Friday night in Camden usually meant a trip to The Electric Ballroom later in the evening, but for some reason this evenings outting was just gig followed by home.

I went to this with Melissa (we’d split up before Christmas but still ended up hanging out loads anyway), and a few other friends. I’d first seen Dream City Film Club supporting Inaura at the Underworld the previous May (GIG 283). They had blown me away and quickly became one of my favourite bands. I managed to see them twice more in 1996 so this was my fourth time seeing them live, and the first time headlining their own show.

The Dublin Castle isn’t a big venue, the stage area is in a room at the back of the pub, but it’s very atmospheric and is one of the legendary Camden music venues.

First up this evening were a band called Electric Joy Show. I have no idea what they were like and can’t find anything about them online. There was a Californian Synthpop band called ‘Joy Electric’ around at this time, but I have no idea if they are the same band or not. In any case, my only knowledge of the band I saw is in the brief note I made of them which was ‘slightly better than average’ – which isn;t a glowing report but certainly no where near as bad as they could have been.

Next up were The Jam Pandas. Now these guys were much better and I actually thought they were very good live. They have sadly suffered the same fate as Electric Joy Show in regards to being seemingly forgotten on the internet. The only thing I can find is a series of childrens books, which first came out in 1996, called The Jam Pandas… now whether or not those books inspired the band – or if the band had to (or decided to) change their name to something else because of the books I have no idea. All I know is I enjoyed them on the night but never heard of them again after it.

So… drum rolls and moody guitars please… time for Dream City Film Club to come to the stage. Will they excite as much fourth time round… of course they will! The four piece (singer/guitarist Michael J. Sheehy, bassist Andrew Park, drummer Laurence Ash, and guitarist Alex Vald whom I used to know when we were teenagers around the Barnet pubs and local band scene) were once again on fire. Their blend of tortured, yearning, rock music was addictive and I don’t think they had a bad song in their entire set. Once again another fantastic Dream City Film Club gig. Four out of four hits, with more to come on the horizon.