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Saturday Night Out in Camden
• Grand Guignol Parade at London's Roundhouse
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By
The Minx, Music Editor
Thursday,
4 November, 2004
On a chilly November night in London recently I set off to see the American singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier at the Roundhouse in London's trendy Camden neighbourhood.
For those unfamiliar with the hip London venue, the Roundhouse is a circular, nineteenth century former engine shed which has had a chequered but mythic career as a rock venue over the years. (I first went to see the Breakaways there back in the, mm, 1970s).
After being closed for several years the building has recently been extensively refurbished for use as a performing arts centre and aims to be at the cutting edge of the avant-garde in music. Besides the large space of the former engine shed, there are now a number of small "intimate" concert spaces in the building and Gauthier, an American singer-songwriter, originally from New Orleans, whose darkly pessimistic poetic songs echo those of Leonard Cohen, was scheduled to appear in one of these studios (standing only).
Arriving early I had to wait outside for my sister, who had the tickets, to arrive. (No entry allowed even to the foyer without a ticket). So I settled down on a nearby wall to enjoy the fashion parade. Camden is the crossroads in London where arthouse meets punk and the area is an eclectic mix of seedy, shabby and post-modern. Art students, punks and goths mingle with local residents, including a sizeable Irish community, in a neighbourhood where fashion-wise just about anything goes. And never more so than on a Saturday night when everyone is out to party.
However last Saturday it soon became clear outside the Roundhouse that that eccentricity meter was rocketing off the scale at lighting speed. A parade of freaks who would not have disappointed a Grand Guignol production trooped past me into the Roundhouse.
Many of the outfits on view had clearly been specially made for the occasion. One girl, with blonde pigtails, wore a thigh skimming white milkmaid style dress festooned with black bows, over white stockings (held up a black garter belt) and knee-high black leather boots with platform soles, a sort of Austrian milkmaid on acid look. A stout young woman was hanging around outside, smoking, in a black bustier and black hot pants, with black and white hooped stockings held up by a black garter belt and bottomed with 4 inch patent platform "Mary Janes".
Quite a few of the crowd had clearly made a visit to their local S & M supplier to get kitted out for the evening. One young man hobbled past in leather biker jacket, ripped jeans, six inch platform biker boots, and assorted piercings accessorised topped with bright blue hair.
There were black taffeta strapless ball gowns, a lot of black and white in fact, various styles of kilt (on the men), multiple piercings, vertiginous platform shoes and a fair sprinkling of biker and S&M leather. White faces and heavy black eye liner also seemed de rigeur.
The overall look was Marilyn Manson meets The Rocky Horror Show after a night on the town, with a handful of Bjorks thrown to lighten the mix. As a Londoner I am not easily surprised but I was definitely taken aback. Many of the outfits had a decided air of menace about them. It was clear the parade of freaks trooping into the Roundhouse were not heading for the Mary Gauthier concert.
Once inside Mary herself and her ace guitarist Tom Jutz, treated us to a vintage performance of her old and new songs, which were well received by a packed and appreciative audience and she stopped afterwards to sign CDs and chat to the crowd. She commented that she was relieved on arrival and seeing the evening's audience, that we, and she, had made it safely into her studio space.
Only afterwards did I find out that the Grand Guignol crowd heading to the main concert space wre in town for a show by The Dresden Dolls, a "Brechtian punk cabaret" from the States. Lead singer Amanda Palmer favours garter belts and hot pants as stage costume and many of the female fans were clearly dressed up for the evening in matching style. Lately the Dresden Dolls have been on tour with another band keen on performance theatre, "Panic! At the Disco". Click on the links to find out more. You Live and Learn.
Copyright ONTheLam 2006
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