MEET THE SHOWSTOPPERS...

MEET THE SHOWSTOPPERS...

Songs From The Shows are a four piece band featuring ex-untitled1961 bassist Steve and ex-Time.Space.Repeat drummer Ania, along with bassist Jim and guitarist Ben. The four of them make an unpredictable and dynamic wall of noise that recalls the likes of Sonic Youth, Shellac, Slint, Joy Division and The Cure. Having said that, it is very much its own and therefore out of step with just about everything clogging up the stale turd we know as contemporary music. This four piece will be trendsetters and it is with great pleasure that we witness them headline the first Trail back at home. Don’t count on seeing them in venues like this for long though; London itself isn’t big enough for them, let alone one of its many music venues…

Last time we saw Steve, you were playing in untitled1961. Tell us about why you disbanded, how SftS came about, and how you all got together?

I think '61 had just gone as far as it could. We'd all developed hugely in terms of our playing and what we wanted from music. Sadly we only had time to explore one direction, despite the fact that we wanted to go in three different ones. So we all went our separate ways. Thankfully it was an amicable split, and we're all still working on projects together now.
SftS came about in the last days of that. I know Ania from her days in Time. Space. Repeat., who were going through a similar thing. Ben and I used to play together in an instrumental band called Inemuri, who had also just imploded. Jim we found online through basschat.co.uk. And then it turned out that he knew a few of the people who'd become my mates through '61, and we went from there.

Your line-up and instrumentation differs somewhat from the norm, i.e. having not one but TWO basses going head-to-head, what inspired that?

I don't think it's THAT different from the norm. Even the Cure had two basses at one point. I think most people miss the fact that the bass is really two instruments - it's part of the rhythm section, and one of the melodic string instruments. So by having two, we can explore both options. Or both be rhythm instruments at the same time when we want to scare the shit out of someone. Jim and I are also really different as musicians, so the tonal options with both of us on-board are pretty much endless.

A rather dull question but leading on from the last, what would you say your primary influences are?

I'm not going to name bands. Ugh. The main things that unite and excite us are:Complicated electronicsThe gorgeous bar staff of Big RedBadgers (and some other furry mammals)Volume Amstel (from Big Red)Nachos (from Big Red)Bass (or basses)ContrastHolloway, and especially the Islington Arts Factory.

There is a much darker vibe than that of Untitled1961 and Time.Space.Repeat (drummer Ania's former band). Is that intentional or is that simply how it came about?

I don't think that was intentional. These are just darker times. It's harder to find work, money is tight for everyone, and we have the threat of a Tory government coming in and sticking their noses in the trough all over again. It's hard to write happy music in a city run by a son of the privileged establishment, whose only qualification appears to be an appearance on "Have I Got News For You". And don't even start me on the blood-sucking mess that is the Olympics.

You (Steve) and Seb (untitled1961) run a clubnight called Duel In The Deep at Catch in Shoreditch. Tell us about that...

The typical London gig experience is as follows:
Play with 3 or 4 other bands. Maybe even 5. All dreadful sub-indie nonsense or smug singer-songwriters and their unpaid session musicians.
Argue about who was meant to be bringing which bit of kit because bands consider themselves too important to reply to an email, and their drums too precious and delicate to be used by anyone else.
Fail to get a soundcheck because someone takes an hour and a half to get the right amount of delay on their vocals to cover up the fact they can't sing.
Your mates get charged 5 or 6 quid on the door, despite the fact that there's no way they would want to see any of the other performers.
Promoter pockets all the money, slipping out during the last set so he doesn't have to pay anyone.
Duel is just meant to be the opposite of all of that: Interesting bands who are trying to do something a bit different, intentionally blended together, helping each other, and getting paid all the profits from the night. We think it's time that musicians started taking control, rather than letting everyone else make money from our music.

There is plenty in music at the moment worthy of hatred - but tell us what irks you particularly....

