Now We Are FIVE!

Please be good enough to allow us a brief moment of self-indulgence: we had a delightful birthday party and here is the evidence, in alphabetical order:

Amor De Dias looking relaxed in rehearsal: 

and sounding inspired in performance:

Birdie reminding us all how much we have been missing them: 

Ignacio from Hacia dos Veranos sitting in the sunshine:

and later with Gwen and Harvey on stage:

Massive thanks to everyone who played so well, including the musicians and our ace DJ Andy Lewis; plus all our chums at the Lexington who work so hard while we're farting around; also Ed from Five Points Brewery who made our delicious birthday beer and helped it to be provided at a hangover-inducing special price, and to Celine for bringing crumble. CRUMBLE!

And to the bunch of awesome nutters who gave us this (especially Bill, thanks for making the effort):

And to everyone who bothered to come along, thanks a lot and see you soon!

Five Reasons to come to our birthday party on Sunday part FIVE!

OK, just to re-cap:

1. Free handprinted Hangover Lounge Beermats
2. Free hangover Lounge fanzine featuring contributions from: Berry, Pam; Hayman, Darren; Latham, Charles, Hand, Withered; US.
3. Special awesome Five Points Hangover Lounge birthday beer at a special price
4. Free giveaway HL favourite tunes CD

Not bad, right? RIGHT? Right.

Now, the fifth and best reason is that the show will really be particularly amazing. Sorry to go on about this, but :

 - Hacia Dos Veranos: a rare appearance and also some special guests (you may or may not know who they are but you should know by now that our special guests are worth looking out for)
 - Birdie: if HDV are making a rare appearance, this is like finding yourself face to face with a red-rumped swallow somewhere north of the Wash. Twitcher friends, this is worth turning out for.
 - Amor de Dias: we released their first recording, we love them beyond all reason, and we are very proud to be hosting their first ever full-band show. There's no guarantee you'll see such a thing happening again and I promise it'll be a thrill.

Still a few tickets left for this one, you'll be sorry to miss it.

Five reasons to come to our birthday party on Sunday part 4: FREE MUSIC!

Goodness knows the last thing we expect people to come to the Hangover Lounge on a Sunday for is for a live-action display of the exquisite taste in music of the regular DJs. Sure, the tunes are good but we're not going on about it.

Every now and again, though, we burn a bunch of favourites onto CD, and hand it out to anyone who wants one. Funnily enough, its something which we've wound up hearing more about than the various other bits of tomfoolery we've come up with. People seem to find songs they like on there. There's a thing, eh?

We'll be giving another comp, freshly burned and ready to rip - gently - on Sunday. The track listing is a secret. But it'll be bloody good. Come and ask for one at the DJ booth. We're not doing very many, and when it's gone it's gone. Even if you get there too late for a freebie CD there'll still be a ton of good music, not least the proper actual, amplified show upstairs in the evening featuring - you know this already, right?  - Amor De Dias, Birdie and Hacia Dos Veranos. Tickets still available!

Five Reasons to come to our birthday party on Sunday Part 3: SPECIAL BEER SPECIAL!

Sometimes, you know, that perfect combination of music and beer hits the spot in a way that nothing else can. It's the very rock* upon which The Hangover Lounge is built. And in honour of that magical combination we have got together with our chums at Hackney's hot new brewery, 5 Points, to generate a Hangover Lounge Birthday Beer! It's based on their lovely Red Rye ale and, better still, it will be available at a special reduced price at The Lexington on Sunday in celebration of our birthday. Something special to rest on your celebratory beermat.

The way Sunday will work, in case you were wondering, will be as a normal Hangover Lounge downstairs through Sunday afternoon, and then the live acts will be playing, amplified and breathtaking, upstairs in the evening. The evening show's a paying gig, and you can buy your tickets by clicking here.

*Yes yes we're busily opposing all rock and roll, of course we are.

Five Reasons to Come To Our Birthday Celebration on Sunday, Part 2: FREE FANZINE

Wait, what is that goodness I see before me?
It's the Hangover Lounge's 5th birthday fanzine.

I want to open it up right now and devour its contents!
You sure do. It's got drawings by Dan Willson and Darren Hayman. It's got a full colour craft page on how to make a t-shirt by Pam Berry. Andy Lewis writes about the finest musical salves for a hangover. There's an article by Ignacio from Hacia Dos Veranos and an interview with Charles Latham. And much more, including a centrefold.

A centre what?
Relax, like London's award-winning Hangover Lounge, it's family-friendly.

Jeepers creepers! I want me one of those
You may have one. They're free to all attendees of this Sunday's birthday gig.

Curses. It's not like there's anything better to do, but I can't make it. How can I get one?
The British Library or Sotheby's. If there are any left over, we'll put them in mail orders for our records.

