Open House London

17-18 September 2011

“a chance to see the city we love (most of the time) from a fresh perspective”

Zoe Konez/This Is My TV/Marina Gasolina - Sound Tracks Festival

@ Cafe Oto, Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, Concrete, Amersham Arms & New Cross Inn | 17 September 2011

“ace stuff – cute drummers, sexy lady-singers, and great music”

Mysterious Skin

@ The Drill Hall | 18-20 September 2011

“proper, grown up theatre – great performances, devastating climax”

Open House London returned for another year, and Loserville took the opportunity to have a gander around one of London’s most recognised landmarks, Tower Bridge.

We won’t lie, it’s not the most exciting visitor attraction in town. Lots of stairs, a walkway across the top (disappointingly, you remain very much inside, walking along a self-contained corridor which runs inside the high-level walkway), and then a trip down to the old engine rooms.

Thrill-a-minute it may not have been, but Open House (for us, anyway) is all about giving you the opportunity to see things from a fresh point of view. In the past, we’ve visited the St. Pancras Hotel (pre-restoration), the viewing platform at the top of City Hall, an out-of-the-way church in Kensington… None heart-stoppingly exciting, but for Londoner’s, a chance to see the city we love (most of the time) from a fresh perspective.

And so proved Tower Bridge, which offered a chance to look down upon the Tower of London, and up towards the monolithic Shard, which looked a lot less impressive from this new angle.

And then there was the engine room. We love a good big pump here at Loserville, and were delighted to hear about it’s marvelous automated lubrication design. A lesson for us all.

______________

Fresh from our tourist experience, we headed East to Dalston for the Sound Tracks Festival, which promised exciting new bands at five venues in Dalston, Shoreditch and New Cross, plus accoustic performances on the London Overground line which links the three locations.

We’re London Overground fans through and through (we showed our sad geek love for the line here), and we loved this idea of using the line to bring together three areas which share a common love of cutting-edge music (not to mention art, design, fashion etc..).

We began the evening at the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, a beautifully constructed green space in the heart of Dalston, with a performance by the Zoe Konez band, variously described as an acoustic White Stripes in reverse, or an organic Ting Tings. Chilled out, folky, acoustic goodness to get us going for the evening, washed down witha couple of bottles of dark lager. Swish.

Then it was off to Concrete in Shoreditch for This Is My TV, another White Stripes-reversed duo, this time of the alt pop variety. Ace stuff: cute drummer, sexy lady-singer, and great music.

Our last planned stop of the night was the Amersham Arms in New Cross, to catch Marina Gasolina. On the way, we got some East London Line entertainment in the form of a little accoustic gg on the middle carriage. We love to see spaces being used in imaginative ways, and this was really fun.

On to Marina Gasolina, who brought our Sound Tracks Festival experience to an end with her edgy, punky perfomance, supported by her live band. It was gutsy, in-your-face, bold and brash stuff, sweaty, quiff-destroying head-banging punk-pop. Like.

______________

What better way to recover the next day, than with another Open House jaunt (Royal Albert Hall, no pictures allowed unfortunately, but it pretty ace – great tourguide) followed by Mysterious Skin at the Drill Hall.

We’ve got to admit, we’ve never read the Scott Heim book, but we love (is that the right word for something so sombre) the Gregg Araki film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbett, so we had to see this.

Great performances from the whole cast, including Harry Bradshaw (from Hollyoaks) and Nicole Faraday (of Bad Girls fame), and a strong script from Prince Gomolvilas, make this a fantastic play in it’s own right. Avid fans of the film will see many differences, but this production never tries to be a staged version of the film. Instead, it brings a fresh approach to a story which most of the audience, we suspect, already knew.

The minimalist approach to the staging (a bed, a sofa, and a bookcase are the only props) left much to the imagination, and perhaps the cast could have done with a few additions to avoid Dave Cutler in particular having to assume several roles.

But this isn’t the West End, and this isn’t a blockbuster, family-friendly musical. It’s proper, grown up theatre which builds on basic foundations to a devastating climax. Excellent. And now we needed a drink!

_

It’s a To Do List of two halves this month, because THERE’S SO F*CKING MUCH TO DO! 

_

Here’s Part Two, the assured follow-up to the critically acclaimed* Part One! It’s not too late to catch some of the Part One greatness: Headlong Theatre’s Decade continues throughout the month, Comedy @ Soho-Ho, Wig Out and the Thames Festival are all coming up, and no day on the Southbank is complete without catching some of the fab Watch This Space Festival!

_ 

ScipMylo Comedy Festival @ The Comedy Café/Shoreditch Town Hall/Richmix/Hackney Empire | 8-17 September |  Various Times | £Various

New comedy festival in Shoreditch including some top name comedians and oddball treats. Our highlights include: Paul Daniels (16th September), Stephen K Amos, Miss Behave (with loads of top guests inc. Jonny Woo and Le Gateau Chocolat), Josie Lawrence and Sean Hughes. Looks a right laugh.

Grin & Bare It @Shoreditch Town Hall | 14-17 September | 20:00-22:00 | £Free

The hottest young stand-ups, visual artists, and experimental performers on the scene fused into a perfectly spun free festival. It’s not quite as straight-forward as that though… YOU have to find them and they might want to PLAY with you. Expect Karaoke Clowns, Bedroom Escapades, Slow Dancing, Nipple Flashing and six of the best up and coming stand-ups every night including our musical friends Pistol & Jack.

