It’s 9.30am on a Sunday morning; it’s cold, grey and the streets of London are empty. That is except for one – Denmark Street, where people are running around with posters, balloons, sound equipment and a stage is being set up at the end of the road. In just over an hour the Tin Pan Alley festival will kick off and kick ass.
Tin Pan Alley Studio is perhaps one of the best known of all the shops and bars that line Denmark Street. Over the years everyone from The Beatles to Hendrix has recorded here, and the street has seen many a musician come and go. David Bowie lived in a camper van outside the hip La Giaconda Café, and The Sex Pistols took up residency in the street during the mid 70’s. But today, another moment in musical history will be made when the free festival, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the studios, and in aid of Shelter opens. Shelter try to fight homelessness and bad housing on many different fronts, and the “Million Children Campaign” that is being supported today, is one that’ll hopefully help many of the children that have to suffer bad housing. This festival is the first of its kind, and so marks a great moment in the history of this “Musical Mecca” as XFm’s John Kennedy will later describe it.
Junkbox (4/5) are the first up on the stage, and open the festival with sharp axe work and heavy drumming as they plough on through a short yet sweet set. Their playing is tighter than the Bank of England, and they show the world what a three-piece outfit can deliver. The good beat is set and held together by hip drummer Shoko Ariba and blasting though some brilliant numbers they really wake you, and everyone else within spitting distance, up- any louder and your brains would have been blown out of your head.
Then it is the turn of 50Hz (4/5). “Hello Wembley!” smiles singer Mark Nilsson before they begin their set. Brimming with dark sounds and lighter vocals they take you through an amazing collection of noise that has the entire band absorbed into their music. From pure melodic rock that has their front man staring at each punter; to the slower numbers and perfect climaxes that immerse 50Hz into their own world and pull everyone else in. “Thank you for coming and for bringing the sunshine, at last, yay!” says the singer before they pull out all their stops for their last song- wave upon wave of blistering noise that drives the band mad and stuns the crowd.
John Kennedy then steps up to the mic to introduce the next act; a young singer – songwriter by the name of Catherine Shepard (3/5). She calms the street with her gentle folk songs. But she has a hard time trying to keep a straight face, as a small congregation of friends has suddenly turned up and are singing along at the top of their voices; shouting out lines like “Don’t ask me how I am ‘cause I’m fine thank you!”. Its clear her music is her own, and she’s not another Katie Melua, but its not enough to pull the whole crowd. Nevertheless she enjoys herself and gets a fair response from her audience.
After such calm music it’s a bit of a shock when The Occupiers (4/5), drag you through their opener- a song which mirrors the current overcast and grey sky, with a drum and bass line like thunder and solid vocals to match. If their set carries on like this, the Heavens may well open and pour down upon the crowd, which has doubled in size. Everyone down at the front is getting into The Occupiers; this is clear from the shouts of “You Rock Man!” They break into the chorus of their fourth number. The bassist mentions some “really nice women” who will be up on stage next, (shouts of “Get off!” and laughing can be heard). The Occupiers end their stint on stage with a string of sounds that switch from quiet to loud at the drop of a hat, (much like the bloody weather!).
Like the man said, a group of lovely ladies step up to take their places. These three 20 somethings are Denise Goggin, Joanne Coughlan and Catherine Foley, make up the West Cork group Evalon (2/5). Their music is very gentle and quite simply nice, but after their fifth number you begin to ask yourself if you’ve already heard this before. The harmonies are a nice touch, but each song seems the same as the last and by the end of it half of the crowd has zoned out.
John Kennedy announces some news that wakes everyone up. No – it’s not that there is an after show party at one of the bars and tickets are only a fiver; but Mower (5/5) are on next. At this point his last words are drowned out by cries of “Mower! Mower!”, people are leaning out of the shop windows and sitting on the roofs trying to get a better look and the band turn to face the whole of Denmark Street, (which has surged forward). Mower sound like the Kinks in a blender– fast, raw, violent with a definite English sound to it. Singer Matt spits out the words and eats his mic before running to Alex (bass) for some “guitar on guitar action”, whilst the blur that is the drummer (Nash) hits his kit so hard and fast, you think he’s going to break something. The rest of their set will see Matt do the dance of the dying fly, before leaping up and dashing for the mic, in between bouts of happy banter from both himself and Alex; “That was a funky one that made you wanna move your behind. But not in a sexual way!” “What Alex means is shake your hips (does a little dance). Shake your hips, eat chips”. They also, (like many of the bands before them), promote Shelter’s “Million Children Campaign” – “It’s not all fun, fun, fun you know!” cries Matt. They make the entire crowd turn around and look at Shelter’s stall. Mower then throw everything they have into their last two songs, and as soon as they strike the last note, their instruments are thrown down and they stumble off. The feedback lasts for about 5 minutes whilst the technicians frantically try to find and unplug the offending instrument.
