A bit of a rush back from Oxford,

After last weeks gargantuan ramble I am returned to shorter reviews with just a few (fairly) well choosen words.

Plakka's Balloon Pop @ the Black Horse
I thought I was going to have a difficult choice between seeing Plakka's third Balloon Pop experience and Plakka's ex-drummer Severine Deveraux but fortunately Kilinker North at the Sailsbury starts late and we were abe to rush between the the two ( I had planned ahead here and gone in the car). This week Plakka are short of Spanna and Kez (guitar and trumpet) who are enjoying the mud at Glastonbury. They are lucky to have a guest guitarist but still have a vacancy for a drummer. Each of the evenings has been different and enjoyable.
support this week was from Paul Mosley who did a nice set.

The Klinker
Rushing to Green lanes  (just round the corner really) and the Sailsbury Hotel, we arrived to find Hugh and friends improvising. Hugh seemed to be particularly manic and did quite a lot of drumming and a bit of guitar. Didn't see much violin tonight. The highlight (literally) of the performance was when he pooured lighter fuel over a symbol and set fire to it.

We had rushed here to see Severine Deveraux. It was after midnight by they played, and they did well to follow Hugh's antics. I enjoyed them more than the previous occasion. I think that means I've seen their 2nd and 3rd public performances so its good to see progression. Songs were quite catchy, at first I thought one was a cover as it seemed so familiar, then I realised that it sounded familiar because I'd heard it in their myspace page a couple of times; so thats catchy.

2nd week of a months residency. Last minute support from Dr Sick who played 3 well received songs with a dark feel. This nicely complemented the bright and breezy set from Plakka. This week's line-up was only missing Claude the keyboardist (although there is still a drummer vacancy). A much tighter set this week than last, whilst retaining the fun. All in all a very pleasant night where I was even closer to missing the last tube than on wednesday.

First night of a 4 week residency for Plakka and friends (I think at least one of the weeks the friends may outnumber Plakka). Tonight the friends are Plakka's ex-drummer who has hung up her sticks and started a psychdelic surf band "Severine Deveraux" (also featuring sometime Plakka stand-in bassist Joe). This is only their second gig, and the first was on Tuesday, so its no surprise that their performance is a little rough at the edges. Seems like plenty of potential though.

My first visit to the new klinker.

Sunday night in Stoke Newington. George the drummer left for Australia on Saturday. Claude the keyboardist is leaving on Monday morning.

Superb Performance from the Plakka members, minus George who had been temporarily replaced by Drum Machine Ryan, who played wonderfully but somehow not very drum machine like.

The theme of that evening was "green" and they all made an effort to wear some green, even Jimmy who had some green in his guitar strap. Ryan didn't know about teh green so went for blue jeans instead.

It was a wonderful evening, both Voltane (who was a little tipsy) and Swan made it in time, Voltane who kept meing chased by this strange hippy chick who kept singing at him and repeating the same things, wanting him to come to some dodgy party somewhere.

THe PLakka performance was good, there was no Auto Disco , nor in disguise, but there was new song 89 which is a new cool song with many backing vocals!

We cannot remember if anything buggered up that evening but Kezza had a new superb microphone handset for her trumpet which means she could nearly go to the bar, whilst playing,a nd get some drinks, vbery exciting. Unfortunately she still needs both hands to play with so could not carry the glasses back.

Plakka will be back together at teh beginning of March, we have heard that BK13 has transformed himself into a snowman and George has got lost in the Ocean Bishes of the East Coast of Australia.

The KEyboard player Green Drummers is being chased by Alan, previous keyboard player, to chop off some fingers, so it was said. No trace of any Alan around here though, maybe it s fortunate. Or there would be no more blogs.

O-F

Our first gig of 2007 (and Plakka's)

Spanna's works christmas party !

We arrived at 6 for the Plakka soundcheck.

After Dinner ina Brazilian restaurant in Upper Street we were back to see all 8 bands (although we did miss the beginning of Reality Cheques).

An excellent evening of entertaining bands promoted by Club MGriff.

With Maxfield, Mama Shamone and of course Plakka, being outstanding. We shall see them all again.

Pic of Mama Shamone

A great gig of comeback for Plakka in their local , the ryans in Stoke Newington.
The set was energetic and got some people dancing, and PLakka were delightful as always!