the world.

f) The orange juice shop LOL


But those are just some of my favourite places. Just select yours: open your eyes, have a look at the crowd, don’t take a picture of Amy Whinehouse if you see her (she lives around the corner) neither of some Goth Lolitas: you might think it is a costume, but, for them, a costume is your boring Levis t-shirt. An uniform, speaking precisely.

And enjoy Camden, please.

Cheers mate!

72 Regent Street W1B 5RJ

First time I lived in the UK, four years ago, I was surprised mainly about two different things:
1. Reading is not pronounced 'riding', but 'reding', when you are talking about the London´s satellite city where I had my Erasmus internship.

2. Here in the UK they don´t use 'thank you' neither 'thanks'... they use 'cheers', some times pronounced as 'cheese'

So... cheers, Cheers! Or thank you, Cheers! Because you are a great place to be...

Kind of a confusing introduction, I reckon. I´ll try to explain myself: last Friday it was my first time in Cheers, a bar in Regent Street that is an almost perfect replica of the Cheers American sitcom. It is true enough that they serve more pints than cocktails, but, granted that, the placer really resembles the original one. Ok, as the place is in Regent Street, this is, altogether with Oxford Street the main commercial avenue here in London, it may transmit some posh feeling when you pass by it on shopping. Nothing to do with the real thing, though.

Indeed, Regent Street is really bad for shopping. All major chains with unsold cloths coming from every corner in the UK, here they always find someone to be cheated with the 'sale' label and a not good enough discount. The Apple store is really cool, that is true, and Hamley's is the best toys shop I've ever been in. But apart of that, if you want to find something exciting in the area better go to Carnaby Street, or, if you are of the posh taste, to Picadilly (the avenue, not the circus). Fuck, forget that, and just go to Camden! (I promise a Camden long post in the close future).

Hamley's way of life!

The original comedy series run from 1982 to 1993, and cast some well known actors as Ted Danson (the uncanny Sam Malone) or Woody Harrelson. However, the main star in the show was the bar itself, were all the locals met to drink. It is hence no problem the fact I have no idea how the barman of the London´s one is called, as, again, the main point is the bar itself. And it is a pretty big point, I have to say, as it is the only Cheers replica in Europe.


The venue is quite big, and it has two different bars. The first one, just as you go in in your left, has a strength and a weakness: the former, you are next to a huge window and feel you are indeed having a drink in Regent Street itself. The latter, they don't serve pints. That was not a problem last Friday, as my company CEO invited everybody to drinks (I cannot imagine how massive the final bill rated), but it might be a problem in the future. For that reason, I would go straight to the second bar, which is fact the one that resembles the original bar in its whole own magnitude. And Becks is served on the tap.

Or at least this is true if you go for drinks a Friday evening around 6. I have heard this is a real crap place if you go at nite, as it is packed with tourists, sport yobs and some other scumbag. I have no doubt there is some true in that, but... well, I just can report what I found when I was there, and that was bloody good! Blame the tequilas if you want, but I had really a great time that evening (yes, you guessed it: my non tequila absent period came to an end).

PS: Cheers is also the place to buy the I Love Soho official merchandise, if you feel tourist enough.