Get Involved blog

If you like your old gold, then chances are you’re familiar with at least one version of the track The Peanut Vendor. I remember Stan Kenton’s version appeared on a Blue Note compilation I bought about 14 years ago - and my mate Dave has a Robert Delgado album (with a hilarious sleeve which looks as if Robert Delgado is actually Eric Morcambe wearing a sombrero ) entitled The Peanut Vendor – and Get Involved hero, Gilbey, included Alvin “Red” Tyler’s version of the track in his excellent Right Place, Wrong Time playlist which you can grab from the Beats’n'Treats section of this site. Actually - you can hear that version by clicking the song title below. A Get Involved percussive classic with an awesome break!

Alvin “Red” Tyler – The Peanut Vendor

Well, look, I’m rambling a bit, because this post isn’t about the track, it’s about a spanky new secondhand shop opened up in my neighbourhood which happens to be called The Peanut Vendor - yes, these are all images of said shop. Photography: Leo Cackett

There’s been a couple of second hand furniture spots in Islington and Stoke Newington for a while although, over the last year or two, it seems they’ve become ridiculously overpriced. Will someone really pay over £400 for a G-plan sideboard? The answer, in Stokey at least, will soon be “hell, no!” - thanks to the arrival of this flippin’ lovely shop, which overlooks Newington Green. In here, £400 will go much further than just one piece of furniture…

The reason your money will go further here is pretty simple: proprietors Barny and Becky get in their van and trawl this fine nation of ours on a weekly basis, seeking out beautiful mid-century classic furniture in places no one else would bother looking – junk shops, house clearance places, auctions and anywhere else they can think of, finding stuff at rock bottom prices that they can lovingly restore. And, as the stock in their spanky new shop attests, they’ve got that most important of assets in the second hand game: a really good eye. Yes, the place is full of the kind of stuff that would make our mum’s and grannies proud (if not slightly bemused) to see ensconced in our homes. We’re talking teak furniture, formica kitchen tables, 70s lightshades, 60s tea sets, collectible valve radios, vintage cameras, bakelite phones, mono record players, modular Danish furniture and, at the time of writing, an awesome yellow Le Creuset fondue set that has to be seen to be believed.

While companies like IKEA are cutting down trees, seemingly on a mission to homogenise domestic interiors – it’s great to see a new shop recycling old, beautifully made furniture and giving us an affordable chance to enrich our home environments with objects that offer genuine charm and a whole lot of style and quality to boot. Bravo!

The Peanut Vendor
133 Newington Green Road
Islington
London N1 4RA
Tel: 020 7266 5727
http://thepeanutvendor.co.uk

Having just posted about Get Involved artwork appearing in a monograph of the work of the prolific British artist Jon Burgerman - I just remembered that more artwork created specially for Get Involved has also just been published… Nice!

I’m referring to the visual wizardry of a certain James Joyce of One Fine Day who created artwork for a Get Involved postcard (shown above) early last year. James created all the artwork and branding of two other club nights I’ve co-run with friends in the last few years, and artwork created for DJ collective It’s Bigger Than also appears in Postcard, a beautifully crafted tome (compiled and edited by FL@33) aimed at the coffee tables and carefully curated shelves of designers and image makers - and of course those that appreciate such things…

Ah, behold: the One Fine Day spread from Postcard showing a myriad flyer designs for It’s Bigger Than on the left hand page (three years worth of monthly flyers!) and on the right, shown at actual size in the book, is the Get Involved postcard that James designed a year ago.

Good work - and thank you, James!

To find out more about the Postcard book, visit http://www.postcard-book.info/

Pens are my Friends is the title of the new, IdN-published, 310 page monograph of illustrator Jon Burgerman’s many projects to date – including, we’re rather pleased to see, the Get Involved poster he rustled up for us for January 2007’s shindig. Here are some spreads from the book showing Jon’s splendid work…

Enclosed in the book is a 20-page booklet of sketches and a DVD of motion graphics, screen wallpapers, videos of live drawing installations and other bonus material.

Remove the dust jacket and - oh joy of joys - it turns out to be a folded poster…

…Nice!

