Thursday, November 16, 2006
How I learned to love Kilburn
Oh dear, I've left it ages again. Luckily/sadly there's not been too many gigs (that I've been to) to report back on. But...a month ago(!!) I went to see one of my childhood heroes...well, not childhood, but adolescent...Luke Haines. Luke Haines was the singer(/genius) in early 90s misanthropes, the Auteurs and then the song writing genius behind late nineties misanthropic glamorous social commenteurs, Black Box Recorder, who were my gateway to much great music. It's now the mid 00s and he's just released his third proper solo album (there have been numerous rarities collections, side projects, orchestrated versions albums...you get the point, he's prolific). It's called Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop and is another great collection of nasty pop songs packed with pop culture and British history references. You can hear some songs from it over at Obscuresound.
The gig was in the beautiful Kilburn Luminaire, a venue definitely deserving of its title as Time Out's 2005 venue of the year. With its rich red walls and glistening mirrorball, it suited the majestic sound of Mr Haines perectly. He took to the stage not a minute too soon (a thoroughly inappropriate Christian rock balladier opened the evening) dressed in an ivory coloured, colonial-esque suit with his colonel-like moustache completing the Royal British Legion look. He played many new songs from his new album, but a nice amount of Auteurs classics. For a few of the songs ex-Black Box Recorder bandmate John Moore joined him on saw playing duties, cigarette dangling from his mouth and also cream suited, their faded-glamour-meets conservative-party-knees-up look. Sarah Nixey, who, along with her singing duties in Black Box Recorder, was also married to John Moore for a while, was standing in the wings of the stage. Though not captured with my camera, I have now seen the entire line-up of Black Box Recorder in one place at the same time and a small hollow in my gig-going ambitions was completed.
I wish there was more I could say to explain why I love these three people so much. I tried in March 2005 but with no more coherence. So I've uploaded one of their best songs, British Racing Green. Download here.
posted by Unknown at 11/16/2006 04:59:00 pm
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