Oh Inverted World, Goldheart Assembly and some Celebs.....

Well, what a night Thursday was.

The chaps from Oh Inverted World!, one of our finest promoters at The Old Queen's Head, delivered one hell of a show.

Headlining the proceedings were the amazing Goldheart Assembly, who due to some contractual issue's with those big dogs at Live Nation weren't allowed to be advertised as playing the show till the day before.

Apparently this was something to do with their sold out big show at the ICA which is on the horizon - so as you can imagine having them play at OQH was quite a coup.

I hadn't seen them before, but had heard great things, and they didn't disappoint. A lot of bands (anything folky) get comparisons to Fleet Foxes, and these guys are no exception with songs laden with beautiful harmonies & melodies, but along with Mumford & Son's & Fanfarlo they do it with a class of their own.

They were supported by the strangely named Ivan Ink and Pen (who contary to the almost comedy name are actually very very good) and a new female singer/song writer called Slow Moving Millie.

There were also some rather interesting and varied celebrities in the audience, including....
Jay Darlington (Kula Shaker & Oasis Keyboardist

Romeo (The Magic Numbers Lead Singer - not the chump from So Solid Crew)

One of The Feeling

'Lunchbox' from The Full Monty

& Some cast members from Holby City & Skins

I wonder if they all arrived together? Maybe they're all Friends?

Anyways, the next Oh Inverted World! night is on Thursday 22nd April and they have the rather special James Vincent McMorrow coming over from Ireland playing.

Here are some pictures from last Thursday for you....

Goldheart Assembly


Goldheart Assembly


Goldheart Assembly


Ivan Ink & Pen


The Oh Inverted World! Massive

Summer Camp

So, I was listening to loads and loads of new bands a minute ago, and one sprang out of my speakers. They are called Summer Camp

I don't know much about them, but they are playing their first gig on the 8th April at The Lexington which judging by some of the comments being banded around on the blogger sphere should be quite an occasion.

They remind me of a more electronic Ooberman (if you remember those chaps). It might just be the male female vocals and gentle melodies.

There is also something about it that reminds me something old - not in a retro musical way but like looking at an old faded photo that had been in the sun too long and reminds you of happy times.

I am fully aware that I have just compared a sound to an object and it sounds slightly pretentious. I think I am right though.

DJ Ruth Flowers

Here at The Old Queen's Head we are always striving to unearth the newest, freshest DJ's going to soundtrack your night out here. We don't just limited our eyes and ears to this country either - we scour the world looking for hot international talent to grace our hallowed decks - and on this occasion we have surpassed ourselves!

Bringing you French sensation DJ Ruth Flowers.....

Old Queen's Head All Dayer

Check it out in poster formation.

Sweet Sweet Deals.



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First Aid Kit - video from their gig here!

Hey Yo!

Just a little post today to show you a video of the lovely First Aid Kit which was taken here when they played in December! Enjoy!

Peggy Sue - Live Videos

Some video's from Peggy Sue's live album playback at The Old Queen's Head on Monday -filmed courtesy of the lovely folks at GreenHouse!

Peggy Sue – Watchman
Live At The Old Queen’s Head 22/02/2010

Peggy Sue - Watchman from Brittney Bean on Vimeo.

Peggy Sue – Yo Mama
Live At The Old Queen’s Head 22/02/2010

Peggy Sue - Yo Mama from Brittney Bean on Vimeo.

Peggy Sue Live

So, last night the wonderful Peggy Sue playing here.



Peggy Sue have been one of my favourite bands for years now, and recently they signed a record deal with the rather wonderful Wichita Recordings (Bloc Party, Los Campesinos!, First Aid Kit & many more) which see's them release their debut album 'Fossils And Other Phantoms' on the 5th April.

To celebrate it they are playing a massive show at The Garage on the 29th of March and you can get tickets here so to have them come and play such an intimate & unique show here at The Old Queen's Head was very special.

Similar to when First Aid Kit played here in December, they took it as a chance to play their debut album live from start to finish. This is quite a task for an act to do, as very rarely are all the tracks on a bands album made to be played live - and especially not in the order they are on a record.

As you can imagine, a live set is structured especially for a live performance, so the songs are placed to work an audience, with the set building into a crescendo, so to throw that out the window and play an album live track for track is a mighty task - and also something that you won't see them do again - needless to say they did it with ease (aside from some dubious on-stage chat!).

Here some pics:

Rosa


Olly


Katie


Peggy Sue


And for the more musically geeky of you here is their set list (and of course album track list) with a breakdown of what instruments they all played.

Advent Blog - Day Twenty Four - Christmas Eve

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house......

Here we are then, Christmas Eve, and the last date of our Advent Blog! I hope over the last 24 days you have found our posts to be interesting, informative and entertaining. We did try.

We shall be updating this loads more in the future so make sure you keep checking back here. Between Christmas & NY we will have all our DJ's for NYE leave their top 10 track selections from the last decade to go along side Orlando's below, in preparation for what will be our massive Zoo Year's Eve party here!

