Alaska In Winter

Another night, another gig. This time it was off to Brick Lane for an evening of dodging curry house proprietors and off beat indie music.

The opening act was Marianne Dissard, a French chanteuse who sang accompanied by an accordionist. She had a pretty good voice, but I'm not sure I would want a whole evening of it. She seemed pretty nervous, which probably wasn't helped by the sparse crowd. I would comment on the songs, but it's been a long time since my GCSE French, so whilst I can confirm that none of the songs were about filling up the car with 4-star petrol (fait le plein au super), that's about as far as I can go.

Then onto Mitch & Murray whose singer bore a startling resemblance to Alan Bennett

The band were similar to iLiKETRAiNS, but had a much better line in between song banter, with some nicely droll black country wit on display. They definitely warrant further investigation.

There was no doubt that Alaska in Winter was who the punters wanted to see; there must have been double the crowd for him than the support acts.

Having played pretty much all the instruments on the album himself, there was no backing band, just him and his lap-top with video of him (and the occasional collaborator) being beamed onto the back screen.

Showing excellent attention to detail, the outfit changed to match the video for each song... Not quite a Madonna level of costume changes, but amusing nonetheless!