Band of Holy Joy at Dash the Henge

Dash the Henge in Camberwell has so much interesting stuff going on in addition to selling records, not to mention having a pop up Henge in Brixton arcade. This Saturday 23 August sees a performance at 5 pm by the legendary Band of Holy Joy, launching a new CD of poetic psychogeographical experimentation 'Data breach on haunted beach', also available at bandcamp.

Check out their Bad Punk show on Resonance FM too. 

'to the broken bottled beach once more...'

Update after the gig:

Really enjoyed the performance at Dash the Henge, a stripped back BOHJ mainly performing from 'Data Breach...' with a spoken word tale of drugs, death and revenge on the North East coast. But they also played a few of their early favourites including Rosemary Smith and Fishwives, the latter's dysfunctional relationship now reconciled with a new ending where they go out together and join a Palestinian solidarity demonstration. Good to see some members of Test Dept there too, a band who like BOHJ started out in New Cross. Look out for some early unreleased recordings from them coming out soon, also look out for BOHJ doing a full band gig in Brighton on 26 October 2025.

William Wyld

Poet and artist William Wyld is hosting the next Yer Bard poetry night at Dash the Henge in Camberwell on June 18th 2025.

William works out of a studio at Thames-Side studios in Woolwich and I went along to their open studio this weekend. There were poetry readings from William and other poets including Erica Hesketh (also at Yer Bard this month), Jasmine Cooray,  Michaela Coplen and Mark Rodenhurst. William's diverse body of work was on display including portraits, natural landscapes from the Hebrides (including my ancestral homeland of Islay) and shamanic bird and crab masks. William's poetry has been published in 'Queer Life, Queer Love II' and elsewhere and they have been involved in the Southbank Centre New Poets Collective.

Richard Cabut at Dash the Henge

Another interesting night coming up the great Dash the Henge shop in Camberwell on Thursday 22 May 2025, Richard Cabut will be reading from his poetry collection 'Disorderly Magic and Other Disturbances', now being launched as an audio book. Accompanied by Magic Soundscapes from the Band of Holy Joy plus Patrick Lyons and film.

 

New record shops in New Cross and Camberwell

Not one but two new record shops in the area...

Planet Wax at 318 New Cross Road, next to the New Cross House, is not technically new. It was previously in Deptford Market Yard but has relocated. As well as a record shop specializing in jungle/garage/dubstep/techno/electro etc it has a dubplate studio and a bar. As such it will be hosting regular events including tomorrow night (Friday 25th November 2022) South London producer/DJ Controlled Weirdness.

After becoming a promising place to hang out Deptford Market Yard is looking a bit empty at that end. Aaja music bar has also gone, currently operating next to the Birds Nest. As the new flats nearby fill up a few residents have taken to complaining about the noise - I don't know where they thought they were moving to - making it inhospitable to Deptford nightlife.

Meanwhile in Camberwell 'Dash the Henge' has opened on the site of the longstanding and much loved Rat Records (348 Camberwell New Road). An eclectic selection of old and new vinyl plus live music events - Dash the Henge is also a record label.

Aloha Dead live in store on 26th Nov 2022