Musical Bingo, 20th June

Why did we think a fourth bottle of wine would be a good idea? Whose arm was around me as we danced on stage? Where did my jacket go? These are the kinds of questions you will be asking yourself when you go to the crazy party that is Musical Bingo.

If you’re at all familiar with bingo, you’ll pick up Musical Bingo in no time. You get a card and on it is a grid with nine song titles. When they play your song you cross it off. First prize is one line, second prize is two lines, third prize is three lines and then you carry on until someone gets a full house. Each round also has a different theme. The first one was British music, the second was love (aaaahhh) and so on. 

 This was Musical Bingo’s 5th birthday so we knew they were going to pull out all the stops. There were some pretty decent prizes on offer – the grand prize being tickets to Leefest, but also bottles of wine, and decent bar tabs/free meals for Concrete and Pizza East which were the host venue for the evening. Each round was compered by a hostess. And for the first time ever, all three hostesses were sharing the stage! 

[Poor] Photographic evidence of the landmark occasion

These saucy minxes obviously didn’t have to call out numbers, but kept the party going and, all important, faciliated deciding any tie breakers. You see, if you got a line (or two or three) you raced to the DJ booth to get your card checked. But what if more than one of you reached bingo at the same time? I thought it might be a case of first come first win, picturing cut-throat races to the DJ booth, people tackling other people out of the way. But no. In the case of a tie-break, however many people were claiming victory were ushered onto the stage to compete for the prize. Such contests included a hula hooping competition, a limbo contest, and rock paper scissors. Being the grand exhibitionist that I am after a few glasses of wine, I was mortally disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to try my hand at any of these, as I didn’t win a single game. I think in the whole night I managed to cross off only one measly line (way after the chance to win that had passed). But as you might guess, it didn’t mar my enjoyment.

Lola Hi-Rola

The night was sold out – you have to book a table in advance by email for £7 per person. We were shown to our seats by Johnny and had time to get some drinks in before the bingo started at about 8. At first me and my more competitive teammate found the going a little slow. There was absolutely no chance of someone being too lethargic to miss their song, miss their chance to cross it off and thus boost our chances of winning, as they played each song in full. We were raring to go to hear the next one, in a hurry to be the first to win. But then, after a couple more glasses, that urge wore off and we were enjoying listening to the music. Starting to groove along and dance in our seats even. They were playing some cracking songs – ranging from The Buzzcocks to Stevie Wonder (the Happy Birthday song of course!). Soon, if they cut the song short to move onto the next one, we were disappointed. Slowly but surely, the impending chaos crept in. People started not only dancing in their seats, but standing up to jig about. Then, (no doubt inspired by miss Lola Hi-Rola gallivanting on the benches), others were getting up onto the benches and tables to dance (and swiftly being told to get down by the bouncers). Until, as soon as you’d crossed off your song, or realised you didn’t have it, people were moving to the area at the front to dance between songs. I had my moment in the sun when my friend and I, who need little to no encouragement, were taken by the hand and pulled onto the stage. Now it was all about the dancing – me just hopping off stage to cross off a song before jumping back to continue dancing. It all culminated with circles breaking out and strangers’ arms finding strangers’ waists while we kicked our legs and swung around to Zorba the Greek. And I haven’t even mentioned the conga line – or the gambling your prize for the chance to win . . . who knows! Something amazing, or maybe just a Justin Bieber mask. Utterly exhilarating and fabulous fun – I really can’t wait to go again. They have just started a new night called Last Man Standing and if it's anything like Musical Bingo, it deserves a place on my List.

Bobbing for marshmallows to win the team free shots

Unfortunately there was a bit of a bum note towards the end – while we were gallivanting on the stage either an overzealous bar person, or a sneaky bingo player relieved us of the half a bottle of wine we still had. And I couldn’t find my jacket when we left at the end of the night – if anyone took it by mistake (or even on purpose), can you please return it? 

Stumblin' Slims, 31st March

I can't remember how I heard about Stumblin' Slims. Probably through looking at the Blues Kitchen's website, a bar in Camden that I've been to before. Anyway, I had heard about it and had been considering going to Stumblin' Slims for New Year's Eve, when we decided against it in favour of something more 'clubby'. But I still wanted to go at some point, especially after watching Hairspray over Christmas and getting in a jive kinda mood.

So when their next night came up, at Concrete, I booked tickets as soon as they went on sale, nabbing early bird tickets at merely a fiver. It was just as well. I had no idea how popular the night was, and they sold out of all tickets at least a week before the night was on.