There are so many things to choose from...I'm intrigued by this new 'Union' that a bunch of multi-millionaire pop stars are setting up. There's already a union for actual musicians. It called the Musicians' Union. You'd have thought these guys would have been able to Google it. I think it's a bit of a stretch that these bajillionaire bands, and Robbie Williams, are looking for public sympathy as they try and screw more money out of their labels. And why are they angry with their labels anyway? It's the major label marketing budgets, focus groups, influence over radio playlists etc that made them famous. If it weren't for their labels they'd still be playing circuit gigs and driving round in old vans.
And Radiohead, proving that 'bands don't need labels' with their internet release? Fuck off. All Radiohead did was prove that once you've had millions spent promoting you, you can sell records using free PR instead of paid-for advertising. There are thousands of bands out there making music ten time as interesting as Radiohead and giving it out for free on MySpace. These are the guys changing the musical landscape, not some bunch of pampered poshboys with an Aphex Twin album in their back pocket to rip off later.
You knew the deal guys - sign up with the devil, he'll make you rich but he'll also fuck you in the ass. You're whores, and you knew you would be whores. Don't expect us to give a shit. You foul the cultural waterways we have to swim in every time you squeeze out another turd of a record, so don't expect anyone to pay you even more for a privilege.

Finally, the obligatory dull kiss-off....what is next for you?

Songs From The Shows have got a good-looking gig coming up at Barden's on November the 12th, and will hopefully get into a studio before long. We're also working on some material with an artist called Gethan Dick, which should be fairly stunning, and very different from a lot of what's out there on the regular gig scene.
Duel in the Deep has a very loud line-up on November 11th with Batrider, who are coming up from New Zealand! Seb and I also have some very-exciting secret plans coming up for the Duel Xmas special. Watch this space. And start planning your festive outfits. You're going to need them.

www.myspace.com/songsfromtheshows
www.myspace.com/duelinthedeeplondon

NOT READY FOR DROWNING

NOT READY FOR DROWNING...

Almost one year ago, The Drowners first hit the Vapour stage in what was to become one of the best nights the club has seen. They also conducted a shoot-style interview where they set out their stall and declared their aims. A year later, much has changed; musically, they are no less ferocious but have instead gained a sense of grandeur. Where once their reference points easily would have included ‘Pornography’ and ‘The Holy Bible’, it now seems more appropriate to compare them to ‘Disintegration’ and ‘Everything Must Go’. Their horizons have broadened and they have seen some notable changes; not just in mood, but also in line-up and setting. Vocalist Rob and bassist Simon take us through a humorous trip down Drowner lane…

First of all, what with your next gig being as what you might call the new Drowners, do you want to take us through the story of why Tim left, how James joined, how you know him and how it’s all working out.

Rob - Well this is a particularly interesting story.
Simon - (Laughs)
Rob - Unfortunately, there was no animosity or drugs, or sleeping with girlfriends, or even AIDS, Tim just moved to Dubai to earn some more money. Which is fine, kind of goes against my socialist credentials but, hey, what can I say, I earn loads of money.
Simon - (Laughs)
Rob - James basically conned us into pretending that he didn’t know that we were looking for a drummer. I met up with him thinking I was gonna con him, he conned me better and pretended that he didn’t know that we didn’t have a drummer and basically offered to play drums for us a bit too quickly. I was subsequently told by a friend that he’d been informed about a week earlier. We knew James from an old band called Such Little Things that we used to play in back in Birmingham when we all used to live together. It was a bit more indie than the one we’re in, ‘jangly’ I’d say, even though Simon would go ‘No!’
Simon - I would say it was more angular than jangly. It was a four piece, less heavy and more….shit. Yeah, that’s the important bit, very shit.

This brings us back to when we interviewed you last year. The quote was “We wanted to marry the ferocity of Holy Bible-era Manics with the overt melancholy of The Cure and make a more aggressive sound than before. Becoming a three-piece actually helped in that regard as it enabled us to get rid of parts that weren’t necessary and encouraged us to play more violently to make up for that”. What do you have to say to that in terms of the songs you have written since, do you still follow that ethos and how has the music changed? What have you been aiming for?

