Heading north out of London is Stoke Newington and one of the venues revered by the late great Andrew Weatherall which is the brilliant “The Waiting Room” and on the circuit for many small bands in the pursuit of getting our there and finding audencies.
It is hot, damn hot, one of the hottest days in the UK for quite some time and as the crowd make their way in to the basement it is evident this venue has a fantastic air con system, fantastic stuff.
Support acts “Richard Warren” wows the audience with his vintage Gibson guitar and his sublime velvety voice to perform approx 7 o 8 songs, followed on by one of North London’s finest underground bands “Drift” (4 piece prog/psch/electronic folk punk rock) stun the crowd with with older songs such as Red Lights and delive some new songs from their forthcoming album, and also including one song not featured anywhere – such a divine performance from Natalie on vox, Max on guitar, sticks man Finn and Lucy on keys. So the stage is set for the headliners, you can read their gig review here.
Frontman “Steve Gullick” performs to the crowd by facing the stage to be able to read and capture the magic between fellow musicians not to be rude to the crowd – but this is just the way things are done!
He may be known to many as the prominent photographer and creative who worked for UK music magazine “Melody Maker” and photographed a large slice of the Grunge movement, from Nirvana, the Breeders, Mudhoney et al, but tonight his prowess was encarnate with his Guitar as a weapon of choice, switching between footpedals the band take the lead between various instruments for a hearty perfomance, towards the end of their show Drift front woman Natalie picks up Steve’s guitar and she guests on several songs with Steev pouring his heart, soul and energy in to the vocals with interations with other band members the show finally meets with cries of one more song Steve points to his watch – strict curfew sorry.
A brilliant evenings music to cool down frrom the relentless temps.
