Enter Stage Right

A little theatrical interlude here as I was just in the mood to extol the virtues of one of the best plays and, indeed, lead performances I have witnessed in a good long while.

Jerusalem had a fine run at the Royal Court Theatre, located in the home of the urban tractor, Sloane Square and I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this. Given the huge success it had here, it has now been given a full west-end transfer to the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue.

There is a whole cast of great performances, including Mackenzie Crook, but it is impossible to really notice anything other than Mark Rylance's outstanding portrayal of the pikey pied piper Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, a lunatic, drunkard, drug-dealing raconteur in the finest English sense of the words.

At turns both a hero and an anti-hero, it's a performance that is throroughly enticing, engaging, powerful and thought provoking. It never lets up for a second and the whole play grabs you and hangs on, like a small, yappy-type dog with something to prove, until it's bitter end.

Jerusalem is a celebration of a particular kind of England that is loved and loathed in equal measure. Never dull but evidently being eroded by 'progress' and gentrification.

Go see, celebrate, cerebrate before it is too late.

Until 24th April
Cheaper tickets are available from Lastminute.com and occasionally from the Tkts booth in Leicester Square.

Hackneyed History

Photography by George Best

A bit of a local one for local people this one, but fascinating to all if you are around my hood on Saturday morning.

The St John at Hackney Churchyard and St Augustine's Tower are a bit of a Hackney landmark and by far and away the oldest building in the area having originally been part of a church built there in the 16th century. If you really want to kick it old school then there has been a church, founded by the Knights Templar, on this site since the 13th century.

Having relatively recently received lottery funding to renovate and re-open to the public, it is now possible to take a little tour and find out a little bit of history to something that one might otherwise idly and ignorantly stroll by.

This Saturday, there is just such an opportunity as local historian Sean Gubbins will enlighten on the myriad of society over the centuries buried in the churchyard, as well as a climb up the miniscule stone stairs to the top of the tower where a frankly spectacular view over East London and way beyond awaits...

Saturday 27th March
11am - 1pm
FREE

Hot Off The Press

This very moment, I have just received word of the annual series of gigs that take place within the courtyard of that oft underused building, Somerset House.

The home of the Taxman, this building and it's open air square are increasingly being used for more inspiring means. A staple of this is the opportunity every summer for Somerset House to make for a superb music venue. I am often want to recall seeing Orbital there in what ranks right up there in my favourite all time musical experiences.

Having said that, the line-up for Somerset House is often mixed, and toppling towards disappointing. However, this year, they must have employed at least one person with a half-decent taste in music as there are sporadic highlights.

These are...

Friday 9th July Air

Tuesday 13th July The xx

Sunday 18th July Soul II Soul

If any of you imagined throngs out there in webland fancy a jaunt along and a singalong, then I am able to get priority booking if you get off your behind by Friday.

Come along now...

Folksy Antifolk

                                                        Photo by Sarah Cass

I'm not sure I've ever really understood the use of the term 'Antifolk', although I am aware that Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis are two bastions of this particular institution.

I am also aware that they make funny, touching and acutely self-aware music that I personally feel is almost impossible not to relate to, so frankly their genre could be called 'Antijew' and I would still love it.

In one of those happy happenstances, they are both playing, together with The Bundles, at one of my all time favourite London music venues, The Union Chapel and at the eminently reasonable fiscal subtraction of 15 English pounds.

I'll be there gladly paying Kimya Dawson for being Kimya Dawson. If you're sat next to me, it could hardly make it worse now, could it...?

19th May 7pm
The Union Chapel
£15 + unavoidable bastard tax of £1.50

Bach To Life

Apologies for the pun above but since we are also approaching the season of mystery bunnies and chocolate eggs it did seem somewhat appropriate.

To prepare us for such, there is a free performance of the fairly intense Bach piece, St John Passion at St. Pauls Cathedral. Religious overtones, I know but, sung by the Cathedral Choir, it will be undoubtedly beautiful.

FREE

Summer Follows Spring

Having been ruminating about Spring, it is natural that my thoughts then turn to Summer. Ah, Summer. Tempting us in June with your sunny ways, full of hope and potential...only to shower us with rainy British ineptitude in July and August. Shame on you.

It doesn't stop me thinking that maybe this year it'll be different though. Maybe this year will be the year the sun puts it's hat on over our capital.

Thus to tempt fate, I thought I would mention a small summer festival happening in Victoria Park.

Field Day festival returns to the green plains of Tower Hamlets with just the kind of eclectic and well-monikered line up that I like, featuring the likes of Mouse on Mars, Caribou, the outrageously talented Chilly Gonzales and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

Cheap as chips at £33.33 for this amount of good, and not a little interesting, sounds and tunes.