Rob - It’s become more aggressive, partly for the fact that previously I was writing pretty guitar parts over choruses, for example, which all sound very nice and Smithsy I guess, and layered, but didn’t really achieve the sort of thing I was trying to go for, which was just like teenage angst and I think now I haven’t been able to lose myself in writing those twiddly bits, which are essentially pretty much pointless, I’ll just play what I can physically play while singing at the same time. Then obviously because there’s less physical noise coming from three amps as opposed to four, Simon uses a distortion pedal to make up for the lack of rhythm guitar sometimes. I’ll use a lot more effects and play a lot more harshly.
Simon - But that was the case already in the previous interview! So that’s the difference between the four piece and the three piece but in terms of since the last Vapour Trail interview, that was more the question. More poppy I would say, but also more heavy.
Rob - I think I probably, in terms of writing, slightly got away from just making noise over dance drum beats. Perhaps got more anthemic, to use a horrible word. Just in terms of how we perhaps got carried away in our early Drowners days of just being the three of us and going “yeah, we can make loads of fucking noise and, even if people don’t like us, their ears are gonna hurt. Now I’m possibly putting it more into a song structure whilst maintaining that sort of early aggressiveness.

What do you think about - you talked about the aggressiveness and also the staple of the early sound, maybe you could say in the guitar parts that you wrote back then there was that melancholy - what do you think about that, do you think that’s changing or do you think you’re leaving that behind?

Rob - I definitely don’t think we’re leaving that behind, I think that’s always been there in everything I’ve written. I think the only thing we’re perhaps leaving behind is that we’re perhaps slightly more subtle, whereas before it was very loud, very soft, all at once. But, yeah, I think the melancholy will always be there.
Simon - When the melancholy goes, I go. Truth up!

One thing that you said last year, and this is a big difference between then and now and has to be addressed, is “Obviously, we’re going to carry on gigging as much as we can. We’re just so desperate to break out of Birmingham, there’s nothing there for us. We’ve seen so many bands from Birmingham supposedly ‘achieve’ things but what that inevitably means is that they’ve managed to get a gig in a slightly bigger venue and played to more of their friends and family at once than usual”. So basically that was then, you lived in Birmingham and things have changed obviously. Tell me about what it took to make the change and how it affected you guys and your music.

Rob - In terms of the change coming about, I guess I split up with my last girlfriend and Simon got bored, and I got bored, we’d slept with everyone in Birmingham, so we just made a snap decision to move to London after meeting Ross and Julia and everyone (ed - the VPT crew, basically) and realising we had friends and everything. I basically walked in on my first day back at work and quit, Simon didn’t have a job so it didn’t matter…
Simon - Yes I did…
Rob - You were only temping, you dickhead!
Simon - No I wasn’t…
Rob - Oh, I take that back, Simon was actually working, bizarrely…
Simon - I turned down a job in insurance to SIT HERE!
Rob - He could’ve been like his dad and everything! In terms of moving down here, we basically just packed up and fucked off. Musically, I think there’s maybe slightly more disillusionment whereas with the songs I was writing for early Drowners I couldn’t get disillusioned with Birmingham because I’d lived there all my life and knew it was shit, whereas here, whilst I don’t think it’s bad - I wouldn’t be anywhere else - it’s not quite as rose tinted as I thought. The streets aren’t paved gold but then they’re not paved with lead either.

So one other thing regarding that, how do you find London audiences differ to Birmingham audiences, or do they differ? When The Drowners came about, you said you wanted to pummel people’s ears and now you say that’s not so much the case, is that a reaction to the audiences or do you think there is any difference?

Rob - That’s an interesting question actually. Yeah, I think possibly, because in Birmingham we always knew we were so different to everyone else around and we never really expected to be particularly liked because we were so unfashionable and so noisy compared to most of the indie schmindie stuff that was going around. Whereas here I guess I don’t quite feel I have to do that because there’s loads of other bands playing pompous noise with no songs to it.
Simon - So actually, in London we’ve probably got a little edge of credibility but also we’ve got songs which I think there’s a lot of bands in London that don’t have songs, that have just got the sort of style, but I think the audiences are very similar. The only difference in London might be that there are more people who might be into what we’re doing.
Rob - I think the other thing here is that there are so many fucking cunts who can’t sing and can’t write a song but they’ll stand there making this pointless shit but they’ll look kind of cool, so even I’ll go and see them sometimes…
Simon - I’m talking about SCUM!
Rob - I think in London, as far as I’ve seen anyway, it seems rare to be able to marry the two together, whereas in Birmingham there wasn’t even the noise part of it whereas here there is, and now I feel like I’m distancing myself from that, purely because I don’t feel the need to just shock people.

