I was being propped up by the back of the sofa, if I had been on a stool I would had fallen off, if I was standing I would had probably collapsed and, heave forbid, if I had been driving than the likelihood of a fatal accident could have very well been on the cards. The Proud Gallery is right opposite the Camden Barfly, our next destination in a few hours time. Luckily, just to keep me going are a selection of croissants and on the patio the smell of sausage, bacon and eggs butties are tempting me to move my lazy butt a few feet so I can grab one off the tray. The background music is pretty funky kicking off with four women playing trendy indie tunes such as Joy Division, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' on violins. The quartet called Litmus were quite simply, marvelous. After their strings had been pulled an Irish fella named Declan O'Rouke carried on who wasn't too bad but was the near perfect backdrop for this time of hour. Oh, sorry I forgot to mention - it was 5am! Yeah, that wasn't a typing error and just to prove I will print it again - 5am! After Declan came an unwanted guest. As welcome as a male streaker on a football pitch this jerk called 'Bacon and Eggs' came on stage and requested a guitar after much silence and confusion one was handed to him and he played a few of his controversial songs and nearly had the plug pulled after his second number. To be fair and if I'm honest I secretly thought he wasn't bad! It was now 6.40am and the tiredness was creeping in. I had been on Carling 24 for nearly 12 hours and here's the proof...
6.30pm Even though Carling 24 doesn't officially start in half
an hour the media were requested to be outside Brixton Academy earlier
to sign themselves in. So amongst journalists from Heat, Maxium, The Sun
and Knitwear Weekly ABLE2UK turned up and prepared ourselves for the third
marathon trek known as Carling 24.
Its a moderate mild late Spring evening with a small chill in the air,
but thanks to my £300 Ted Baker leather jacket the next 24 hours
will be done in comfort - or so I thought. More about later!
Once all that was out the way it was time to catch the first two bands,
Captain and The Pipettes. 'Captain' were having a pretty memorable weekend,
tonight they were supporting the Kaiser Chiefs and launching Carling 24
and on Bank Holiday Monday their debut single, 'Broke' would sail through
record shops on dry land. The Pipettes released their last single 'Your
Kisses Are Wasted On Me' back in March and haven't really been able to
make any kind of impact since. The three girls are a tad better then yesteryear's
'Shampoo' and sadly we don't think we will be hearing much of them in
future, mind you if they turn out to be a worldwide hit then this page
will swiftly be edited and this sentence never existed, Right?
How many times have we reviewed Kaiser Chiefs? Answers on the back of
a sealed down envelope marked 'The Kaiser gave another fantastic show
at Carling 24 and always seems fresh and energetic no matter how many
times you actually see them' best entry wins Peanut's hat!
After they predicted a riot, not the best songtitle to play at Brixton,
but there you go, it was time to jump on the bus and make our way over
to Islington Academy.
11.00pm With the exception of my visit to Ibiza I have never
bothered to buy a copy of Mixmag. The reason is that I don't really understand
how most DJ's can become worldwide superstars. Granted your Jules and
your Oakenfolds are something else but the Scratch Perverts leave me cold.
After offending off all our dance fanatics I'm about to slag off a Godlike
Genius. I am sorry but tonight Ian Brown wasn't fantastic. The yob with
a criminal record took the stage just after midnight and shouted his way
through his set. He can sing sometimes and when he belts out the classics
then I can see why he's so popular, but the pill dropping crowd would
cheer at anything tonight. The monkeyboy then did his trick on stage which
consisted of turning his hand 360 degrees on stage any member of the Magic
Circle knows that rule one is never repeat a trick. Brown did this three
times - maybe he learnt it at Hogsworth! Maybe it was because I was hoping
for something just a bit more special and I know I'm in the minority.
So those of you who are still reading this please stay with me there's
a few compliments coming up.
02.15am There's a hidden treasure buried in the depths of Kings
Cross and it's not a train which is on time. The bus brought us to an
intriguing nightclub called Canvas. A four roomed building complete with
a VIP lounge upstairs Canvas was the venue for this years Carling 24 party.
The night started with a live set from Goldie Lookin' Chain, despite being
recently dropped from Sony they were on fine form and I always think that
their humor is lost on a live crowd. After being told that our mothers
have a male genital we explored the other rooms where the likes of , The
Cuban Brothers, James Priestley, Adam Freeland, Bez and Clint Boon all
ended up behind the decks. There was even a Punk Rock Karaoke. Upstairs
in the VIP room Bez was meeting everyone he could and it gave us a chance
to become friends with the Sun reporter, Simon. Si works for the Sun website
and had been given the strenuous chore of reporting back from the whole
24 hours.
It's 4.30am and ABLE2UK catches the bus with Simon to where our report started, The Proud Gallery and I make a beeline to the sofa, which as I told you earlier had been propping me up for the past few hours. After the next two hours past away and Bacon & Eggs finally called it a day it was time to embark on the second half of this amazing event and the Barfly across the road was the next destination..
