Last night we went to The Victoria in Dalston to see Slagheap from Bristol and Nervous Twitch from Leeds.
Nervous Twitch are C86 style with a hint of surf.
Slagheap are my new favourite band! Gav said this gig was the best show we’ve been to this year and I agree. Slagheap sound like The Slits but are better musicians, more funny and more danceable. We bought their LP at the show and played it as soon as we got home. I hope they play in London again soon.
We went to the Lexington last night for an incredible and fun show by The Schizophonics from San Diego. The guitarist was all over the stage, doing moves like he was at Wigan Casino, all the time playing groovy fuzzy guitar. It was hard to believe that the band are just a 3 piece. The energy and fun of The Schizophonics is off the scale. My new favourite garage punk band! Can’t wait for them to play in London again!
At the Victoria, Dalston. Their first show in London.
Friday 20th May 2022, Het Depot, Leuven, Belgium.
This gig was a dream come true for me. After 6 months of intense learning I got to play guitar on stage with my favourite band at an amazing show.
First band of the night was locals Hetze. They are like a tornado; fast and in-your-face heavy punk, with short, tight songs that are full of energy and aggression. Hetze are coming to London in September to play Chimpyfest 2022, do not miss them!
Next up was us! I joined Hagar The Womb last September and have spent months learning to play their songs on guitar. The Hags were my favourites when I was a teenager, at that time the punk scene was completely male dominated and Hagar The Womb were one of very few bands of the time that I could relate to. I still love them and it is amazing to be playing with them.
We put on a lively and fun show and we had a great time playing. Karen and Ruth made it very clear what the band thought of Boris Johnson and Brexit, Mitch was in full-on show-off mode and the audience seemed to love it.
The lights went out and we were in darkness and then it was time for Pussy Riot. It was the first time I had seen Pussy Riot and I was completely blown away. Their show, Riot Days, tells the story of the Punk Prayer performance and their arrest, trial and imprisonment following it. Visuals including English translation of their words were projected behind them and the packed venue was captivated and in awe. Pussy Riot’s show is one of the most empowering and strong performances I have ever seen. Their strength and conviction is incredible, and it felt especially important to me (as a Brit) as our government is in the process of making protest illegal.
After Riot Days the group returned to the stage for a shorter performance in solidarity with Ukraine and to give a declaration of their opposition to the Russian invasion. Half of the merch sales for this tour will be donated to a Children’s hospital in Kiev.
Today we had a fun pre-gig practice with Mike (Dinosaur Skull) who is standing in for Tabi on drums at the Queens Head tomorrow. We are so excited about this gig, we’ve been playing gigs for almost 23 years and for most of that we’ve been the ‘token girls’ in a man’s domain. This is the first time we have played on such a female centric line up (Mike will be the only man on stage all night). 23 years ago we could only dream of this line up happening. Mike organised this gig, and when he was choosing the bands for the night he said that it didn’t hit him until the line up was fixed that he would be the only man on stage all night, and he said that he wants to wear a ‘token male’ T-shirt to the gig, (so I drew him wearing it).
I realised that i haven’t posted for a while, i’ve still got a load of Euro football pics to put up, or maybe it’s too late now… Anyway, i did this the other day, a festive pic of Rabies Babies, for a Loud Women xmas gig flyer.
I’ve started making a lyric zine for the new Rabies Babies record. All of the band members are illustrating songs, here’s a sneak preview of one that i’m doing….
Last year I saw Juniore play at the 100 club, i did this drawing and posted it on twitter. The band saw it and asked if they could use it on a postcard to be included in the vinyl release of their fab new album Un Deux Trois.
I made a gig poster out of an old crisp packet.
I made a poster for a Loud Women gig (line up was part-instigated by myself and Rabies Babies drummer Tabi), celebrating many birthdays and anniversaries, with our dream line up.
Can’t wait!
I’m a bit late adding this one up… our oystercards did us well on saturday and we will top them up in time for the next gig back at the Hand in Hand on 13th April.
Cafe Oto, April 15th 2018
This was my dream gig. I hadn’t seen the Pastels play before, and I have loved their music for more than 30 years. For them to be playing with Ela Orleans promised to be the best thing ever. I was not disappointed. Ela Orleans did a ‘greatest hits’ set which was amazing, and then The Pastels took the stage and I thought I might cry because it was so beautiful.
Hoxton Hall 12 April 2018
I hadn’t been to Hoxton Hall since the mid 90s, I played there and it was falling to bits. I remember that a lot of the building was boarded up because it was unsafe, but now it’s been done up with lottery grants and is a fab place. Gwenno was perfect to play there. We saw her a while back at Moth Club and she was great, but this gig was outstanding. She tried to get everyone singing along in Cornish to her cheese song, but our London ears are unused to Cornish words so we mumbled along awkwardly.
In the day time I went to the North Korean graphic design exhibition at House of Illustration, and thought it’d be fun to attempt to draw Gwenno in the style of the North Korean poster art.
March 23 2018 Basingstoke Irish Centre
Rabies Babies played a gig in Basingstoke with a few bands, including Emergency Bitter.
