BABYBIRD - DEBT TO DEPP

THE first time Babybird frontman Stephen Jones saw Johnny Depp, he was sitting under his desk, backside to the door, in a house in the King’s Road.
From these humble beginnings grew a long-term friendship, with Ol’ Jack Sparrow becoming so chummy with the Nottingham singer that he played guitar on and directed the video for Babybird’s current single Unlovable. The video also features This is England actor Stephen Graham.
Stephen first met Depp when he was filming Finding Neverland.
“I was summoned to come meet him,” says Stephen. “The first time I saw him he was under his desk with a guy that works with him... so the first thing I saw was their backsides.”

He credits Depp for making new album Ex-Maniac possible.
“I made it in LA and it was kind of paid for by Johnny Depp – it’s the best production of any album I’ve ever had. It’s got quite an American feel to some of the songs which I didn’t plan. I hope every song I write is different but you can’t change your voice that much so that always brands it as a Babybird record.”
He said Depp was “the same as most directors”, adding: “If something’s not going right they’ll tell you, but if it is they don'’t say anything.
“He did come and just tell me the odd thing but I got through it. It was very strange because there wasn’t any lip synching so it was almost like an acting job. The subject matter’s quite dark. We had a massive film set, four days shooting in the forest.”

Away from his Hollywood mates, Stephen enjoys a quiet life with his family in Belsize Park, and is a regular visitor to Camden market.
He said: “I love it, it’s a fantastic market, the best I’ve been to in the world. I love the horses and everything. I know it’s become more of a business but some of it is like entering another world, bits from Blade Runner, it’s changed for the good.”
It’s been a while since Babybird’s smash You’re Gorgeous and with the big hit behind him, Stephen is relishing working to his own tune.
He says: “Babybird’s maybe not as commercial as it could be because of the lyrics I like to write – the first line of the album is, ‘I will kill you said the five-year-old’. It’s not necessarily going to be easy to get it played on radio.

“I’m lucky because my big success came years ago, with You’re Gorgeous and that album. I didn’t really want it to be a massive success, it just happened. So after waiting a couple of years to go off the radar again, I’ve been lucky to do what I wanted – no commercial pressure, particularly with this new album. If it fails it doesn’t matter too much because we can make another.”
But, Stephen revealed, he has an incurable disease, menieres, which can affect his hearing.
“Van Gough apparently had it, one of the reasons he cut his ear off,” he says.

“It just happens because I’m into music I get this thing that affects my right ear. It’s okay, it’s very liveable, but some people get it and it’s terrible. You’re in the middle of the street, you look drunk just because your whole balance is gone and you’re falling all over the place. It’s horrible when it happens, I could be looking straight at you but everything is spinning round and I can’t focus.
“It’s kind of water pressure in your ear building up and you feel you’ve got a pea stuck in it. I get that every now and then. I’ve never had the bad episodes but it still affects you when you’re listening to music. You can only hear out of one side when the pressure builds up.”
• Babybird play Scala on March 25 and the Camden Crawl (May 1 and 2).

WEEKLY GOSSIP - CAMDEN CRAWL PICKS, KISS, ROUGH SCIENCE, ROBOT DISASTER AND TWEET OF THE WEEK

ONLY two months to Camden’s answer to the marathon – a prolonged drunken stumble between 40 venues over two days, hell, it’s tougher than the pansy marathon, it’s the Camden Crawl. Get training.
The initial line-up was released this week but the big names are yet to come.

Here’s my pick so far – Sunshine Underground, The Drums, The Delays, Chew Lips, The Hundred in the Hands, Holly Miranda, Eliza Doolittle, Billy Childish, Best Coast, Speech Debelle (because she’s unpredictable) and Jamie Woon. Some from my uni days in there – Cornershop, Babybird and Teenage Fanclub. See the full line-up at www.camden newjournal.com and follow me on twitter @roisingadelrab

• Face paints ready, grandad rockers KISS play the humble 02 Academy Islington on March 2 – make-up guide’s on Wikipedia if you need help. The tickets sold out in seconds and now they're going for hundreds of pounds on eBay.

