THE LEMONHEADS + MILES KANE FOR CAMDEN CRAWL, MARK E SMITH'S GOT A BEER NAMED AFTER HIM + BOY GEORGE AND SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR'S CAMDEN CHARITY GIGS

CRAWLWATCH week 8453. So The Lemonheads have just been added to the Camden Crawl line-up. Remember them? If not, here’s a crash course.

Frontman Evan Dando – once a teenage grunge pin-up, even after cutting his flowing locks – took an odd turn when he briefly became an Oasis groupie and ended up playing guitar on the roof of the Buckley Tivoli (that’s north Wales to you London types) after one of their early gigs.

The Lemonheads has had many incarnations but Dando has remained a constant.
Their famous album was It’s a Shame About Ray (video to title track featuring Johnny Depp)...



(Official video not available to be embedded so here they are on Letterman instead)

...and Liv Tyler more recently duetted with them on a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s no Way to Say Goodbye (see below).



Also added to the Crawl this week are one of my favourites Miles Kane, as well as Razorlight, Giggs, Guillemots and Yasmin.

• Anyone tasted the Mark E Smith beer at The Snooty Fox in Canonbury? Wonder if they were inspired to commission the exclusive ale by The Fall’s Crawl appearance last year.

• Charity gig week? Sophie Ellis Bextor hosts at Proud Camden on Tuesday (March 29) to raise funds for the young son of her friend, a make-up artist who died last year. The Aspidistras and Sinead and the Dawnbreakers support.

On Thursday, there’s An Evening with Boy George including Jazz by George, and support from Adam Ant, Josh Weller, Paloma Faith and special guests at the Jazz Cafe for The Hepaptitis C Trust’s Get Tested campaign. Snap up signed celeb photos in the charity auction – Boy George, Mat Horne, Sadie Frost, Jimi Mistry, Eliza Doolittle and Paloma Faith.

• Cutting edge alternative and electronic music promoters The Playground host their first Weekender at Electrowerkz, Angel, (March 25-26) featuring an exclusive debut London performance by San Francisco’s oOoOO as well as French popstar Yelle, In Flagranti, Punx Soundsheck and Waylayers. See www.theplayground.co.uk/event.

CAMDEN CRAWL'S SNEAK PREVIEW + VANESSA PARADIS MAKES RARE CAMDEN APPEARANCE + DIRTY BLUES FROM CIRCUS TOWN + STOKE NEWINGTON'S JAMMY LINE-UP

THE Camden Crawl has introduced me to an untold variety of bands I’d never heard of but have come to love.
So, in the lead-up to this year’s event – a welcome distraction from some royal wedding involving a girl who’s been called Kate all her life but now has to be referred to as Katherine – there’s the ongoing treat of the CC Tips nights.
CC Tips previews Crawl talent, a helpful nudge when struggling between the weekend’s delights.
So head to the Bull & Gate (Jan 27) for chilled-out beats from French multi-instrumentalist Anoraak, maverick Mat Motte and special guests.
PS - The Crawl’s also released details of the daytime line-up, see the Camden Crawl website

• Here’s one that came from leftfield – sultry pouty French singer and Johnny Depp’s missus, Vanessa Paradis makes a rare UK appearance at Koko (Feb 2) and, not surprisingly, has sold out already. Expect songs from her Greatest Hits album and some new tracks.
Ready for some retro Paradis baggy jumper dancing?



• It’s tough to decide which not-yet-famous band to see at The Dublin Castle when there’s something on every night and you know it’s full of hidden gems. So I’m helping out this week by suggesting filthy dirty blues maestros Circus Town (Jan 30).



• Stoke Newington International Airport’s a dark horse. It’s managed to secure the Topman CTRL gigs filmed for Channel 4. The line-up’s perfect. Each week someone different gets to curate the night so In-Betweener James Buckley has lined up Miles Kane, The Vaccines and States of Emotion (Jan 28), Misfits actor – and stunning singer – Iwan Rheon introduces White Lies, Brother and Gruff Rhys (Feb 1) and Mark Ronson brings in The View, The Joy Formidable and Lykke Li. Win tickets from www.topmanctrl.com

WHERE'S JOHNNY? DEPP'S STUNT DOUBLE KNOWS + LITTLE NOISE + BRAVO MOBO NOMINEES AKALA AND N-DUBS

EVER wondered what Johnny Depp’s stunt double does when not risking his life to save Hollywood’s most precious cheekbones?
Turns out Pirates of the Caribbean cast member Scott Sener is a musician. He supports Camden band Earth Prayer – fronted by Heidi Jo Hines, daughter of former Wings guitarist and Moody Blues founder member Denny Laine – at a free gig at Scars Studio, 20 Castlehaven Road, Camden Town, on Saturday.
Sener’s invited cast members so keep your eyes peeled for the genuine article – Mr Depp has been known to pop up at the odd underground gig – ask Babybird.

(Can't find a clip of Earth Prayer so here's Heidi Jo Hines on her lonesome).

• Fellow music lovers, it’s all happening. Once you’ve completed the three peaks challenge of Elton, Neil Diamond and Robert Plant at Electric Proms (Oct 28 – 30) – here’s what’s coming up.
• Regular readers will know this is my absolute fave series of gigs, Mencap Little Noise Sessions return to the Union Chapel (Nov 15 – 20) with Tom Jones, Paolo Nutini and Hurts latest headliners to be announced – my pick so far – Hurts. Be there.
• Can’t believe we’re talking about the Camden Crawl already but early bird tickets go on sale at the Bull and Gate launch gig (Oct 28) – The Chapman Family, DELS, Hook & the Twin, John & Jehn, Martyna Baker and the inevitable secret guest tba by Twitter of course!
• If you missed Tim Robbins at the Union Chapel, you can catch him supporting Paolo Nutini at the Q Awards gigs at HMV Forum (Oct 22).
Also playing are Jamiroquai (Oct 20), Chase and Status (Oct 22) and Mark Ronson & The Business INTL (+ Rose Elinor Dougal) (Oct 23).
• Bravo N-Dubz and Akala for Mobo nominations – find out if they won (Oct 20).

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).

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?