Members of the 7C Alliance firstly set up a simple web-site (created by Steve Foster) and, later, a Facebook Group was created with help of Patrick Whelan and several others

Now, with 7C Alliance being a UK-wide online networking group and London Charm having had people from across London interested to meet up together to see great unsigned acts, we thought it was time to try and bring those groups together again to see one of the acts discovered through London Charm at the home of London Charm, The Tabernacle.

However where do these two groups want to go from here? We have reserved the Conservatory at The Tabernacle on Thursday, 11th November for us to come together and discover what each other has to offer – and celebrate new beginnings with music from “New Day“, the new album by Milli Moonstone, one of the acts discovered by members of the London Charm social network.

We look forward to seeing you there! Tickets are £15/head and include price of canapes and performer. They can be bought online at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/97497

Please note that numbers of tickets are strictly limited to 50 – and so please get in quick to not miss out!

The lead singer reminds me a little of a young Sarah Jessica Parker out of that movie L.A. Story, as she has an energy that is infectious and takes you – and her band members – along with her as she moves on the stage in time to the music.

Not that there was much room to move, but all three of the wind section managed to sway in time (somehow or other) as the numbers took hold of the audience. Certainly the audience took it to heart and I have never seen a place where everyone was dancing – many in spite of themselves too!

The irony is that Underbelly suffers a little from the same malaise of many other places of not having consistency of its acts – and so the minute that TGM had finished then nearly half of the audience cleared out. What’s more, yet another quarter cleared out again when the next band started who were not many people’s cuppa tea – including mine. However unlike before TGM came on when access to the bar was so crowded that it was almost impossible to get a drink, suddenly it was almost possible to have the bar to oneself – as the photo below shows:

Lone Bar

So I took a break and headed up outside to catch a breath of fresh air – as the music is tucked away downstairs from the Main Bar and you can miss it if you don’t know that there is an entrance to the right as you come in. Being my first time there I didn’t – and so it was only after I asked where to go that the obscure side entrance was pointed out.

The break allowed me to adjust to the rest of the belly of people around – and I realised that there must be another good band coming on when more people started arriving and others were heading back down again.

Sure enough, when I had found my way back to the bar, it was like it was for the TGM gig – although perhaps not quite as crowded. The people had come to see a band called One-eyed Jacks. They have a fifties Sci Fi sound, that was a little unusual and hollow sounding at first (but perhaps with Underbelly’s sound system not helping), but then warmed up considerably with a number near the end of the set that got everyone going and a genuine applause of appreciation afterwards. They seem like a band to watch out for – and certainly had good PR from one of the band member’s girlfriends who I just happened to meet up at the bar before the band started and who was quite chatty.

Underbelly really need to somehow fix its stage set however, and perhaps its sound AND also maybe its scheduling of acts for greater consistency. Still, it wasn’t a bad night out and I would go there again – but drink tap water maybe, given the £8 cover charge with potentially only one act to see.

Halloween All Year Round

It certainly WAS dark, as the photo shows – but the candles lighting up the tables, and the skeletons on the door – and I don’t mean that to refer to the people letting you in, gives it a special edge that is somewhere between Quentin Tarantino’s “Dusk til Dawn” bar at the start of the evening (before everyone turns into vampires) mixed with a touch of Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Blues Brothers!!

It is conveniently located only a 5 minute walk up the road from Holloway Road tube on the Picadilly Line – and it sits on the corner of two roads, where there is basically little else after dark. However I am NOT complaining – just setting the scene.

The great thing was the consistency about it. From the music in the breaks with the classic rock of everyone from Led Zep, Queen, Alice Cooper and even Kiss – through to what the bands played themselves.

It was WE ROCK LIKE GIRLS DON’T that came to see – and they do, or rather don’t. Wotever!

Anyhow, the track from Seattle, and the one before it with “the ghost guitarist”, certainly made me think there was more than just two girls in the band. Ros gives little intro or backchat in between tracks, and just gets down to business in playing on most numbers.

In fact, it wasn’t until she had got to the end of the number before the track from Seattle recording – and mentioned that – that I realised she was Scottish.

And I think that the Scottish accent gives the music they do that harder feel -as if to say “Don’t mess with me – I’m singing ta YOU!”.

That and they can play TOO! Yes, boys and all you hard rocker girls, they can. With a sound just a wee tiny bit (just a little) like Kate Bush on the softer numbers – to touches of Pat Benatar or Ani De Franco on the harder ones. However the comparisons are probably unfair – as Ros can play that guitar. Boy/Girl, can she play!! So the singin’ is just an added extra…

It all seemed to go together, including the small but enthusiastic and appreciative crowd. Hey, I even liked the free drink that I got from “the local”, Andy, who said that he had been a bass guitarist earlier in his career. Now if I had a pound for every time some punter told me that at a Blues or Rock gig…

Me? If I ever want to blag it with the best – then I say I’m a drummer (or could have been) – and, as Henry David Thoreau said about the different drummer: “Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away”. So I let Andy step out in his own way in believing that he was, once again, measuring himself up on that stage far away. Just for one night again, and a free whiskey or two…

Certainly it would be great to see Ros and WE ROCK LIKE GIRLS DON’T there again with a bigger turn-out…and maybe catch up again with good old Andy too.

The Standards at Barfly

The Standards’ standard at Barfly on Saturday, February 6th, was beatworthy and tuneful with a really Brit-cool lead singer called Neil who knows how to perform as much as sing.

