Sweet Unrest, Chive and Suspire at the Stags Head

Two of my friends had expressed an interest in going to a pub gig, so I arranged this outing to the Stags Head in Hoxton on a Friday night. My aim was to see Sweet Unrest again, who apparently were headlining this gig in place of their usual residency at the Camden Eye, supported by two bands I had never heard of, Suspire and Chive.

First up were Suspire and we thought they were ok, until the next two bands when you saw the striking improvement in standards! They were a bit shambolic, and their drummer was a stand in (although very competent one). We reckoned the act was really the band of the guitarist on the left below. We based this view on the fact that he insisted on singing as lead in one number, despite having a truly execrable voice. Stick to what you can do!

Then followed Sweet Unrest, from which I surmised that the second act had scratched. That and the fact they seemed to be late on, and Jack (lead vocalist) was clearly late as one of the other band members was on the phone to find out where he was during the sound check. But on he came in natty blue jacket, quickly got ready and they were into their set with usual gusto. 

One thing that quickly became evident was the stage was nowhere big enough for the five of them, not with Jack's energetic movement. He also came down into the audience and was stood right next to me. Intimate venue!

Given how hot it was inevitably the plush jacket didn't last long and soon Jack was baring his chest

And from the sheen on Jack's chest below you can see just how hot it was! 

So that is when I thought the gig was finished - rather early. My mate Alan decided to head home, but as we were stood there, the tiny room having almost completely emptied, we saw a couple of blokes appearing with guitars. I asked what turned out to be the drummer if there was another act on and he confirmed they very much were. So Simon and I stayed to see Chive, who it turned out were the headline act. They were also really good. A trio (so better fitted to stage size!) and both guitarists had decent voices. They announced they were playing a different pub on 9 May, and Simon and I have pencilled that in too. Yes, that impressive!

So I met Tom, one of the guitarists of Sweet Unrest, as we left and introduced Simon to him (how cool I feel introducing my friends to band members!), but said I thought his band were supposed to be headlining. And he said, so did they! The gig was booked by their manager, and to be fair the poster for the gig had Sweet Unrest written at the top with the poster photo below being a shot of Jack, so it was a reasonable assumption.

Anyway, will see Sweet Unrest again soon no doubt, and probably Chive too. That is the thing with gigs at this level - you just come across other bands, and they don't just come to Town every other year on tour, they play various London gigs so you can see them often.

Franz Ferdinand at Shepherds Bush Empire

It had been a while since I visited Shepherds Bush. Partly due to some unexplained hold ups at a red signal on the tube, I got there a little later than I would have liked, so I wasn't able top get right to the front. Indeed there were a very attractive, but rather tall couple stood in front of me. I say this to explain the slightly poorer photos than I usually manage to get, particularly of Alex Kapranos, the lead singer, who was the far side of stage from me. I could rarely get a good angle not blocked by a tall head....

Anyway, to get on with this, I was a little disappointed there was only one support, so having got there "late" (ie just after doors open, there was a long gap before any action. And the action was disappointing too. The artist was Master Peace. Who was far from a masterpiece. He is a bloke somewhere on the margin of indie and rap. It was just all rather basic, his voice, backed by a basic drummer and basic guitarist

Eventually we got onto Franz Ferdinand, touring to promote their new album. Unfortunately, I can't say there is much that is memorable from the new record, maybe Doctor. Doctor. So the night rather rested on the oldies. What I can say though is that as live act, they are very good. Alex has a lot of personality, does a lot of audience patter in his fine Scottish accent and of course is a very fine singer. 

There was a rather nice spot after "Matinee" which features a line imagining he had made it by being interviewed by Wogan. After the song he said some of us would realise how apposite that song was because The Wogan show used to be recorded at this very theatre. And the younger members of the audience would be thinking, "Who the f*** is Terry Wogan?" Than neatly encapsulated how long the band has been going for.

It says a lot for the quality of the band's back catalogue, that they did not end the main set nor encore with their stand out hit "Take Me Out", but rather finished with This Fire in a suitably burning red light. Another very strong performance. (I also had the neat experience of seeing an excellent covers band - Courtfield 19 - two nights later doing a cover of Take Me Out, and doing an excellent job of it. Its a great song.)

 

Tyntesfield

Tyntesfield is a glorious example of Victorian high gothic architecture built with no expense spared. And all built on shit. Bird shit to be precise. Guano. A much prized Victorian fertilizer. William Gibbs who commissioned the house (previously a small Georgian house) was supposed to be the richest commoner in the land. His family firm acquired a monopoly on the South American guano trade which apparently was bringing in (in today's money) about £8 million a year. So they could afford to go all out on the family home in the most fashionable neo-gothic taste, with the highest standards of craftsmanship, mostly displayed in the quality of the woodwork in the house interiors.

The family were devout Roman Catholics, so unsurprisingly the hose had its own pretty lavish chapel.

Particularly taken by the gentleman's room. It took in, according to the blurb, three fashionable men's activities, billiards (fine table), hunting (lots of stag antlers lining the walls) and wood-turning on the lathe. (What? Never heard of that as a gentleman's pursuit!)

Plenty of paintings line the walls and they have labels like Rubens, Rembrandt and Zurbaran, but they are not genuine. The only big name genuine painting here is the Bellini below, an early Madonna and Child being a fitting work to have in the house of a Roman Catholic family.

Obviously the house comes with an extensive estate and grounds.

A rose garden is not at its best in February but you can tell it would be spectacular in summer...

Of course a house lie this would also have an orangery and extensive glasshouses