It’s not often you stumble across as beautiful a venue as Wilton’s Music Hall.

Tucked away in the east end of London, behind a pub fascia is the oldest surviving music hall in the world.

Half derilict, it’s crumbling state seems to add, not detract, from the warm atmosphere you sense as you enter.

Unfortunately we were too late to see the first support act, but amused ourselves playing table tennis and drinking whisky in the mahogany bar.

Duke Special played with a string quartet – showcasing his new album ‘Under the Darkcloth.’

A masterpiece from start to finish – it has to be one of my favourite gigs of all time.
Duke Specials honesty and originality bleed through his music and the broken state of many of the subjects addressed in the songs are only exemplified by the surrounding venue.

I’d recommend both Duke Special and Wilton’s to absolutely anyone – the entire evening was fantastic.

A very kind friend offered me a free ticket to go see these teen-boppers and I jumped at the chance.
A free ticket to a gig – of course!

Little did I know we’d be surrounded by DIE-HARD Hanson fans…
The first act played – very cute chat to the audience between songs – but unfortunately the songs were fairly predictable…

Hanson came on to rapturous applause. Or at least I think they did.
I pretty much lost my hearing from the sheer volume of middle-aged women screaming until their lungs collapsed. The audience was comprised almost entirely of females. Myself, my friend and a couple of sombre and sober looking chaps (with screaming girlfriends in tow) provided the only masculinity present in the room.

The band were actually extremely tight – some tracks were near mechanical – but you’d expect it after 15 years of playing some of them.

Overall a pretty good gig – I wouldn’t have chosen to go myself but I’m glad I did.

Unfortunately I’ve been a little bit sloppy and left it over a month since I attended this gig before putting fingers to keyboard. Luckily – it was brilliant and I remember it pretty vividly.

The Kashmir Klub reunion, held at Union Chapel comprised 14 artists (each playing 2 or 3 songs) paying tribute to the Kashmir Klub – an old iconic basement club started by Tony Moore in 1997.

Stand-out acts on the night were Jamie Lawson, Tom Baxter and Earl Okin.
Jamie Lawson appeared particularly shy – didn’t even introduce himself – but played a beautiful song ‘I wasn’t expecting that.’ I certainly wasn’t.
Tom Baxter played several tracks – all fantastic. A real talent to be reckoned with.
Earl Okin played upon his odd looks with a hilarious song ‘My Room.’ A very funny act and a surprisingly talented musician.

Two crowdpleasers also didn’t fail to deliver – The Feeling and Nizlopi.
Both played their most famous tracks, much to the audience’ delight.

Great night.