Fri 26 April
Sat 27 April
Thu 2 May
Sat 4 May
Sun 5 May
Following a great run of Rock ‘N’ Roll Book Club events at the uber iconic Dublin Castle in Camden Town, Bugbear and Julie Hamill are very pleased to bring their literary and musical collaboration to The Union in Soho as part of The Union Sessions. What better environment for an urbane and erudite evening of author interaction, Q and A and book signing with some remarkable writers? Published author and expertly attuned interviewer Julie Hamill will be posing the questions, plus select performances and mindfully fashioned DJ sets. Our second Union Sessions presentation features revered British pop institution, the legends that are Madness, and the 33 1/3rd book of ‘One Step Beyond’.
Author Terry Edwards is the multi instrumentalist renaissance man of head spinning multiple musical machinations, starting in pithy punk funk indie peasants The Higsons back in the early 1980s thru Gallon Drunk, Tony Visconti’s Holy Holy, Madness, PJ Harvey, Lydia Lunch, The Near Jazz Experience, The Scapegoats and really, really tooooo many more to mention! Madness’ classic debut album, arriving fully formed despite half the band still being in their teens, remains as exhilarating, inspiring and as much fun as when people first heard it nearly 40 years ago. Through extensive interviews with the band, as well as producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley, Terry Edwards tells the inside story of how Madness rose to be the most successful singles band of the 1980s in the UK charts. Terry faces the white hot Q and A of our resident scribe Ms Julie Hamill tonight alongside Mark ‘Bedders’ Bedford, bass maestro and sometime songwriter from yer actual Madness with bespoke musical illustrations care of Edders and Bedders themselves and DJ Tony Bugbear. A Madness roots, shoots and fruits set featuring a complete play through and track bytrack analysis of this classic LP..let’s see if we can’t get a Nutty Train going all the way down Greek Street tonite!
Arrive Early To Ensure Catching All 3 Bands. Running Order Decided On The Night! In Conjunction With Undercover. Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons- Our favourite exponents of true Cat Power. The grind and grit of punk rock seen thru feline eyes, those of amazing front woman Puss Johnson, guitar overlord Jake Johnson, and drums dynamo Ant Johnson. It’s as powerful a sound as you could hope for, accompanied by a singularly dynamic performance from Puss upfront (and right in amongst the audience of course). Never fail to hit the button dead on. For fans of The Stooges, The Cramps, Jon Spencer, Sex Pistols, The Kills. Hear an A1 Dirty Johnsons classic alongside other righteous resonant gems as Tony Bugbear joins scifi punk guru Spizz Energi at Resonance FM just there behind that beautiful PCDJs pic above. (‘Spizz FM’. An on-going audio autobiography from the punk and post-punk legend that is Spizz.) [more] Also tonite we present The Witchdoktors. ‘Kicking the world’s ass one day at a time’. Ramones, Clash, Pistols, Damned influences plus plenty of trashy rock’n’roll-a-billy, and a dash of 60s Psyche-Out Garage, even a little jaundiced country. So, great stuff for punks and teds alike. And East Town Pirates. Formed in smugglers dens along the East Suffolk coastline, the East Town Pirates made their way through the punk dives and back bars of ye Olde Ipswich Towne. Armed to the teeth with infectious tunes, they sharpened their hooks in raids on taverns and alehouses around East Anglia before taking their explosive live show on the road and laying waste to the rest of England, Ireland and France. ‘Motorhead meets The Pogues’. Hell yeah.
