March 14 Gig Spectacular

Starring:
Chris Wilson of the Flamin' Groovies
Bob Collins and Mark Matthews of The Dentists
Hacia dos Veranos

I know! We can hardly believe it either. What a line-up. And it's all free. Start counting down the days...

If you haven't already, you'll surely want to buy tickets for the first Dentists gig in 15 years, and the first with the original line-up since 1986, at Dingwalls on March 25, which also features The Claim, one of the all-time greats.

Scrabble Downfall Sunday Special

Hey! You know sometimes you just get to that place where you're thinking "well, I wonder what DJ Downfall, ace DJ John Downfall, monophone touting man of indiedancepop mystery and eponymous bon viveur is up to this Sunday? I wish I could be doing that too!" I know I do, now and again.

It's a problem which needn't worry you this weekend. DJ Downfall will be guesting at the Hangover Lounge. It'll be awesome. Also it's SCRABBLE SUNDAY again, which means that you might get to challenge "Deej" to exchange his customary poker chips for scrabble tiles. Be warned though: he's good.

Freaky Trigger Valentaine's Day special Lounge

On Sunday - that's VALENTINE'S DAY, dudes, a selection of our chums from the excellent Freaky Trigger website will be guesting on the decks, no doubt bringing a skewed pop angle to our usual mixture of the slow and the soothing. It promises to be a good deal of fun. See you on Sunday, we hope!

Middle Ones live

The Middle Ones delighted everyone at the Hangover Lounge last Sunday. Re-live your experience or see what you missed out on with this footage of them playing Young Explorer:

Darren Hayman guest-DJs on Sunday 31st January

If you use one of the variously shonky calendars which sit on the right-hand side of this site you will already be familiar with the fact that Darren Hayman is to be our guest at this Sunday's Lounge. I can think of no better way to see out the last day of the first month of 2010, especially since last time I saw Darren he was talking about how much reggae he'd been listening to lately. I'm hoping for a nicely bass-heavy guest spot.

The only way you're going to have more Hayman-related fun this weekend is to get a TRAIN to Honiton (it's in Devon, dear) then a BUS towards Sidmouth, telling the bus driver to let you know when you've got to Exeter Cross. Get off there and WALK the few hundred yards to Woolbrook. Just past the Balfour, you'll see Hayman's butchers, where they sell world-renowned PORK BRAWN. Pork brawn is what you get when you boil a pig's head and it's delicious. Just ask Rick Stein, who named them amongst his food heroes for their brawn.

Pig's head or Darren's tunes. You decide.

See you on Sunday.

Name That Tune: Drink Wine by The Techniques

Synergy, my friends. Leveraging multiple platforms. Really driving the value from your diversified range of products.

What? Duke Reid. He knew, don't argue. Hard man ex-cop, off-license owner, sound system operator. Also: record producer; largely undisputed king of the rocksteady sound which blew into Jamaica in the 67 / 68 season. Trojan was the sound (the British label inherited the name), Treasure Isle was the label, Treasure Isle was the booze shop.

The result: this beautiful slice of rocksteady, one of my very favourites (and not just because I find the message in the music so sympathetic, or just because of the funky pirate's groovy 'tache on the label).


Come to the dance. Buy lots of booze. Drink same. Not too rowdy, now. I know you'll control yourselves and you'll be... real cool.

Record Fair Upstairs at the Lexington

Double your pleasure at the Hangover Lounge on Sunday January 17 by digging through the crates and scoring some bargains at the King's Cross Record Fair, which will be held upstairs at the Lexington.

Stallholders will be selling punk, pop, indie, new wave, power-pop, soul, Northern, psych, reggae, 60s, 70s, 80s & 90s records, t-shirts and memorabilia. Phew!