“Out with the Fire” is a great number, however the overzealousness of the Barfly’s dry ice maker nearly blanketing the whole stage in dry ice at the start of the number – so neither the band nor anyone could see what was happening – nearly killed the number before it started. We really liked “Already There” too, the number that came after it, and the band was able to get into its stride after that with both Neil and Mark, singer and lead guitarist, handling the gathering unruly crowd well and not letting attention wander to where there really needed to be some crowd management at the back.

The sound system made some of the numbers a little scratchy – and so it would be good to see The Standards at a venue somewhere else so that we could tell if it was just another Barfly “quirk” (as indicated below) or down to the band and how they handle their instruments. We suspect the former…

So the lowdown on the gig was that it was lessened by poor sound engineering and stage management “glitches”. Coupled with that is the inconsistency of promotional support and lack of any care about the audience coming along there to appreciate the gigs – as the barman knew nothing about who was playing AT ALL, either in the gig that The Standards were playing in or who the bands were in later gigs, nor did the guys downstairs care if you found your way up to where the gigs were playing as they were located at the front entrance to the bar and so there was no real ushering in to hear the music at all once in the door. And, hey, besides the barman and door staff, it also cost £8 rather than advertised £6 to get in! Besides all that the drinks were over-priced for the state of the place and cost of getting in there.

The worst came later, when the performance space management simply allowed a drunken punter to climb up on stage and fall down in the middle of where a band, The Wutars, were playing a garage number in the next gig following The Standards.

All that is what lets Barfly down – and not just The Standards. So rather slack, really. The Barfly needs a good spray, in such regards, so that it can kill the bugs that are in its way to being a cool place to be. The lay-out is good tho – and it is in a good location, and so it COULD be a good venue!! Right now, it lacks any “real cool” charm whatsoever.

However The Standards made Barfly look cool – if only for a few short numbers….

Saturday, Feb 6th, The Standards,
Indie / Acoustic /Rock – with just a touch of The Smiths perhaps -playing @ Camden Barfly, 20:00, with Hoodlums
49 Chalk Farm Rd, London, NW1 8AN Cost: £5

Wednesday, Feb 17th, WE ROCK LIKE GIRLS DON’T,
heavy metal and hard rock (with heart?), headlining NEW HEAVY SOUNDS @ The Gaff, 382 Holloway Rd, N7

Friday, Feb 26th, The Grand Majestic,
big band funk and jazz all the way from Brighton, playing at
Underbelly, 11 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU on Feb 26th

Saturday, Mar 6th, the Jim Jims ,
Jazz/Acoustic group with a folksy French twist, playing at 20:00 @ The Good Ship, Kilburn, 89 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7JR
(Ed. Note: this gig has replaced BetaRays at Barfly – due to report of poor quality venue management at Barfly for gig on February 6th. This is no reflection on BetaRays – who we hope to see at another venue at a later date)

Monday, Mar 26th, Phoenix Williams,
Indie / Acoustic / Rock, playing at 20:00 @ Source Below,
78 Brewer Street , Soho, London, W1F 9TY. Cost: £6

For full page on London Charm and “secrets” of the Secret London Group, visit THE SECRET’S OUT page

Oliver’s Music Bar: http://www.myspace.com/oliversmusicbar

The Regal Room: http://www.myspace.com/theregalroom

Troubadour:  http://www.troubadour.co.uk/programme.php

These venues have been selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• • Appreciative audience atmosphere;
• • Good space to dance or sit as well as see and hear performers;
• • Good venue organisation;
• • A fair range  of drinks at a reasonable price;
• • Good food (where food available);  
• • Convenience of location for public transport and safety getting to and from the venue;
• • Above all, a variety of good acts regularly appearing there; and
• • Have a good crowd of people who go there – and who work there.

To propose more venues with such style and charm, then email your opinion to venues@london-charm.com or to join the London Charm group in getting together to go out to gigs then email join@london-charm.com

The gathering began when someone next to her - who she had never met before but who had overheard her comment – mentioned about a great band he liked. However he also said how this band only played the occasional gig – and so you had to follow them by getting on their mailing list. Or check out their MySpace or Facebook page…

Another guy joined in – mentioning about a venue  he liked – and, although that place did not always have the bands that ”made the night” for him, how it was great when it did.  However you also had to contact THEM and get on their mailing list too!  Or check out their MySpace…

Somehow or other, others chipped in about bands they liked, venues that they would like to go to more often (if they had the acts), and how it would be great to be able to see more great live music that everyone enjoyed – and, ideally, when you’d know that there would be people at these nights out who were as nice and appreciative of good live music and nights out as the people who had met here at this pub this night.  

However the challenge,  they all agreed, was that there were a lot of acts and places to see – and so a lot of time needed to figure out who or where was good.  Even then, you could not guarantee who else – besides the band and the venue management – might be there on the night.  So how could you necessarily know it would be a good night?  Coz, they all agreed, it’s as much about the audience and the atmosphere as much as it is about the act and “where it’s at”! 

So what would give some charm to a night out – with a good crowd (and maybe even a great one!) as well as great music and a space to see it performed in?  

It is possibly a discussion that has been repeated many times in any one of a number of different pubs in so many different great places around London (coz, let’s face it, there’s a whole darned lot of great pubs in London!!). 

So these happy musings, over glasses of wine and beer, might simply have ended there - until someone mused about whether it might even be possible for the group there to bring their own charm to London - by staying in touch and seeing if one of them could find a way to share with the others about what musicians, comedians and other live acts that they would all like as well as the places that they would like to see them perform at!!   That way, they could have it all – the music, the space and, above all, the people to see it all with….

And so this group of people exchanged mobile numbers and email addresses and, shortly after, the group “London Charm” was created…