• Kentish Town’s Rough Science blend music from around the world to give you a wicked and unexpected night, full of Latin rhythms, hip-hop bass and beats with some London lyrical sensibility. (Bull and Gate, March 6).

• Too excited – former Record of the Week boys Robot Disaster play Camden Barfly on Saturday.

• Lightning Strikes the Empire State are ready to launch their first single. See them at the Water Rats on March 2.

• Tweet of the Week goes to @davejoyner in response to news Peckham rapper Giggs has had to cancel his tour – including a date at 02 Academy Islington on March 4 – due to security fears: “Nice of the Feds to help shut down that Giggs tour in case it got all stabby and/or shooty and ting.”

RECORD OF THE WEEK - EMIT BLOCH DICTAPHONES VOL. 1

THIS choice has nothing to do with the charming handwritten note that tumbled out of the envelope with this album, apparently from Emit himself.
But now I’ve listened to it, I hope Bloch did write it as it could be
worth something.
Dictaphones has the kind of rough quality that can fool the listener into thinking a vinyl has crept into the CD player. In truth the distortion is a result of Bloch’s rejection of glossy production, instead recording straight into a dictaphone. Americana is everywhere you look now but none so raw as this, and quite possibly the better for it.
Sadly I couldn't find any video footage to go with it - maybe I'll track down a picture.

REVIEW - NME AWARDS SHOW TOUR - THE MACCABEES, 02 ACADEMY BRIXTON

THANK you Tubelines. I had big plans on Saturday and they did not involve maniacal drivers and snarly abusive teenage passengers on packed rail replacement buses.
The disastrous state of the weekend’s transport set me back a good couple of hours and I missed the first three acts on the NME Awards Tour’s final show at Brixton Academy.
No Big Pink, The Drums or Bombay Bicycle Club for me.
So it was fitting compensation when the sublime Maccabees took control. Any fears they may not have reached headline status quite yet were allayed in seconds as track after track was sung back to them in some mass choral tribute. Their rounder sound filled the Academy in a way they failed to at the Roundhouse last year.
Orlando Weeks’ deceptive vocals, apt for the faraway love song Toothpaste Kisses, expanded to impossible heights for the rousing Can You Give It, establishing just how accomplished the boys have become.
High points – their chef-d’oeuvre No Kind Words, the surprise appearance of Edwyn Collins for Rip It Up, and the impromptu multi-band stage invasion as the tour closed.

LOWKEY RECOMMENDS - SHADIA MANSOUR - FIRST LADY OF ARABIC HIP-HOP

RAPPER Lowkey is driven, political, eloquent and actively on Twitter.
And right now he's bigging up El Kofeyye 3arabeyye, the first single from British-born Palestinian MC Shadia Mansour's debut album - featuring Dead Prez's M1.

Here's what he had to say on Saturday via Twitter - lowkeyuk "Check out this promo of Shadia Mansour feat @m1deadprez...gonna be a hit!"

She's already opened for Busta Rhymes and it seems her star's shining bright right now.
Sadly my Arabic's not good enough to understand the lyrics but she explains on her YouTube page: "The song represents the Arab scarf Kofeyye. In this song, I am claiming back its historical, political and revolutionary purpose. As you are aware, the 'Kofeyye' has been tastelessly commercialized and economically exploited worldwide. I feel that it is only right to give the people a thorough introduction and understanding of its symbolic existence."
Sadly she doesn't go on to explain her interpretation of the scarf's significance.
Watch the video here and if you understand it, let me know.



PS Here's an interview I did with Lowkey way back.



Lowkey interview

UNLIKELY CELEB GROUPIES GETTING IN ON THE ACT- JOHNNY DEPP, PAUL KAYE AND MAT HORNE

THE first time Babybird frontman Stephen Jones saw Johnny Depp, he was under his desk, backside towards the door.
Now, old Jack Sparrow is the official director of Babybird's new single Unloveable out on Monday.
The Fun Lovin' Criminals have been friends with actor Paul Kaye ever since he began flaunting his outrageous Dennis Pennis character in LA.
Recently liberated from their own legal wrangles, Huey Morgan told me he could identify with Kaye's outrageous MTV lawyer character Mike Strutter.
And now Kaye's featuring on the FLC's new album Classic Fantastic on comedy skit ‘Conversations With Our Attorney’ featuring Mike Strutter.
At the same time the video for last year's stunning Maccabees single No Kind Words featured Gavin and Stacey actor Mat Horne, who's been following the band for some time.
And he did it for nothing.
And now it just remains to predict who next and how famous do I have to get before a band will let me star/direct/or just appear in their video?

