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ventaSo, on Saturday night I put on my best spotty dress and went out...
I can't decide whether "Rock 'n' Bowl" is a great name for a club night at a bowling alley, or the worst name ever. Yes, I did say a club night at a bowling alley.
In my experience, bowling alleys are horrendous, plastic-y barns of places with about as much atmosphere as a washing-up bowl. Bloomsbury Lanes is a small, cute, kitschy bowling alley with American leanings. It has a bar, and a diner, and a littering of pool and table football tables. And spinny-round fake leather chairs near a window so you can watch people throwing balls up alleys at skittles.
I like it. For Rock 'n' Bowl they go all-out 50s and 60s, with DJs playing from vinyl 7"s. It becomes the sort of place where you might see a bloke in a woolly tank top windmilling his arms to celebrate a strike. And girls in spotty dresses. Lots of 'em. If you've secretly got a T-Bird jacket in your wardrobe, wear it; you won't be the only one.
Anyway, the reason I was there was because last Saturday's live band was The Long Insiders, an Oxford band so wilfully obscure that they don't even have a proper website. They've got a page on bloodyAwfulMySpace; if a choice of four songs alarm you, then listen to Devil In Me or Liar (depending on whether you're a bigger fan of bouncy rock'n'roll or dark broodiness, respectively). Their mySpace page used to describe them as trying to "create music for spies visiting a David Lynch film set to see PJ Harvey and Nick Cave duet" but disappointingly doesn't any more. Which is a shame, because that's rather what they sound like.
They're really very good. And they have two singers, which is always a winner in my book. The female singer is always fabulously elegant in a rather 40s sort of way, and sounds like she should be singing with a cocktail in her hand (and indeed, on Saturday night, she was).
So, because of late I've had to learn how to present things to management, I shall conclude with the take-home points from this entry:
* Bloomsbury Lanes is a nice place to go bowling in London
* Rock 'n' Bowl is quite a fun night out (for £5)
* Everyone should go and listen to The Long Insiders, because they're bloody marvellous
I can't decide whether "Rock 'n' Bowl" is a great name for a club night at a bowling alley, or the worst name ever. Yes, I did say a club night at a bowling alley.
In my experience, bowling alleys are horrendous, plastic-y barns of places with about as much atmosphere as a washing-up bowl. Bloomsbury Lanes is a small, cute, kitschy bowling alley with American leanings. It has a bar, and a diner, and a littering of pool and table football tables. And spinny-round fake leather chairs near a window so you can watch people throwing balls up alleys at skittles.
I like it. For Rock 'n' Bowl they go all-out 50s and 60s, with DJs playing from vinyl 7"s. It becomes the sort of place where you might see a bloke in a woolly tank top windmilling his arms to celebrate a strike. And girls in spotty dresses. Lots of 'em. If you've secretly got a T-Bird jacket in your wardrobe, wear it; you won't be the only one.
Anyway, the reason I was there was because last Saturday's live band was The Long Insiders, an Oxford band so wilfully obscure that they don't even have a proper website. They've got a page on bloodyAwfulMySpace; if a choice of four songs alarm you, then listen to Devil In Me or Liar (depending on whether you're a bigger fan of bouncy rock'n'roll or dark broodiness, respectively). Their mySpace page used to describe them as trying to "create music for spies visiting a David Lynch film set to see PJ Harvey and Nick Cave duet" but disappointingly doesn't any more. Which is a shame, because that's rather what they sound like.
They're really very good. And they have two singers, which is always a winner in my book. The female singer is always fabulously elegant in a rather 40s sort of way, and sounds like she should be singing with a cocktail in her hand (and indeed, on Saturday night, she was).
So, because of late I've had to learn how to present things to management, I shall conclude with the take-home points from this entry:
* Bloomsbury Lanes is a nice place to go bowling in London
* Rock 'n' Bowl is quite a fun night out (for £5)
* Everyone should go and listen to The Long Insiders, because they're bloody marvellous
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 02:04 pm (UTC)But hadn't changed since ChrisC was there a couple of years ago.
Strange things are afoot. Or, of course, I'm an idiot with the spatial awareness of a gnat.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 01:54 pm (UTC)(Although that's lent an amount of punk-rock cred by being in Chicago. I imagine there are people in IL for whom the 'cheap sweaty fun' nights at Newport TJs are things of impossible glamour.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 02:10 pm (UTC)My vague point is that I was in Chicago that fortnight and went to a few of those gigs. Although not Ministry because I had a cold. Looking back I wish I'd gone to, oh, about a dozen others, too.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 02:50 pm (UTC)(mmm, Lynchian.)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 05:22 pm (UTC)I had the opportunity to go there recently when a friend got her PhD funding - but instead became part of the advance party to the post-game pub (and had cold champers waiting for her). I'm now disappointed to have missed it.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 09:56 am (UTC)When introductions were being made, I had to justify how come I vaguely knew
[*] At least, I think that's the correct handle.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 10:47 am (UTC)