I don't go out in Camden for one night and look what happens....

Yes it was all go in Camden on Saturday night. Heading back from drinks in Soho and we were booted off the Northern Line at Mornington Crescent, being told Camden's exit was closed.

Walking from Mornington Crescent to Camden the traffic was at a stand still, and there was a mass exodus of people heading from the pubs to Mornington Crescent tube. (A lot of confused faces as you can imagine, as many don't know their way above ground.)

On getting to Britannia junction it was all sealed off all the way up Chalk Farm Road, and all around the tube. And a tent was being erected near the bus stop.

Then just to add to the chaos, a bus was sealed off at the bus stop on Camden Road just before the train station.

It seems we missed out on a massive gang fight of 30 youths. One 18 year old was stabbed to death. I watched the local news on Sunday afternoon, to see some dimwitted police chief say that they were aware of the increase of gangs in the Camden area over the past few months.

Aware? Aware? Anyone who's been out in Camden is aware. Do you know I think they might be even selling drugs you know...

I did wonder if the "Safeway Crew" were involved? Actually I'm still wondering if they have updated their posse name to the Morrisons Crew. It seems only right.

You can read all about this news story here and here.

There are lots of flowers laid out by the railings where the kid died. And Camden is quiet this week, with strangely no youths hanging out on the street corners.

The Book Club - 25th January 2006

This weeks Book Club had a buzz about it. I’m sure in part it had to do with the articles in the press, and publicity surrounding the National tour which begins in April. So much so that we booked a week and a half in advance and arrived mega early to secure our seats.

As we stood outside the Lowdown entrance it became more and more apparent that we were in for a busy night, as more and more comedians and hangers-on made there way downstairs. Doors are normally at 7.30pm but by 8pm we were still waiting wondering if there was any more room left down there. Not only that but we’d seen Robin’s mate Ricky Gervais head down there along with Jonathan Ross.

Anyway, we did get in, and were one of the few lucky ones to get seats and a table.

So with an audience packed out with club owners, comedians (Ben Moor, Arnold Brown, Alex Horne etc) Jonathan Ross, Endemol researchers it was more like a special private comedy club than ever.

Did I not mention the Book Club is going BIG in a previous blog entry?

Robin joked that there were 36 acts on, and that we would zip through them and be finished before 12…. Ha ha ha. Anyone who’s a regular knew it was going to descend into chaos. And given that Johnny Candon was in the building it seemed highly likely.

Martin played 3 songs over the course of the evening, including a Kate Bush and a Babylon Zoo song, (which members of the audience knew more words that Martin, and so should be ashamed of themselves.)

Daniella Ward was/is Andy McNabb. Wearing a balaclava the argument ran I am Andy McNabb why can’t I be? Do you know what I look like? Was actually quite convincing in her argument.

Chris Neil bought along Jodie Marsh’s book, but read from her blog. Now here is something you wouldn’t have expected to hear me say, ever; I’m a member of Jodie’s website and have read from her blog. Ohmigod is she deluded. She really does think very highly of herself and her writing skills. If you want a laugh go here.

Ricky Gervais. Yes, Ricky did a slot, hence Jonathan Ross was down there. Now rather than just go on stage as himself he came on as a new character Derek, who I can only describe as going for the Hugh Dennis character “Milky Milky” look.

Scruffy clothes, Short jumper, trousers to high up, greasy hair smacked down to his forehead, and an old cheap sports bag across his shoulders. Very much going for the geek/mentally ill look. Derek was trying out comedy for the first time, badly. It was quite funny, painfully so at times, since we all new it was Ricky but wondered what the hell he was doing. It took a while to register what he was doing. He corpsed a few times as Robin was just off stage putting him off (not on purpose I’m sure.)

Josie Long performed live boggle during one of the breaks. In one on one challenges she triumphed in all but one game.

Peter Buckley-Hill. I think most people will agree his style of delivery is quite intimidating. Thankfully he stuck to just playing a few songs tonight, including one about the Thames Whale, and was better for it.

James Bachman. I didn’t catch this guys name as he came on as Papa Christmas, it’s only with the help of the Chortle that I managed to work out who he was. His alter-ego is the Dictator of Papa Christmas Land. He fit in well with the Book Club crowd, being relaxed in his delivery, corpsing halfway through, and most importantly enjoying himself.

The Trap. Their first book reading by Dan was funny, but as Robin said as they left the stage, reviving the work of Hale and Pace. Guess that makes a change from being compared to the Goodies.

Suzanne Andrade. If ever a poet was going to make you think, wow, I didn’t know poetry could be like that, then this is the one. Bizarre, dark, weird, surreal poems, which I rather enjoyed.

Natalie Haynes. Back again with more from Diagnosis Murder. She’s still obsessed and since they’ve taken them off on BBC afternoons she is lost without them. She even gave out the BBC’s complaint line asking us all to ring up and ask for it’s return.

Andrew J. Lederer. An American who dumped his original material in favour of slagging off Diagnosis Murder, claiming Columbo the greatest ever. Surely the most miss-judged material. Having never been before he obviously didn’t realise we were behind Natalie all the way. He ended up just coming across as a typically obnoxious yank. Still it wasn’t that bad. Debating/Arguing isn’t really the Book Club style.

Will Hodgson.