THE MACCABEES ON EASTENDERS, FULHAM FC AND CLEAN SOCKS

THE Queen Vic’s jukebox, long-harboured desires to be Fulham’s official chippie and the virtues of clean socks – this is what’s on Felix White’s mind as he speaks to me from his tour bus.
The Maccabees are in the midst of their NME Awards tour, which culminates in a much-awaited headline show in Brixton with Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Drums on Saturday.
But Felix is thinking about other things, like how he’s going to deal with his mischievous bandmates.
“Our only actual form of recreation is that Nick, our tour manager, has bought a bouncy ball so we need to find better things to do,” he says. “We’ve known each other for such a long time now that pleasantries go out the window a little bit. I think we still get on great.”

But he admits, they can wind him up: “(They) sometimes try to make as much noise as they possibly can – there’s the ambulance song. When they feel like it they get a piano and make it go ‘nee-naw, nee-naw’ for as long as they can. I still haven’t worked out how to get over that because if you ignore them they keep doing it louder, if you tell them off and say please stop it they keep doing it louder, if you leave they keep doing it louder so you can hear it from the other side of the bus. Sometimes I do sound a bit like a granddad.”
Right now, Felix is trying to read Cormac McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses.
“I’ve read the first page about 40 times so I’m going to try and actually read it this tour,” he says. “I don’t know what stopped me – probably short-term memory loss.”

We last saw The Maccabees at Islington’s Union Chapel, one of my top gigs of last year.
Felix says: “It was one of the most foreign experiences for us. When we’re doing it properly you can cover nerves or being timid with noise. It’s so stripped bare that it’s terrifying, but I really enjoyed it. For some reason we decided to do the acoustic thing so quiet, at the level of what mice would speak, so that just adds to the tension.”
The band have been played in the background in EastEnders, a sure sign they’ve arrived, but Felix isn’t happy yet.
“Eastenders – that’s the money shot,” he says. “That’s when you know you’ve made it, but we’ve only been in the caff, we need to be in the Queen Vic. If anyone who works for EastEnders reads (this) then please have us in the background in the Vic when Ronnie’s arguing with Peggy or something.”
Felix says they didn’t have to convince actor Mat Horne to appear in their video for No Kind Words.
“He’s been coming to shows and we sort of became friends through that,” says Felix. “He wanted to be in a video. We had a small budget to do No Kind Words and Mat was just happy to do it for nothing. That was that really – a favour both ways.”

If he hadn’t been a rock star, you might have spotted Felix outside Fulham’s infamous Craven Cottage stadium.
“I wanted to be a football manager, then I decided it would be better if I ran the official mobile fish and chip shop for Fulham Football Club,” he says. “I’d be outside the grounds and it would follow the team everywhere. Everyone would know if you’re a Fulham supporter you’d eat that fish and chips.”
So, any strange requests on their rider? “The most important thing we ask for is socks,” says Felix. “You can’t really put into words how panicked you can be if you’re halfway through a tour and you haven’t got any clean socks.”

* The Maccabees’ Wall of Arms re-issue with five bonus tracks including Empty Vessels with Roots Manuva and a cover of Roy Orbison’s I Drove All Night is out now.

BRITS, WIGS, TRIPS AND FLIDS (Liam - that's you)

NEITHER N-Dubz nor Alexandra Burke won a Brit this year so unless Lady Gaga or Jay-Z have some secret north London connections, we’re pretty much done here. Instead, here’s what I noticed.

