VOLCANO MADNESS AND GIGS FOR POLITICS

ANYTHING can happen in the streets of Camden. We’ve had Madness on a double-decker bus, Reverend and the Makers’ Jon McClure playing outside Morrisons and now it’s the turn of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

To appease fans waiting outside the Electric Ballroom last week – their gig began late due to volcano-induced equipment delays – frontman Robert Levon Been came out and played a medley before returning inside and carrying on with borrowed equipment.

Resourceful musicians elsewhere have also been finding ways to occupy themselves while stranded.
Dub Pistols had to cancel their Budapest gig, but good news for London fans, they play a special DJ set at InSpiral lounge in Camden Town on Friday (April 23), free before 11pm.
Nas and Damian Marley’s Electric Ballroom gig on Wednesday was also cancelled.
Ronnie Scott’s has been deluged with calls from musicians with too much free time on their hands, hoping to replace vacant spaces where others have cancelled. In place of US trumpeter Wallace Roney, who couldn’t travel to the UK, two-time Grammy winner Dee Dee Bridgewater, stuck here since performing at the Barbican on Friday, was drafted in to perform in his place.

- If you can get hold of tickets for Instigate Debate at Islington’s Union Chapel (April 26) – this is one pre-election event not to miss. Instigate Debate is a counterculture project formed by a collective of musicians including Carl Barat and Jon McClure, plus journalist Mark Donne and John O’Sullivan. The likes of Vivienne Westwood and Peter Tatchell will be debating “Is the Party Over?”, with performances from The Magic Numbers and Rose Elinor. The audience member who writes the best 100-word argument on the topic wins a free gig in their own home from a surprise line-up of exciting musicians.