Do you feel that with the majority of bands you’ve seen in London, do you think that there is a case of style over substance?

Rob - Er, yeah, very much so. In some cases, I mean you still get some of the same sort of bands you do in Birmingham, the sort of shitty bluesy indie bollocks, but here it seems like you can get away with just being cool far easier, I think, I don’t know what Simon thinks about that - I mean, he’s cooler than I am….
Simon - Haha…I actually do agree.

Now you’ve just recorded two new songs. Tell us about how the songs came about, what they’re sounding like, what they’re about and, again, how they differ?

Rob - Both are probably a bit more poppy. They came out of a combination of when we recorded them we didn’t really have any money so we basically just recorded two songs in a day and chose to mix them ourselves. One of them I’ve pretty much finished mixing, it’s probably poppier than a lot of the stuff and less noisy, as we’ve been alluding to.
Simon - Not that dissimilar to ‘Not A Love Song’ really, probably a similar-ish vein, I’d say.
Rob - But the chance to produce them yourselves gives you, whilst I don’t know anything at all about production, I’ve just been sort of winging it, which is why one song sounds a bit shit still, it gives you a chance to experiment and make it sound generally what you want without the tiredness of doing it all in one day and being subject to a producer. Whether it turns out to be a good or a bad thing, I’m not really sure yet.

Now, for the benefit of people who may not have seen you or heard you before, when you play in October - we’re gonna pay a little game of word association - try and describe The Drowners in five words. I know this is a stupid fucking question, but try and describe The Drowners in five words - both of you…

(Long pause)
Rob - Rob is probably too drunk….
Simon - The bass player is…better…

How do you think in terms of style, if at all, James differs from Tim, playing-wise?

Rob - He’s probably a bit more imaginative I’d say and maybe slightly less aggressive - but I’m not sure yet if that’s just cos he doesn’t know the songs as well. The main thing is he puts in more fills and tries to do more complicated things.
Simon - …though in every other respect, he is the same person! He’s beefy (ed - The Drowners, amongst other things, are famous for bringing the word ‘beefy’ - meaning ‘good’, essentially - into the London lexicon of colloquial language - soon to be hitting Bournemouth and Bognor shortly, surely) and he’s the originator of ‘beef’. He’s the good looking one, he buys cars, he earns money.
I was gonna say then, a new picture that’s turned up on your Myspace, a couple of war painted cretins either side and a good looking guy in the middle…
Rob - Actually, that photo’s a complete con, the photo of James is from the old band. I just stuck it together with pictures of me and Simon. We haven’t had a chance to have a proper photo shoot yet but, yeah, he is irritatingly attractive - but he’s got a girlfriend so fuck off!
Simon - Yeah, fuck off. Let me just confirm: he is taken…but I’M NOT! YES! I’M NOT, I TELL YOU! (Ed - this may no longer be true!)

One thing that we always ask, and it’s a fucking boring question, what are your future plans, whether that be in the immediate future or the future as a whole? Maybe answer both…

(For the uninitiated, cue numerous Peep Show references!)
Rob - Yeah, we should talk about that and action some points!
Simon - Let’s do lunch. Is two good for you?
Rob - Yeah, I’ll drop in and I’ll see where you’re at and have a couple of Frappacinos and shoot the shit!
Simon - Me, you, some Chinese food and a couple of fuck-off spread sheets!
Rob - I’ve got a 32 inch HD monitor at home, when you’re looking at a spreadsheet, you’re fucking looking at that spreadsheet!
In terms of plans, we probably need to step it up a notch and stop floating around.

These new recordings, where are they gonna go and are you gonna do more new recordings?

Rob - Obviously we’ll hope to do more new recordings. In terms of James, he seems to have some sort of contacts, or at least he says he does. I think our major next step is to really concentrate on getting some sort of good management, get better gigs, not just keep on playing in bars and pubs and stuff, like all London bands play.
Simon - And just to get more people to hear us, which I don’t think we’ve done. We need to get everyone to at least know who we are and maybe have an opinion on us.
Rob - Yeah, it doesn’t matter if they hate us, that’s absolutely fine. I won’t like them but that doesn’t matter.

One thing that is definitely worth asking and has to be asked tactfully so that you don’t end up slagging anyone off…

Both - Hahahaha!