As it is Christmas Eve, I thought I would share the below with you. It is the intro to the BBC's brilliant Children's Dramatisation of The Box Of Delights by John Masefield, which was originally shown in the run up to Christmas in 1984.

I watched it as a child, and it is for me the best Christmas adventure of all time.

I am sure that anyone that remembers it will agree, and anyone that doesn't will do as soon as they watch it. Just listen out to when 'The First Noel' music kicks in after 32 seconds.....



In the meantime it leaves me to wish you all a wonderful Christmas!

Love The Old Queen's Head! x

Advent Blog - Day Twenty Three - Orlando Maccabees Tracks Of The Decade

If you're anything like me then you will measure the passing of time by music - what your favourite bands were, what gigs you went to and what records you bought are all landmarks in life that piece together the past.

So, with the turning of a decade fast upon us it seems the perfect time to look back on what has been an amazing ten years of music. Between now and New Year myself and other people at The Old Queen's Head will be sharing with you our ten tracks of the last ten years - and asking you to suggest yours.

To kick things of though we thought we would invite a guest in to share those, and who better than Orlando Weeks, lead singer of The Maccabees, and also our Guest DJ for New Year's Eve Party!



I asked him to send me over a list of the most important tracks to him from the last 10 years and here is what he sent back.....

"All I can say about these songs is that they remind me of good things.
I think top 10s are fickle little buggers that change from 1 moment to the next but these all hold good memories and that will do for me!"

Love O x

Richard Hawley "The Ocean"


Radiohead - "Reckoner"


My Morning Jacket - "It Beats For You"


Regina Spektor - "The Flowers"


Franz Ferdinand - "Darts of Pleasure"


Arcade Fire - "My Body Is A Cage"


Interpol - "Slow Hands"


Animal Collective - "Purple Bottle"


The Walkmen - "The Rat"


The Caesars - "Jerk It Out"


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Thursday 31st December
The Old Queen's Head
ZOO YEAR'S EVE!
FEATURING.....
THE MACCABEES (ORLANDO & HUGO)
MR THING
BRUCE WAYNE
TIDY RHYTHM
ALLY WOLF
8pm - 5am
£20 Advance Tickets From The Bar
Free Cocktail on the door before 9.30pm
ZOO ANIMAL FANCY DRESS!
http://www.theoldqueenshead.com
http://theoldqueenshead.blogspot.com/
************************************************************

Advent Blog - Day Twenty Two - The Best Christmas Songs Of All Time?

Here we are then, one more day in The Office for everyone at The Old Queen's Head and to while away the hours till we can wrap up and head home for Christmas we have been banding around what our Top 3 Christmas songs of all time are. Feel free to leave your selections below

Just for your reference in the office we have the following:

Ally Wolf
Tom Lunn
Ruth Sanders.

Ally Wolf
1) The Pogues Feat Kirsty McCall – Fairytale Of New York


2) David Bowie & Bing Crosby – Little Drummer Boy



3) Saint Etienne & Tim Burgess – I Was Born On Christmas Day



Tom Lunn
1) RUN DMC – Christmas In Hollis


2) Ray Charles & Dionne Warwick – Baby It’s Cold Outside


3) Oscar The Grouch – Oscar Hates Christmas



Ruth Sanders
1) Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday


2) Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You


3) Kylie Minogue – Santa Baby

Advent Blog - Day Twenty One - Zoo Year's Eve Fancy Dress Idea's

Well after the slightly content heavey blog of yesterday I thought it was time to lighten it up a bit with some fancy dress idea's for Zoo Years Eve!

We are of course going for a Zoo Theme - and we will have decorated The Old Queen's Head out to look like a massive Zoo - so all you need to do is turn up looking like your favourite Zoo Animals!

If you are struggling for idea's I suggest you visit these sites!

Firstly - if you don't to go all out for a whooe costume, these girls make amazing Animal hoods! Hve a look at their website!

http://www.merrimaking.co.uk



Or these guys do whole animal fancy dress!

http://www.fancydressed.co.uk/Zoo.html



Or if you just want to look at animals then go here!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/



http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals

Advent Blog - Day Twenty - Rage Against The X-Factor

Bit of a wordy blog today as thought I should pass comment on this whole Xmas number 1 chart battle.

Well it looks like Rage Against The Machine poured hot water on Simon Cowell's plans for a Christmas Number One with the winner of this year's X-Factor, beating Joe McElderry.

So an Internet campaign via facebook (member 800,000+) beats a prime time ITV show (viewers 19 million) to take a song to the number one spot, leaving Simon Cowell seething.

What does this tell us? Well, numerous people have poured their opinions about it at every opportunity, claiming it as proof that the public won't buy into manufactured X-Factor pop, and that this signals the end of Simon Cowell's reign on the charts. Countless other people have raised the fact that RATM are signed to Sony, who also look after the X-Factor act's and that the whole campaign is a ploy by a major label and that the people who bought into the Facebook campaign are as guilty as the x-factor fans.

All a little bit to serious i think.

What are my thoughts - well I have two of them.

