TOY: The Shacklewell Arms played host to yet another thrilling band from Hackney

TOY made the walls of the Shacklewell Arms’ shiver on Wednesday night with their psychedelic punk rock.

The five-piece band are the latest local outfit to make it to the pages of the NME and are lauded by the music paper as one of the 20 most exciting new bands of 2012.

Swimming in blue light, with Greek-profiled singer Tom Dougall staring coldly out in the audience, they show that they have a coherent sound.

Charlie Salvidge plays his drums with unexaggerated passion and bassist Maxim Barron proves his skills during ‘Clock Chime’. Unfortunately, the same song doesn’t do singer Tom any favours – he can barely be heard.

Formed in 2010, and consisting of four guys and one girl – all equally long-haired – they accompany their great music with reverb and slight banging of their heads.

The best moments during the eight-song concert are the instrumental breaks.

The sound of TOY literally explodes during the vocals free interlude in the last song, ‘Left myself behind’ – leaving the audience in awe. It’s amazing, and will surely contribute to the band making it all the way to the top.

You and Others Around You: Edward Ross, Layla Mk Kim and Dan Robinski

A Hackney band are kick-starting 2012 in style by hosting a New Year’s Eve warehouse party before releasing their debut EP later in January.

Indie electro act You And Others Around You (YAOAY) recorded The Secret Of My Happiness with dubstep producer and DJ Hungry Man (aka Hagop Matossian).

Their New Year’s Eve extravaganza will take place at a secret location in the borough with a line-up including three other bands, followed by electro acts and DJs.

Lead singer Dan Robinski said: “It’s always a great atmosphere playing warehouse gigs. It should be a really good night.”

Among the acts are East London dance band The Coolness, who Robinski says “have to be seen to be believed.”

He added: “They’re pretty awesome. They have strippers and stuff on stage and they dress pretty crazy.”

Another act, Burning Condours, he describes as fifties rock ‘n’ roll with a subtle punk edge, mixing their own songs with cover versions.

“They make their covers faster and a bit quirky and a bit more aggressive.” Robinski explained.

This is the second event YAOAY are hosting in partnership with arts publication Patchwork Papers, following KRAFTY on 30 November – the first time producer Matossian had heard the band play.

“Electro pop isn’t usually my thing but I really liked their songs, they really spoke to me,” he said. “Dan’s lyrics always seem to me like the voice of someone who is bewildered by the protean city around him but ultimately engages in it.”

YAOAY are Robinski on vocals and rhythm guitar, Layla Mk Kim on synth and Ed Ross on guitar.

Robinski describes their sound as “indie / post-punk / electro funk”.

The influence of post-punk bands like Joy Division is particularly prevalent, with catchy, uptempo melodies jarring into suppressed discord and unease.

Robinski’s deadpan stage persona and signature wide eyes (a self-conscious homage to David Byrne) only add to this.

The band’s current line up formed a few weeks before a gig on 30 September at XOYO in Shoreditch.

Following their set, ID music editor Julia Fodor approached them to say she was impressed and has since written about them in QX Magazine.

Though it’s early days, YAOAY say things are going well, and Robinski feels Matossian’s production has given their music a more multi-layered sound.

He added: “I’d always wanted to work with someone involved in dance music. They have a different take on it, they have different ideas.”

He has remixed indie songs in the past but his influence is undoubtedly a new direction for the band.

“I mean, it still has verses and choruses,” Robinski added, “but it’s got that dance element which hopefully he’s going to bring out.”

For details of the NYE event go to You And Others Around You on facebook.

Going out: The Puppini Sisters

Marcella Puppini:

Hurwundeki, Cambridge Heath Road
I started going there when it first opened in the summer of 2009, and would sit either inside at one of the big tables or outside in the surrealist sand garden. At the time there were only two people working there – Frederic, the crazy French bartender with the Asterix moustache and the Alpine hat, and a lovely Italian-American girl who made wonderful coffee. Frederic and I would have long chats in French about the meaning of life while an old beaten record player would blast out ‘Some Velvet Morning’ by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra all day long. Frederic is still there and he always welcomes me with a big file and a hug whenever I visit. I love that.

The Last Tuesday Society, Mare Street
It’s a wonderful place, part ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and part art gallery/lecture space, run by friends of a friend. I often attend their lectures on topics such as ‘Send-Offs for the Dead’ and then stay on for dinner, which is usually takeaway curry eaten on the downstairs shop’s mortuary table, surrounded by petrified penises and very impressive taxidermy.

