Tuesday night rolled around and Camden Palace beckoned. I was already in Camden as I’d sepnt the afternoon with a friend of mine, Jess, looking at pubs for sale (and an old church) as we were looking at starting up a themed pub where you could go and play games. It’d have ‘themed’ food & drinks, a games library which people could borrow whilst there, and rooms you could hire if you wanted a quieter space or to host a private event. Games Cafe’s weren’t a thing at this point, but basically it’d have been pretty much a Games Cafe – only about 15 years earlier than they actually started to appear. Alas, The Dwarf & Dragon Games Pub didn’t materialise. It got close to happening, but out of the main two financial backers who were interested one had to pull out as their daughter was getting a divorce and they needed to support her and her kids with a new home, etc, and the other was looking for too much control and say over the business than either Jess or myself were happy with.

I still have the original business plan and it’s actually the first time ‘Cubicle 7 Entertainment’ is mentioned as part of our goal was to also build a publishing company as part of the business. Atleast I finally managed to do part of the business plan a few years later, but I’d have loved to have gotten the whole package up and running.

Anyway, I was already in Camden so met a few friends at a pub for the evening before heading into Camden Palace for their Feet First club night, tonight featuring two live performances.

The first of those was a Serbian band called Disciplin A Kitschme. They had relocated to London, from Belgrade, earlier in 1995 and, according to Wikipedia, were “are best described as an aggressive and artistic rhythmic explosion, experimenting and seeking out new expressiveness while finding inspiration in the traditions of punk rock, funk, jazz fusion, motown, jungle, drum and bass, and the works of Jimi Hendrix.” They were ok, but not a band I’d have seen again.

The main band of the night was a band I already knew and liked – British band Apes, Pigs & Spacemen. I’d been introduced to them initially via MTV who had played one of their early tracks and, having enjoyed that, had picked up some of their releases, so was very happy to have a chance to see them live.

Apes, Pigs & Spacemen did not disappoint. They were really good and I’m very pleased to have caught them.