…you talked about management, can you advise on what to look for in good management and what NOT to look for?

Rob - I think mainly stay away from wide boy cunts, especially ones who try to shake your hand too hard just to prove how manly they are, and comment on people who you’re sleeping with like it’s a big fucking deal. That just proves that they haven’t slept with anyone.
Simon - In normal circumstances, pinstripes are good, but in managers, I would say avoid the pinstripe suit and shades, and if they talk about their dad more than they talk about themselves, you know there’s something wrong.
Rob - Also, if you can name bands and little venues they haven’t heard of, stay away. What a cunt.

To conclude, firstly, what can you remember about your first time at the Vapour Trail, which is now one year ago?

Simon - My biggest memory is thinking ‘wow, there’s a few people that like us - that’s never happened before!’ Apart from that, I remember good people, bad sound, and we were the best band of the night!
Rob - Well, obviously we were the best band of the night - Ross (Liddle, The Firm) was on! Jesus! The main thing I remember is getting paid, that doesn’t happen, and then being so impressed that I spent it all on…not getting myself and everyone else drunk cos…we didn’t get paid that much!
Simon - Hahahaha!

And FINALLY, give us some sort of insight into what will be happening, in terms of the set, in terms of the drunkenness, in terms of what songs Simon will play when he Djs, some sort of insight into what’s gonna happen when you play again?

Simon - I think we need to step up the drunkenness cos we’ve been lagging recently, but we’re gonna amend that, we haven’t drunk enough, we need to work on it, we’ve let the side down a bit recently. We haven’t been bad enough.
Rob - But you always have a go at me when I get drunk! Er…seven songs…on average, about three and a half minutes to four….
Simon - ….about average length and medium girth…
Rob - …you can expect a guitar solo, a verse…probably two…two, if not three, choruses….usually three….there’ll also be a nice ‘Roses In The Hospital’ clap along moment…and probably a very out of tune guitar.
Simon - And we’ll be swooning the ladies in the audience with giving out free flowers, and knickers are welcome onstage.
Rob - What Simon really means is he’s gonna try and take the flowers and fail…
Simon - What else?

www.myspace.com/thedrownersuk

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS...

Welcome back to The Vapour Trail. And welcome back to where it all started exactly one year ago in a small boozer on the Holloway Road by the name of The Old Kings Head.
Although the sign with said name remains, nearly everything else has changed. It is now known as The Gaff and is operating strictly as a live music venue. Once again, however, we are pleased to be working with Gene, Joe and Gina, three people who enabled The Vapour Trail to come to life and become the bastion of exciting alternative music that it is.
Sadly, we will not be joined by Kris, however he is the main man at The Rock Attic at the Bedford Park in Streatham, and continues to put on the same energised rock’n’roll gigs as ever. This time, we will be joined by a Mr Marc Rollins, who some of you may know as the former drummer of VPT legends Untitled1961. We will also be joined by former guest DJ Simon Drowner, now a permanent member of the disc spinning team, headed up by Miss Julia Justice (The Firm/Trashcan Club) and Miss Magenta Placenta (Tempting Lilu).
Much has changed for us in the past year. We enjoyed a five month stint up the road at Nambucca where we witnessed some great sets from The Drowners, The Virgin Suicidez, Untitled1961, Doe Face Lillian, The Resistance, N,N Minus, Tempting Lilu, The Humanity and, of course, The Firm (ha!)
Speaking of that particular organisation, much has also changed. Guitarist Alex Avery departed earlier this year and was replaced by Chris P Willsher. Without diminishing Alex’s contribution or anything The Firm did previously, it became apparent that with the line-up of Ross Liddle, Julia Sieradzki, Yameen Khan and Mr Willsher, The Firm was finally born. We also played a one-off special show in August with former Untitled1961 guitarist and current False Flags frontman Seb ‘The Holloway Prism’ Pidgeon on guitar, purely to stick some icing on the cake of rock’n’roll romance. Our debut single ‘If You Don’t Want To Know Life’s Dismal Results/Round The Rim (And Back To Him)’ is provisionally out in February on Whimsical Records. Watch this space.
This month sees live music from VPT mainstays and rock terrorists The Drowners. They were instrumental in shaping the Trail and putting it on the map, and without them, the story might not even have been told, let alone been so interesting. Read within these pages their interview where they take a retrospective and often humourous look at the events of the past year. Also, we are joined by Higher Love, a group who do away with first impressions and instead insist on shocking people into attention with a sound and songs so epic and affecting. Last but not least, the first VPT back where it belongs is headlined by Songs from the Shows, a band you will definitely be hearing a lot about over the next year if there is such thing as justice in the world. On vocals and lead bass is former 61 bassist Steve Cross, who will be gracing the Vapour decks in the near future.
Finally, it is with great pleasure that we are now putting the Trail on every third Friday of the month. We always intended the night to be equal part gig and equal part club, and despite everyone’s best efforts, it was very difficult to pull off on a Wednesday. That said, I will always have fond (if entirely fuzzy) memories of going into the wankplace on a Thursday morning still inebriated from the previous night’s shenanigans and putting the fanzine articles onto the online blog.
So all that’s really left to say is that we hope you enjoy the evening and that we see you again on a regular basis....