The People Show Studios, Pollard Row
A little known Bethnal Green gem is The People Show Studios on Pollard Row. The People Show Theatre Company has been going since 1966. I got to know them through my husband, who has been managing the theatre for the last 4 years, and I love to drop by and see what wonderful props are being made in their workshop, or who’s around for lunch and a chat. The People Show will not be around in its present state for very long due to the recent harsh cuts, so it’s worth visiting as soon as possible.

Kate Mullins:

Hackney Museum, Reading Lane
Completely secluded from the hustle and bustle of Hackney life, it is so surreal to step inside the museum away from everything contemporary and see how Hackney has changed throughout the years. It has such a rich and varied past. This is one of my favourite quiet spots, great for some reflective time on one’s own.

Regent’s Canal
I love to go running up and down the endless canal systems. It is absolutely perfect for running. You get to see the changing seasons and shout at cyclists who try and push you in the water. I have to say though, since my wonderful boyfriend has done up my bike, I am not as sympathetic towards runners as I was. Cycling on the canals is way more fun and not nearly as evil as running.

The Dolphin, Mare Street
On Mare Street, it is eerily dead during the day and then as soon as the pubs reach chucking out time, it is heaving. Many an evening has ended here, it is where my boyfriend and I had our first kiss (romantic) and they even gave me my very own Dolphin t-shirt. Must be because I am such a loyal customer…

The Puppini Sisters’ new album, Hollywood, comes out on Boxing Day.

This article titled “Goldfrapp – review” was written by Ian Gittins, for The Guardian on Sunday 27th November 2011 18.18 UTC

Some artists treat shows in churches as normal gigs, others discover previously unsuspected reservoirs of propriety and decorum. For this Mencap-sponsored gig in the Little Noise Sessions, which have transferred from Islington’s Union Chapel to this Hackney church, Goldfrapp have forsaken their usual sexed-up electro-pop for a positively chilled-out serenity.

Eschewing her trademark dominatrix gear and peacock tails, kohl-eyed singer Alison Goldfrapp is understated and demure in a floor-length plain black dress and Heidi plaits. The occasion has even prompted a rare on-stage appearance from the other half of the duo, reclusive studio alchemist Will Gregory, who sits at a keyboard flanked by backing singers and a string section.

The evening’s semi-acoustic format leaves no place for most of the band’s electro-stomp singles, and they play nothing at all from their last album, 2010′s Head First. Instead, they major on material from 2008′s Seventh Tree, playing all but one track from an album that found them channelling a bucolic, luxuriant strain of folk.

It’s hardly Goldfrapp Unplugged – Gregory’s thrumming synth pulse still runs through everything – but it is quietly lovely. The ambient dream-pop of A&E and Clowns is ethereal and unsettling. Goldfrapp is in fine voice, veering from a sultry murmur on the trip-hop-inclined Cologne Cerrone Houdini to a startling soprano on old song Utopia. The sole new track, Melancholy Sky, is a skeletal and pensive John Barry-like reverie that implies their forthcoming album may tend towards the elegantly introspective. It is a tantalising prospect: maybe Goldfrapp should go to church more often.

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CoverGirl: doing a Halloween special

Rapt by the unorthodox palpitations of no-wave maven James Chance and spurred on by the joint desire for more immersive music making, multi-gendered London five-piece CoverGirl came to light last May in a moment of pure clarity.

Formed from the fading embers of post-punk trio WETDOG, the clattering bones of Kaoss Pad purveyors Peepholes and the primal, polyrhythmic entrails of Trash Kit, Andrew Collings, Katia Barrett, Ruth Edwards, Billy Easter and Rachel Aggs – aka London’s shiniest leftfield ‘supergroup’ – made their live foray at The Joiners Arms’ Trannyoke night. And using self-styled drumsticks fashioned from a leek and a wooden spoon, as chairs went flying it was, for a first gig, suitably shambolic.

But what began as a rudimentary warehouse based experiment in unrelenting noise has over time mutated into a fierce, sweaty, heaving, disco fiend, laden down with toxic beats and fleshed out by the melodic nuances of WETDOG bassist Billy Easter. It is collaborative, in the strictest sense of the word: five friends pooling their creative talents and resources to launch a project which revels in a sense of infinite possibility. “We come up with the songs when we’re practising,” says vocalist/chief axe-wielder Rachel Aggs. “We’re all about doing stuff in the moment together so if we were too organised we wouldn’t have that energy.”

