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Archive for 2009
Advent Blog – Day Twenty Four – Christmas Eve
Friday, 25 December 2009
T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house……
Here we are then, Christmas Eve, and the last date of our Advent Blog! I hope over the last 24 days you have found our posts to be interesting, informative and entertaining. We did try.
We shall be updating this loads more in the future so make sure you keep checking back here. Between Christmas & NY we will have all our DJ’s for NYE leave their top 10 track selections from the last decade to go along side Orlando’s below, in preparation for what will be our massive Zoo Year’s Eve party here!
As it is Christmas Eve, I thought I would share the below with you. It is the intro to the BBC’s brilliant Children’s Dramatisation of The Box Of Delights by John Masefield, which was originally shown in the run up to Christmas in 1984.
I watched it as a child, and it is for me the best Christmas adventure of all time.
I am sure that anyone that remembers it will agree, and anyone that doesn’t will do as soon as they watch it. Just listen out to when ‘The First Noel’ music kicks in after 32 seconds…..
In the meantime it leaves me to wish you all a wonderful Christmas!
Love The Old Queen’s Head! x
Advent Blog – Day Twenty Three – Orlando Maccabees Tracks Of The Decade
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
If you’re anything like me then you will measure the passing of time by music – what your favourite bands were, what gigs you went to and what records you bought are all landmarks in life that piece together the past.
So, with the turning of a decade fast upon us it seems the perfect time to look back on what has been an amazing ten years of music. Between now and New Year myself and other people at The Old Queen’s Head will be sharing with you our ten tracks of the last ten years – and asking you to suggest yours.
To kick things of though we thought we would invite a guest in to share those, and who better than Orlando Weeks, lead singer of The Maccabees, and also our Guest DJ for New Year’s Eve Party!
I asked him to send me over a list of the most important tracks to him from the last 10 years and here is what he sent back…..
“All I can say about these songs is that they remind me of good things.
I think top 10s are fickle little buggers that change from 1 moment to the next but these all hold good memories and that will do for me!”
Love O x
Richard Hawley “The Ocean”
Radiohead – “Reckoner”
My Morning Jacket – “It Beats For You”
Regina Spektor – “The Flowers”
Franz Ferdinand – “Darts of Pleasure”
Arcade Fire – “My Body Is A Cage”
Interpol – “Slow Hands”
Animal Collective – “Purple Bottle”
The Walkmen – “The Rat”
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Thursday 31st December
The Old Queen’s Head
ZOO YEAR’S EVE!
FEATURING…..
THE MACCABEES (ORLANDO & HUGO)
MR THING
BRUCE WAYNE
TIDY RHYTHM
ALLY WOLF
8pm – 5am
£20 Advance Tickets From The Bar
Free Cocktail on the door before 9.30pm
ZOO ANIMAL FANCY DRESS!
http://www.theoldqueenshead.com
http://theoldqueenshead.blogspot.com/
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Advent Blog – Day Twenty Two – The Best Christmas Songs Of All Time?
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Here we are then, one more day in The Office for everyone at The Old Queen’s Head and to while away the hours till we can wrap up and head home for Christmas we have been banding around what our Top 3 Christmas songs of all time are. Feel free to leave your selections below
Just for your reference in the office we have the following:
Ally Wolf
Tom Lunn
Ruth Sanders.
Ally Wolf
1) The Pogues Feat Kirsty McCall – Fairytale Of New York
2) David Bowie & Bing Crosby – Little Drummer Boy
3) Saint Etienne & Tim Burgess – I Was Born On Christmas Day
Tom Lunn
1) RUN DMC – Christmas In Hollis
2) Ray Charles & Dionne Warwick – Baby It’s Cold Outside
3) Oscar The Grouch – Oscar Hates Christmas
Ruth Sanders
1) Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
2) Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You
3) Kylie Minogue – Santa Baby
Advent Blog – Day Twenty One – Zoo Year’s Eve Fancy Dress Idea’s
Monday, 21 December 2009
Well after the slightly content heavey blog of yesterday I thought it was time to lighten it up a bit with some fancy dress idea’s for Zoo Years Eve!
We are of course going for a Zoo Theme – and we will have decorated The Old Queen’s Head out to look like a massive Zoo – so all you need to do is turn up looking like your favourite Zoo Animals!
If you are struggling for idea’s I suggest you visit these sites!
Firstly – if you don’t to go all out for a whooe costume, these girls make amazing Animal hoods! Hve a look at their website!