1) Joe McElderry's track is weak. It is not a patch on Girls Aloud's Xmas Number 1 'Sound Of The Underground' or any of the other X-Factor / Pop Idol / Pop Star The Rival's winner's songs for that matter. It is a cover of a little known original which has no meaning to anyone, sung by a new artist who from the little we have seen of him seems to have no striking personality or back story. People haven't fallen for him like they did Gareth Gates, Will Young, Leone Lewis or Alexandra Burke - he seemed to win by default of being the best of a bad bunch.

'Killing In The Name Of' on the other hand is an amazing song, which has been in the public consciousness for 19 years, and aside from the songs strong political meaning within the song has a huge significance to many generations of music fans through soundtracking their lives. RATM as a band have one of the most loyal and passionate fan bases, and have spent their whole careers finding that perfect balance between being a cult credible act and achieving mainstream success. They have personalities & opinions and mean something to people.

2) It was a massive piece of fun. When was the last time anyone cared about who was Number 1 at Christmas? Or number 1 at any point during the year for that matter? The charts have become meaningless to everyone. I remember devoutly tuning in to the Top 40 (with Mark Goodier!) when I was a kid, and celebrating certain songs getting to number 1 (when The Verve's Drugs Don't Work got to number 1, the Blur v's Oasis battle standing out for me in particular).

So in conclusion what should we take from this....

Well today I was on a coach when it got to 6.50pm, and without a radio - so I called my dad to find out for me. That made me realise what this was actually all about.

It wasn't about a David v's Golith chart battle or a turning in the tide of the public attitude to mass produced pop. It was simply about the quality of a song, the fact that people were able to get excited about the charts again and above all else FUN. Pop music is meant to be fun, always has been and always will be & the fact that in 2009 our Christmas Number 1 will be a song called Killing In The Name of, with a refrain of 'Fuck You I won't do what you tell me' is in my eyes simply hilarious.

Advent Blog - Day Nineteen - Bar Boot Sale

Last month we hosted the first ever Bar Boot Sale at The Old Queen's Head. Organised by the lovely Kirsti & Rebbecca, Bar Boot Sale See's a collection of London's most loveable and stylish ladies descend upon The Old Queen's Head for an afternoon to sell a collection of vintage clothes and accessories featuring a record and CD fair and hairdressing - all soundtracked by DJ's.

Saturday 19Th December
Bar Boot Sale @ The Old Queen's Head
Midday till 5pm
Free Entry

Here is a video they made of their last one!

Advent Blog - Day Eighteen- Xmas Party!

The last Friday before Christmas!! Which means one thing - it's time to PARTY.

Anyone heading down to The Old Queen's Head tonight will get in FOR FREE!!! if they arrive in fancy dress. We will have DJ's till 2am, Christmas Cocktails, a mistletoe kissing booth and mince pies a plenty for everyone!

We are expecting a massive attendance so please arrive early!

Advent Blog - Day Seventeen - The Sunday Social

Our wonderful promoters Broccoli are hosting our Christmas Sunday Social this Sunday at The Old Queen's Head - and they have delivered a whole host of bands and artists for your entertainment!

All the finer details can be found here - best rest assured it will be a blinder!

Don't forget that The Old Queen's Head serves the best roast dinners anywhere in the land - even better than the one's your mum makes. That's a fact!

Advent Blog - Day Sixteen - Roll Over Jackpot

Our Pub Quiz Jackpot rolled over last night - so we are now up to a massive £400+ to be won next week for our Quizmas Quiz......

Check out the details here on the facebook event

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The Old Queens Head Pub Quiz
Christmas Special!
Tuesday 22nd December
Registration from 7pm
Quiz Starts 8pm
£2 Per Team Member / Max 6 people per team.
Each & Every Tuesday!
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Advent Blog - Day Fifteen - Rage Against The X-Factor

So, there seems to be quite a kerfuffle going on in the world of the Internet regarding the race for Christmas #1.... It seem's that someone has a bee in their bonnet about the winner of The X-Factor (this year it being Joe Mcelderry) always claiming the spot, and as a consequence they have started a campaign on Facebook to get Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name Of' to the chart summit.

Who are we to say who is right or wrong? Who will win? My money is with these boys....

Advent Blog - Day Fourteen - Bad Town TV

So tonight at The Old Queen's Head we host the launch of Bad Town TV - which is a new TV programme starting in 2010.

Bad Town TV looks distinctively trashy, low-budget and satirical. A screening of the first episode is followed by sets from Razorlight's Carl and Skully and Badtown TV resident Randy Toot.

Rumour has it that the Razorlight boy's may even be playing on stage too.....

Advent Blog - Day Thirteen - River Rat Pack Photo's

So we hosted The River Rat Pack tonight at The Old Queen's Head - as you will know from previous posts they are a collection of bands and artists who spent this summer touring the canals and rivers of this country &and this was the first time all the bands had played togethor since!

Here are some pics...

Beans On Toast


Alex Cox from Wild Wolves


Richard Hanson SixNationState


Smokey Angle Shades


Dancing People


Jameela & Alex DJ's