Stumblin Slims has been described as "a cross between a prom night and a late night drag race" (Guardian) though I think that's just them using some 50s vernacular for the sake of it. I saw no sign or cars or corsages. It is a fun night though of great music and people dancing their socks off. There was a good number of people dressed up in some form or other in 50s/rockabilly gear, and when we entered (at 10:45) they had a girl on hand to do people's hair and makeup if you needed it, though she had disappeared only a few minutes later when we went to put our coats away.

When we arrived the live band was on and loads of people were dancing – the dance floor was packed and we were forced into bopping about on the edges. The band were just a three piece but they created a massive sound and played a crowd-pleasing selection of tunes. In fact, it was quite disappointing when the band stopped and the DJ came on. There was a palpable shift in atmosphere as the band finishing coincided roughly with last-tube time and the place emptied out a little. The sound system at Concrete isn’t that great either which also lead to a bit of a deflation in ambience. We rode out the transitory period, and by the time Stephen and I left at a little past one, I would say that the party had picked up and was going full swing again. The music seemed a little louder than it had been, and you couldn’t fault the songs they were playing. If I hadn’t been starving, I would have happily stayed until the very end. At this point I would love to list the various tunes that were played but can't remember any specific titles. Suffice to say, it was some good old fashioned rock 'n' roll.

I’m not sure how I feel about Concrete as a venue. Stephen liked it – thought it was just the right size, but I find the low ceilings a bit oppressive, and as I mentioned, they don’t exactly have a top-end sound system. However, they play host to lots of different and interesting nights so I am sure I will find myself back here more often than not. I am pleased to report that, after the coat queue fiasco at Deviation, that such an incident was not repeated. 

Owl and the Pussycat and Deviation, 7th March

Who knew such a lovely little proper pub existed so close to Shoreditch? Well, quite a few people, evidently, as it was pretty busy in The Owl and the Pussycat and it was only a Wednesday. I heard about this place through Secret London and popped it on the List. I was going to Deviation at Concrete which is just around the corner so thought this would be an ideal place for a couple of drinks first.

This place goes in for big communal tables that you have to try to nab a place at, ending up potentially sharing with another group or two. The pub itself is quite small but it has a sizeable (heated) courtyard at the back to squeeze some more people in, and it has a separate restaurant upstairs for people who just want to eat. Prices were quite reasonable. A normal-sized (ie not the 250ml bucket) of wine was under £4.00 – which is becoming increasingly rare these days.

The crowd was pretty typical hipster – I don’t think there was a single girl in there without a flat fringe- and it was mostly groups of people. But the pub’s low lighting and woody décor also made it quite a romantic pub (I think the poetic name helps) and I can imagine going with my boyfriend for a few drinks together and some tasty sounding bar snacks – duck’s egg, chorizo and garlic frites, mmmm!

After two drinks in there it was time to move on to Deviation.

This is a monthly club night curated by Benji B and which was celebrating its 50th session last night. (Cue lots of balloons.) To mark the occasion they had Hudson Mohawke as their speical guest DJ and also James Blake (but I didn’t stay late enough to see him unfortunately). Benji B got things started, easing people into the night with some house music that made you want to move, then journeying into tunes which were more soulful and ambient. At 9 when the doors opened there was a queue to get in and by half ten the place was not only busy but everyone was on the dance floor. Benji responded to this by ratcheting up the atmosphere and getting some dirty, dirty, bassy dnb on and then moving into some heavy hip hop. The crowd was pulsating. It was obvious that the people there loved these nights, loved the music and were intent on making the most out of the limited time they had to enjoy it. Once a month for only a few hours (9-2) isn’t much time. So no wasting precious minutes having a few drinks in there first – once you were in, you were dancing.  I was also impressed by the eclecticism of the crowd. Because of the hip hop influence, it wasn’t just your typical electro-geek. Black and white, young and older, were all there-even an annoying Canadian.

At about 11:30 Benji switched tacks again and moved onto some bassy house music to segue into Hudson taking the decks. Hudson's debut song was a remix of Bjork of all things (sorry, not sure which song), followed shortly after by TLC’s Silly Ho. Why haven’t I heard that song in a club before? It warranted getting right into the crowd to make the most of it. From there the music returned to some major hip hop which the dancefloor was lapping up and at about midnight I decided I should get the last tube home – well it was a school night.

Unfortunately, the cloakroom system was a little inefficient. I had to queue in the same queue as people putting their coats in, and even though there weren’t many people in front of me, it still took about half an hour for me to get my coat. I hope it's not like that when I return later this month for Stumblin' Slims! I missed the tube and had to walk down Brick Lane to get the bus, which put a bit of a dampener on the evening. I’m just glad I live so close by, that it still didn’t take me too long to get home.