The Smyths play Read the Fanzine at Bar Monsta, Camden on
Thursday 12th October 2006
Lineup: The Smyths, Deathstar Preview and Jean
The Thought Criminals Myspace Page
Deathstar Preview (now Falon) Myspace Page
Jean Myspace Page
The Leather Exchange had a lot of potential, but unfortunately we never got a chance to realise that potential.
One of the neighbours (and I use the term loosely, the nearest flats were a good distance away) started to complain about the noise, and complained every time things got noisy in the pub. Indeed, he got people from the council down who said that all noise made in the pub must be contained within the pub.
Completely ridiculous! I mean if you buy a flat near a pub with a music license, you've got to expect a bit of noise during licensed hours. All these silly rules are just killing the live music scene.
Anyway we were given the option of going ahead with the September night, but on balance it was better to give it a miss as we'd have been tiptoeing about all night, and Peter didn't want to lose his music license as he was so disgusted with the council that he decided to sell up.
Once again we were cast adrift without a venue, with bands booked up until December.
Whilst talking to one of the bands who were supposed to play the September gig, they invited me down to one of their other gigs, at a new venue I hadn't heard of in Camden called Bar Monsta.
I instantly liked the place. Whilst there were niggles such as no draught beers (and 3 quid for a can of fosters) and nowhere to sit down (I'm getting old!) it was a good sized venue, great PA system and you could actually see it from Camden tube station if you take the left exit as you come up the stairs (instead of taking the right exit to go to the market). I actually counted and it was something like 120 steps!
I contacted it's owner about the possibility of doing something there and the deal was $pound;70 but with a minimum bar spend of $pound;800 with me making up half the difference. i.e. if they only took $pound;400 at the bar, I'd have to pay $pound;200. Mick was keen to point out that it was rare they enforced this and would only do it if they felt the promoter hadn't made enough effort to promote the show. Fair enough.
On the phone to Tris, he wasn't keen on the venue when I told him about the lack of draught, but I'd been around Camden looking for other venues, but same old story, so I took the plunge.
I went down during the day and it was quite scary to be honest. A couple of rough bouncer types asked me what I wanted and they lead me to a small room with a bloke who looked like a hells angel. As it turned out he's a top bloke, love music (generally heavy rock) appreciates people who are in it for the music, and hates rip off scamsters who operate pay to play. I really like Mick but wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him!
I was keen to make a bit of a splash with my first night, and I'd been talking to a Smiths tribute band called The Smyths.
I'm normally not too keen on tribute bands (though the names are often funny) but the idea of a Smiths tribute band did appeal to me. A good band playing The Smiths songs live sounded pretty entertaining to me.
Whilst the cost of booking them was going to bring costs up to a similar level as booking the Dublin Castle, they had a tendency to sell out venue at 3 times the size, with a ticket price of $pound;10, with no other bands on the bill. I decided to charge just $pound;5 a ticket and get a couple of other bands on the bill.
Around that time we'd bought a café in Covent Garden, and whilst we were making good progress, we'd got off to a bad start and were struggling a little bit.
After being up at 5.30am to pre-cook and clean the grease off 2kg of Bacon, doing a full day at the café, and the prospect of doing the same on the Friday, I kept asking myself "WHY?" on my way to the venue.
But the night was to remind me why - and then some!
During the sound checks people were coming in asking to buy tickets - a good sign!
By opening time there was already a long queue out the door, and no sign of Sherri! I gave her a ring - turned out she was having problems parking.
It was good to see Kirlian and his mates from The Thought Criminals making their way down.
Jean were a bit of an unusual band. They seemed very polished in their myspace songs for a band about to play their first live gig at our night. Their style seemed to be made up of various 80s bands.
I was worried that maybe they were a bit too pop for an Indie night, but I ran them past JG who approved so I thought, why not?
It turned out they weren't quite the new band we thought they were! The lead singer had been in a boy band called Bad Boys Inc who apparently did well until Take that came along. Other members of the band had been involved in other signed bands, producing Shaking Stevens new album and stuff like that, and they were also a ten grand a night corporate entertainment 80s generic tribute act, and blondie tribute act. Now it all made sense!
They brought a good crowd with them, and quite a few industry people amongst them. Their set sounded great and went down really well.
It was good to get Deathstar Preview back after their rushed set at The Progress Bar. What a difference a decent PA system made to their sound! Don't get me wrong, they sounded great at The Progress Bar, but at Bar Monsta they sounded very good indeed. What a shame they never quite made the big time. They were bubbling under for quite a while and pulled good crowds wherever they went.
"Moz" had turned up to the venue wearing a hearing aid and looking like the real one, only less obnoxious!
They were a really good band and thoroughly entertaining. It made me realise that whilst I'd been hoping for a Smiths reunion, what I really wanted was to see The Smiths as they were in the 80s. I saw Moz at a festival a couple of years ago and it didn't really work for me, but this was probably as close as we were ever likely to get to seeing The Smiths playing live in their prime.
In fact theywere so good that several people who hate The Smiths loved them!
I was down the front going mental! It was great!
Meanwhile Mick bought me a beer, it turned out that there was such a crowd that they'd sold out of cider and lager and had to rush down the cash and carry to get replenishments. I'd reached my minimum bar spend - and then some!
When the band came off stage I went into Mick's room and he said that they'd underestimated me - me being a fairly quiet bloke, they expected me to put up a myspace page and be surprised when big crowds didn't descend. It wasn't his kind of music but he enjoyed it, and was keen for me to do another night, well how could I refuse? I decided to book 1st December and cancel 2nd December at Dublin Castle.
Tris had a mate who was a DJ and apparently a bit of a draw. But during the 2 or 3 songs he played whilst I was talking to Mick, a packed venue became half a dozen people! Apparently he played a Smiths song to start off with, maybe not a good idea straight after a Smiths tribute act, but hey maybe people just needed to go and catch their tube.
I got home about 1.30am and just as I was putting the key in the lock I received a text message from Graham aka Moz, "It's not often the promoter is down the front going mental, it was a great night and that was possibly one of our best performances so far, if we can play for you again let us know".
A perfect end to a perfect evening!
I was tired on the Friday, but the memories of the night before kept me going. This was perhaps the golden period of Read the Fanzine - 3 great nights on the trot, all in their own way.
Read on: December at Bar Monsta, Camden with The Filthy Tongues