secret london is live!

Posted on February 16th, 2010 by thiswayup.
Categories: Development, London gems.

Holy crap! I don't believe they did it! The crew at secretlondon.us have just gone live with the site!!!!

Check out the blog entry as well! Glad to see the map working, gonna have to put a few more hours in to make it more amazing!

update – Holy crap! My mug is on tech crunch!

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Camden Pub Crawl 2008 – Saturday

Posted on May 25th, 2008 by thiswayup.
Categories: London gems, Music.

God I been so slack! Nearly a month on and I’ve just managed to get this up!

Anyways, just thought I’ll drop a couple more of the fading memories before it becomes a mere mist in the recesses of my mind. The saturday was definitely another great follower on from friday! We started fairly a bit later then yesterday and headed straight to see Lady Hawk@ The cuban bar. Unfortunately it was pack to the rafters and we were stuck some where in the middle of a heaving crowd with a low set stage, so we couldn’t see squat for most of it. It was a great set but we decided to leave towards the end to check out the Proud Galleries@Stables Market, very nice venue with some real fine sexy staff! It was literally a horse stable with each stable being small separate area, I would think it would be great for private parties. One quick drink and wonder around then off we go again.

Next we to try and catch a mysterious TBC@Bug Bear. On the way, we bumped into a good friend Chicago Dave who we convinced to join us to try and find out who this ‘TBC’ was, we were working on a rumor that the TBC was actually Madness! When we got there, it seemed like quite a few people had the same idea and we couldn’t get in! Oh well, we never got to find out who was the mysterious TBC. Shame. So we then headed to see Effi Briest@Underworld, a gothy experimental 6 girl band from New York. Not generally the type of band I would see but good non the less with a very appealing bass player. Managed to chat with the PR for the UK and gave her my Londonist badge.

Then jumping to the next one slagsmalaklubben (or SMK for short) @bar fly, a very quirky electro chaotic blip-bleep swedish 6 man team and FECKING brill. If ever there was a group of nerdy geek kids who grew up playing with too many computer games then going onto playing with synths, these would be the guys! Simply put, loved them. Their sense of humour and stage show is something I definitely want to check out again!

Then finally the icing on the cake was Crystal Castles@Dingwalls. After reading the blab in the book guide, I decided to try catch them. Failed yesterday and my second chance was definitely not going to be missed! Thank gawed we didn’t! Oh my gawed to say it was nothing but BRILLIANT would be an under statement! Sounded like a dark twisty 80’s/games electronica inspired by some really angry punky edge, potentially something that Wario/Walugi would bang out if they were in a energetic and particularly jumpy mood! Reminded me of the Fratellis gig with an almighty mosh pit halfway that included Alice (the female singer) trying to climb over the bouncer to reach into the crowd at one stage. Madness!

So overall, fantastic experience! Managed to find some new music I would otherwise not find and even went on to itunes to nab a few! Can;t wait for next year for the same again!

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Camden Pub Crawl 2008 – Friday

Posted on April 20th, 2008 by thiswayup.
Categories: London gems, Music.

I’ve just started to recover the 2 day pub crawl that is the Red Stripe Camden Crawl 2008. Essentially it is a two day event where 30 pubs/bars/club and loads of bands play music around Camden. I managed to get some 2 day tickets from ebay at a slight premium after it was sold out. I went to the crawl with my flat mate, Minh, and another friend, Chicago Dave.

My whole crawl experience started with getting the wrist bands need to gain entry to all the venues. All things considered, it didn’t take too long considering the queue went down all of Kentish Town Road and getting there at 3ish, I was merrily off soon after. Our first stop was the gasto pub, Edingbrugh Castle for the music bingo. It was a fantastic pub with a brilliant outside seating and nice cozy interior, we didnt spend too much time outside and admire the beer garden as there was a slight chill in the air plus the music wasn’t being sent outside, not really helpful!. Music bingo was really good fun as we managed to grab a table with a group girls who was more musically in tune then us. We didn’t win anything and come closer to 6.45pm slot when the first bands coming, the pub was starting empty out so we started heading out ourselves.

Our first stop was to see Royworld at The Crescent. Ok pub venue with a good band. They remind me of a more rocky dreamy version of Coldplay for some reason and with a REALLY tall lead singer. I managed to grab the playlist with a couple of autographs from the drummer and singer. Good stuff!

Next we headed to the big ol club of Camden, KoKo. To this day I still think of it as the Camden Palace, my nostalgic old clubbing days comes flooding back back with every glance. We saw the band Does It Offend You, Yeah? from the side boxes from above. It was really good tune selection with the whole crowd going crazy. We didn’t stay till the end to try get into Ladyhawke at the Earl Of Camden but the queue seemed a bit epic so we ended up in the Electric Ballroom to catch Metronomy. Sounded very deep house with a 80’s disturbance back track thrown in. My first time there and I haven’t been so confused at a venue in ages!

Next was the Fratellis @ Koko, my personal favorite wake up in the morning band to really start your day! I knew it was going to be a bit potty but I never knew it was going to be so maddddddd! Their up beat style that made the whole of Koko rock and really sparked off the mosh pit in the main standing arena with elbows and hands flaying everywhere. Some of which connected with Minh who felt a bit squished and suffering for a fair while after! Dropping out of the Koko we then went across the road in hope to try catch the ending set of the Crystal Castles but ended up chatting with the queue, all full up! Dang. Our night ended with a few more drinks at the Purple turtle! Overall the friday experience made for a good start to it, found a couple of new places and good bands.

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Fancy custom tshirts in nice packagin + cake!

Posted on September 27th, 2007 by thiswayup.
Categories: London gems, cool stuff, gifts.

So here I am sitting on my ass in my new flat browsing Current TVand I stumble on a rather nice piece on a London based custom tshirt company called Tshirt Patisserie. Basically you make a custom Tshirt in your design using the tools provided and they post it in a striking gift box…along with a cake! Perfect for those special pressies! Then you can either choose to deliver or pick up the custom tshirt from the store on brick lane.

tshirt

Tshirt again

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Cool little cafe in Earls Court, Troubadour.

Posted on January 10th, 2007 by thiswayup.
Categories: Drinking, London gems.

So after gaming and some pub grub last sunday going out on the Game On Exhbition in the Frag Dolls/DS group outing , we stumbled upon a really cool little cafe whilst trying to find a Starbucks to accomodate all 15 of us. Walking from South Kensignton to Earls Court in our failed search, we finally found a little cafe called Troubadour (www.Troubadour.co.uk), 265 Old Brompton Road, SW5 9JA.

I have gotta say the decor is fantastic! Perfect for romantic couple/small groups get together with its creaky wooden floors, charming ornaments and candle lit surroundings (really impressed by its authentic creaking door!). We ended up getting our own little area although the table configuration was more suited for couples and really small groups, there was probably larger tables taken up around the place but we couldnt complain having our booth. Looking around it reminded me of cafe’s you would find in the countryside over the continent somehow. Good stuff!

The menu seemed ok but what grabbed our attention was the B.O.G.O.F (buy one get one free) deals till 7.30pm on cocktails, so Dot and I started off the fashion by buying a couple. The quality was ok, nothing to write home about but at the price we really couldnt complain (Singapore Sling, yummy!). A peculair feature of such a cafe is the uni-sex type toilets (someone’s been watching Ally Mcbeal I thinks…) and going by others trying the food menu, the deserts got a high thumbs up!

Anyways, if you ever swinging by Earls Court or in the area. Check it out!

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