Having witnessed their chaotic live shows first hand, I can certainly vouch for this – they have hardly ‘tightened’ up their act since that fabled Joiners debut, but then that would be missing the point of CoverGirl entirely. “We’re taking having fun seriously,” continues Rachel. “It’s all about being ridiculously relaxed on stage and just having a really great time. If people don’t get that then they probably won’t be into us.”

They are in the midst of a UK-wide tour which will see them play the length and breadth of the country, from Portsmouth to Glasgow. “This tour will see if people who live outside of London like us,” says the band’s statuesque flame-haired lynchpin Andrew Collings. “People in different cities are used to appreciating music in different ways but our primary aim is to make people dance and I think we’ve achieved that so far.”

Their single launch took place in October at new Hackney venue Powerlunches, and aside from CoverGirl, Andrew and Rachel also put on a monthly bands night at this popular hangout, wittily coined ‘National Minimum Rage’. According to Andrew, the idea sprang from their shared experience of ‘living’ in London on the national minimum wage; “I was working full-time and could still barely afford my rent – to say I was ‘living’ is a stretch. So NMR is about putting on the best bands we can find for as cheap as possible.”

“Powerlunches is a great new venue,” adds Rachel. “It’s nice to have a space that’s intimate but has a wide spectrum of gigs going on which cater to everyone’s tastes. I’d say it’s half way between how Bardens used to be and Café Oto, and we arrange gigs there because we really believe in the space and want to promote local bands,” adds Rachel.

Andrew has dedicated the past few years to nurturing his own baby – ‘Club Milk’ – a record label and club night which he has taken all over the UK. But nowhere quite compares to Hackney, in his opinion. “London is probably the most diverse city in the UK for music and I think East London has the most appreciative audience – people move here because they are genuinely into music and so we always have an amazing response.”

CoverGirl’s 7” single ‘Paris Burns’ is out now on Brooklyn-based indie label Captured Tracks. Inspired by the heralded 1990 documentary film ‘Paris is Burning’ – an intimate portrait of New York City’s LGBT subculture – it’s accompanied by an insanely surreal video which recently premiered at Sauna, an arts space in Hoxton run by Billy Easter and friends. And with its cautionary percussive pull, harrowing screams and intoxicating atonal twang, you’d certainly be hard pushed to stand still …

Go here for more:
CoverGirl on Soundcloud
CoverGirl on Bandcamp
Power Lunches Arts Cafe

This article titled “Florence and the Machine – review” was written by Caroline Sullivan, for The Guardian on Wednesday 26th October 2011 14.32 UTC

Parents who worry that their teenage daughters have few pop role models other than the intemperately sexual Rihannas of the world should be pleased that Florence Welch is back. Playing her only British show of the year, she was a vivid counterpoint to almost every other woman in the top 10, where she can expect to find herself when her second album comes out next week. Already poised behind her microphone when the curtain went up, she cut a dramatic figure: tall and russet-haired, with a pale knee protruding from the split of her long, satin dress. At the sight of her, an “ooh!” went up, and someone hoisted a sign with “Florence, we love you” written across it.

This gig, streamed on the Guardian website, was a testbed for the Ceremonials album. Its predecessor, 2009′s Lungs, topped the charts and won a Brit award, and her label is geared up for monumental promotion. Accordingly, tonight’s setlist was so crammed with new songs that there was room for only three familiar ones, and her biggest hit, You’ve Got the Love, was inexplicably omitted. The immediate impression of the new material was that it will take time to sink in – some tunes, such as Heartlines, were bass-led dance grooves rather than songs, while Leave My Body offered shimmering percussion but little by way of a memorable melody.

Yet the overall effect was magical. Over 12 songs, the tribal drumming and contrasting lullaby notes of a harp left you punchdrunk. Florence herself didn’t seem immune. Approaching the end of the show with Rabbit Heart, she pirouetted woozily, like a ballerina that had fallen from the top of a music box, lost in her own world.

