The Great Indoor Experience: RTYD at The Libertine

Last night, it was RTYD's first 'electric' gig night at The Libertine.

The last gig I put on there in September was an afternoon acoustic show, which had been quite successful, but this was the first 'evening' and 'electric' show I had put on. The fact that there was only two bands on the bill, meant that tonight I was just a little concerned about attendance. I naturally wanted to impress the venue staff with a decent turnout. The reason for the two band bill was the early live music curfew at 10pm, and this only added to my worry. I must stop worrying about stuff.

I thought sound check would be a piece of cake but the late arrival of the drum kit held the whole thing up. This, and afore mentioned 'concerns', turned my mouth dry and my bowels somewhat loose, so I had to have a couple of beers to calm myself. I should have known better though, because soundcheck, as usual, caught up with itself and by 8:15 when the first band, Milk Roar, was due to go onstage, everything was in place.

Milk Roar's frontman Andy Clarke, alias 'Ming The Mong', virtually walked straight into the pub and onto stage with his newspaper still in his hand. He even took a break early in the set, and mid-song, to visit the bar for the first time, in order to wet his whistle. He made full use of his limited space at the front of the stage, at times even wandering off stage to stand before his band, who played heads down in support of his tirades of gripes and grievances, delivered in a Hugh Cornwell-reading-from-the-Sun-newspaper, spoken-singing voice.

The Great Outdoor Experience arrived with a light show and a couple of boxes filled with copies of their brand new EP, which mid-gig they asked me to hand out to those assembled, who (mostly) seemed very grateful. The band were on top form last night, Phil Ram building up his customary sweat and throwing all sorts of rock-postures, shapes and moves, and capitalising on the pub-floor before him, running out on to it as if onto a walkway into the crowd at Wembley Stadium. Great showmanship, from the former-Vibrator, who always includes a version of the song he-co wrote for the punk band as a member in 1980, Disco in Moscow.

Come ten o'clock, and on a roll, the curfew was overlooked for a couple of Great Outdoor Experience encores and dancing ensued, courtesy of one avid fan, anyway.

My other self-imposed duty was to be DJ for the remainder of the night. This gave me time to reflect, if not entirely relax. Feedback was positive from those that approached me, and there were even enquiries about further events, as well as a few additions to the mailing list. I think the venue manager and the bands were all pleased with how things went.

It was nice to see RTYD members, Tox from 14 Carat Grapefruit, John Rigby and Claire Gamble of Easy/Medium/Hard there, as well as Andy from Probing Cranks, who came out to support his mates Milk Roar.

The next 'electric' gig at The Libertine is on Saturday 7th November, and features performances from South London bands, the Trick Noise Makers and Spirit of Play. Yours truly will also once again be DJ-ing.