Kunsthaus Tacheles Art House in Berlin to be Demolished

To view my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.com/, click here

‘Tacheles’ – Yiddish for “straight talking” has been an art house and a nightclub since the Berlin wall came down in Spring 1990.  Originally built as a department store in the Jewish part of former East Berlin in Mitte, then subsequently used as a Nazi prison, the future of this cultural paradise is under threat.

Demolition took down parts of the building including the dome and movie theater in 1980, but the rest was saved last minute by an arts group named Künstlerinitative Tacheles. The initiative occupied the building and demanded it was saved as a historic landmark, which was later certified as the structure was still in tact.

As much of the exterior was damaged in WWII, there are huge colourful graffiti-style murals covering almost every space. The inside of Tacheles was used to house the artists and their work, until in 1991 when the housing association was burnt down. Inside now features sculptures and paintings from artists all over the world from Argentina, Britain, Japan, America and many from Germany itself.

Now, the future of Tacheles is unknown because the group that stood in the way of developers may have finally backed down. Tourists are banished from using cameras inside the building; art fans need to move fast. With a hop, skip and a jump over to Berlin, you’ll be there in a flash experiencing the best of Berlin art and culture under one roof. Be sure to sign the petition situated on the top floor to save this special place, but don’t leave it too long.

To join the group Save the Tacheles, go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63977795383
or check out the I Support Tacheles blog at http://isupporttacheles.blogspot.com/

Record Store Day: Brownswood Pop Up Record Store at the C.A.M.P, Old Street

To see my online copy on the London Evening Standard Blog, click here

With a generation of young people who have access to free (and largely illegal) music downloads, it is more obvious than ever how important record stores are in the lives of the music fanatics.

They have different purposes: from kids placing adverts asking for fellow band mates, to being a place where you can listen to records you’re just not too sure about and providing space in which everyone can hang out peacefully knowing the common interest is music. This is what downloading and online shopping can never compete with. Record stores are a physical experience for all in which everything is new and discovering your next musical love is just around the corner.

In celebration of Record Store Day, Old Street was hosting the Brownswood pop-up record store. It was bustling with people drinking, chatting, flicking through vinyl and generally soaking up the atmosphere. Hosted by Gilles Peterson, it felt like a fun and friendly venue with people coming together to celebrate their true love of music.

Following live performances from acts such as RocketNumberNine, Obenewa Orsii and Eliphino was the vinyl auction. Donations were given by people such as Thom York, Zane Lowe and Jamie Cullum with one-off records up for sale. After serious vinyl fans waved their hands in the air paying up to £135 per record, there was a full set from Jesse Hackett (from Owiny Sigoma Band) and spectacular grooves from bPm on DJ duties.

All the proceeds from this pop-up event will go to the Steve Reid Foundation which was set up by Gilles Peterson in 2010. Reid died from throat cancer without having enough money to buy treatment to save his life. He had played with James Brown, Miles Davis and Fela Kuti through to his own Steve Reid Trio as well as Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). Proceeds of this charity will go to other struggling musicians in need of help and support, through the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

It was a great day to see music fanatics out in force especially after seeing the New York Times reporting a 20% fall in CD sales in 2010. It was a great opportunity to watch those crazy vinyl fans searching for that one-off record and attend free gigs hosting new artists so everyone could come together and support the indie record stores fighting for survival. Here’s hoping this magical yearly tradition continues before digital technology takes over forever!

Review of Lykke Li at Shepherd's Bush Empire (14th April)

To find my online copy at http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here

After first seeing Lykke Li performing her debut album Youth Novels more than 3 years ago in a tiny Liverpool venue, I have been following the career of the dreamy Swedish singer-songwriter. Since releasing her second album, Wounded Rhymes, she has gained more media coverage and an increasingly bigger fanbase – expanding it wider after writing and recording the song ‘Possibility’ for the second Twilight film New Moon.

Since 2008, Lykke has worked with Swedish musician Kleerup, the amazing Miike Snow and electronic duo Royskopp, as well as covering the famous Kings of Leon track, ‘Knocked Up’. This appears to have developed her talents as her second album has a sophisticated sound with beautifully creative lyrics compared to the somewhat young love torn Lykke displayed in her debut.

A mix of age groups filled the sold out gig at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, but initially all was calm whilst watching support act Sarah Blasko. The Australian singer performed in a stripped back set with just a guitarist, but it didn’t appear enough to hold the crowd’s attention as many songs sounded repetitive, despite Blasko’s amazing vocal range.

In preparation for Li’s entrance, we moved onto the main floor and the crowd bumped together in anticipation as theatrical black drapes, smoke and spotlights filled the stage.