www.myspace.com/thevapourtraillondon

SUNSHINE AND SUB PRIME

Sunshine and Sub prime
By Dale Every
Mood: spiritual
Listening to: Accidental ornaments cyclefly

Couple of week’s back I thought id hit a café to get some reading done for an exam I had later that week. I made it my mission to avoid Starbucks because I wasn’t in any rush and I thought id let my principles guide me for a change. I parked up in a street in west London and the first thing that met my eyes was a certain coffee shop. I thought to myself, ok no worries I have plenty of time. Twenty minutes later I’m still cant find a café that isn’t my nemesis, my patience was becoming increasingly compromised. Ok …think Mcfly think…. bingo, ill walk down this nice big road it looks like it might lead to some options. So I’m strolling down the yellow brick road, cold and conscious that I have been messing around for over an hour now and I really need to start revising. So far I haven’t succumb to the corporate beast but then my hope dies when at the end of the road I meet another certain coffee shop. Beyond principles now, need coffee.
S
Feeling slightly deflated that my mission has failed I open my book. It must be exam season, I cant concentrate, on the adjacent table is little lord fauntleroy being quizzed on what sounds like some sub genre of advanced molecular biology and I’m thinking he’s a bit young for all that (shouldn’t he be out chasing girls or something…)…. even in the convenience of this coffee shop I’m still not getting these imperialist economics in my head. Anyway, I try and shut out abuse the kid hurls at his subservient mother as I try to ingest the words on the page.
A
Coffees gone cold and I hate the world so I leave and try to forget the situation and brave the cold again. So it’s back up the yellow brick road and I can see Harrods and other ostentatious high street outlets getting gradually smaller in the distance. I walk past a homeless guy staring blankly into the road; he’s sitting outside a grand old church that looks like whatever significance it once had has now gone. All this at a moment when a huge Rolls Royce casually bullets past and I try to balance all these visions together as I start to feel worse about my failed mission.
s
So I’m feeling like Christopher McCandless in the film ‘into the wild’, wanting to escape cold materialist society but then as if by a premonition my gaze meets headlines of credit crunches and rising oil prices. My mood immediately lifts as my pain turns to hope that perhaps the machines will finally kill their masters. The mind begins to wander….
A
Perhaps the Starbucks monopoly on overpriced coffee will disappear and just maybe the NME will cease being the only voice of the music scene. Perhaps necessity will become the mother of invention where the credit pinch might take us away from the price of oil and the second home by the sea. Just maybe we’ll have to start giving a shit as the sub prime crisis devours our seemingly natural desire to destroy the world and the people in it, for profit margins. Bring on the recession; this useless generation needs a bit of history. England is sick and its needs another pill. Lets hope it’s a good one….
H
…. Or maybe it wont happen, I can dream cant I? Ill just hold onto these ‘maybes’ little bit longer before reality bites. And back to the revision…

www.myspace.com/thevirginsuicidez

THE GOOD, THE BAD & HOLLOWAY BEST KEBAB

The Good, the Bad and Holloway Best Kebab

When Ross and Julia asked me to write something about Holloway at first I thought it would be easy. I mean, I've lived in Holloway for two years now. Nearly the first quarter of that wondering the streets, unemployed. I could talk about it's pros and cons until you eat your own eyes out of boredom, but that wouldn't be very interesting, would it! So, I looked to the people of Holloway themselves, the Hollowegians if you will, for other inspiration, only to find that they'd written the article for me. Below are extracts from various posts online, discussing our beloved N7. Enjoy!

