Day 185
Saturday June 24
We’re just having a casual afternoon wander around the neighbourhood and venturing a little further out, through and beyond the hugely striking Barbican residential area. Then we’re aware something is happening on a busy street and we’re intercepted by a girl with a headset and asked if we wouldn’t mind stopping for a few minutes. We’ve stumbled right onto an open street film set. She says we can’t really go through because, well, it’s summer and we’re wearing shorts and stuff so wouldn’t even blend in as accidental extras. All around us a whole crowd of people is kindly co-operating and the girl now explains what’s happening and we look down the street and see for ourselves. All around, business is going on as usual. But for a stretch of a hundred yards, maybe quite a bit more, the street is scattered with people in full raingear, many carrying umbrellas. Huge cameras are everywhere, including a few on cranes. It takes us a while to realise, but even the ‘traffic’ is extras. Including a red double decker bus and some old style taxis. Across the road we now see a rainmaking machine spraying rain, and there are the actors. Stars Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas. Oh yes. Slow Horses, the unorthodox spy thriller about a bunch of dysfunctional and idiosyncratic spies. That’s the one, says the girl. Yeah. This has also been filmed on a few streets right round our place, then for a few days exactly outside our place. So close that we received a letter at the time saying it was happening. So yeah. Now and again, for the past few weeks we’ve been walking in and around film sets anytime we’ve been nipping out. And now we’ve stumbled across another of their locations, but this time when it’s full-on live. There are the two stars over there and we decide we just have to stay and watch. This is live TV of a whole different level. There’s a large corner bar right at the end of the set with a garden out front. We set ourselves up there and spend the afternoon watching a hit TV show getting made. I must report that this is not the most spectacular of scenes, mostly involving people coming out of buildings and getting into cars while normal everyday action happens all around them. But it really is cool to see this level of production when it’s all going on. So sorry. To cut right to it, we basically spend the afternoon in a pub watching a TV show.
Day 188
Tuesday June 27
We’ve been meaning to go to Troy Bar’s open mic for quite a while. Troy Bar is a huge fixture on the London scene, frequented by a lot of top musicians, many of whom make up the supporting line for major international artists. I used to come to the Friday night jam here all the time. The one that began at 1am. Never been to the open mic and I have really high hopes for it. We’ve really been waiting for this one. We almost played a few weeks ago, then one of Maja’s out of town work colleagues was around so we went out with him instead. Now the night has arrived when we will finally put ourselves out in the famous Troy Bar. We arrive full of anticipation and walk up to the door. Eight quid each says the doorman, almost as though someone just pulled a string out of his back.
‘We’re here to play,’ says Maja. Absolutely no response. ‘We have to pay to play an open mic?’ she asks. The unmoved doorman doesn’t even look at us. Just keeps staring into the distance off to his right, nods and may say yes, or maybe I imagine that bit. I know pay to play happens a lot and we’ve said we won’t do that – which knocks it on the head for us with so many grass roots ‘promoters.’ Yeah, right – but pay for entry to play an open mic? Even at the Troy Bar. No. Just no. That’s really disappointing. As for having what seemed like cast iron plans cast out. I generally find that quite disorienting. All planned for a night out that now isn’t happening. It really can throw me a bit. Well, that makes two of us. What do we do now? It’s Tuesday. Hardly the most hopping of nights even in Shoreditch. We’re mildly discombobulated and stop on the street to think about which direction to go if we’re not to just go straight home. I suggest The Bridge Bar for a bit of a hang. ‘Yes,’ says Maja. Great shout. This is the place where Rico, the bar manager, saw a video of us and flipped. He said he wanted us to play outside, maybe in June when the weather was stable and hot. The weather hasn’t been massively stable so I’ve not been back. But this could be good timing to go and have a bit of a hang there and maybe have a bit of a connect with the place. We get there and it’s closed. OK. What now? What’s now is that we’re just kind of half heartedly in search of somewhere else. We briefly consider The Blues Kitchen. Not much going on. We really do think about it, but we decide the music’s just too loud. So hardly an environment in which you’re going to encounter and chat to interesting strangers, Blues Kitchen or not. OK. Back to the street it is. Might as well just go home. No point dropping into a dead place and propping up the bar during a slow evening just for the sake of it. But it does feel like a shame to be heading back home after such high hopes as we headed out. The Troy Bar. We were going to play the Troy Bar. Oh well.