• The Brits evoked anger in a lot of people this year, you only need to follow Twitter to see. There was room for some hearty pop but some real questions about how out of touch it has become remain. Case in point – Best Album of Last 30 Years category was a travesty - Dido/Duffy - seriously?
I'm still struggling to comprehend how they made it into the top 10. Bearing the competition in mind, Oasis' What's the Story Morning Glory was the only possible winner.
However, if there had been a credible top 10 selection I doubt this would've been the case.

• Too much Spice Girls stage time.

• Success stories were nutty Lady Gaga and boy band JLS. Major fails from Jonathan Ross dressing as Dizzee, and from poor selection of award-givers in Sam Fox and Alan Carr.

• Jay-Z, Dizzee, Florence and Cheryl put on a fine show – I wasn’t looking at the screen so didn’t notice any miming – though Mrs Cole appeared angry about something.

• Robbie, growing in confidence, still has the look of a post-haircut Sampson in his eyes – a broken man who’s lost his power. Yet the difference is, Robbie looks grateful.

• Angry again Liam Gallagher dissed his brother by omission, swore onstage and chucked his award and mic into crowd. Cue urgent appeals during ads for mic to be returned or one of the performers will not be able to sing – sincerely.

• Kasabian’s Tom Meighan momentarily forgot his swagger as he bounded onstage, promptly falling flat on his face. He looked tempted to throw his award into the crowd but couldn’t bring himself to part with it.

• Lady Gaga disappointed Courtney Love and Geri Halliwell by not singing something they knew - how thoughtless.

• Lily Allen appeared to wear at least three wigs – a brown bob for the red carpet, a Dynasty-esque Joan Collins one for her opening performance of The Fear and a big old ginger Vivienne Westwood/Cilla one to collect her award. The reason for the ginger one? So the camera couldn’t pick out her disappointed expression if she lost, which she didn’t.

• Ellie Goulding was so taken aback with her Critics’ Choice award she looked like she was going to crumple in front of us.

• I still love Kasabian.

THE MACCABEES IN EASTENDERS PLEA

The Maccabees' Felix White is not satisfied with Eastenders only playing their music in the caff - he wants the works.
He told me last week: “Eastenders - that's the money shot. That's when you know you've made it but we've only been in the caff, we need to be in the Queen Vic. If anyone who works for Eastenders reads (this) then please have us in the background in the Vic when Ronnie's arguing with Peggy or something.”

Read full interview on Thursday

SARAH LEIGH DRUMMER EXTRAORDINAIRE, JARMEAN?

MENSWEAR designer by day, drummer by night – hands up if you’re picturing a man.
We are in fact talking about Sara Leigh, Kentish Town-based drummer with vaudeville punk ensemble Jarmean? and all-girl rock ’n’ roll band The Berettas.
Naturally Jarmean? began in a Whitechapel warehouse, where Sara lived with a bunch of musicians.
The name came from their self-styled mockney roots – Jarmean? – a mash-up amalgam of speedily spoken doyaknowwhatimean? Geddit?
Their next single Bad Penny, is released in March.
Sara said: “It’s our first video – about the Bank of England and how the economy increases and decreases like what’s happened with the recession. Everyone was getting lots of money and now all of a sudden they want it back – like a bad penny.” Shooting the video, she said “was really fun, we picked the coldest day for 30 years”.
“We were out there for 15 hours. We wanted it to look Dickensian and there was snow and it worked out really well.”
Many of their songs centre on London. Sara said: “A lot of our lyrics are quite political. A lot of bands are produced at the moment, they’re pushed out there, there’s been a lack of message within songs.”
And you’ll be lucky to find her with her feet up. Up until the night before this interview, Sara had had four hours sleep in 40 hours. She tours, designs, created the band’s artwork, is a session musician, and has just returned from a trip to Cyprus with Noise Ensemble, a drumming group similar to Stomp – without the bins.
But despite the mixed reaction from people when they realise she’s a drummer, Sara enjoys every second.
“I’ve been playing for about 12 years,” she said. “In teenage years people would look at me and think I was somebody’s girlfriend. It’s not as bad now because I’m a bit more confident. Sometimes you get asked if you’re the singer. It’s the last thing they’d expect but there’s more female drummers now.”
And there’s little prospect of her resting soon: “There’s so much I want to do. As a drummer I’m just getting to the stage where I’m earning money and that’s where my passion lies, more than design, even though I love both. I just love creating things, I always have to be doing something, I can’t keep still.”

VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS INSPIRING SURREALISM

NAMED after a dark Czech fairytale, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders claim to be a collective of “musicians inspired by the bleak surrealism of Eastern Europe, lullabies of cold hill tribes, the high-buttoned blouses of English rose folk chanteuses, the mournful repetition of Italian baroque and the cacophony of German noisemakers”. Got that?
So once you’ve paused for breath and worked out if their Romany sounds are appealing, there’ll still be plenty of time to pencil March 5 in your diary when they play The Underbelly, Hoxton Square.

RECORD OF THE WEEK - THE FEATURES, Some Kind of Salvation

THIS Tennessee band have been described as “one of the best undiscovered bands in the world” by the Kings of Leon. And they should know, having made The Features their first signing to their Serpents and Snakes label. Catchy but conventional Southern rock with a UK twist - personal favourite, Whatever Gets You By.

BRITS - N-DUBZ v ALEXANDRA BURKE AND MORE

LESS than a week to go until the Brits and we’ve got Islington’s Alexandra Burke (Bad Boys) and Tinchy Stryder with Camden’s N-Dubz (Number One) battling it out for Best British single.
They’re up against Alesha Dixon, the nation’s darling Cheryl Cole, poor eclipsed Joe McElderry, JLS, La Roux, Lily Allen, Pixie Lott and Taio Cruz. On the merits of pure pop singles I’m thinking it’s between our two and old Cheryl for Fight For This Love.
What's more concerning is the Brits' shortlist for top album of the last 30 years - some dubious choices in there ie - Dido.
Can Did really be credited as having made one of the top 10 albums in the last three decades? So much is missing - The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Elton John, need I go on? Suggestions on a postcard here.....
Follow me @roisingadelrab for live Twitter updates on all the action from Earls Court on Tuesday

• I went to the www.easyeartraining.com launch at Islington’s Union Chapel on Monday. If you’re learning to play an instrument, sing, or produce bands, this one’s for you.

• The Chemical Brothers play their first gigs in nearly 18 months at the Roundhouse on May 20-21. Tickets from www.gigsandtours.com

• OK, it’s not strictly north London, but Bon Jovi’s residency at the O2 Arena has to be mentioned, especially as Kid Rock’s joining them on June 25-26.

• Ant and Dec, along with Spaced actor Simon Pegg, were in the crowd at Leddra Chapman’s gig at the Jazz Café on Saturday.

YOUTUBE TRAWL - LIDL, £1.50 CHICKEN...it's all good

Shoplifting in Lidl and the joys of chicken for £1.50 - there's nothing like a bit of gritty bargain realism.
A friend showed me these clips the other day.
They've been around for a while but had to share.

AFRIKAN BOY - LIDL



JUNIOR SPESH - I'm just calling this the Chicken Song as I can't find the real name.