Holloway is okay

been living here for about six months now. Sometimes i find holloway road itself a bit soulless but theres good cafes, cinema, i like drinking at big red and nambucca. its really really brilliant travel wise and bus wise. Safeway pisses me off cuz its cheap but the queues!!! art shops, library etc etc. but perhaps it just misses a little sparkle somwhere? still everything is so convenient....

Holloway not pretty

around seven sisters road is really quite awful. dirty, illegal cigarette sellers, rubbish everywhere, people can be a little scary sometimes too. convenient but not the nicest of area

Holloway could anyone help please
i am looking for my cousin going by the name of lillian killin or carpenter last heard of living in holloway road if anyone knows of her whereabouts could you please contact me. if i come to holloway iwill certainly try hollywoods cafe.

Holloway FRIENDS ANY ONE!!!??

Hey i'm moving to Holloway road in October. I don't know any one in london!! I'm looking for friends to go out on the town with!!! Also any good pubs and clubs in the area? Please get in touch at Mail-me Thanksxxx

Holloway safety question - part 2

So yeah, just wanted to ask, is the area really as shady after dark as everyone's been telling me? I heard about the bus-stabbing incidents, but at what time of the night did they occur? At what time of the day should a young woman not be seen walking around by herself?

Holloway FW Perrin - bookshop up to 1947

Hi thereMy Dad had a bookshop in Holloway in the early 1940's - Does any one recognise his name?I would love to know where the shop was - I think it was near the Nags Head. It would be great to have info as he met my mum there and they lived somewhere in Holloway during the first years of their marriage - in fact my brother was born there in 1946 but as they moved away in 1947, he can't remember anything!!ANY info would be really welcome

Holloway

hi sweetiepie, u just have to use common sense regarding safety, there is no specific time that is more unsafe than others to be out.cos there is 1 0r 2 bad people does not mean the area is bad!!!! "bad" things happen in every area. My advice is to "WAKEY, "WAKEY" AND SMELL THE COFFEE, HAVE FUN IN hOLLOWAY,GREAT CHEAP CLOTHES SHOP!Amen to that! Until next time...

Seb

www.myspace.com/falseflags

Interview with Higher Love

First of all, tell us about how the band got together and when you formed?

Band was formed in Warsaw and then re-established in 2005 in London.
There are 3 people in the band MarkD.-lead singer and drummer,Ichi on guitar and Ajit on bass.

When you got together, was there an initial aim or direction interms of style and influences?

At the early stage we were heavily inspired by the post-rock 80's music scene and the bands like Joy Division,Depeche Mode,The Cure but also Queen and The Doors.

Now I think we have our own sound and we define the music we play as a cold rock goth punk-'not too dirty to name it just punk and not...too symphonic to name it just gothic'.


The current music scene is very stale, what are your thoughts on it and what do you think you can bring to it?

Yes, we agree there too many bands with 's-they play retro rock-we don't want to be like them.

I think the best way is when you go your own way-if you have any inspirations,mix them,always you can get something new from that;)

We want to be different and I think better is to create your own trend than to follow the others.

Finally, tell us what your future plans are, both in the immediate future and the future as a whole for the band?

Currently we are recording material for new EP called
'Me and The Real World'.
In 2009 we want to move outside Londontown and play small UK and European tour and sign contract with the label.

Vapour Trail Listings: June 08

THE VAPOUR TRAIL
EVERY THIRD WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH

NAMBUCCA
596 HOLLOWAY ROAD
LONDON
N7
Nearest tube: Holloway rd / ARCHWAY
Buses: 29, 253, 254, 91, 17, 43, 271, 153 & BUSES TO ARCHWAY

8pm – till late
£4 with flyer/fanzine
£5 without

NEXT: JUNE 18TH 2008

UNTITLED1961
THE FIRM
N, N MINUS

With DJ Sets from Julia Sieradzki (The Firm) & Magenta Placenta (Tempting Lilu)