Occuring as it does on the 31st July, it is surely a formality that the weather will be clement. Right?

Etherial Brilliance

I don't know about you but I have definitely been smelling some Spring in the air in the last week or two. Certainly there is light at the end of the bitter winter tunnel we've had so far this year and the first buds of colour and light are in the ether.

On such a note, it seems appropriate to highlight the annual return of the Southbank Centre's Ether Festival which this year features an absolutely stellar line-up plus takes the opportunity to hand out some major musical kudos to Edgard Varese, oft referred to as 'The Father of Electronic Music'.

The Ether festival is no mere list of normal gigs and always injects a level of individualism that is seemingly beyond most other London festivals.

Amongst the cast of musicians such as Gil-Scott Heron, Stereo MCs, Chrome Hoof and Lou Reed there are also re-workings of Varese's small body of surviving music with a whole raft of different interpretations, as well as theremin workshops, short films and a rare opportunity to see and hear a live performance from acclaimed video artist/film director/deliciously warped mind, Chris Cunningham.

Frankly, I want to go to ALL of these but if anyone of you out there has a preference and would enjoy my esteemed company then hit us up and let's get out into the ether...

The Empire Strikes Back

The Hackney Empire is a true London institution, from when my grandmother frequented it when she was young (apparently some branch of my family used to own it!), to the regular visits I and probably many of you have made through it's doors.

Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and WC Fields have all famously appeared on it's stage and since its already long overdue renovation and re-opening in 2004 it has been a source of genuine community spirit and local pride.

The recent decision, therefore, to have a temporary blackout on shows at the Empire is extremely sad and, at the moment, not a little baffling.

However, this Thursday 11th March, sees a free and open forum being held at the venue as an opportunity to hear why this decision was taken, what the future holds for the Empire and to ask questions of a panel made up of senior staff and trustees and officers from the Arts Council and Hackney Council.

If you have been touched in any way in your life by the Hackney Empire or simply just care about the maintenance and continuation of a rich tradition of beautiful, vintage venues, then get your behind down to this.

I will see you there.

Thursday 11th March
18:30 - 20:00
Hackney Empire, Mare Street, Hackney
FREE

Wild, Wild Food

Having last year spent some time in a beautiful Ardeche forest right in amongst the beauty and bounty of Mother Nature, a life spent living off the fruits of one's labour and lands is something that appeals greatly to me.

Well, now it seems as though lessons on such things can be learned among the oases of green spaces that this huge city contains. Our East End neighbours in Tower Hamlets are running a series of events in the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, with one particularly catching my eye.

On a Saturday afternoon there will be a Wild Food Walk around the cemetery where one can learn about what is there to just pick and eat and to reach down and do so.

Saturday 20th March
13:30 - 15:30
Tower Hamlets Cemetery
FREE (or optional donation)

The Search For The Musical Higgs Boson Continues...

In my unending lifetime pursuit of more and new and interesting and just downright good music, here are a few of the welcome hitchikers I have picked up over the last few miles...

Buzzin' About - The Apples
Upbeat, unpretentious, good time funk with a dash of hip hop flavour added for spice. The kind of music where your foot becomes detached from the rest of your body and starts tapping around of it's own accord.

The Cuckoo and The Stolen Heart - The Brute Chorus & Tigs
This is a track from The Brute Chorus' eponymous album and is a proper stomping, gypsy-style soundtrack to a riproaring argument. And everyone loves a good argument, right? That might just be me...

One Year Two Year - Catalpa Catalpa
Beautiful and hypnotic melody interspersed with random noise and sounds that at the same time feel organic. There is a certain depth to Catalpa Catalpa that is lacking in much of the so-called 'chillout' or 'downtempo' genres. I'll never understand why people would want to chillout to boring music...

Set Me Free From This Wicked Game - DJ C
This is another single track but it is a total bundle of mashup joy and highlights the intricate knowledge, skill and tongue-in-cheek of DJ C. If this floats your boat then check out some of his full length DJ mixes. Personally Boots and Boots 2 are my favourites but you can rifle your way through them, all for absolutely no pennies whatsoever. Bargain.

How To Make Ambient Sadcake - The Sandwitches
Stripped back and childlike garage rock and following the line of simple beauty in music that's been drawn by the likes of Billy Childish and Pavement and subsequently traced by Kimya Dawson, Adam Green, Jeffrey Lewis and co. This is an album that instantly strikes me as being made by people who have that lifelong desire to create song and would do so even if there were no-one around to listen to it. A new little favourite of mine...