Li’s set started with a new track ‘Jerome’, but included songs from both albums as well as ‘Velvet’, a Big Pink cover. She mixed in old tunes such as the amazing ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’, ‘I’m Good, I’m Gone’ and ‘Little Bit’. Unfortunately, the crowd were embarrassingly reserved even when she sung new tracks such as the magical ‘I Follow Rivers’ and ‘Rich Kid Blues’, which developed into a fast upbeat number as Li playing percussion with a backdrop of intense strobe lighting.

Li herself congratulated the crowd for their reaction to her encore “although you are a bit late” when she came back with ‘Youth Knows No Pain’ and ‘Unrequited Love’. Despite the slightly dull crowd, Li showed off her powerful and unique voice along with amazing moves to a packed out venue and it was a spectacular set leaving us wanting more.

Lykke Li is back in the UK, playing Latitude Festival, Glastonbury and is back in London on 1^st November so get your tickets now!

http://www.myspace.com/sarahblasko.

http://www.myspace.com/lykkeli/music.

Those Dancing Days to play XOYO

To view my online copy at http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here

Sweeping in from Sweden, Those Dancing Days are a five piece girl band who started playing clubs in Stockholm in 2007. They are now signed with indie London label Wichita Recordings, who boast other amazing acts such as the Cribs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Bloc Party – as well as new bands like Frankie and the Heartstrings and Peggy Sue. They have toured around the world in countries like Brazil, China to Russia as well as the US and they are now promoting their second album, Daydreams and Nightmares which is a rare soul voiced pop rock combination and after having just finished supporting Belle & Sebastian on tour, they are now about to play a one off London date at Shoreditch’s XOYO on the 11th May.

The band is perhaps destined to capture a younger audience but from watching live performances online, they will most certainly put on one hell of a gig. They are the sort of band that may not blow you away immediately, but with heartbroken song lyrics, pop guitar riffs, frequent synth action, fast rock beats and a beautiful soul voice, they are definitely a great feel good pop band.

Tickets for the show are available here at £9 each.

Preview of Artwank at The Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury (20th April)

To view my online copy at http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here

As this event is described as “Vintage porn, sex lectures and erotic performance”, I am strangely intrigued to find out what Artwank is all about. This event was curated and will be hosted by the never ending talent that is Ophelia Bitz who holds a cabaret residency at Soho’s Madame Jojo’s every week.

Artwank will provide an erotically charged fun filled evening, with slapstick comedy and singalongs, to a guest lecture on “An Increasingly Brief History of the Muff”, as well as a performance by an international exotic performer Luna Rosa. It will definitely be an evening with a difference and one I may never forget!

If you’d like to come along to Artwank, which is reasonable priced between £6-£10 you can find tickets at http://www.artwank.co.uk/, it takes place on 20^th April at 8pm sharp at The Horse Hospital, Bloomsbury. If you’d like more information on Ophelia Bitz (Ringmistress, cabaret performer, artist and writer), then go to http://www.opheliabitz.com/.

"Ms. Bitz’s crafty repertoire of obscure gems is a tantalizing fix of iconoclastic irreverence, guaranteed to tickle even the most jaded sensibilities into riotous laughter."  - The Erotic Review

"Brilliantly twisted...Divine" - The Guardian

Review of Print Club Exhibition, Brick Lane (7th April)

To find my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here

Last night, the Print Shop in the East Gallery on Bricklane held an exhibition featuring artist Marina de Stacpoole and print company Rarekind London. After grabbing a chilled San Miguel, I wandered through Stacpoole’s work in the main room. Her work is a mixture of landscapes created by digital prints with enamel paint applied to the top surface which hardens the overall image. The prints appear as bright, warm and glossy but the message from the artist is within these surface objects which seem like temporary figures passing through the landscape. As art expert, Caroline Hick, noted, Stacpoole refers to our popular culture and our current political state in the UK such as “cuts, tax-dodging, arms-dealing and other corporate shenanigans”, through objects such as soldiers, sign posts and pictures of TV shows.

In the basement, Rarekind London showed a variety of work from 11 artists based around print, illustrations and graffiti work. The theme was ‘London’ throughout and this generated a proud and bold vision of the city. Prints were also littered with cultural references, the first being a literary quote “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of Life” taken from the 18^th century English author, Samuel Johnson. Another print by Tim Godwin symbolised the power of words within an tree image using scattered speech marks and branches intertwined with quotes by famous male figures such Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, Spike Milligan and Arthur Morrison. The quote that stood out was written by George Orwell, “As I write highly civilised human beings are flying overhead trying to kill me” – this is taken from the introductory sentence of Orwell’s essay written in 1941 called “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius” spoken in regards to WWII. The prints from artists exhibiting through Rarekind London were current and insightful with modern images and a positive outlook – and this was much needed relief following Stacpoole’s harsh and intense work. It also represented the pride of artists working in London and how reflective they are on what has already been created whether it from British literature, art, music or culture.

For more information on artists from Rarekind London, go to http://rarekindlondon.com/cat/agency/ but if you’d like to see the prints photographed here, contact David@rarekindlondon.com.

