The final leg of a wonderful mini-tour celebrating 20 years of banging on about new music, alongside our friends and fellow vicennials at Rocklands and God Is In The TV rolled into The Amersham Arms, and the bands wrapped up the tour with a sensational night of live music in the company of friends new and old.
Openers Colossus, featuring occasional Joyzine & GIITTV contributor John Clay on lead vocals, kicked things off with a bang, with a high energy set of punk rock thrills.
Hurtling were last minute additions to the line-up following the unavoidable withdrawal of Feral Five, but their set absolutely soared from the first note to the last. They’re the only band to have appeared twice during our 20th birthday celebrations and no one in attendance will have been left with any doubt as to why we were delighted to have them back.
Bugeye are one of those bands that just get better every time you see them, and fresh off a UK tour support slot with The Bluetones, which ended at Koko the night before, they were sharp as a pin and made plenty of new friends tonight.
The night ended on a bittersweet note with the last ever London performance by lo-fi indie geek disco psychonauts Fonda 500, who ripped through a set of dancefloor filling, mind-bending solid gold hits from across their extensive back catalogue. Every person I spoke to afterwards who hadn’t come in as a fan asked the same question – “why have I only discovered this band now?” The show ends with bear-hatted frontman Simon ceremonially passing me his sacred Casio keyboard, and they are gone (well, almost – they’ve got one last hometown show in Hull on 9th December – get your tickets here before you miss your final opportunity).
And that’s it – 20 years of Joyzine celebrated in the most emphatic of styles the only way we know how – in a dark back room of a South London boozer with our favourite bands and our favourite people. Massive thanks to everyone involved, especially Caffy St Luce at Rocklands and Bill Cummings at GIITTV for celebrating with us and to Jean Genie for compering the night and leading us all in a rendition of happy birthday. Time to start planning the party for the 30th?
Words and Pictures by Paul Maps
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Was magical evening. Thank YOU! x