La Cucina Futurista @ Vogue Fabrics | 15-24 September | 20:00 | £40

This pop-up restaurant has a beautiful concept derived from the Futurist Artist Marinetti’s ‘Futurist Cookbook’. He believed ‘eating should be a multisensory experience.’, so expect surprising sights, sounds, scents and, of course, original and delicious dishes. To make a reservation call: 07506 146085, or email cucinafuturista@yahoo.co.uk  

Sound Tracks Festival @  Cafe Oto/Concrete/Amersham Arms/Dalston Eastern Curve Garden/New Cross Inn | 17 September | From 19:00 | £12.50

‘North Londoners! Overcome your bewilderment of the South! South Londoners! It’s really not so bad in the North!’. This new multi-site (Dalston to New Cross), very reasonably priced music festival taking place in some of our favourite venues along the great Overground line including Amersham Arms in New Cross and Cafe Oto in Dalston. The most amazing thing about the festival is their ‘Travelling Stage’ – a stage actually on the Overground train itself. The line up is eclectic, innovative and edgy featuring future greats such as Marina Gasolina, Tigercats, Fantastic Mr Fox and many more on trains and in venues.

The Playboy of the Western World @ The Old Vic | 17 September Onwards | 19:30; Wed & Sat Matinees 14:30 | £10-49.50

Opening the new season at The Old Vic, John Crowley directs J M Synge’s irreverent comic masterpiece starring our number one Misfit, Robert Sheehan (E4’s Misfits). This savagely funny Irish classic was first produced in 1907 and was met with rioting and controversy when it premiered, sending shock waves across the dramatic world.

Mysterious Skin  @ The Drill Hall | 18-20 September | Various Times | £12

Brilliantly poignant and gripping gay contemporary classic.  Featuring Nicole Faraday, best known for her role as Snowball Merriman in Bad Girls, and Harry Bradshaw, who was most recently seen in Hollyoaks.

…

Thundercub at Shinky Shonky @ Ku Bar | 21 September | From 22:00 | £Free

Thundercub, a bearded musical prodigy supports Kathryn Ellis at the home of offbeat cabaret and late night dancing spot – Shinky Shonky. Presided over by Boogaloo Stu the night is sure to melt your funny bone and also catch a glimpse of Thundercub, a rather beautiful new cabaret icon.

Swarovski Treasure Hunt | 24 September | All Day | £Free

Swarovski (famed for crystals) have moved into cinema and is celebrating the creation of their Discover Your Light short film directed by Bruno Avellian by having an amazing treasure hunt. They have teamed up with a US games specialist to design and host a large-scale citywide treasure hunt which will be undertaken by 500 teams of 2 players. By downloading the app for free, either in Apple’s app store or Google’s android market, players will be guided around a series of locations to complete challenges and earn points. The top score will win a trip of a lifetime to Paris, Barcelona, Florence or Istanbul which will be presented, along with a whole host of other prizes, at Lawrence Hall, Royal Horticultural Halls while the guests listen to DJ sets from the likes of the Filthy Dukes. A panel of culture vultures., decided by Dazed  and Confused will choose their most-loved and best-hidden gems of the city to become one of the treasure hunt’s 40 locations. Confirmed names Mark Titchner (Turner Prize nominee) Guerilla Science and Joe Dunthorne (writer, Submarine).

Postmodernism: Style and Subversion @ The V&A | 24 September Onwards | 10:00-17:30 | £11

We warned you about this earlier in the year – it’s going to be big! More details to come in a full length article.

…

Polari: London’s Peerless Gay Literary Salon @ Soho Theatre | 24 September | 21:00 | £8

Part of the Soho Literary Festival taking place at the Soho Theatre, Polari, a great online literary journal presents a night of  wordy wonders and dancing boys & gals.
_

Plus don’t forget Open House London on the 17th and 18th September 2011 & Lomography‘s supersecret events.

*It’s true. They just never wrote it anywhere.

We’re going to find out this Saturday!

New Cross’ finest boozer, The Amersham Arms, plays host to the monthly Going For A Song EXTRAVAGANZA!

Every last Saturday of the month from 12-6 ish, it’s VINTAGE JUMBLE AND OPEN MIC MAYHEM! Fun fun fuuuuun!!

The best news of all is:

~ It’s free to get in.

~ It’s free to listen to our ace live open mic.

~ It’s just £10 for a stall for this jumble (just a fiver each if you team up with a friend)

Email us at goingforasongjumble@gmail.com if you want to run a stall, play some music, or just to have a lovely chat…

We can’t wait to see you all there at the Amersham Arms, New Cross on Saturday 25th September 2010 from 12-6pm!

Still a few stalls left at Saturday 31st July (12-6pm) Going For a Song jumble spectacular at the legendary Amersham Arms in New Cross. Do hurry though, we wouldn’t want to disappoint! The day is promising to be a belter, we’ve got some super bands lined up and also amazing prizes to be won in our tombola! Be sure to spread the word with your friends and lovers…Combine this with a visit to Deptford market for all your superdooper shopping needs! http://goingforasongjumble.blogspot.com

Special Offer: Two stalls for £20 – team up with a mate and get a space for just a tenner each! How great is that!