Dawn Of The Don!!
what an amazing night!!
although walking into a venue when everyone outside smoking looks decidedly un-zombie like while you're caked in make up leaves you feeling slightly uneasy about making so much effort
thankfully, once we were inside we weren't the only ones and soon, being a zombie drinking £3 pints of fosters in such dark and inviting surroundings seemed quite natural
and tonight seemed like such a special occasion, the anticipatory dressing up and the fact that it had been a stupidly long time since i had seen Akira The Don or Marvin The Martian live, all thrown into the mix with the filming of Akira's new music video...
first up was Marv the Martian, joined by Pixel (looking nothing like the Pixel of the old days!) and by his DJ/producer Jack Nimble for a short set of brand new material, no looking backwards for these guys tonight!!
what started as a slow burning performance soon saw Marv and Pix hit their stride with a performance full of swagger, showing huge promise for the new mixtape (my particular favourite, Tin Can) and setting the tone for the rest of the evening
But tonight was all about The Don, taking to the stage in a pink fluffy hooded dressing gown bearing his adopted moniker and leading his newly formed full live band into a cut from his forthcoming album, before hurtling into more recognisable material from recent mixtapes for a buoyant crowd.
a rather, ahem, relaxed approach to touring has seem Akira missing from the live circuit for some time, but you wouldn't know that the tracks played weren't tried and tested on the strength of the performance given tonight, and the whole shebang seems to suggest that things can only get better...
Mixtapes were plundered of their gems, a brass section trumpeted along, unheard material was given all due respect and fans that have been around a while (i count myself among them) were thrilled to bits by a throwback mega-mix of hits that encompassed the debut album and earlier
there was never gonna be much chance of me knocking this gig, but Akira is an incredibly charismatic performer that could never prove to be unlikeable, with his boundless energy and ca-ca-eating grin he could win over the sternest sceptic
and i mustn't forget the reason that so many re-animated music fans had gathered in Holloway tonight, the filming of I Am Not Dead (Yeah!), geddit, with it's obvious zombie theme and the encouragement to lurch forward and moan a deathly moan along with the choruses refrain and hope for our five minutes of fame as an undead extra covered in fake blood, honestly, what more could you want from a friday night out?
can't wait to see the finished video, i'll post it up as soon as it hits the interwebnets!
next up? a free solstice gig in the Natural History Museum!!
special mention must also be made of my brother, who had a particularly prosperous evening considering i only managed to convince him to come earlier the same day:
Upon introducing him to Akira, he turned to him and said 'so you're the famous Ian Byford, of Ian Byford Art!'. He was also picked to be a rather prominent zombie by the person filming the music video. And the photo's he took of the performances are now all over Akira's website and flickr set and on Marvin's blog.
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