The following two acts could not be more different from anything else seen here today. Billy Thompson (3/5) displays an astounding skill with the violin, but his two comrades on rhythm and acoustic guitars are somewhat overshadowed by the fast moving fiddler. The crowd claps politely at the end of each piece, but as there is no connection between them and the group few people seem to be really enjoying it.
The next band up, is one that would not have been missed. Senor Senor (2/5) - a Mexican three piece that turn classic rock tunes into salsa nightmares. They begin with Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”; the majority are having a laugh, with one or two dancing around and having fun. But after the third song you feel they’ve made their point and that there was no reason to go on to wreck “Whole Lotta Rosie” or “I Want To Break Free”, but they really take the biscuit with Rainbow’s “Since You’ve Been Gone”. You can’t take Senor Senor seriously, and the applause is simply generated by the fact that they have given rock classics an air of comedy.
Then like the heroes they are The Barbs (5/5) appear to rescue us! These guys are fresh from supporting The Darkness in Amsterdam, and the crowd love ‘em! The sound of The Barbs is dirty, rough, raw and violent; and they storm the stage with a blinding set that chews you up and spits you out. With mean axe work and combined vocals from Tim (lead) and Amy (rhythm), the crowd are won over. They scream louder than a banshee, smash your skull in with random noises and deliver brilliant lines- “And another thing I’m gonna say…. SEX!”; they let the crowd whoop and clap for a moment before throwing themselves head on into the remainder of the set. There are points at which you think they’ve gone mad- Amy grabs a drum stick and begins to scrap her guitar strings with it and Tim pulls out a P.A system and begins to sign into it. Other than the occasional comments from the crowd shouted at Amy (“I’ve fucked your boyfriend!”, to which she replies coolly “Did you? He’s good isn’t he.”) The Barbs pull of a mind-blowing set when they finish by getting the whole street to join in a brick splitting chant with them.
The day is almost at an end, but the night belongs to us, and there are one or two “events” that are sorted before the closing act. The first is the air guitar competition which has been running throughout the day. Mothorhead's “Ace Of Spades” is blasted outta the amps and the kids go mental, one acts as though he owns the bloody stage, and this plucky kid walks off with an acoustic Gibson Les Paul, as presented by John Kennedy and Steve Diggle. Then it is time to present the winner of the draw for the brand new red Gibson guitar (Blimey.. Red. Must be good – Ed.). It’s getting dark and everyone is waiting in anguish to see who’s won, but that’s soon forgotten about when the one and only Mick Jones walks on to present the beautiful prize.
The restless tension only gets worse from here on in, everyone is waiting to see the closing act and Denmark Street is now completely jam-packed…probably because The Others’ entire fan club has just turned up. Most of them are teenage girls; some of them are hobbling along on crutches; all of them have their fan club number tattooed in black marker across their faces/chests/arms. Meanwhile hundreds of red leaflets have just been thrown from the roof of the buildings and flutter down onto the crowd. They soon begin to shout for The Others (5/5), and eventually the four of them walk onto the stage.
They immediately launch themselves into a tumble of noise that drags everyone within a 20-mile radius along with them. Quickly a violent mosh pit picks up, and people are thrown about (including Rm13), and one poor kid’s crutches are thrown up onto the stage (he doesn’t get them back till the end of the show). Oh, and their guitarist wants to give a shout out to someone, ‘cause he wants his “fucking money back”. They play many of the favourites including “This Is For The Poor”. The first time round one girl gets up on stage. The second time they try to play, a few more get up. The security personnel has gone from 2 to 7 now. And Dominic Masters (vocals) invites the crowd to come and join him, (if they can get past security). On the third attempt there is a mass stage invasion- everyone gets up and Dominic is smothered by a hoard of screaming girls, and a kid has grabbed the microphone and is singing along to the song, whilst the rest of the band have been pushed aside. Bodies are flying everywhere. Rm13 is getting bruised. A wall of security guards has sprung up from nowhere. “Bless your cotton socks... fair play to ya…” Dominic mumbles a fan’s number as The Others quickly close their set and are pulled off the stage.
But the fun doesn’t end there. There’s still the after show party to go…
In her program letter the event co-ordinator Kate Greenslade said “This is our first annual festival”. Note that word annual; let’s hope it does translate itself to being a yearly event. Total respect Kate to you and your team, and to Shelter for their campaigns.