The Big Dilettante

  Man created the flying machine. Messi reinvented football. ISLAND formed a band. All of these things have richly enhanced society. For the lucky – albeit covid-weary – people of today we stand on the cusp of the boom of society enhancer number three. Perhaps the 60s didn’t quite have it all. Made up of frontman Rollo Doherty, guitarist Jack Raeder, bassist James Wolfe and drummer Toby Richards, alternative rock band ISLAND put on a performance that would make an iceberg blush (don’t tell 1912) at a sold-out Oslo in Hackney, London to finish their recent UK tour. The venue was intimate and abuzz as the lyrics and instruments reverberated around the room with all the same beautiful power and energy as the inside of Lily Allen’s vibrator cupboard. There was not simply one or two good songs dotted into the set. There was no lull in standard. Each and every tune – even those I hadn’t known beforehand – were immersive and attention commanding. This, therefore, is a band with an ...

There are not enough London pubs like this one. The King's Head is the business. Just far and close enough from the hustle-bustle of Earl’s Court Road down a quiet sideroad opposite the tube station, and with a number of unscrupulous looking massage parlours a little further on, lies our pub in question. Immediately upon entry the smell of an old geezer's hideout tickles and seduces the nostrils in a way that few things in life truly can – special mentions also to the whiff of a fresh tube of tennis balls and a greasy old petrol station out in the sticks. This was a mythical beginning. Indeed, like a horn on a horse precious few establishments these days can claim to offer this aromatic part of the pub experience anymore. A rich collection of people – but not uncomfortably overcrowded – decorate the bar and the tables about the interior. Comfy banquettes line most of the walls and tuck into its cosy corners giving a nice inward view of the well-sized room and characters within ...