LOS CAMPESINOS! ON GUILT-TRIPPING FANS AND NEARLY FALLING THROUGH THE CEILING

THEY once made such a huge dent in a Camden pub that their audience were forced to sit down for the rest of the set.
Seven-piece Cardiff band Los Campesinos! made waves during 2008's Camden Crawl when cracks started appearing in the ceiling during their set at Chalk Farm's Enterprise pub. And now they're back for more.
The band, who released their second official album Romance is Boring on Monday, play Koko on February 25.
Right now they are busy. So busy in fact that when I ring up to speak to singer and bassist Ellen Campesinos (they've all adopted the name), she's right in the middle of rehearsals and full of nerves for their tour ahead.
Their single Romance is Boring was featured on this blog last week as our Record of the Week.
But there was some friction just before Christmas when someone - and the band claims to know who but won't say - leaked the album, prompting frontman Gareth to vent on his blog.
The result was an outpouring of confessions from fans who had downloaded the album but promised to buy it for real when it came out.
"It's kind of bizarre, it's like a confessional," said Ellen.
"Downloading happens, it's almost sad because you've worked so hard on something and you're just like come on just hold out. You're worried people will listen and judge it and say things about it before it's had its proper release. It was amazing people reacted and apologised for it. It was quite extreme, I felt like maybe they did it to
unburden themselves. You knew they were going to buy it anyway."
She said of the upcoming Koko show: "That's going to be a big one. I've been there before and I always feel like that chandelier scares the hell out of me. We played there before at the Camden Crawl but it wasn't our own show. It was in the middle of the afternoon but it was amazing, still loads of people there. This one will be more
petrefying."
Fans can expect "a lot of new material, some old favourites thrown in and us being our usual shambolic idiotic selves I'm sure. Hopefully it'll be good. We're all excited about it," she added.
They won't be playing this year's Crawl as they'll be on tour but they haven't forgotten their experience at the Enterprise.
Ellen said: "It was actually very scary because someone just came up to us in the middle of stage and told us to stop. They told us there was a crack in the ceiling below and the floor was going to cave in so we all got very nervous about it. We went offstage and the whole audience was told to sit down. It was really fun because you could tell they wanted to get up and dance so the energy was still there but
at the same time it was very sensible. No-one died."
For those who haven't illegally downloaded the album yet, Ellen says to expect a change from their past work.
"Because it's our second proper album it's definitely different song structures, lyrically, an evolutionary musical process, a lot more complicated structure and amazing string parts. We're all becoming more confident in what we're doing. It's definitely like a get away from the more straight up pop songs we used to write."

PAUL WELLER AND SEASICK STEVE HEADLINE HAITI CONCERT AT CAMDEN ROUNDHOUSE

THE line-up for the Roundhouse's Haiti Earthquake Fundraiser on Feb 25 is shaping up nicely.
Paul Weller, KT Tunstall and Reverend and the Makers, confirmed this week, join Bombay Bicycle Club, Seasick Steve, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, Magic Numbers, Mr Hudson and The Futureheads for a night of comedy, music and most importantly to raise as much as possible for Haiti.
Due to the success of the night, a sister event has been set up at Proud Camden, including The Hoosiers, Adam Ficek Charlotte O'Connor, Example, The Strangeways and Stornoway. And Faithless' Maxi Jazz, Zero7 and Stereo MCs are amongst the list of DJs booked for the night.
All money raised will go to Medecins Sans Frontieres and ActionAid.
Tickets from www.haitiearthquakefundraiser.com

GORILLAZ, Dead by Sunrise, Eartraining, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Egyptian Lover, Camden Barfly

I'VE signed the three-page confidentiality agreement and have promised not to say a word until Feb 22. No, it's nothing to do with John Terry's injunction, just the paperwork we've got to go through to get hold of Gorillaz new album, which should be on its way as we speak - by email - so don't even bother trying to intercept my post!! I'll tell you all about it in good time - after the 22nd...
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I'm not ashamed to admit it but there's little better than blasting Linkin Park as loud as possible on road trips. Now frontman Chester Bennington's side project Dead by Sunrise play their first UK side project at HMV Forum (Feb 19), but are they as good as the Park?
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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Forum date has sold out so they’ve given fans one more chance to catch them in London, and this one’s in Camden too. They’ve booked Electric Ballroom on April 15. Their fifth studio album, Beat The Devil’s Tattoo, is out March 8.
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Ever been that one person in the band who wishes they were just that much more in tune with everyone else? Do you love music but want to learn to hear even better. A new website www.easyeartraining.com, launching Monday at a secret location in Islington will help you do just that. "With a little bit of training, you’ll be able to discern minute details in sound which you never knew were there," they
promise. Email april@EasyEarTraining.com to reserve a place.
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Got to mention Egyptian Lover who plays The Big Chill House on Feb 12 - timely after our African Nations Cup final victory this week. Known as the Hugh Hefner of hip-hop, Greg James Broussard, aka Egyptian Lover has been enthralling with his electro talents for 25 years.
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Barfly Camden reopened last week after a full refurb and it's looking good by all accounts.