Walking through the back streets, we suddenly hear live music and see we’ve come across the back window of a venue and can see the back of a girl playing guitar and singing. To a really quite big audience. Oh. What is this? We see a poster on the wall advertising tonight and it’s something called the 52 Song Project. Oh. What’s that all about then? I have heard of it. We see the entrance is round the corner and decide to go check it out. It’s in The Strong Rooms, another venue I’ve been meaning for us to check out. Now we can, and this looks cool. We walk through the front bar and into the music venue space we were round the back of a few minutes ago. It’s standing room only and everyone is fully captivated listening to the current performer. There’s guitar cases everywhere so clearly a lot of people are expecting to play. When the girl has finished, a short Q&A/ feedback session starts. OK. This is different. Then the host comes up and announces the next act. What kind of open mic is this? We make our way to the bar with the intention of catching the host when she has a minute. This proves more difficult than it sounds because there is absolutely no talking while performers are on and this rule is observed with total respect. So we respect it too. In the meantime we just settle back and watch the show. People are getting just one song each, but there’s also that little mini session after each song with questions and feedback welcomed. Damn these guys are good. A very high, consistent standard and all originals. Then we get a chance to introduce ourselves to the host, Kate. She says the roster is very full but she’ll see what she can do. Fair enough. We settle back again and truly, truly, enjoy the show. If we get to be part of it, brilliant. If not, we don’t. Whatever happens, we feel our misfiring night has been rescued.
As the performers come and go, we start to learn what this is all about, and I remember one or two things I’ve heard about it as well. Yes. The 52 Song Project. Or 52SP to give it its actual title. Something songwriter Kate thought up during lockdown in 2020 when she decided to set up a thing to see if she could encourage songwriters to write a song a week for a year. The thing just grew and grew and grew. Now they have all kinds of industry connections and seen members sign record deals, management deals and get some serious radio play. We’ve just managed to stumble into their final event of the year. As it progresses on and we hear people’s stories of what 52SP has meant to them and how much it has inspired them to write and we start to think that maybe we have no place being on that stage tonight. This is their thing. We can’t just turn up and gatecrash the party. The hoping we might play has turned to realising we might not, to kind of hoping that we don’t to really deciding to very respectfully turn down the opportunity should it come. This stage tonight belongs to the people who have made 52SP what it is. To the people who have consistently dedicated themselves to the project, many of them for a few years now as it has emerged from lockdown to become a real force. We continue this sentiment right to the end when Kate graciously invites us onto the stage to take part in the photoshoot for all the members. No thankyou very much. This is a moment for you guys. We’re just happy just to have been here for tonight.
Day 194
Monday July 3
For the past week or so I’ve been quite steadily working in the studio, writing new songs and completing a few that were in the solid idea stage, and then recording a few demos for those songs. There have been some rehearsal sessions too, and I’ve been keeping up with writing in here. All that stops for a while today as the job begins of preparing for the move to Camden which will happen on Saturday. We have a van booked and have also booked the man to help with some of the moving stuff. And Matt has very kindly agreed to help, for which we have offered a good solid night out at some point.
As always with beginning a move, it all feels a bit daunting but this is nothing like the move from Ireland which seemed to take forever to get all packed away. That was also done in stages with all our stuff taken to storage in Dublin over four trips, for pickup and London delivery at a later date. It also included a lot of clearout with charity shop sorting and trips and quite a few rubbish dump trips. This time we’re just getting everything driven straight to the new place. A couple of bigger furniture pieces this time round but apart from that, we’re confident we can have all this ready in a week. OK. Let’s go.
