A night in Shepherds Bush

It's the weekend again and last night we kicked it off with a bus ride to Shepherds Bush. Our friend Tony was in town again playing another show with his band The Gutter Brothers, so Jim and I headed to Bush Hall to enjoy the music. Our bus driver was slightly psycho (and American,we think), nearly missing running over a few teenagers and an innocent looking woman on a bike (who he then honked at). We were a little carsick but still hungry when we got off the bus, so we stopped in a noodle house for a cheap dinner before heading down to hear the band.



The Gutter Brothers are a "skiffle band" and Tony plays the washboard, harmonica, sings and sometimes plays the guitar. There was a stand up bass, lots of percussion, a shrieking woman, a kick ass drummer, and a guy who played some wooden flute-type instrument (think Paul Simon in Africa) with much passion. We enjoyed ourselves and boogied down for a couple of hours before hitting the streets again.

As we made our way back towards the tube, we heard some pretty voices singing "Candy Man" from inside of a pub. We decided to check it out and stumbled into the Den of Drunk Irish Men. DRUNK actually is an understatement. These men (and a few women) were career alcoholics and there weren't just a couple of them...it was as if all the people in London who you see staggering down the street in a drunken stupor decided to get together in this pub. It was kind of surreal. But, despite their wasted audience, the three women sang their hearts out to taped background music and the men and women in the room danced (or something...I'm not sure I could call it dancing. It was more like stumbling around while flailing their arms). Then they cheered for more! At one point the singers sang some sort of military song and one of the few women in the place got up and began marching around. She was in stillettos and an army type outfit and was handling herself really well considering the shoes and her condition. Jim and I looked on in wonder, attempted to have a few conversations with some of the people there,confused everyone and then went on our merry way to the tube, thankful that we had all of our teeth. It was a bizarre experience.

Sadly, we forgot our camera again, so apologies for the lack of visual.