The spikey haired punk comedian with a love of Care Bears bought along books from his childhood found in his parents loft. I found this slightly more interesting than most might have purely because he was picking on Usbourne books. (A supplier so shocking I no longer have to deal with them.) He had a book called Catching Crooks. It taught you how to spot a crook. They wear Striped jumpers apparently. Showed you how to frisk them, and how to take finger prints. As he pointed out, all things that could get you beaten up if you tried it on any of your mates at school.

Hils Barker did a short piece as Stacey McCloud. A character comedy piece, about a woman on the board for some local council body. Quite funny, but by the time she came on we were becoming quite tired. Fatigue was setting in.

After some dodgy moments of Candon on stage, the night finished around 12.15am. Not a bad time, but I got the impression some acts that were hanging around were bumped in favour of finishing before sunrise.

A great evening as always.

God help us if this comedy night ever disappears or moves to a large venue, it just wouldn’t be the same.

Mock The Week recording - 17th January

We went to see Mock the Week being recorded at the BBC. One of the longest recordings I think I've ever been to. It was worth the numb arse though. For anyone whose not seen it it's a satirical look at the weeks news but with the format of Whose Line Is It Anyway thrown in.

Dara O'Briain is the host. Hugh Dennis and Rory Bremner are the regular team captains, with John Oliver and Frankie Boyle the regular team members. This week they were joined by Jo Brand and Andy Parsons.

I am a big fan of John Oliver and Frankie Boyle. Having watched the programme go out on air, I'm surprised how much they left in. Frankie went so very near the knuckle with just about everything he said, and we loved it.

Joke

The Best New Blonde Joke for you to appreciate.

Album of the Year 2005

The Independent has a story today about the HMV's critics choice for album of the year. Comparing it to the Best Selling albums of the year, using that as the public's vote, the only thing that can be said is the public shouldn't be allowed to buy records.

Anyway that got me thinking what were mine. Ok, these are in no particular order, though Arcade fire wins, even if technically it's not a 2005 record if you count it was available on import in 2004.

Antony & the Johnsons
I Am a Bird Now

Arcade Fire
Funeral













Bloc Party
Silent Alarm

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Devendra Banhart
Cripple Crow

Franz Ferdinand
You Could Have It So Much Better

Hard Fi
Stars of CCTV

Kaiser Chiefs
Employment

King Creosote
K.C. Rules OK

LCD Soundsystem
LCD Soundsystem

Maximo Park
A Certain Trigger

Sigur Rós
Takk

Sufjan Stevens
Illinois

The White Stripes
Get Behind Me Satan

Wolf Parade
Apologies to the Queen Mary

I want to include one cheesy soundtrack too, the Blackpool Soundtrack, since that has kept me laughing and dancing for the past few months.

I received a pile of records recently that I haven’t had chance to appreciate yet and let slip into my subconscious. So I am sure the following should really be in the list above if I weren’t so lax.

Bearsuit
Team Ping Pong

Broken Social Scene
Feel Good Lost

Chad VanGaalen
Infiniheart

José González
Veneer

Herman Dune
Not On Top

The Rakes
Capture/Release

Rogue Wave
Descended Like Vultures

Say Hi To Your Mom
Ferocious Mopes

Stars
Set Yourself On Fire

Ok some of these were only on import last year, still they count. They were available.

The Book Club goes big

The Book Club has got a write up on the Daily Telegraph's website (not sure if it made it to the actual newspaper or not.)

With that and the monthly quiz night they're planning in soho and the national tour they seem to have planned, it looks like they are going big in 2006.

New Year's Eve

Well given we hammered it somewhat on New Year's Eve, we made it, we're still alive and we were back on the booze by mid afternoon on New Year's Day.

New Year's Eve, though blurry, went something like this. We started at Strada for a hearty meal and few glasses of wine. From there we went via the flat to visit Giles and family for a beer, before heading into Covent Garden for our traditional cocktails in Navajo Joes. And although it was busier in there than normal, and they irritatingly stopped serving cocktails at one point nothing could get us downhearted, not even the the 15 minute wait for a bus back up to Camden.
We made it into the Mixer in plenty of time to order drinks and find somewhere for all 11 of us to stand together. And with the majority of the 50 party poppers in hand we saw the New Year in in fine style. (No Pints of Green this year, after Kev turned green drinking one the day before.)

Then it was time to pile back to the house for more cocktails, Woo Woo's, Bundy and coke, and some nice cocktail inventions of our own (Gin, Vodka, Peach Schnapps and Orange Juice - who would have thought it. Tropical!)

It took a while for us to get going, but sometime in the early hours the party was in full swing; there were displays from the Performing Munchkins and the Bundy Fuelled Dance Troupe. Leading Sara to pronounce it the Best New Year yet. I think we all agreed.

Photographic Evidence.

Around at Gile's


Navajo Joes













A stroll around Covent Garden to work off that alcohol.



In the Mixer for a few Jack Daniels

Meanwhile back at the ranch....
















Sara gets it on with Tigger.






The Performing Munchkins with an extra member, until she got kicked out for being too tall.








Performing Munchkins.








The Bundy Fuelled Dance Troupe, for one night only, performing in Camden.






Hey Macarena!!!



It's hard to explain this picture. Sometime in the small hours it was discovered that a cheese dip could be used as kind of glue...


... and so paper ears, moustache and eyebrows were attached to Benjy.

A definite one off evening I think we're all agreed.