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This article titled “Labrinth is SyCo’s latest signing but he doesn’t need a popstar bootcamp” was written by Issy Sampson, for The Guardian on Friday 21st October 2011 23.15 UTC

For anyone else on Simon Cowell’s SyCo label, a year’s silence after their debut top three single would have them filling in the Tesco application form. But 22-year-old producer Labrinth isn’t worried. In fact, he’s looking very comfortable on the leather sofa in the corner of Mosaica, restaurant, hidden away on an industrial estate in north-west London. He should do too: he co-owns the place, and his studio’s just upstairs. “I’ve been eating here since I was 15,” he says, “so when they gave me the chance to buy in two years ago, I jumped at the chance.” Since then, Plan B has been in for lunch while Adele and Tinie Tempah have come for dinner. It also happens to be where he’s been hiding out for the last year.

Apparently, the silence is all down to Labrinth’s procrastination. Even now, single Earthquake has had to be prised out of his hands. “My manager was like, Lab, let’s go. Come on now,” he says. “But I’m a worrier. I over-think. When I was younger, I’d be in the studio three days straight to get something right and my manager would be like ‘Go home!’ Even now, I still sleep in the studio sometimes, but I can’t do it quite as often. I’ve got gigs, I can’t have my hobo beard! But if you love what you’re doing, you can’t stop. It’s obsessive.”

Despite insisting that he’s been taking his time, it feels like a lot has happened very quickly for this young artist. When Tinie Tempah’s massive No 1 hit, Pass Out, which Labrinth produced, co-wrote and featured on, was released in 2009, he was suddenly at the centre of a massive bidding war between labels. The winner, somewhat surprisingly, was Simon Cowell. He was Cowell’s first non-reality show signing in six years, but Labrinth says it was a considered decision. “SyCo wanted to use my services as a producer. But when I went to the office, and they heard my vocals, they thought I had something.”

What’s followed has been a kind of self-taught popstar bootcamp. “Before Pass Out, I’d been in the studio non-stop for four years. Not speaking to anyone. I ran into [signing with SyCo] with blinded eyes, I was so excited. But [I realised] being an artist isn’t just making music and putting it out, it’s live performances, interviews, photoshoots,” he says. “I played millions of festivals and shows this year to get my confidence up. It might seem crazy, in this industry no one wants to disappear, but I’m prepared to work hard.”

He grew up in Hackney, east London, but Labrinth (real name Timothy McKenzie) isn’t about to tell a sad backstory worthy of an X Factor contestant. “Hackney’s not that bad, it really isn’t,” he says, before immediately correcting himself. “It was very bad, it was terrible – people were getting stabbed all the time, people were getting shot. But if you’re looking for trouble, you’ll find trouble. I was fine, I had morals, my mum made us respectful children – wise, but streetwise as well. And I was in the studio all the time.” His dad walked out on the family shortly after Labrinth was born. “My mother bought up nine children, in Hackney, and none of us are criminals, none of us in jail. Her strength made me who I am today.”

It was his mother who introduced Labrinth to his manager, Marc Williams, when he was 15. Then an aspiring rapper, Labrinth only turned to producing to make beats for his lyrics. “I know it sounds a bit airy-fairy, but my mum is a spiritual person and she felt Marc’s energy. Instantly she was like, ‘You need to work with this guy.’ And he did exactly what my mum thought he would do. Building me up as a person, being a mentor.” Labrinth and Marc worked with Tinie Tempah – who Labrinth knew through his brother, a session musician – and made Pass Out. “He was from the grime scene, and I didn’t think it would work. But I think we were both at a point where we wanted to make something that was different and unique and not Americanised. English urban artists were very used to making secondhand American music, and I thought that was boring,” he says.

Pass Out made Tinie Tempah a household name and Labrinth admits to jealousy. “At first I was like, what about me? I did the production,” he admits. “But in time people will know. Tinie was an amazing frontman, respect to him. If I wanted recognition, I should have made it a Labrinth record.” Maybe he should get artists to sing his name at the start of the track, like RedOne? “I really hate that,” he laughs. “No one wants to sing someone else’s name at the start of their song. Branding your song is the worst thing you can ever do. That’s turning your song into a product.”