Day 197
Thursday July 6
Out for drinks with Maja’s work colleagues tonight and we get talking to a friend of one of them who’s visiting London from Edinburgh. Maja’s musical adventures have been of more and more interest to her colleagues and the guy we’re talking to now is aware of them. He asks if we’re planning on going to the Edinburgh festival. We weren’t. We haven’t organised anything. He says that a lot of bars are open to music and it would be worth going and trying. He mentions a couple of bars he knows with one that is organising music that might just have a spot or two available. Unlikely, he says, but worth a try.
This conversation lights something up in me and Maja and we start to talk about the possibility of just going and trying our luck. As it happens we’ve been talking recently about possibly going to Scotland for August. Maja would love to see it and of course we’ve been planning on taking our gear and hustling. Why not just try that during the Edinburgh Festival?
If you don’t know, this is considered by many to be one of the most important arts festivals in the world and takes place in venues across the whole city for three weeks in August. And we’re gonna go have a go at it. Absolutely no idea how.
Day 198
Friday July 7
Right. Let’s think about this thing. The two big questions are how to stay and how to play.
How to stay.
There’s no way we’re going to pay for a hotel or hostel, even if one would be available this late in the day. We’re considering camping. I check the official camp site. Fully booked. I check out a few more going further and further away from the city. Conclusion. Some cheap options but just far too far away. One example is about a mile away from its nearest train station. That doesn’t sound fun. Getting into the city. All day whatever we’re doing. Then wait for a train, then a trek back the other end, probably also carrying a speaker and whatever else. For two weeks. Just no. We have a think then Maja suggests we just sleep in the car. We have a Toyota Yaris. Yeah. Let’s do that. Then the supplementary idea. Join a national gym in Camden which will give us access to showers in Scotland. OK. That’s that sorted.
How to play
As in what are we actually going to attempt to do when we get there. We’ve had a think about this now and we’re just going to hustle, and maybe do the hat. So, as we were in Ireland, just with a whole festival kicking off around us. We have come up with some thoughts and ideas of what that might look like, but probably best to get there and see how it goes and write about that rather than try to second guess the thing. What we’re not doing is emailing or calling venues ahead to try to get something organised. We really are coming to the conclusion that, at least as far as we’re concerned, it’s better to put ourselves in front of people and make things happen that way. Besides, if a venue is doing music during the Edinburgh festival I can’t imagine the volume of emails they’re getting or how many prospective acts are asking to play. Our email probably wouldn’t even be seen. So yeah. We’re just going to get on the ground, do our thing and see how it goes. So in conclusion here; how to play? We really don’t know. We’re just going to do it.
Day 199
Saturday July 8
We’re all packed up and ready to go and it’s moving day. The biggest thing to say about all this is what an incredible help Matt is.
He arrives just as we’re getting started to help us carry everything down the stairs in Shoreditch, then once the van is loaded, me and him travel with the driver to the new place and Maja gets the bus. Which means that when we arrive, we’re straight on it carrying everything up to the second floor. For any doubt, that’s ground, first, second.
Yes, this is a really exhausting sweaty job, especially on a July day, although I must say, early on in Shoreditch we got quite heavy rain which, as far as I was concerned at least, was a wonderfully welcome relief at times.
Once we’ve said thankyou and goodbye to the man with the van who did also help – a bit – it’s time for beers with Matt in our brand new kitchen. Well, brand new to us. You know what I mean. Oh Matt, what can we say? Just thankyou very much. And how amazing it is to have this huge job of packing, then stuff out of one apartment and into the other all done. Kinda – see tomorrow.
And we live here now. It’s all just a mess of a jumble right now as you can probably imagine, but the potential of what we can do with this place can already be seen.
Day 200
Sunday July 9
So yesterday wasn’t quite enough. We hire a van today and me and Maja go back on our own and complete the job. The very last thing we get in the new place today is the cake trolley. So, day 200 of The London Diary is the day we complete the move out of Shoreditch and into Camden.