To be honest, from the look of them I thought that they would play boring old style punk, but they were really good and funny. I absolutely want to see them play again. I hope we do more shows with them. I was very impressed with the look of their fantastic shoes and leads, so this is what I drew.
R.I.P.
The Moth Club 7th March 2018
My band Rabies Babies played at the Hand in Hand in Brixton, with Dealing With Damage, Slow Faction, PCF and Dingy Skipper.
Dingy Skipper turned out to be my very old friend Dick Ugly, formerly of Hackney anarcho punkers Ugly Beat, a band who I shared many a bill with back in the 1990s.
I love Dingy Skipper – sort of like if Johnny Cash and Woody Guthrie were Durham miners. This was his first gig, hopefully there will be many more.
I love The Fall and I always will.
I saw The Fall so many times. Sometimes they ruled so much and they were the greatest band on earth. Sometimes they were shite.
Thank you Mark E. Smith, for making the albums that were so influential to me.
Ramsgate Music Hall, 20th Oct 2017
Not the first time seeing the fantastic Jane Weaver, but our first time in Ramsgate.
The music hall is brilliant, it was a joy seeing Jane Weaver there.
This quick sketch was done in the bar afterwards.
Euros Childs and Oh Peas! at the Sebright Arms. 19th Nov 2017.
My first trip to the Sebright Arms since it’s been done up. The gig room is loads better than before, but it is about £6 a pint. Before the gig we had food at a place 2 mins down the road called VegItalian; a cafe on a double decker bus that does vegan & veg food. It was v good.
Rosie Oh Peas! was support act and backing band for Euros. For her set she played guitar and sang (no effects or keyboards this time), and then for her backing band stint she moved between keys, drums and guitar.
Euros Childs plays in London yearly, when he has a new album to tour and each time it is with a different backing band and always different, always good. He played some older stuff, including my favourite song about dog shit from last years album Refresh and a lot of stuff from the new album House Arrest. He’s got some new keyboards and was using his phone as a drum machine, which sounded surprisingly alright.
more Euros Childs reviews on Gigs & Pencils:
Euros Childs at the Boston Arms 2013 Euros Childs at the Red Hedgehog 2014
A short animation I made celebrating Laika the dog, who went to space in Sputnik 2 Sixty years ago today. The soundtrack is a recording from my band, Mofam.
At Oslo, Hackney. 5th October 2017.
This was a really special gig. The Liminañas blew me away. Their set was part beautiful pop, part cool groovy 60s French pop, part psychedelic, and sometimes a wall of guitar fuzz. Always absolutely fantastic. This was their first gig in London. I hope they will come again soon.
At the Shaklewell Arms, London.
I can’t find any information about Xavier, they sound a bit like Boredoms but more groovy. I loved their set and I hope I get to see them again.
Snapped Ankles remind me of an 80’s squat party band; anarchic, visual and drum heavy. I’ve never seen the Shacklewell Arms so packed and everyone was dancing. You can’t not enjoy Snapped Ankles.
All ages/family friendly daytime gig put on by Loud Women at the Lexington.
Saturday 30th September.
All ages kid-friendly gigs are the way to go for so many reasons!
1. You get to hang out with your friends who have kids and can rarely come along to gigs.
2. Kid-friendly gigs are in the day time! You can also fit another gig in later in the evening, so doubling your gig-going potential.
3. Kid friendly gigs are just MORE FUN! Where else do you get offered sherbet dib-dabs or Love Hearts as you walk in the venue? Where else is the promoter of the event dressed as Wonder Woman? Where else do you find yourself enthusiastically making lightning shapes while watching the excellent Argonauts?
I’d never been to such a fun gig. The kids had a great time, and so did the adults.
Argonauts kicked off the afternoon with a fantastic set and lots of props, and everyone loved them. They handed out kazoos and gave us dancing instructions for audience participation, encouraged a stage invasion for ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ and passed around bananas for their singalong version of ‘The Banana Splits’ theme.
In between bands there was stories for the kids while the grown ups drank beers.
Next on was my band, Rabies Babies. This show was the second time that our guitarist Laura’s toddler son has been at a Rabies Babies gig, he doesn’t really like us. We are too shouty and he gets frightened. This time he didn’t cry for the whole time we played, so we are slowly winning him over. We re-worked out set – we dropped some of the inappropriate sweary songs and added some kid-friendly songs. Our drummer Mike ended up playing guitar and drums at the same time for one song so Laura could run about on stage pretending to be an elephant. There was a boy of 5 or 6 who was right at the front and slam danced and pogoed non stop all the way through our set.
Thee Dinner Ladies are just plain and simple brilliant garage. Musically they are right up my street, they are garage punk with equal measures of punk and garage. Shouty fun male & female vocals with flirty lines like “you’re only shopping cos you fancy me”. All this, plus the whole band are dressed spectacularly as dinner ladies. Who doesn’t love a dinner lady?
Sadly I missed the final band, Militant Girlfriend, as I had a train to catch to get me to a wedding in Sheffield, hopefully I’ll get to see them soon.
Roll on next Little Loud Women show!
gigs and pencils 