Unlike Tinie Tempah, Labrinth has turned down offers from the US (“One step at a time. I don’t want to be a little fish in a big pond”), but work is never far away. By now, Labrinth’s manager has popped down to remind him that if he doesn’t get back to the studio, he won’t get his next single out “until 2013″. And so he’s off. “Even if nothing comes out of it, this year has been crazy, it’s been amazing. It’s all been worth it,” he says. “It’s like school – I was nervous at first, but now I know my playground and I’m ready to have fun. It’s my turn now.”•

Earthquake is out on Sun (SyCo)

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'Salute To The Wailers', featuring Perfect Purple Band and The One Drop Symphony Orchestra

It is a testament to the enduring power of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ music that this retrospective at the Hackney Empire provided an evening of entertainment. The first twenty minutes of the show, a celebration of Jamaica’s first super-group, seemed to spell disaster – the auditorium was sparsely populated, and the sound quality unacceptably poor. Yet the infectious spirit of this enthusiastic group of performers ultimately salvaged a musical tribute which became increasingly absorbing as it progressed.

It was a case of letting the music take over, as the four central vocalists launched into impassioned versions of some of the Wailers’ biggest hits, backed by an impressive array of musicians. The strongest of the quartet, soul singer Caspian, delivered a memorable version of Concrete Jungle, amongst other numbers, while Mr Alexander, Blessed Karess and Anntoinette Griffiths contributed with equally heartfelt covers. They were ably assisted by Perfect Purple and The One Drop Symphony Orchestra, who added refreshing density to the original Wailers songs.

British soul sensation and television personality Mica Paris provided plenty of pizzazz as one of the guest stars, as did veteran British reggae legend Lloyd Brown. Paris’ duet with Mr Alexander on the stirring Turn Your Lights Down Low was one of the more tender moments of the evening, momentarily captivating the audience in an emotional reverie. The highlight of the evening, however, was an electrifying cameo appearance by former Wailer, Junior Marvin. He burst on to the stage with much needed kinetic energy, gesticulating to the now-enthused crowd and playing a version of The Heathen which included an exhilarating extended guitar solo. Although performing in a very different style to the original super-group, Marvin’s vivacity evoked powerful memories of the driving force that Bob Marley and Wailers were in their heyday.

An insistence on providing biographical details of the Wailers at regular intervals was a frustrating diversion and almost ruined the mood, especially when read dryly from a clipboard by well-meaning Choice FM DJ Daddy Ernie. However, the bits read by Jamaican-born actor and performer Count Prince Miller, a friend of the Wailers, were one of the true joys of the performance, as was watching percussionist Lenny Algernon-Edwards’ infectious rhythmic gestures.

As the evening ended with a soaring rendition of Exodus by the entire ensemble, one couldn’t help but reflect on what a dire shame it was that this group of excellent musicians had played to such a small audience. They deserve more, and when they return next year for another testimonial concert, either a bigger crowd or a smaller venue would do their passionate performances more justice.

Several dozen of Shoreditch’s most extravagantly plumed scenesters are banging on a closed door in a pub. Behind the door is a stairway to the room where the second-ever UK gig by Kreayshawn – the west coast’s hottest new rapper – is due to start. Juddering bass leaks down the stairs. The shoving doesn’t quite degenerate into violence – one disappointed girl hurls a glass on to a nearby couch – but this display of spectacularly turned-out pique doesn’t exactly dampen the heat around hip-hop’s newest enfant terrible.

Rappers thrive on controversy; Kreayshawn offers more than most. As a pint-sized 21-year-old white female film-school dropout, one whose rapping style is more playground taunt than classic flow, Kreayshawn has a CV guaranteed to provoke accusations of fakery, cultural theft and worse from the hip-hop community.

Now that her track “Gucci Gucci” has had over 17m views since it went up on YouTube in May, everyone on the internet, it seems, has an opinion on her. The former hip-hop video director – born Natassia Zolot, to a punk guitarist mother – has recently signed to Sony; an album is promised next year. Record labels have long been searching for that mythical beast – the female Eminem – and have failed to find her in rappers such as Lady Sovereign. There’s something of Lady Gaga, too, in Kreayshawn: a self-made, visually literate artist who pulls no punches.

If anything, she has more in common with fellow outrage-merchants Odd Future. But Kreayshawn is much funnier. Her songs are bratty, expletive-laden celebrations of thrift-shop fashion and copious drug-taking. “Let’s hear it for my hoes/ Hoes/ In the second-hand clothes/ They use they dollar bill to put the powder in they nose,” runs “Rich Whore”, the opening salvo of Kreayshawn’s all-too-brief public appearance tonight. She arrives onstage late, without her hype woman, Lil Debbie, or a DJ: a blur of two-tone hair, eyeliner out to here, gold door-knocker earrings, a sleeveless top showing off the tattoos running down one arm. Somewhere, historian David Starkey – who tendentiously ascribed the recent riots to a ghetto takeover of “white” culture – is having a fit. She slaps hands like a star several times her stature. At the end, she is mobbed by girls.