07.00am Support this morning came from a new band called The
Holloways, I suppose anything would be classed as 'lively' at this time
of day. But these lads were pretty good, but nothing prepared me for this
concert's headline at, Larrkin Love. When the lead singer took to the
stage with his hair shaved and lost facial expression alarm bells were
ringing in my head. This was going to be an awful wake-up call. Downstairs
the bar had just opened and the chance to catch a sneaky nap also seemed
tempting. I mean, to play at the Barfly first thing in the morning you
had to be pretty poor, Didn't you?
Then they started, before the end of their first number I was instantly
hooked they were terrific. This band are going to be massive and if they
aren't there's something wrong with the music industry. I saw the Arctic
Monkeys a few weeks ago and enjoyed this twice as much. They are original
as hell and forget about what I said about the lead singer, or Micko as
he will now rewardly be refereed to. His unbelievable and his eyes are
well, eye-catching. I've never meant this so much, go and see them.
While the rest of the media still report how amazing the Arctic Monkeys
are take a step into the future and fall in love with the greatest new
band I've encountered on for many many years. Larrkin Love are our new
favorite band and will be gracing our pages for some time from now on!
10.00am Remember my coat? I wasn't bragging about it for no apparent reason. Because it's so important to me I decided to leave it safe on the media bus in the fear I may loose it at a venue, or my tiredness would make forget to pick it up from a cloakroom. Well, the bus is now taking a handful of us back to Islington to catch Dirty Pretty Things whilst the rest are making their way down to the Thames to catch Boy Kill Boy play on a boat. But all that doesn't matter to me, there's only one thing on my mind at the moment, four words in fact, which are WHERE'S MY BLOODY COAT? I know the job of a journalist is to report on his gigs, parties or whatever the hell he goes to, but I couldn't care less. I want my coat back and that's all that matters to me at the moment. Simon was the only other media guy brave enough to last the night with me and my mate and he's buggered off to the river. Here's his review which I've blatantly copied from the Sun website..
11.30am BOY KILL BOY Report by The Sun's SIMON ROTHSTEIN
Boat cruise from Tower Bridge to Chelsea Harbour: Drinking champagne and watching BOY KILL BOY as the London Eye and Houses Of Parliament float by is certainly an experience.
A time clash means I don't catch DIRTY PRETTY THINGS - who I loved on last week's Camden Crawl - but this is a boat trip that couldn't be missed.
Boy Kill Boy are much more polished than at previous shows, both musically and in the style stakes, a sure signal that their record company have big plans for 2006. And about time too.
Hang on a minute, to be brutally
honest that is the first time I've read his review and just found out
the he got bloody free champagne!
For goodness sake, I've survived every London Carling 24 and miss the
gig with free Champers! Here's my report from Dirty Pretty Things at the
Islington Academy..
11.00am No, tell you what, before I do this one lets rewind the clock back six hours so you can all have a good laugh at my expense..
5.00am Everybody, including myself are in the Proud Gallery and outside the Media bus is completely empty, (except for my coat!) allowing the driver to finish his shift and return back to the depot where a second identical bus will be driven back to Camden.
Yes very funny! So it's 11.00am
and I'm on the balcony at the Islington Academy watching the 747's. A
band who haven't quite managed to cross over into the mainstream yet but
this could be something to do with the fact that if you Google their name
you end up with information about a type of airplane! Hopefully though
within time they will fly towards the top end of the charts. Dirty Pretty
Things aren't bad, but you can't quite watch them without thinking that
the double act we used to love will never be reunited. Babyshambles may
be unreliable with Pete making headlines with other kind of lines, but
at least he has great stage personae, when he makes it! Carl seems a bit
drab heading his own band although Bang, Bang is a brilliant track it's
just unfortunate that at this moment in time he doesn't have any more
classics up his sleeve.
3.00pm With everybody now being reunited as well as man and
coat (even though its stuck in a depot, which incidentally I've just found
out!) it's time to continue our gigathonan by going to the Hammersmith
Palais so we can catch The Ordinary Boys. Preston hadn't been doing his
homework as we wished the Carling24 crowd good luck for the next 8 hours!
Or maybe we hadn't been told something!
The band played their hits including Seaside and of course Boys Will Be
Boys and their army fully enjoyed it. Of course a certain reality show
did help a little for the band to rope in a few more fans, but that is
in the past and despite them coming on stage about 3pm it seemed irrelevant
that it was a warm Saturday afternoon outside.
Maybe the band aren't great and could well be forgotten in a couple of
years, but somehow they have this mystery ingredient which makes their
live shows just a bit more special than the norm. And before you ask,
No we didn't bump into Chantelle - Thank goodness!
5.45pm
I have never been
so relived to catch Razorlight live! It's the final stretch and I'm at
Shepherds Bush Empire resting my frail, tired body. Johnny was outstanding
tonight draining the last ounce of energy us Carling24 maniacs had left
in our bodies. Dressed in a tight white top he managed to whip the whole
building into an almighty frenzy and we loved him for it. Afterwards,
7.30pm to be precise! I spent a few minutes in the balcony bar, but that
was it - I was knakered. But what an event! The Carling24 marathon is
a sure highlight and next year has already been confirmed, but that's
in the future. Now, as Zebedee used to say on a nightly basis - It's Time
For Bed!