Soul is coming back, Aloe Blacc is here

To find my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here

After many agonising hours listening to awful American R’n’B tracks constantly played on the radio, I can now breath easy as Aloe Blacc is here. He is a possible soundtrack to our summer; Blacc’s approach to American soul is refreshing and much needed in a music scene full of pop guitar bands and sleazy urban beats.

This Los Angeles based singer is already well known in the US with his most famous song, ‘I need a Dollar’, being the theme tune to the show, ‘How to Make it in America’. This song has been noted to be an anthem of financial strife which is obviously resonating heavily both in the US and in Britain. The lyrics highlight desperate times with lines such as “I don’t know if I’m walking on solid ground coz everything around me is falling down” and “I had a job but the boss man let me go, he said, I’m sorry but I won’t be needing your help no more”.

His music is sung from personal experience after losing his job as an analyst at a global company, but being raised in a family that he describes as having “absorbed enough pain and poverty for three generations so that I could be raised middle-class”. He continues to hold his own in other new tracks such as ‘You make me Smile’ and ‘Loving You is Killing Me’, in which the video features 4 year old Baby Boogaloo (real name Miles Brown), an amazing break dancer from the duo Future Funk who were discovered on the TV show, ‘America’s Got Talent’.

Blacc’s vocals also feature on label buddy Medaphoar’s (MED) track ‘Where you from’. They are both signed with Stones Throw records, a label that boasts other great American acts such as Madlib and Dudley Perkins. Whilst searching Blacc’s music online, you will find his slow bluesy version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ and other live tracks from his second album ‘Good Things’.

Aloe Blacc will be playing half of Europe before his 6 dates in the UK, including a show at Scala, London on the 1^st May and Somerset House on 10^th July. To find out more about this rising star, go to his website.

Review of Bethnal Green Working Men's Club - Japanese Fundraiser 26th March 2011

To find my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here

One night at Bethnal Green Working Men’s club and you’ll wonder why you’ve never been before. With a mixture of polite bodyguards and all sorts of folk, there’s a friendly and fun atmosphere as soon as you pay up on the door.

We joined the Japanese fundraiser in the main room where an interesting and not all in tune band played their favourite list of rock songs. A confused looking transvestite donned the middle of the stage, eyeing up the male counterparts in the audience and appeared like a curious character throughout the set.

My gang then wandered downstairs to discover a small room packed out with people dancing their hearts out to Michael Jackson tunes – his videos were played on a projector and everyone was at least 5 steps behind but it was amazing fun copying the King of Pop!

Running back upstairs, we walked into a strange bondage act – I say strange but what I really mean is uncomfortable, with most people confused as to why a middle-aged man was tying rope around a woman with her chest hanging out, and then eventually tying it around her neck. Most of the audience had the same bemused look as me until I looked at a few men taking photos frantically. Light relief was needed and we moved to the top floor to play table tennis, before coming back to dance to random Japanese and rockabilly tunes.

This was definitely an intriguing evening and I’d visit again…but less of the bondage next time!

Later with Jools Holland...

Last night I visited the BBC studios to watch the first episode of the new series of Later with Jools Holland. After researching the bands which were to perform, I got more excited stepping into a space in which so many programmes I had watched over the past 10 years had been created. I had discovered many artists from this one of a kind music show and felt intrigued to discover how it came together.

We were guided into an area between Beady Eye (yes, Liam Gallagher still looks like just another lad from North West England) and Raphael Saddiq (amazing new motown singer). I enjoyed the two hour music set from the above bands as well as from Elbow and Anna Calvi, but it was a lot less like a gig than I first imagined. We were completely distracted by runners, camera men and producers moving around in a frenzied manner so it is almost impossible to get swept up in the song - even with Elbow's spectacular Halle Youth Choir, I was sneaking a peak at Nicole Appleton sitting behind me!

It was a great experience to witness such well known musicians perform in the same room but I almost can't bear to admit that some of the show's magic was lost, and perhaps all I really wanted to see was Jools' playing boogie woogie tunes. Back to my comfy armchair it is...

To check out Elbow's new song, 'Open Arms', click here and to check out Anna Calvi's song, 'Blackout', click here

I cannot stop listening, watching, googling and obsessing about...Lykke Li!

I am very excited to launch my blog and I have to start this by ranting of my love for Lykke Li and her new album 'Wounded Rhymes'. After being obsessed with her first album ('Youth Novels') I was unsure whether she could hit back with equal measure. But her talent is highlighted in songs such as 'Get Some', 'Rich Kid Blues' and 'Love Out of Lust'.

The song I have played repetitively since my first listen is 'I Follow Rivers' - the video features the amazingly handsome Swedish Lebanese actor Fares Fares and it captures an intense desperate love which is reflected in the lyrics. To check out this video, click here