You can never go home again/The Faders @ The 100 Club part 2

Yesterday I got a comment left on my Blog from Toy’s Dad telling me that he enjoyed my ‘Faders’ concert review and that I should come down to the 100 Club again to check them out.

I had completely forgotten they were playing, so I’m glad he reminded me.

I decided I’d pop into London again and check them out.

The trains from my local station weren’t running today so I decided the best thing to do was to drive down to Edgware and get on the Northern Line. Now – I used to work in Edgware, worked there for 10 YEARS!! I have done this trip easily 5000 times, yet this time – I took a wrong turn! Ended up going north on the M1 (and hit a massive traffic jam) instead of south. This really freaked me out. Sure – I haven’t doing the trip in like 6 months, but still... I must be getting old.

Anyway – made it to Edgware, parked up and jumped on a tube to get to Oxford Street.

So who are The Faders??? Well...

1: Find out by going to http://www.thefaders.co.uk
2: Read my concert review from March here: http://www.medullacorp.com/blog/2005/03/faders-gig.html
3: Have a listen to the remix I did of ‘No Sleep Tonight’, their first single by clicking HERE.

The Faders, God bless them, have put on three concerts at The 100 Club, completely free – and just for the fans. I’ve been to two of them.

They were on stage about 2:30pm (not AM!) and played for about 50 minutes, which I think is longer then the first time I saw them. They went through most of the album, which isn’t out yet (or is it... hmm... I should check) and just like the first time, they were great. A really competent, totally together band.



I really hope the music industry is good to them. Their first single, the excellent ‘No Sleep Tonight’, hit the charts at about 15 and hung around for a few weeks. It should have done better. The new single ‘Jump’ is out later this month, so go buy!

Afterwards I hung around to get an autograph and some pics... but I look like a monster in them so I won’t be posting them ;)



What was really cute was there was loads of really young kids (like 5-8) sat on the stage, covering their ears and dancing every now and then. Was a real mix of ages again – but the whole demographic was younger this time. Still – I think I enjoyed this set more than the first. Probably because I felt more comfortable about being there in the first place (read the March review).

I didn’t really hang around in London. Saturdays are a nightmare and I’m there every day for work anyway. I jumped back on the Northern Line and headed back to Edgware.

On the way back I decided I would pop into Oriental City in Colindale. ‘OC’ is a small mall with oriental shops and restaurants, and a great food court. It’s pretty much where I had lunch every day when I was working at Argonaut, partly cos the food was great, partly cos there was nowhere else to go.



OC’s glory days have been and gone. It used to be the Yohan Plaza, which made it’s shops predominately Japanese. The Yohan corp collapsed and it changed its name to Oriental City and suddenly more shops from all over Asia started to pop up. This was probably its hay-day. Had a great Japanese book shop where I spent far too much money on books I couldn’t read. The Sega arcade actually had some new games (cos people were still making arcade games) and it had an overall sense of elegance.

Now, it’s a little cheap and tacky. Lots of smaller stalls packed into large rental spaces. I think the rents were REALLY high cos loads of companies came and went from within its walls.

It’s still a great place to go – especially for the food.



Upstairs you have two restaurants and a Karaoke bar.

Downstairs you have the food court. I mainly eat at Yummy Yummy Thai (and it was very Yummy), Yong Tofu (or Corneal Yang’s House of Flesh as Joss named it cos it did wonders with Tofu skin), and the sushi place.



The sushi is great here, and not too expensive. The chef in the photo is also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Was a good place to practice Japanese :)



Unfortunately, I’m not eating right at this moment (coming soon to a future blog) so I couldn’t sample the delights. However – I think I might go crazy on sashimi at the beginning of next month!

They often has festivals on, and today was no exception.



They were so cute!



On the way back I stopped off at the old Argonaut HQ.



You can never go home.





I guess what with forgetting how to drive to Edgware and seeing the old office up for rent, it made me realise I really am over working their (I was there 10 years and as anyone who has worked there will tell you – it was more than a job). I have moved on. I love my current job and the potential it holds.

You can never go home again, and why would you want to.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 7:07 PM 8 comments