She may not be as sharp as Nicki Minaj – her closest correlative, thanks to the dearth of female rappers – but Kreayshawn’s displays of swagger (hip-hop’s version of chutzpah) and verbal mischief make her more than just a strikingly dressed irritant. Tonight’s second track, “Bumpin’ Bumpin“, is more club-oriented, downplaying Kreayshawn’s motor mouth in favour of an Auto-Tuned chorus.

“Gucci Gucci”, though, just gets better and better. “Gucci Gucci, Louis Louis, Fendi Fendi, Prada/ Basic bitches wear that shit so I don’t even bother,” runs the chorus, performing the clever trick of listing labels while standing up for DIY values. Elsewhere, Kreayshawn’s claim that she has “the swag/ and it’s pumpin’ out my ovaries” gets the biggest screams of the evening. It doesn’t take a gynaecologist to confirm she’s probably right.

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Party girl Sarah Johns. Photograph: Sam Roberts

For Dalston artist Sarah Johns, every day is a music party. A slicked-back electro-pop princess, free-spirited party promoter and sometime choral prodigy, Johns’ musical talents inhabit a variety of disparate incarnations and she is a shining example of a fully-fledged DIY creative, one with personal ambition as well as an inherent sense of community.

Johns’ vocal dexterity stands her in good stead at weddings and other similarly formal events, where she enjoys occasional bouts of lucrative employment. But she is a burgeoning popstar in her own right, acting as one half of sultry electronic duo Mr Beasley (formed during her time in Hull) and also as the frontwoman for Cool Fun (also formed in Hull) – a studio based project with friend Max Jung, which is showcased through award-winning film makers Prano Bailey-Bond and Jay Moy. As a singer, she teases out her notes in a stream of falsetto, infantile murmurings, soundtracked by Bobby Beasley’s sophisticated laptop orchestrations in the case of the former. Mr Beasley’s ‘Right As Rain’ featured as BBC 6’s Record of the Week and the duo have already attracted the attention of Swedish starlet Robyn, with whom they recently toured Europe.

Quite distinct from this is Johns’ work with the eponymously titled Sarah Johns Music Party – a band and night she set up two years ago with her Music Party cohorts. It hosts everything from acoustic singer-songwriters to avant-garde choreography. “The night was born out of a reaction against the lengthy electro acoustic gigs that I was getting booked for,” says Johns. “These nights can make it quite hard for the performers and the audience as even if the acts are amazing, by the time you’ve sat through two hours of singer-songwriters you’ve lost patience and find yourself wanting to chat. We stage contemporary dance, performance art and spoken word, but with an emphasis on live music.”

Johns extols the virtues of inclusivity and brevity within the realm of live performance. “All of the acts are no longer than fifteen minutes and have about fifteen minutes between them so it feels more like a party with entertainment as opposed to a line of musicians waiting for their go,” she explains. “The acts contrast and complement each other instead of competing with each other.”

An ex-drama student with a background in performance art, Sarah Johns bridges the gap between theatres and gig venues, offering a liberal platform for experimentation. “I have had a residency at Battersea Arts Centre, where I basically learnt to act my songs out,” she says, on her performative approach. “I wanted to create the right atmosphere to perform these songs outside of a theatre. All of the acts are staged in the most theatrical way possible to make it more engaging for the audience. The more daring you are the more you’re trusting the audience and the more connected the audience and performer feel.” Although Johns usually holds her Music Party at the clandestine Dalston Boys’ Club, to mark the coming of spring she assembled a makeshift stage – complete with drum kit, mic and guitar – underneath a shady tree in London Fields and invited park goers to participate in a day of improvised music making. With a vociferous Pistols fan leading the way, the result was an intimate gathering of like-minded people, which set a precedent for future guerrilla gigs.

Johns herself favours low-key, unplugged nights. “The fact that there’s no amplification at these gigs makes for a much more communal atmosphere as it’s all too easy for the performer to make a division between themselves and the audience by hiding behind a big loud noise,” she comments. “I personally find it far more daunting singing without a mic. I want to create something hypnotic and all encompassing.”

–

More on Sarah Johns Music Party

More about Mr Beasley