The Island Experimental 3: Two Pubs and The HUB

 by Wills Morgan

Welcome ho! It’s the EXPERIMENTAL, a monthly column about a way of life that makes "a little bit of noise in a (more than) relatively nice neighbourhood". This month, we'll take a little tour down memory lane before we get down to a bit of gigging material. And here’s a helpful hint for y’all in a hurry...if you only read the stuff that’s in capital letters you’ll have the gist of the whole column. Aha!

As early as 1896 there was an application for a pub in College Road, College Park to be called the VICTOR TAVERN, but it was refused at the time. It was not until as recently as 1970 that a licence was eventually agreed for that area, which was owned by All Souls College, Oxford (Churches seemed to own all sorts of ungodly things in the old days).

The result: an extraordinary detached pub called THE BUCCANEER which will celebrate (if that's the word) its fortieth birthday in November this year. Only it's not called the Buccaneer any more. It is...THE ISLAND.

The Buccaneer was probably the last...and ugliest...of Willesden's purpose- built pub buildings. It gave the vague impression of the hull of a pirate ship. And, given the weather we have around these parts you won't be surprised that everybody remembers the Buccaneer...but no-one misses it. Anyway, to cut a long story short...improvements were made to the building around about 2003 or 2004 and the ISLAND as we know it and love it makes the little noise I talked about earlier.

Although KENSAL is well served for pubs (and there are about 60 of them in Willesden) there is only one home base for "boy-wonder” WADE BAYLISS and his super-cool "bat-man" who goes around disguised as PATRICK LONG. That place (my friends) is the ISLAND: and them guys are the leaders of the gang I belong to...not the kind of gang that Gary Glitter ever knew of or sang about.

The gang has a high reputation at the nearby pub which forms the meat in a sandwich made up of KENSAL GREEN TUBE STATION and the nearby KENSAL GREEN CREMATORIUM. It's on the Harrow Road and called THE MASON'S ARMS. Upstairs at the Mason's is one of the coolest places to gig at, and compares favourably to...downstairs at the Mason’s. Although a gig down there is quite good, so I'm told. I'll have to give it a go sometime.

Wade hosted the Upstairs section of the recent BENEFIT FOR HAITI earlier last month (this net magazine supported the event). As you would expect, the gang turned up in force.

MARK FEATHERS is in really great form these days and it was good to see him make the effort to turn up and play 'Spread your Medicine' for the assembled troops. Wearing a rather wonderful red dress was the person who opened for the evening, Miss LAURA MATTHEWS. The transformation from bespectacled mum-of-two to Experimental Wonder was quite a contrast; I played on her set with usual sidekicks CHRIS and PATRICK and it seemed to go over well.

I also played for something called THE VITO EXPERIENCE. Vito is some kind of cat. Really. He strode into the bar made up as The Cat in the Hat, and proceeded to deliver some smart wordsmithing. There was an added point to the end of the routine, reminding us that we are rather better off than the Haitians at the moment: apart from our misplaced trust in bankers and politicians, I would say we're doing okay.

WIGS was playing with a band which contained the extraordinary FIFI D on the lead vocals. This was rock ‘n’ roll drama writ large (Fifi does indeed give good show). It was also quite noisy, as befits a rock ‘n’ roll outfit.

Now...having spent a large fraction of my life in opera houses, music colleges and the odd bit of West End stage...the grime and grit of the rock ‘n’ roll gig is still rather new to me. But I am learning. A little. A lot.

DAN ANTROBUS and JO-DEAN OSGOOD got up and did their thing. So did HAYLEY TUCKER and VIRGINIA DOC. The Experimental Band was heating up: on the left stood PATRICK with THE DAVE by his side... then there was BEN THOMAS BROWN who had his kit to the right, with me just in front of him shaking my tambourine. 

There were other bands on the line up, but if I mention them I won't have time to talk about THE HUB. Now this place is not in Kensal so don't be looking for it there. Let me tell you where it is: try York Way by way of Kings Cross Station a little way past the Premier 
Inn, and a long way before you get to the performing arts centre called Kings Place.

The HUB is a perfectly designed space for the needs of the EXPERIMENTALS. Friday night seems to be the right time for our monthly excursions into the open-mike territory...and as I write, our gang will be gearing up for episode three of the presentation we call ...'I LIKE YOU'.

How it works is like this: WADE and PATRICK get into one cab. BEN T/B and I get in another cab. That's how the gear gets to the gig. When we've set the gear up, we grab a drink and Patrick forgets to eat something. JAMIE, the head honcho at the HUB gets his efficient staff to heat up some home-made pizza slices. They're tasty. Tasty. REALLY, REALLY TASTY. Drizzle some hot pepper sauce and you're away.

I've already blogged about I LIKE YOU: episode two during last month. So if you want to know what I said, feel free to check out any of my blogging spots. I do far too much social networking these days...but rock'n'roll is a pretty tough business to be in, and the only way to build up your audience is to let that audience know you're around.

Whether it is TWITTER or just plain email, you will get our mail. We will mail you frequently and often. And every month in this little corner of the world, I'll share some reflections around the mid-week musical extravaganza that lives in a pub in KENSAL and spreads its love to the rest of London. That, my friends is...THE ISLAND EXPERIMENT.

Acknowledgements:
BRENT ARCHIVE
WILLESDEN GREEN LIBRARY
CLIFF WADSWORTH, Willesden Local History Society
PETER WILTON

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