Get Involved blog

I’ve been listening to great music on some great blogs for quite a few years now and there are a handful that I follow religiously and have done for years. One such musical blog that’s up there with my most regularly visited is Derek’s Daily 45 run by Derek See, a musician, record collector, DJ and blogger from San Francisco’s Bay Area – who posts up a recording of a 45 from his collection pretty much every single day.

So I’m DELIGHTED that he’s going to be taking time out from his guitar technician duties with Iggy Pop and The Stooges current UK tour to DJ at me ol’ mucker Dean Chalkley’s SHAKE! night this Saturday at The Boogaloo. I’m even more delighted that Dean’s asked me to join in the DJ fun too. Boy, oh boy, I’m really looking forward to it!

Regular readers of the Get Involved blog may remember I did a project with Derek back in 2008 - when I asked him to contribute to a copy of Creative Review’s Monograph publication. Derek supplied images of some of his favourite company 45 sleeves and we created an 18 page, A5 booklet showing them. I posted on it back in May 2008 - read the post here.

There’s a Facebook event to RSVP to for this Saturday’s SHAKE! event here but if you need the deets in a non-Facebook kinda way then here they are

Shake!
@ The Boogaloo
312 Archway Road
London N6
(nearest Tube: Highgate)
Saturday May 1st
8.30pm-2am
FREE before 10pm / £3 after

For guestlist, email first and last names to info@theboogaloo.co.uk

There is, among the many legends of Get Involved, a tradition of putting on a Get Involved night on the Thursday before the long Easter weekend…

Well, I’m delighted to announce that the fabulous DJ Roxanne Roll (with the best DJ name EVER) has asked me to come and bring some Get Involved vibes to her brilliant Cowbella night over at The Westbury in West London. I’m honoured to be asked and excited about bringing a box of records and a bag of maracas and tambourines to the night where it’s perfectly acceptable to request more cowbell!

Apparently there’s a “wall of cowbell” to play too. Amazing! The fun doesn’t stop till about 2am and you’ll then have four days to recover. Has there ever been a better time to get involved? Er, no, there hasn’t. GET INVOLVED!

There’s a Facebook event page set up here. And if you don’t do Facebook, the deets are thus:

Cowbella!
8.30pm-2am
@ The Westbury
34 Kilburn High Road
London NW6 5UA
view map

The cowbell-playing character above was created by Jeremyville – originally for the July 2006 Get Involved poster. If you want a copy of that (or any other Get Involved poster), you can buy them from Concrete Hermit. Click here for more info about prices and stuff

This week sees not one but two Heavy Pencil (in association with the ICA) events – where some of London’s most in-demand illustrators draw live to a soundtrack provided by DJs and live acts…

First up is Heavy Pencil East – tonight (Wednesday March 10) at Catch, 22 Kingsland Road in Shoreditch – which will feature live drawing by Adrian Johnson, Al Murphy, Hannah Waldron and Charlie Duck, who will all put pen paper to a soundtrack provided by two bands - Three Beards and illustrator Andrew Rae’s musical combo, The Marmosets – not to mention a DJ set by yours truly: G the P!

All the illustrations created during the course of the event will be stuck up on the walls and offered for sale at the end of the night. Details on Facebook and also on the poster designed by Rae (shown above).

Then, on Thursday night (March 11), at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in central London, Heavy Pencil is taking place alongside the Birds Eye View film festival’s closing party. In keeping with that party’s theme of femmes fatales, Heavy Pencil has enlisted the talents of set design and art direction duo, Anna Lomax and Lauren Davies of Jiggery Pokery, who will be doing the live drawing while music is provided by Iain Woods, aka Psychologist. Here’s the flyer:

More info at jiggerypokery.blogspot

I originally posted this on the Creative Review blog

Sprinkle me with flour and bake me for forty minutes… is it really FIVE YEARS ago that me and a few buddies set up a little monthly clubnight called Gerry’s Joint with the intention of playing the most cooking, jumping and infectious 50s and 60s records we could lay our hands on?

YES IT IS! Myself, Leo, Max and Roo will be celebrating Gerry’s Joint’s 5th birthday up at The Boogaloo this Saturday night. And as it’s our birthday, we’d very much LOVE for the night to go off in a special way - so if you like what you hear on this ol’ blog - and if you’re in the London area - come and join the fun!

We will, but of course, be spinning records and generally encouraging shimmying, shaking and other dancefloor hi-jinks with our selection of - well, you know, Gerry’s Joint style tunes!

As it’s a landmark anniversary for Gerry’s Joint, (I can still hardly believe we’ve been doing the night for FIVE YEARS!) I’d also like to let y’all know that over the course of this year we’ll be releasing a series of special mixes - each created by one of us Gerry’s Joint dee-jays as a personal celebration of what Gerry’s Joint has meant to us / taught us over the last five years… Oh yes, and each mix will have it’s own artwork - created specially by the man, the legend: James Joyce. Good times! Got no idea when the first of these mixes will present itself - but it’ll be soon.

PLUS there are exciting plans afoot to produce a Gerry’s Joint CD compilation of rare old gold selected by us and mastered directly from original vinyl for the most authentic listening experience. That’s work-in-progress - but we’ll keep you posted on that project as it develops…

In the meantime, it’d be great to see you up at The Boogaloo this Saturday night - as Gerry’s Joint enters it’s sixth year of rockin’ the joint!

Details on the flyer and also at http://myspace.com/gerrysjointclub

NB: We’re charging £3 entry for Gerry’s Joint this session. ALL the money we take on the door will go to the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal.

Well, it’s been a long while coming but I’m pleased to announce that Shing-A-Ling podcast No.3 has finally hoved into view! And this time it’s a dance-themed selection in celebration of the fact that Shing-A-Ling’s venue, The Smithfield Tavern, has (at last!) been granted an official “dancing license”. So yeah, stream or download it or subscribe to the podcasts if you haven’t already:

Shing-A-Ling podcast No.3 New!
“Do The Whatever!”
by G the P

DOWNLOAD IT(47Mb) / LISTEN TO IT / SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHING-A-LING PODCAST FEED

1. Baby Jean – If You Wanna
2. Ervin Rucker – Done Done The Slop
3. The Vocaleers – The Cootie Snap
4. The Debelaires – Wa-Wabble
5. King Coleman – Do The Booga-Lou
6. J J Jackson & The Jackals – Oo-Mi-Liddi
7. Bobby Miller – Uncle Willie Time
8. Lattimore Brown – Say What (Hully Gully Twist)
9. The Miracles – Mickey’s Monkey
10. The Liberty Belles – Shing-A-Ling Time
11. Round Robin – Do The Slauson
12. Marveluss Mickey & The Rock-A-Sonics
– Do The Robot
13. The Champs – Tequila Twist
14. Bob Landers with Willie Joe and his Unitar
– Cherokee Dance
15. The Meters - Chicken Strut

I’ve got dozens of early 60s “dance” records - (I feel sure y’all know how to do the Twist and the Mashed Potato) but hopefully there are some dances here that you weren’t aware of - such as the lesser-spotted Oo-mi-liddi and the not-often cited (or sighted) Cootie Snap. My advice is simple: clear away the tables and chairs, press play and do whatever dance comes naturally!

NB - It’s our Christmas Shing-A-Ling special on Friday 18th December - we’ll be partying till 4am and dishing out mince pies and mulled wine - as well as encouraging the development of new dance crazes. Facebook event page is HERE