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Last Night at the Red Rose

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Red Rose Club, N7

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Chaotic end of an era

By Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard  21.01.08
 
Pappy's Fun Club

Rattling along: Pappy's Fun Club

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It may not have marked the end of civilisation, as perennially brilliant compere Daniel Kitson said, but the closure of Finsbury Park's Red Rose Club after two decades was definitely the end of an era. Jack Dee, Eddie Izzard and more cut their teeth here and Seven Sisters Road will be a grimmer place without it.

The final show trod a gloriously chaotic line between sentimentality and anarchy. Sketch combo Pappy's Fun Club rattled along nicely despite an intrusive row outside. Ronnie Golden - "not so much Badly Drawn Boy as badly overdrawn middle-aged man" - strummed his guitar then was gone.

One-liner king Tim Vine tried some dodgy new gags before reviving old crowdpleasers: "Exit signs. They're on the way out." Deadpan veteran Hattie Hayridge more skilfully slipped new material into a set that included jokes done when the club first opened.

After the interval Robin Ince demonstrated why he is one of comedy's most articulate angry men with a rant that took in Richard Dawkins, Darwin and Vanessa Feltz. Serial misanthrope Ian Cognito continued the nihilistic theme, denouncing everything but with less charm.

Ivor Dembina closed after five hours. Looking at Alan Davies, who was in the audience, he recalled an early gig when the takings were stolen: "Don't worry, it's only money," said Davies back then. It was a very different world.

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