Off the record

Evening Standard   12.10.07

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David Smyth takes a look at a new live music venue opening in New Cross and checks out what's new on the net.

SOMETHING HIP IS HAPPENING IN NEW CROSS

New Cross has been talked of as London's hippest quarter for so long now, you half expect to step off the East London line straight into a multimedia art installation.

In reality, SE14 is still dominated by a "Glamerous" hair salon and fried-chicken outlets, while the biggest music palace, The Venue, is offering Bon Jovi and Wham! tribute bands this week.

But tonight the reopening of another live venue, a spruced-up boozer, suggests that this up-and-coming area might finally have up-and-come.

When I visit the Amersham Arms opposite New Cross station, it's bustling with workers putting last-minute touches both to the front room, with its wood panelling, open fire and six-quid Sunday carvery, and the back, a 300-capacity live venue destined to host hot bands including the Rakes, Friendly Fires and XX Teens. There's also an airy art gallery upstairs.

In recent years, its dynamic new owner, 580 Ltd, has also opened the Lock Tavern in Camden and the Defector's Weld in Shepherd's Bush, which both offer modern twists on the traditional pub with an emphasis on live music.

Its arrival three months ago in New Cross is a ringing endorsement of an area that still has a way to go before it becomes the new Shoreditch.

"Being honest, it is still very rough round here. This is the biggest gamble that we've made out of the eight pubs we've opened so far," says 580 Ltd's Daniel Crouch, who has a background in club nights rather than in breweries. "But we've been interested in the area since bands like Bloc Party and Klaxons started out here, and last year we came and saw about 2,000 kids at the Rocklands mini-festival - that was a definite sign that something exciting is going on."

He's not worried about what the recent shooting of Polish carer Magda Pniewska nearby says about New Cross. "You get plenty of trouble in Islington too. The police have warned us about the potential dangers, but we're confident that with the kind of music we're playing, we won't attract the wrong elements."

I meet some more established residents down the road in Rubbish & Nasty, a junk shop wonderland full of old records and clothes reworked from vintage fabrics by Sophie "Rubbish Fairy" Soni. She runs the store with Ian "Nasty" McQuaid, who will also run the Friday club nights at the Amersham Arms.

They tell me of word-of-mouth parties that happen in distilleries, empty clinics and abandoned pubs, a culture of squatting and "loud, abrasive music" that is now spawning new bands such as the Metros, the Pepys and the delightfully named Ratty Rat Rat.

The scene is thriving, they say, partly because it is difficult to get to, meaning that locals are forced to stay local. "It is very insular here," says McQuaid. "They're about to shut the East London line for five years to build the extension. By the time they come back we'll all have sprouted claws and wings."

CHEERED ON BY THE GO! TEAM

If life had a soundtrack of hyper-enthusiastic cheerleaders, maybe we'd all get a lot more done. That's where the Go! Team come in. I caught the Brighton band this week headlining the NME's Freshers Tour, and rarely have I heard a sound more capable of sending you off to university with a spring in your step.

Led on stage by a female firebrand calling herself Ninja, who breakdances and leads call-and-response routines in red hotpants and knee socks, they make an exuberant sound that blends punk rock and old school hip hop with childlike enthusiasm. Two albums into their career, they're the only band I can think of that could prompt both a mosh pit and a skipping routine.

Their latest album, Proof of Youth, has been criticised for being exactly the same as their first (though for the record, it's a bit louder) but when you sound this unique, there's no point changing for the sake of it. Long may they continue to cheer us all on.

RADIOHEAD'S DOWNLOAD TRIUMPH

In Rainbows
www.inrainbows.com
****

At 7.14 on Wednesday morning, the link to Radiohead's seventh album landed in my inbox. Three-and-a-half minutes later, it was downloaded and all mine - such efficiency! Yet on the evidence of the 10 tracks here (there will be eight more when the album appears in physical formats on 3 December) the music has not made the same great leap forward as the innovative method of delivery.

Aside from Bodysnatchers, whose punky guitars almost drown out the howling vocals of Thom Yorke, In Rainbows is a graceful, understated work, not as complex as their past musical crossword puzzles but full of moments of great beauty.

The gorgeous House of Cards resembles Fleetwood Mac's Albatross in its gentle groove, while Videotape is little more than four piano chords and one of Yorke' s most affecting vocals.

Everything meets the band's usual perfectionist standards, but In Rainbows is destined to be remembered for its sales technique, not its songs.

NEW ON THE NET

• The latest desirable pair of indie cheekbones belong to dapper part-time actor Joe Lean and his band the Jing Jang Jong. That tongue-twisting name will soon be nestling in the upper reaches of the charts, but before then there's buzz-building debut single Lucio Starts Fires, available as a download at www.jingjangjong.com if you buy the limited-edition seven-inch this week to get a code.

• With Amazon in the US already testing out a full download store, the UK version takes its first steps this week, offering a free download of a new Eagles song on the front page at www.amazon.co.uk. The song will be free of digital rights restrictions, giving Amazon an advantage over its biggest digital rival until iTunes changes its tune.

• Arcade Fire are trying something different at their site www.beonlineb. com this week - a video for their song Neon Bible, which the viewer can change as it plays by clicking on different parts of the screen. If you've ever wanted to have a singer do your bidding, now's your chance.

 

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