KaraUke, 21st July

KaraUke was a little shambolic but I think that’s part of its charm. No formal screens with the words lighting up as you go for KaraUke. Not even printed sheets of paper to sing along with a la Hip Hop Karaoke or Reggaeoke. No, you can hold an iPad and sing along to that, while the words are put up on a screen behind you so the audience can sing along, but the entire song is displayed at once which makes the words rather difficult to see.

I was also surprised that the ukulele band was in fact a proper band – not only were there several uke players but there was a bass guitar and a drum set. I was a little disappointed at first as it wasn’t quite as quaint as I was expecting but it was pretty cool to have a full band supporting you and made for a rounder sound.

They hold karaoke on the Tamesis Dock which has to be one of the quirkier pubs/venues around – a permanently moored boat decorated in a lively manner. In fact, I was chatting to a friend of the band and she said none of them live anywhere near it but they love it too much to switch to a different venue. The karaoke is held in the belly of the boat which made for a slightly stifling evening but it didn’t seem to mar people’s enjoyment.

There are no prizes but every performer gets a badge.There’s clearly a few regulars as jokes were made about the number of badges ‘Pete’ had accumulated and whether he could make it through the entire song menu in a year. That would be quite a feat but not as daunting as you might think as it’s limited to about 50 songs. There are a few classics and also songs they clearly just like (Tenacious D has two songs on there which you don’t find in most karaoke songbooks). The opening singer for tonight delved right in with one of these actually – Fuck her gently. In fact, thinking about it, there was quite a lot of swearing in the evening. That one... I did Creep... and another girl did Fuck you by Ceelo. It’s that kind of crowd.

They do two sets which have 9 singers each and while they’re not short on volunteers this seems about right and a few people were even able to sing twice. Quality was… variable… but  your own backing singer is there to help anyone out and carry the tune if it ever falls off a cliff. Everyone is encouraged to sing along and many people were dancing around too.

And all this for FREE!! Of course, they do very much appreciate donations and dedicate a bit of time sending round the ‘begging bowl’ as they do have rehearsal space and expenses and tings to deal with. Any monies they receive are well deserved.

Karaoke Rumble, 17th February

Karaoke Rumble is an odd night but it’s a hell of a laugh.

Hosted by the legendary Quint Fontana (the name may be familiar, he was huge in the 80s and 90s [or so he says]) this is a mix of comedy, karaoke and the X Factor.

Things kicked off at around half eight but there wasn’t even any singing until 9:30. At least, not by us mere plebs. There was however, an appearance by the French Queen of Ballads herself: Celine Dion**. She was just the first of the pop pals of Quint’s who apparently drop by these nights on the reg. Celine was in fine fettle and treated us to her most famous song – My Heart Will go On. The same cannot be said for poor Ronan Keating*** who turned up piss drunk and dressed in garbage bags. He’s fallen on hard times has Ronan. He didn’t even want to sing at first but he was forced cajoled into it by Quint and soon found his stride. If he makes a comeback, you heard it here first!

Quint's larger than life personality was entertainment enough but there was, of course, the singing. Those brave enough to put their names down had two minutes in which to impress the audience. You could be booed off in that time and if you made it before the buzzer went, you were in the final. To add insult to injury, three members of the audience were given plastic bags and if they all decided you were crap by putting the bag over their heads, that was it, you were out.

The overall winner is decided by the incredibly scientific method of clapping. A tried and trusted system.

There are no songbooks because they're using Lucky Voice's system and pretty much have anything you can think of. I managed to squeak into the final but next time I'd give a little more thought to my choice. You might not think it but 2 minutes goes by quickly so you want a song that is going to make an impact within that time!

I had a total blast and will definitely be trying to make room for this in my schedule again in the near future.  

**May not have been the real Celine Dion

***May not have been the real Ronan Keating.

Hot Since 91 90s Karaoke, 29th October

If you didn’t know, I’m a bit of a fan of karaoke, and I especially enjoy a themed karaoke night. But the universe seems to be somewhat stacked against me when it comes to enjoying such things – the last time I had planned on going to Gospeloke I was struck down with a throat infection and so it was when 90s karaoke was on the agenda. At least this time I managed to make it, even if singing was off the cards for me.

It was a cracking night – held at The Macbeth every third Thursday of the month, they take over the whole building and put on a total 90s party. Downstairs is where the karaoke action happens, kicking off at around 9:30 but there’s plenty to do beforehand with facepainting on offer, 90s games (like Connect Four and Operation) and videogames (I think maybe a SNES) on the second floor, and free cotton candy being given away. They also brought out free fried chicken at one point too but getting your mitts on that was near impossible.

