London Irish Showcase Luminaire March 2010

Jay Mistry dug deep in to his pockets and managed to get another great night together in his London Irish Showcase series, this time at Luminaire in Kilburn, North London. Thanks Jay, good to meet and a great night.

London Irish Showcase

London Irish Showcase

Three bands took to the stage, first up Kyle John Suckling, followed by A Plastic Rose with the night rounded off by Reader’s Wives.

To be fair to the other bands, I had come down to Kilburn to catch up with the guys from Reader’s Wives and spent much of my time talking to Disko, we both share a nicotine addiction, which meant not really being in the venue too much.

But I did catch the sounds emanating from Kyle John Suckling, but didn’t get a chance to catch up with him. The acoustic guitar and soul searching lyric were well received in the venue it would be good to get to hear more.

Kyle John Suckling

Kyle John Suckling

A Plastic Rose, I did get a chance to catch a few of their songs and even meet up with them afterwards briefly, are on the verge of releasing a single. They gave me a copy to listen to and I enjoyed the one track CD, Kids Don’t Behave Like This to the extent that I played it continually through to a good way up the Barnet Bypass from Kilburn High Road, thats quite a few times in non-geographic terms. I’ll be getting a review of these guys from Belfast up soon.

A Plastic Rose

A Plastic Rose

Reader’s Wives, well I could say the set was great and I enjoyed the music, but you know I am going to write that anyway, so what else did I find out?

Reader's Wives live @ Peter Parker’s Rock & Roll Club by Daniel D'Souza

Reader's Wives live @ Peter Parker’s Rock & Roll Club by Daniel D'Souza

They dragged themselves out of bed for an early morning flight to London and with Chris heading off to Berlin after the show and Doug and Niall heading back on the 06:00 flight back to Dublin you wouldn’t have had any idea as they took to the stage. Since I saw them late last year, they have become an even tighter outfit and even more natural on stage, making them a superb act to see live. I’m pleased to say I wasn’t the only one singing along to Sexually Attracted to Myself last night, as Niall insisted we all get involved, if only they had given out hand mirrors as we arrived…

In a nice touch, and these really are welcoming guys, it isn’t just a PR stunt, Niall had created a brief reprise to mark the death of Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse), this personal moment wasn’t extravagant and seemed perfectly in tune with the evening.

The ten piece set was played to a mainly new audience, who immediately took to the humour and output from the guys.

Chris continues to confound as the lead guitarist, who manages to appear to play two distinct roles at once, both lead and supporting rhythm to Nialls rhythm guitar. Doug managed to find some space in the set, to unleash his powerful drumming ability. Disko sprang to life on stage as the heavy bass rumbled throughout the evening.

With two songs to go, the audience were ushered closer to the stage, upon which Reader’s Wives in the seemingly innocent step of ‘now we’ll go acoustic’ immediately racked up the tempo and the final song You Must Have Been Crazy was met with demands for an encore.

It was a great round up to the whole evening and when they come back to London in May, it would be a good move to get to see them.

With their soon to be released EP, Victor’s Mother, Juliet marking the transition of the band from Nialls previous material, their album, which is taking shape and due out for release late summer, it should be a good year for the band. An old contact from Disko, Ger McDonnell, is engineering the release, I am looking forward to hearing what they have come up with.

Having been moved out of their old home in Dublin, Disko is moving to London and Chris is now dividing his time between Germany and Ireland. I didn’t check if Doug and Niall have a new home, but they did have on clean shirts, so I guess all is well. I expect as a result the Reader’s Wives trail will quickly start to extend over a broader base, than the home town of Dublin and the odd sojourn to London.

I had the delight of watching a couple of video interviews after the gig and those Balcony.tv clips really are as they seem. On the interview couch it is easy to see why these guys get on so well, making life for an interviewer a little complex to say the least. I hope the two interviews they carried out get released, it was particularly unsettling for the second interview team, from SeeSound to find JackO from Krakatoa take Chris’s place and answer the final interview question.

By comparison, my life is a breeze, I just turn up, have a few cigarettes and watch some great bands, then get home to recapture what I saw.

More information on Jay’s London Irish Showcase events

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Comments

2 Responses to “London Irish Showcase Luminaire March 2010”
  1. Shaunick says:

    Wasn’t able to make it, but a review that means I couldn’t almost fool people in think that I was. We can tell you enjoyed yourself, and that being in your shoes would have been a good night out.
    Good job Tim.
    Congrats to my Uncle Jay as well.

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