The Red Penguin

As far as melon scratchers go, this is a honey doodle

A little bit of football news doing the rounds this morning …

Cobblers boss Jon Brady has spoken of his delight at securing the season-long signing of Fulham midfielder Matt Dibley-Dias, beating off competition from a clutch of other EFL clubs.

The 20-year-old is highly-rated at Craven Cottage, captaining the club’s Under-21 side last season, and he will now spend the next 12 months at Sixfields as he takes the next steps in his football career.

Dibley-Dias, who has been an unused substitute for Fulham in … wait, what? I defy you not to say his name in Ned Flander’s voice …

You only live once. Give me a white wine spritzer!

Friday 26 July 2024, 102 views

Like Father, Like Son

Trevor Horn has been telling a story at gigs recently about one of his daughter’s old classmates. She attended the same private school as one of Boris Johnson’s sons.

The two kids were friendly, but it was still a bit of a surprise for Trevor when he came home one day to find Boris’s son not just in his house, but in Trevor’s bedroom. Lying on his bed.

Mercifully, he was clothed and Trevor’s daughter was nowhere to be seen – but Trevor still turfed him out.

The following week at the school gates, Trevor went over to Boris to mention this bizarre little intrusion. He said, “Your son was in my house last week.”

To which Boris simply replied, “You didn’t give him any drugs, did you?”

I did not know there was a video for this. Drama is a fantastic Yes album – one of my favourites in a very strong field – and I used to think it was so weird that Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes came in to replace Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, mainly because at that time I just thought they were bubblegum pop artists.

Thursday 18 July 2024, 823 views

Bikini Beach Band, Stoke Newington

A last minute decision to go out and do something on New Year’s Eve. OK, I’m happy watching repeats of Father Ted, but not everyone in my household feels the same.

Plus of course me and Mrs Red Penguin love the Bikini Beach Band. We first caught them live in 1995 supporting My Life Story at the Jazz Cafe, where they played a cover of MLS’s Motorcade, a track which appeared on their 1998 album The Bikini Beach Band Leave Home. They also supported the band on a comeback show in 2006 and I’ve caught them live five times in all, not least of course at Mrs RP’s 40th birthday party a few years back.

We didn’t get a chance to say hello, we waltzed in and out and were back home in time to not watch Jools Holland or a Rick Astley live concert on BBC1/BBC2.

Sunday 31 December 2023, 19707 views

Pacifica, House of Women – Academy 2, Islington

Back in the 90s, most of my favourite bands where what you heard on the radio or found in record shows. Mostly British and American, and occasionally something from Europe, but not very often.

Now thanks to the stupid internet, I have a whole load of favourite bands from around the world who are unlikely to ever tour the UK. One exception thankfully is Pacifica. They’re a duo from Buenos Aires and released their debut album, Freak Scene, in September, although I feel like it’s been out 3 years given the amount I have played it. It’s my favourite album of the year and that’s quite an achievement since 2023 was a Blur comeback year.

They started as an “Instagram band” playing Strokes covers. For me the Strokes peaked with their first single, and thankfully Pacifica have many more good ones than that. Great live performance and looked like they had a lot of fun. Hard to believe that an Argentinian duo could get such a great reaction in the UK too, especially with the xenophobia of the last few years, but I guess if you love good music you’re not going to be a brainless internet idiot.

Support was from House of Women who were OK but a little bit too heavy/stoner rock for my ears. I’d have loved them in the early 2000s.

Misled
Digital Clock
Hotel Bar
Premature Rejection
Let Me Have This (Unreleased Song)
Take On Me (a‐ha cover)
Away
Anita
Don’t Blame Me (Unreleased Song)
Closer
Fantasies
Change Your Mind
Silent Affection
Encore:
With or Without You

Sunday 10 December 2023, 19373 views

Fonda 500, Bugeye, Hurtling, Colossus – Amersham Arms, New Cross

With my possible move away from Essex looming I won’t be able to make any last minute decisions to go and see gigs like this any more, unless they’re playing an hour or so from my new place (spoiler: they won’t), so it was indeed very much a last minute decision to drive down the A2 for my first gig in New Cross since 1996. It’s an easy drive from Basildon too – just 45 minutes going there, longer coming home. I can’t remember seeing quite so many diversionless road closures for “roadworks” in one evening but that’s another story …

I was really going on the strength of Hurtling and Bugeye, two bands I’ve seen before – weirdly, at the same venue in Bishop’s Stortford on different days, a venue I’d only been to on those two occasions. But I made sure to get there in time for the first act as I’d heard Colossus were good, and they were indeed – a very charismatic and slightly crazy frontman who had a “two microphone” thing going on which I didn’t understand, but it was a great set all the same.

Hurtling were up next, nowhere near as crazy but sounding massive thanks to Jen Macro’s awesome guitarwork.

Bugeye were the standout in a very good evening for me. I don’t understand why this band aren’t bigger – great stage presence and big infectious tunes. I spoke to a couple of the band afterwards and told them they need to play more gigs!

Headliners Fonda 500 are just about to call it a day, having been around since the 90s. This was their last London gig and I’m a bit disappointed I’ve only just discovered them – been enjoying playing their albums on Spotify since this show. Really hard to categorise too – a mix of The Fall, Stereolab, Saint Etienne, Art Brut and lots more.

