While Ollie was having his ears assaulted (see below) I was having mine caressed by the gentle sounds of the James Orr Complex AKA Chris Mack of Eska with an acoustic guitar and that wonderful voice of his. A launch night for his debut album, which seems to have taken the best part of two years to finally see the light of day, in the tiny confines of Monorail I was not likely to be missing this. Always a friendly and natural performer, we got a lovely selection of some of the highlights of the new album which we were then encouraged to buy a whole three days before release. Hurray!

Which led to conversation later, namely ‘Monorail, a record shop in a pub – best/worst idea ever?’. If you’re anything like us, it’s hard enough to avoid spending all your money on records as it is. Add booze, a relaxing, friendly atmosphere, a stomach full of comforting vegan food and the company of your drunken friends and all hell may break loose on your pocket. And don’t think your usual saving grace applies here; Monorail has every record you’ve been meaning to buy EVER, on cd and vinyl and with a nice selection of second hand stuff, magazines, zines and gig tickets to boot. Plus there’s a reasonable likelihood of you getting to place your money into the hand of Stephen Pastel himself. If Mono was my local I’d be penniless by now.

The James Orr Complex album is excellent though so go buy it for these quickly-approaching winter evenings.

Posted: 09|28|03 at 6:27 pm. Filed under: live reviews.
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