Live music listings: February 2008

Doors 7.30
£6 via WeGotTickets and Ticketweb
£8 door

Loose Music and Not The Same Old Blues Crap join forces and stretch the country genre to breaking point while delving deep into the traditional country themes of pathos, humour, women, whiskey, murder, death, disease and destitution.

We are delighted to welcome Mojo magazine's rising star Pete Molinari as he makes his Nashville Babylon debut at The Luminaire. Pete will be playing solo and with his band, previewing his forthcoming Liam Watson produced album, "A Virtual Landslide". The record has already been flagged up by Mojo as "An early contender for one of 2008's landmark albums" and will be released on Damaged Goods on 31st March. The fantastic single "Sweet Louise" will be released on 17th March.

Pete molinari was born into a large Maltese/ Italian/ Egyptian family in Chatham, Kent, where he was discovered by Billy Childish. Molinari had an odd childhood. While his friends were listening to Nirvana and Oasis he developed a deep infatuation with the Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Leadbelly and Bob Dylan records of his much older brothers.

With a head full of songs and his trusty guitar he went out to New York for a month, which turned into two years travelling round the USA. There he honed his unique vocal style playing the bars and cafes of New York's Greenwich Village like the Bitter End, the Gaslight, Cafe Wha?, Café Del Artista – places where Jack Kerouac and his beat poets read and also the likes of Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Dylan all played.

As Pete says: "I've travelled a long road to get here. These songs have been on that road. From playing little places in Chatham and London to the late night coffee houses of Greenwich Village, Memphis, New Orleans, San Francisco, LA and Paris. I seem to be drawn to these places. There's something more real about them. More close to the earth."

When he returned to Chatham the painter/ poet/musician Billy Childish suggested recording an album. 'We made it in a day in Billy's kitchen. He got out an old Revox tape machine and recorded it live. That way we got a bit of that old spirit that I love so much about those old records. The ones that were thrown to one side in my house as a child...Hank Williams, Johnny Cash...I can only thank God that they were." I was used to people showing interest and doing nothing, but Billy just got on with it. He's a huge inspiration.' The album they recorded together was 'Walking Off The Map' which stands as one of those rare warm and intimate records where you feel the singer is there performing in front of you.

Now bolstered by the stereo production quality of the legendary Toe Rag Studios and, on many of the songs, a full band, Pete is ready with a brilliant second album – 'A Virtual Landslide'.

"A Virtual Landslide is an early contender for one of 2008's landmark albums"- Mojo

"The Soul of American music distilled into the voice of a Cuban-heeled greaser from The Medway Delta" -The Guardian

Formed in 2005, Elwood Grace reference the swaggering grooves of the melting pot era of the late 60s and early 70s. Looking like poster boys for Oz Magazine and sounding like they got lost on the way to Woodstock, this band remind you that the counterculture is alive and well – and that good music can never sound retro 'cause it's timeless.

The folk-noir finger-picking troubadour performs his self-penned repertoire of love songs, death songs and post-country sea shanties. Occupying the space between Townes Van Zandt, Nick Cave and Jackson Frank, Tom Baxendale never fails to capture the imagination with his dark, melancholy tales of life, death and everything in-between.

RSS