The music policy is definitely more old school 90s RnB than just 90s but the song selection for singing runs the gamut of pop to indie to RnB. We had someone doing Gangsta's Paradise and a group drunkenly doing Aqua's Barbie Girl! Quality from those performing was variable but that's half the fun. Everyone sang along anyway, and there was a lot of grooving in between people doing their songs. I just loved the host and the DJ in charge seemed to be having a whale of a time too. They had 'bonus rounds' of Guessing the intro which invoked a bit of carnage as people leapt to grab the mic as soon as they recognised the song - then you won a shit prize and had the opportunity to sing the intro. Definitely on my list as one to return to.

Reggaeoke, 13th May

Reggaeoke has already established itself quite well in Brixton, having been going for about a year down there. I went along to its Eastside launch at the Queen of Hoxton. 

Reggaeoke is exactly what you might think it is - karaoke but all the songs are reggae! There was a decent turnout - the night is clearly popular enough down South to warrant some of the regulars making an appearance in Hipsterhood. And I can see why. The whole night had a bit of a party vibe, with the crowd being encouraged to sing along and support the performers on stage. For me (and I daresay quite a few others) just listening to the songs was enough as it was like revisiting my childhood with all the songs my dad would play at home.

The roster of songs you can perform is just great but I have to warn you if you're thinking about giving it a go - reggae is HARD! I was thinking about performing but I was too chicken. Every time I thought about doing a particular song I realised I didn't really know that many words. Then someone else would do the song and I would thank God I didn't bother trying it as the lyrics were much more difficult to 'sing' than I expected. 

Also - unlike with regular karaoke, all you get is the screen with the songs - no bouncy ball to help you along. 

Something like Night Nurse was quite straightforward but even Uptown Top Ranking and Murder She Wrote are trickier than you'd think! Not to mention Gimme the Light!

Some of the people were just awesome and knew the songs back to front. Others, errrr... less so. But it was all a lot of fun and if reggae is your bag then this is a great way to enjoy that music.

There are prizes for the best performance (ie not necessarily the best singer) but I didn't end up staying long enough to see who won though there were definitely a few contenders. Janine, the founder also makes an excellent host, being supportive to the performers and encouraging the audience to get involved. She's running a really fun night.

Hip Hop Karaoke, 21st August

Oh my word, I had such a fun time at Hip Hop Karaoke at the Social!

It is what it sounds like. Karaoke, but all the song choices are rap songs. All of them. They've got loads to choose from, and if they don't have your jam, you can request it in advance. They have crowdpleasers like Jump Around and Baby Got Back to Biggie and 2Pac and they're all online with difficulty ratings so you can get an idea for what you want to do (and practise!) before you go if you want. 

The MC is pretty fly for a white guy – he’s a mix of hip hop/ironic nerd and drops the MF bomb like it’s going out of style. He doesn’t partake of the karaoke himself, but is there to make the evening even more entertaining and ensure that everyone gets at least one cheer during their set, even if they’re failing miserably.

For that’s one of the great things about it. Yeah, there are definitely people who go every week, who don’t even need the words and who are mini rapper superstars in the making. But there were also plenty of people who’d never been before, and plenty of people who were just rubbish.

It’s actually trickier than normal karaoke, even with the easiest songs because all you have is a piece of paper with the words on it and then the DJ drops the background track. It’s up to you to figure out when to come in, and if you lose your place it can be pretty hard to catch yourself up again. But the crowd is really supportive, and most of them will know all the words better than you do if you’re not feeling that confident so can kind of keep it going until you get back into it. Having said that, there were at least two performers that just couldn’t even get through half of it, and a couple more that did finish, but I don’t think you could call what they were doing throughout the song ‘rapping’.

But that makes it funny and that’s why it’s so popular. It is on every week and every week it reaches capacity. We got there at 7 and already most of the good tables had gone. By 9 there was a queue outside and some of my friends couldn’t even get in. If you are thinking about doing a song – sign up early. The karaoke doesn’t start until 9 which gives you plenty of time to drink enough to muster up some courage. But if you wait until you’ve got enough alcohol in your system to sign up, you’ll find that they’ll run out of time before they get to you. Sign up early, and then just trust that you’ll be pissed enough to get on stage. I think I signed up to do my song at about 7:30 and I didn’t get to do it until just after the interval at gone 10pm!

So, they have one interval, and before and after they play top notch RnB and hip hop tunes. If you like nights like Supa Dupa Fly or Juicy, but maybe crave a bit more interaction with your dancing, then this night is for you. Hell, if you love this kind of music this night is for you. Or if you just like watching people make fools of themselves in a friendly place, this is for you. Loved it! One of the best weeknight activities out there.