Or these guys do whole animal fancy dress!
http://www.fancydressed.co.uk/Zoo.html
Or if you just want to look at animals then go here!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals
Advent Blog – Day Twenty – Rage Against The X-Factor
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Bit of a wordy blog today as thought I should pass comment on this whole Xmas number 1 chart battle.
Well it looks like Rage Against The Machine poured hot water on Simon Cowell’s plans for a Christmas Number One with the winner of this year’s X-Factor, beating Joe McElderry.
So an Internet campaign via facebook (member 800,000+) beats a prime time ITV show (viewers 19 million) to take a song to the number one spot, leaving Simon Cowell seething.
What does this tell us? Well, numerous people have poured their opinions about it at every opportunity, claiming it as proof that the public won’t buy into manufactured X-Factor pop, and that this signals the end of Simon Cowell’s reign on the charts. Countless other people have raised the fact that RATM are signed to Sony, who also look after the X-Factor act’s and that the whole campaign is a ploy by a major label and that the people who bought into the Facebook campaign are as guilty as the x-factor fans.
All a little bit to serious i think.
What are my thoughts – well I have two of them.
1) Joe McElderry’s track is weak. It is not a patch on Girls Aloud’s Xmas Number 1 ‘Sound Of The Underground’ or any of the other X-Factor / Pop Idol / Pop Star The Rival’s winner’s songs for that matter. It is a cover of a little known original which has no meaning to anyone, sung by a new artist who from the little we have seen of him seems to have no striking personality or back story. People haven’t fallen for him like they did Gareth Gates, Will Young, Leone Lewis or Alexandra Burke – he seemed to win by default of being the best of a bad bunch.
‘Killing In The Name Of’ on the other hand is an amazing song, which has been in the public consciousness for 19 years, and aside from the songs strong political meaning within the song has a huge significance to many generations of music fans through soundtracking their lives. RATM as a band have one of the most loyal and passionate fan bases, and have spent their whole careers finding that perfect balance between being a cult credible act and achieving mainstream success. They have personalities & opinions and mean something to people.
2) It was a massive piece of fun. When was the last time anyone cared about who was Number 1 at Christmas? Or number 1 at any point during the year for that matter? The charts have become meaningless to everyone. I remember devoutly tuning in to the Top 40 (with Mark Goodier!) when I was a kid, and celebrating certain songs getting to number 1 (when The Verve’s Drugs Don’t Work got to number 1, the Blur v’s Oasis battle standing out for me in particular).
So in conclusion what should we take from this….
Well today I was on a coach when it got to 6.50pm, and without a radio – so I called my dad to find out for me. That made me realise what this was actually all about.
It wasn’t about a David v’s Golith chart battle or a turning in the tide of the public attitude to mass produced pop. It was simply about the quality of a song, the fact that people were able to get excited about the charts again and above all else FUN. Pop music is meant to be fun, always has been and always will be & the fact that in 2009 our Christmas Number 1 will be a song called Killing In The Name of, with a refrain of ‘Fuck You I won’t do what you tell me’ is in my eyes simply hilarious.
Advent Blog – Day Nineteen – Bar Boot Sale
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Last month we hosted the first ever Bar Boot Sale at The Old Queen’s Head. Organised by the lovely Kirsti & Rebbecca, Bar Boot Sale See’s a collection of London’s most loveable and stylish ladies descend upon The Old Queen’s Head for an afternoon to sell a collection of vintage clothes and accessories featuring a record and CD fair and hairdressing – all soundtracked by DJ’s.
Saturday 19Th December
Bar Boot Sale @ The Old Queen’s Head
Midday till 5pm
Free Entry
Here is a video they made of their last one!
Advent Blog – Day Eighteen- Xmas Party!
Friday, 18 December 2009
The last Friday before Christmas!! Which means one thing – it’s time to PARTY.
Anyone heading down to The Old Queen’s Head tonight will get in FOR FREE!!! if they arrive in fancy dress. We will have DJ’s till 2am, Christmas Cocktails, a mistletoe kissing booth and mince pies a plenty for everyone!
We are expecting a massive attendance so please arrive early!
Advent Blog – Day Seventeen – The Sunday Social
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Our wonderful promoters Broccoli are hosting our Christmas Sunday Social this Sunday at The Old Queen’s Head – and they have delivered a whole host of bands and artists for your entertainment!
All the finer details can be found here – best rest assured it will be a blinder!
Don’t forget that The Old Queen’s Head serves the best roast dinners anywhere in the land – even better than the one’s your mum makes. That’s a fact!