Jon Burgerman: Pens are my Friends, published by IdN, is a 310 page hardback book encased in a folded poster measuring 755 x 620mm and also a screenprinted transparent dustjacket. Enclosed within is a 20 page mini booklet of sketchbook art and a DVD containing Jon Burgerman motion graphics, animations, videos, screen wallpapers and icons

Because I Can’t Sit Still solo exhibition IS ON RIGHT NOW and runs until 1 November at Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham Street, London W1T 4RJ

Keep up with all things Burgerman on his website: jonburgerman.com

Most of these images and the info contained in this post, along with an interview with Jon Burgerman, on Creative Review’s splendid blog

I’ve just got back from a weekend at Latitude festival up near Southwold in Suffolk – where I’ve had one of the best weekends ever. Saw some great acts – Beth Orton, British Sea Power, Malcolm Middleton, Jeremy Warmsley and Johnny Flynn were all highlights. But one performance really stood out: that of Eli “Paperboy” Reed and The True Loves - at 1am on Saturday night. The whole reason I made a point of heading to see Reed and his band is because a certain Disgracie (DJing at the next Get Involved night on 7th August) suggested, pretty strongly, that I check him out. So I bought the album (which I love) and made a note to check him at Latitude… And boy, oh boy am I glad I did.

Reed (pictured above) is just 24 years old but has a voice like Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Wilson Picket rolled into one. And he’s got the song-writing sensibilities and the band to back it up. In some ways his set was too good at Latitude. I was there but found it hard to believe it. This young, suited and booted white dude, belting out raucous, screaming R&B numbers and heart-wrenching soul ballads… But isn’t performing that kind of music just a nod to the past? Well, usually, I’d have to say yes but this doesn’t feel like an exercise in retro. Reed’s original material sounds fresh and genuine – honest, good, gritty soul music reminiscent of the output of record labels like Stax and Atco in the mid to late sixties. I guess what I’m really saying is this: If Reed and his impressively tight band are coming to a town near you - for crying out loud get a ticket. There are three dates in London THIS WEEK (although tonight’s appearance at Mojo Club at The Arts Theatre on Great Newport Street is sold out). Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s myspace page has all his gig dates and you can listen to a selection of tracks from his new album, Roll With You. To read Lois Wilson’s brilliant review of the album that appeared in Mojo’s June 2008 issue, click here.

Big thank you to Gracie for the Eli Reed tip-off!

Get Involved is officially a Kate Moss fan

Was looking through the vast portfolio site of fashion guru and photographer Hedi Slimane (www.hedislimane.com) last week and stumbled across this image of Kate Moss shaking a tambourine. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, the ol’ perv is looking at her tits.” Well, you’d be half right, but there’s another reason why this image appeals, besides it being a rather fantastic shot of one of the hottest models of all time… It was actually a tambourine just like the one pictured that planted the seed for Get Involved. Yes, our good chum and much esteemed DJ colleague, Cutmaster Max brought a similar star-shaped tambourine to It’s Bigger Than (a night we used to run in 93 Feet East for a few years) one night and somehow it added a certain special something to the musical shenanigans that got us thinking… What joy a tambourine can bring!

btw Kate, you’re welcome at Get Involved any time. Wear your “tambourine outfit”, though, yeah?

I was just perusing the world wide web and stumbled across the blog of an illustrator called Linzie Hunter. As well as showing off her wonderfully jolly illustrations and hand-lettering, Linzie’s blog also shows off cool things she’s found in second hand stores and at jumble sales. She found the above record and bought it (rightly so) due to the fact she loved the illustration on the sleeve. Ah, what a wonderful world we live in! And what a wonderfully appropriate record to find in such a sleeve: Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World from 1967. Obviously the record is on HMV label and the sleeve is a Philips one - but who cares? A lovely find indeed. Linzie also links through to the site of another illustrator who also has an eye for lovely old record sleeves – to the extent that she has a site dedicated to showcasing her extensive collection of 45 label sleeves…

Check out Kavel Rafferty’s Record Envelope blog.

Meet Hobson. Hobson is a trumpet-nosed dino-monster that’s mad for as much musical mayhem as he can muster. He ALWAYS carries at least one maraca and can sometimes be seen brandishing a tambourine. His favourite club is Get Involved!

And friends of Get Involved may well recognise Hobson – because he was originally conceived to adorn the Get Involved poster that monster-loving design duo Peskimo created back in 2006.

Hobson is one of a series of 16 ultra-cute, 3-inch vinyl toys – many with articulated grabby parts and friends like bunnies, blobs or pieces of toast – all designed by Peskimo that form the BambooZoo series of mini toys – just unleashed by Kidrobot.

The crazy menagerie of strange beasts all come individually packaged in exactly the same box - meaning you don’t have a clue which beasty you’ll find inside. BUT we can reveal that Hobson is one of the most popular – cropping up in three out of every 25 boxes of Peskimo’s BambooZoo series.

Peskimo very kindly sent us our very own Hobson, who posed for the photo at the top of this post - and who will thrive henceforth on a diet of tambourine-soaked, maraca-fueled rock’n'roll and soul sessions. THANK YOU PESKIMO!

If you’re looking for Hobson and pals in London, you’ll find ‘em at Playlounge in Soho.