Five Reasons to Come To Our Birthday Celebration on Sunday, Part 1

THE FIRST of our five* reasons to come to our birthday celebrations on Sunday is that it will be your opportunity to pick up your FREE, entirely EXCLUSIVE, hand-letterpressed Hangover Lounge 5th Birthday beermat.

The beermats look like this: 

and they'll be available for the asking, for as long as they last until they run out. Oh and of you never got round to picking up a free copy of our beautiful Black Tambouring In Dub / Owl and Mouse picture disc, you can get one of those too. But that's not one of the five reasons, the beermat is. I only just finished printing the mats but they'll definitely be dry by Sunday. 

The way Sunday will work, in case you were wondering, will be as a normal Hangover Lounge downstairs through Sunday afternoon, and then the live acts will be playing, amplified and breathtaking, upstairs in the evening. The evening show's a paying gig, and you can buy your tickets by clicking here.  

*There are more than five reasons to come but we've just picked five, OK? Because we ARE five. OR will be.

Amor de Dias gig

Amor de Dias are playing a very special gig on Sunday May 26. It's their first full-band gig, featuring no less a rhythm section than The Clientele's James Hornsey and Howard Monk.

It's also their only UK gig. You need to see this.

Here's a song from Amor de Dias' album, The House At Sea. We've played a song from it every week this year at the club. The Mercury Music Prize awaits.


And here's The Clientele playing Bonfires on the Heath in a park:

Birdie

They were the Velvet Underground for the mod generation. They were big in Japan. They were popular pretty much everywhere outside of the UK. Which was odd, as after Britpop's bluster when people were trying anything - the new acoustic movement, anyone? - to find some sweet relief they'd have found salvation in Birdie.

Birdie's two albums, 1999's Some Dusty and 2001's Triple Echo, are masterpieces of Left Banke psych and Laura Nyro pop. It's no surprise they were so popular; when they played the Union Chapel for us last year, 500 people turned up.

That was Birdie's first full-band gig in over a decade. This is their second.

Robert Forster

"I'm honoured to be here today," Robert Forster told the audience at our third Grant McLennan tribute gig. We were honoured that Robert played two songs. He stayed for several hours afterwards, chatting to fans and old friends. It was a very special day.

Coming Down In May

It's already May! It's nearly time to start dusting off those old Razorcuts records about the summertime! It's an unusual May in that it is a month of only four Sundays, but notwithstanding that, the question we were musing on the other day was whether this is the single most exciting month of Hangover Lounges EVER? I mean, ever? That's, like, FIVE YEARS! 

Here's what we've got: 

SUNDAY THE FIFTH OF MAY: our Third Annual Tribute To Grant McLennan day, hats off to the memory of the great man himself.  You can read about the line-up here: http://hangoverlounge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-third-annual-grant-mclennan-tribute.html The previous two Annual Tribute To Grant McLennan days have been brilliant and have also seen some unexpected special guests and we see no reason to think this will be any different. Also, as of the time I am posting this, it's TODAY!

SUNDAY THE TWELFTH OF MAY: we have three special guest DJs this afternoon: 

ONE: the delightful and enigmatic Celine, who can often be seen being delightful and slightly enigmatic at the Hangover Lounge

TWO: the similarly delightful Emily from the popular group Tender Trap, and also formerly of the popular group Betty and The Werewolves

THREE: the dissimilarly delightful Sean Price, self-appointed El Presidente, dispenser of uniquely gruff Pricean good vibes, and it'll be his birthday so feel free to buy him a drink. 

Or us. You can buy us a drink too, if you like. It'l be our birthday soon too. 

SUNDAY THE NINETEENTH OF MAY: THIS ENTRY DELETED PENDING CONFIRMATION OF VERY SPECIAL THE-WEEK-BEFORE-OUR-BIRTHDAY GUEST DJS who we'll let you know about as soon as we can.

SUNDAY THE TWENTY-SIXTH OF MAY: it's our fifth birthday party!! HOORAY! We have a proper actual amplified ticketed evening gig upstairs featuring three - THREE - of the best groups in the word at the moment. AND there will be special Hangover Lounge fifth birthday party beer! AND there will be special Hangover Lounge Five Years beermats. AND we have been writing an actual FANZINE to give to you, and Ben has been editing it and he's actually competent so it might be worth reading. And you will be able to watch us get DRUNKED. And it's a bank holiday the next day and everything is going to be great. 

I can't see any good reason for missing any of that. Can you?

Love Goes On! And on

What your favourite Grant McLennan song?
"I really like 'Love Goes On'. There's nine chords in a row, which he doesn't repeat. It's so him. A lot of his best songs are on '16 Lovers Lane'. And 'Cattle & Cane' is a really good song. It was like 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' or something — a quantum leap, a break-through song."
Robert Forster

This Sunday, at least two of our guests for our third annual Grant McLennan tribute gig will be covering Love Goes On!

As a taster, here's The Go-Betweens playing it at an acoustic gig at Tower Records on 25 August 1994.


And here again they're playing it at McCabe's guitar shop on 11 November 1988