Fosca played their last gig in their series of monthly London headliners the other night. From now on we're going to be like Only Fools And Horses: just special events whenever we feel like it. We're also concentrating on non-London shows and seeking out support slots with bigger acts.
The venue we played on Thursday was The Arts Cafe, at Toynbee Hall in Commercial Street, E1. I'd not been there before, but it's now my favourite small venue in London. Getting off at Aldgate East tube, the platform has signs to Toynbee Hall that are clearly part of the station's original 1930s decor.
There was more history to come. At the venue, there's a stairwell covered with posters of previous gigs hosted by "The Sausage Machine", legendary promoters of early 90s London concerts who appear to still put on gigs at the Arts Cafe. Fascinating stuff. The posters stretched back to 1991, perhaps earlier. Bands who became big, bands who didn't. Bands who gave up, bands who didn't: Ricky Spontane, and LOTS of Linus gigs (<lj user=andypop> must have a few memories).
Other poster of past gigs that you can see at The Arts Cafe… The Asphalt Ribbons (before they became the Tindersticks) supported by Huggy Bear. Bands who were hyped at the time as The Next Big Thing but sank without a trace, like Mint 400. A pre-fame Suede in a pub room for £2, who presumably featured Justine Elastica on guitar at the time. PJ Harvey third on the bill to Midway Still and The Becketts. I saw The Becketts in Bristol at about the same time. The most memorable thing about them was that they featured Paddy Ashdown's son.
The Arts Cafe itself proves that it is possible to have a civilized venue without being pretentious and chrome-laden. A proper stage too, rather than a corner of a bar on the same level where people can't see you if they're not at the front. Lots of paintings and artworks in the wall. A sound engineer called Percy.
"Where can we plug in?"
"The power points are behind the Art."
The gig was a much more celebratory affair than our last depressing show at the Garage. People actually turned up to this one. Even Rachel The Artist's Model who works at Archway Video.
[Archway Video: the greatest video rental shop in London… Missed "But I'm A Cheerleader" and "Robinson In Space" when they spent 3 days on the arthouse cinema circuit? Never seen "Liquid Sky", "O Lucky Man" or "Happiness"? Rent the videos here… They stock absolutely everything, mainstream to obscure. Lots of foreign language cinema. The complete Buffy and Angel videos. I Claudius. Brideshead Revisited. Every film by Woody Allen, Hal Hartley, Derek Jarman. But not that Aaliyah film "Queen Of The Damned", though. They deliberately refuse to stock that "on account of it being the worst film in recent memory".]
I managed to actually catch and develop a streaming cold <i>during</i> our set, but that appealed to my consumptive valetudinarian aesthetics. "When I grow up I want to be an invalid." Nothing like running mascara and a failing voice to add a bit of frisson to a concert. Luckily we currently do at least one number where I don't have to sing, in this case, the spoken word "Diary Of An Antibody", with Sheila and Rachel on vocals.
It was also National Poetry Day, so during the set I decided to recite an Ivor Cutler poem, "Breasts", in full:
<b><i>
"If your breasts are too big,
You will fall over.
Unless you are wearing
A rucksack."</b></i>
