Underbelly

Last week, our son Nick performed tracks from his new album at a smart club in Shoreditch.

The Underbelly is a well known venue for music in Hoxton Square, beneath the equally popular Zigfrid bar and restaurant and boasts a fine sound system, manned by a proper sound-man. Obviously it is going to be a bit gloomy down there under the ground, but most rock venues seem to brick up the windows to stop the sound getting out and the favoured colour for those bricky walls is black. By contrast to those places, this club is light and airy.

The size of the space is about right with a decent stage area, a bar, standing room and seating on sofas, chairs and stools. You could get alomst 100 people in there, making for an intimate space for emerging bands that is reasonably easy to fill.

Too often you see rooms in pubs that have dreadfull gear and accoustics, and only room for the three bands who are playing and a dozen fans.

So this was a the first proper outing for half a dozen new songs performed by Nick and his new band. They did a great job and my only regret is that they were on very early, between the bankers going home and the hipsters coming out for the evening. Next time they will be on later. (May 30th: Please mark your diaries now.)

Our other son Dan came along with two of his carers (Mark and Sharon) and we all had a great night out, both at the gig and in the restaurant. The party even continued in the car on the way home!

To find out more about the venue go to Zigfrid von Underbelly

To hear some of Nicks new songs, prior to the release of his new album go to Nicholas Stevenson