POP 576 Thursday 5 May 2011

Today's POP is Candy. She's just surfaced from a brilliant bank holiday weekend in sunny London NW1… The legendary Gaymer's Camden Crawl goes from strength to strength!

First, let's get one thing clear. I was down the front for Killing Joke and it was life affirming. But more of that in a minute… This weekend I lived mostly between 3 Camden pubs, The Dublin Castle, The Wheelbarrow and The Black Cap. The former is the legendary NW1 pub that Madness played their first ever gig at, the second is a new pub on Camden High Street that has become the new favoured spot of the indie crowd, and the latter is the gay drinking spot where the always great Moshi Moshi label set up home this bank holiday. How much fun can 3 pubs and a couple of dozen bands be? Answer: lots!

The Gaymer's Camden Crawl is now an institution. The sun comes out, you find a pub to base you and your friends in for the duration and then you set forth at irregular intervals to see some of the best new bands on the planet. At POP we're perhaps too loyal to the infamous Dublin Castle, largely because we saw that incredible Amy Winehouse "Back To Black" moment at The Crawl there a couple of years back.

This year the comedy at The Wheelbarrow was a welcome relief to the constant buzz of guitars. If you're ever in Camden Town then check out this newish pub at the south end of the High Street. It's fast established a reputation for new live bands that already rivals The Lock Tavern, The Barfly and the rest. Is there a more vital live music square mile anywhere else in the world? There isn't.

But the Gaymer's Camden Crawl is also about that one WOW moment when you see the band that really transports you. Having spent Saturday evening in The Black Cap watching new Moshi Moshi acts, it was in the celebrated Electric Ballroom (hosted by The Wheelbarrow this year) that everything clicked for me.

Killing Joke were awesome. I know it might seem perverse to rave about a band who have now played together on and off for over 30 years, but maybe that's the point. Wander from jaunty Miles Kane at The Forum straight to Killing Joke down in Camden's dark deepest belly and you see that age is no barrier to passion, intensity and the best drum, bass, guitar sound on the planet!

This is how it went: hardcore mosh down the front naked from the waist; beautiful fashion girls over to the left beneath Geordie's trademark sub-metal guitar squal; amazed casual audience at the back, mouths open and surely moving to/moved by Youth's deep, deep, deadly bass. When Jaz Coleman prophesied about "the poles shifting in eighteen months", you believed him whether he was talking about polar ice caps or political opinion poles (he didn't clarify!)… Killing Joke were my Camden Crawl epiphany.

Will I be back next year? Sure. There's nothing like waking up on a Sunday afternoon in The Black Cap, staring at those chic chandeliers with a ringing in your ears. The truth is Gaymer's Camden Crawl beats Glastonbury these days for music, ambience AND toilets… See you there next year…

For more information on Gaymers Cider festival activity visit