Good Shoes Live at the Mean Fiddler

Thursday 29th March

doors 7pm

£10 advance


“I don’t think before I speak, I break your heart
I think I could do better, so so so so arrogant”

Three stunning singles and 12 months of relentless touring in the UK and Europe brings Good Shoes – singer Rhys, guitarist Steve, bass player Joel and the drummer Tom – to the release of The Photos On My Wall.

The first fruits of the Swedish album sessions with producers Tore Johansen (Franz Ferdinand) and Per Sunding (The Cardigans), the track marks a subtle shift from the impressively manic and hook laden past singles All In My Head and We Are Not The Same into even more assured territory. Rhys’ voice lilts endearingly from arrogance to insecurity, the unique songwriting coming into its own as the band bring the pace down a notch and find a new home in classic British guitar pop but yet retain their raw, spiky juvenile spirit. Think The Cure rather than Futureheads and you arrive at something close to what the Morden foursome have conjured.

The b-sides arrive in the form of gloriously off-kilter Beautiful with its intricate geetar and drums, and the rather more moodily-titled Deathfame.

Melody Club @ Monto Water Rats Theatre

If this is the first thing you ever read about Melody Club or if you are dedicated fan it matters not, Im still going to tell you about a band that blew me away the very first time I saw them. It was at a crummy club in London. I could not believe my eyes when lead singer Kristofer walked out on stage in a small plastic jacket, the tightest jeans I ever saw, topped off with a Johnny Thunders haircut. The pounding drums and screaming guitars delivered the best pop songs written this century!! After the show, sweat was dripping from the ceiling. Weak at the knees I stumbled up to the band and they told me their story

Melody Club grew up in a small town in Sweden and met in school. Singer Kristofer was living in the rehearsal room with no kitchen, no toilet, no heating. This was where he wrote many of the songs for their first album on a 3-string acoustic guitar. The boredom of the small town drove them away to the capital city of Stockholm. They took odd jobs spent the rest of the time making new songs and recording demos. The band was offered a record deal in 2002.

Melody Club hit like a freight-train in Sweden with their debut single Palace Station. The tune has a distinctive frenetic pounding drum-beat, pumping bass line and a simple but powerful synth theme. This song became the breaking though Melody Clubs needed. This single was followed by the gold selling debut album Music Machine and a never-ending European tour.

After several successful tours in England things started to happen and the NME deemed the band Abba with balls. 200 gigs later it was time to go back into the studio, this time in Copenhagen. From this came the second album Face The Music, supported by a 150 gig European tour. It is songs from these two albums that have come together to make the new hybrid album At You Service.

Melody Club will enslave you with a blend of disco, punk and new wave mayhem. The tunes will make your head rotate with pleasure. Melody Club took the best pop music you ever heard, rammed it into their power blender and poured it into my ears.

The Pit Bar

Discover The Pit Bar below The Old Vic - a favourite with theatre-goers and neighbourhood foodies. The restaurant is open Monday to Saturday, 12 noon-7.30pm on performance days; whilst the popular bar is open until 1am Monday to Wednesday, and to 2am Thursday to Saturday. For restaurant reservations phone 020 7928 2975. Click here for the latest menu.

The Old Vic
The Cut
London SE1 8NB

"Participate" @ The Sassoon Gallery

The initial idea, which generated the event entitled Participate works with the notion of engagement within the arts and society. The event aims to provide an atmosphere encouraging people to get involved with their natural creativity.
Itself an experiment, the evening will explore the balance between creating a free community collaborative arts experience and operating without imposing boundaries.
On the night The Sassoon Gallery will be transformed into an environment consisting of a variety of different sensory installations. The stations will draw on, sounds, movement, visuals and people. These platforms will be stations employing creative techniques inviting people by having visual, auditory and kinaesthetic elements. Eye-catching and playing on a variety of sensory spectrums the gallery space will be an interactive hub.

Participate aims to create an environment that encourages participatory creativity, we are using installations that:
• are eye catching and inviting to play with,
• connect to most people by having visual, auditory and kinaesthetic elements,
• employ creative techniques that have a well defined input and a beautiful output,
• encourage group interactions, allowing people's expressions to remain anonymous

In addition there will be assistants on hand to talk, explain and encourage the use of the installations.

Participate is happening for the first time at 6pm, Friday the 16th March, at the Sassoon Gallery. Photos, videos, sound clips and finished art will be kept and displayed on the website. We will build a body of participatory artwork and invite others to interpret it.

We are looking for more people to help define what exactly Participate will become.

For more information, there is a supporting website at
http://mattvenn.net/participate

Momentary Momentum @ Parasol Unit

Hoxton-based contemporary-art space Parasol Unit presents this look at animation, exploring the impact of motion and movement on drawings and paintings with installations and video loops by 21 artists from across the globe. Works on show range from the colourful psychedelic stylings of French collective Qubo Gas and the charcoal sketches of South African artist William Kentridge to the wonderful musings of Glasgow-based illustrator David Shrigley — whose quirky, skewed visions of the trials of modern life are recognisable from many a greeting card.


MOMENTARY MOMENTUM: an exhibition devoted to animated drawings, comprising a dozen installations and a film loop with the participation of Francis Alÿs, Robert Breer, Paul Bush / Lisa Milroy, Michael Dudok de Wit, Brent Green, Takashi Ishida, Susanne Jirkuff, William Kentridge, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Jochen Kuhn, Zilla Leutenegger, Arthur de Pins, Qubo Gas, Christine Rebet, Robin Rhode, Georges Schwizgebel, David Shrigley, Tabaimo, Naoyuki Tsuji & Kara Walker

MOMENTART MOMENTUM: ANIMATED DRAWINGS has been co-curated by Ziba de Weck Ardalan and Laurence Dreyfus

Watercouleur Park, 2007, by French artists group Qubo Gas, is the 11th commission by Tate for its Web Art Programme.