I’ve put up a ton more photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/s9rTmPUR5MVSdPjU8

Thursday 26 October 2023, 25513 views

Snow Coats, Toodles and the Hectic Pity – Signature Brew, Haggerston

The second date I caught on the current tour – got there nice and early this time. I’d interviewed lead singer Anouk earlier in the day for the radio, so got a chance to say hello to her before the show. The set was slightly longer than Monday’s, and I got to see Toodles and the Hectic Pity in support too. Looking forward to more new music from them whenever that’s coming!

Wednesday 27 September 2023, 25409 views

Snow Coats – Tunbridge Wells Forum

The “before” and “after” gig posters:

The first of two Snow Coats gigs this week. They’re a band from Arnhem in the Netherlands and I have assumed they aren’t going to be playing too many random gigs in the UK. I’m still absolutely loving their album “If it wasn’t me, I would’ve called it funny” which came out in September last year, so I wasn’t going to pass up the chance of catching them live.

Except I almost did tonight. I found out just before leaving home that this gig, planned for the Sussex Arms, and the one in the Forum “hadn’t sold too well” so the venues decided to merge the two shows. Instead of headlining, Snow Coats were first on at the Forum instead, so if I hadn’t been trying to find out stage times I would have missed them, something I wouldn’t have called funny. As it was, I headed down just in time and caught a fantastic set from them. Looking forward to Wednesday now!

Punching Bag
Chevy
OK ok (Sue)
Anyway
Amber
Dreaming In The Car
Dinosaur
Marie

Monday 25 September 2023, 25119 views

Darling Buds, Keeley – The Thunderbolt, Bristol

I think I forgot how far Bristol was when I booked this. (Actually it wasn’t bad. 2 hrs 45 mins going on a Saturday afternoon, 2 hrs 25 mins coming home on a Sunday morning).

That wasn’t quite true too – The Darling Buds are playing in London in November, and I make a point of going to every “local” Darling Buds gig. Except I can’t go to this one, so I decided to go to the only other gig they’ve announced for 2023, which was this one.

I booked it some months ago and looked at hotel prices a couple of weeks ago. Nothing less than £160 a night! I was going to give it a miss, but then I found an Airbnb available for £49, so I decided to go for it after all. The Airbnb was 1 1/2 miles from the venue, so I decided to walk the 30 minutes to the venue. Drizzle turned into proper rain, so I ended up decamping first to the Southside Bar, and a couple of pints of Asahi dried me out.

I got to the Thunderbolt in time to catch Keeley’s set. Keeley had been a visitor to our radio station yesterday and I came along for the session, and here we are 24 hours later, 160 miles away! It was a great set – her songs really jumped to life on stage. Hard to believe it’s only her 5th gig ever.

The Darling Buds are starting to creep more and more new songs into their set, with good reason – I have it on good authority that a new album is getting closer. It will be the first since 1992’s Erotica; with terrible record company timing, an album released at the same time as Madonna’s album of the same name. The Darling Buds’ one is much better though!

Oh No You Don’t
Honeysuckle
Cast A Stone
Big Head
Evergreen
Sure Thing
Hey St Jude
It Makes No Difference
Fall
Pretenders
Complicated
Hit The Ground
Jump In
Burst
Shame On You
Do You Have To Break My Heart?
Keeley setlist:
Last Words
Where The Monster Lives
Shadow On The Hills
Scratches On Your Face
Railway Stations
To a London Sunrise
Never Here Always There
Boarded Up In Belfast
Forever’s Where You Are
Echo Everywhere
Arrive Alive

Saturday 16 September 2023, 29471 views

Fightmilk, Feeble Strength – Signature Brew, Haggerston

If bands have “home” venues, this is Fightmilk’s. It’s the third time I’ve seen them here since the start of last year and I am sure I have missed a few too.

It’s Signature Brew’s 5th birthday, and there were a lot of people milling about, drinking Signature Brew’s beer (which is NOT FOR ME) and eating what appeared to be free chocolate cake, but I didn’t have any of that in case I wasn’t privileged enough.

I managed to catch the whole set from Feeble Strength, which was great in a rocking power-pop kind of way. Can’t find a lot of material online for them though.

Fightmilk performed a fairly short set of seven songs, four of which will be on the next album. I had a quick chat with Lily (where else but in the world’s longest toilet queue relative to the number of people there) and she told me they are currently recording it, which is good news. New songs are sounding great so I’m looking forward to that!

Overbite
Summer Bodies
Canines
My Best Me
Hey Annabelle!
I’m Starting To Think You Don’t Even Want To Go To Space
Eating For Two (Live debut)

Thursday 14 September 2023, 29256 views

Thousand Yard Stare – The Lexington, Islington

I’ve done the “two Thousand Yard Stare gigs in two days” thing before. Last time, they played two completely different sets. This time, it was the same set each night. That didn’t bother me at all. I was more impressed that I was able to stand up at gigs on consecutive nights!

I was with Mrs Penguin tonight and we drove there from Billericay in about the same time it took me to drive to Brighton yesterday. And we managed to park up in our secret (and legal) parking space one minute’s walk from the Lexington, which is always empty!

As I was front and centre last night I was happy to have a bit of a restricted view at the side near the padded seats, although the view there was still pretty good. Sound was quite good although last night was excellent and probably a little better. Roll on 2024, when I am hoping there will be more gigs …

Schism Algorithm
Version Of Me
Heimlich Maneuver
Buttermouth
Esprit du Corps
Keepsake
Comeuppance
What’s Your Level?
Seasonstream
Square Peg/Round Hole
0-0 A.E.T.
Wideshire
A Thousand Yards (A Panglossian Momentum)
Encore:
Wonderment
(It Sparks! was on the setlist but wasn’t played).