Blitz Party at The Village Underground
02 February, 2010
by: Heartcooksbrain
Cor blimey guv, the Germans are out in force tonight.
Saturday night in Shoreditch and the Luftwaffe are on the prowl once again. Being caught out in the open, I find shelter in the effulgent belly of Village Underground where I’m instantly bombarded by a salvo of searching spotlights, big band music, and the excited shrieks of chaps and lasses dressed in the most felicitous of wartime attire.
A unique event that has turned one of Great Eastern Street’s most recognizable venues into a 1940s air raid shelter of epic proportions, The Blitz Party has worked Village Underground’s soaring ceilings, great glass skylights and refurbished industrial brick walls into a convincingly authentic atmosphere. I muse next to sandbags at the high-headed and hard shouldered presence of off-duty allied soldiers and munitions ladies with immovably rolled hairdos getting down and dirty in the trenches.
Appropriately they refuse to serve shooters here; sticking to champagne, cocktails and Spitfire ale, which are much more appropriate for this bunker-chic shindig. In case anyone is peckish after all their lindy-hopping, a makeshift snack table offers a mouthwatering spread of ham, pickle and cheese sarnies, and even the treat of a scotch egg if you have any ration tickets left!
The first band, Twin and Tonic, are a winsome and stylish quartet fronted by twin sisters with debonair stage presence. Calling to mind the old USO performances of yesteryear, they sing seductively through nostalgic styled silver-grilled microphones to a dance floor packed with revellers.
Last on is Ta Mere, a crowd-engaging and lively four-piece that brandish double bass, an unlikely bag pipe, and one virtuoso guitarist who executes Brian Setzer licks with the precision of a skilled sniper. Firing off big band and swing classics that rendered the dance floor more snug than Dunkirk, their catchy beat quickly enlisted a great profusion of sailors and factory girls to sally forth with their best moves.
It’s evident that the promoters of the event, Essence Communications, were unafraid to put a great deal of energy into the evening: the sheer amount of detail is breath-taking. What did it for me were the quaint mock-propaganda notices in the men’s room instructing one what to do in case of a homeland invasion. Emerging to find that the Hun has sloped off back to occupied France, I make my way home.
If you’d like to join the ranks of the London Blitz party, the next one will be held again at Village Underground on the 13th of March, tickets are going faster than canned rations so make haste!
Click here for more London Cabaret
Click here for more London Swing
Blitz Party at The Village Underground
02 February, 2010
by: Heartcooksbrain
Cor blimey guv, the Germans are out in force tonight.
Saturday night in Shoreditch and the Luftwaffe are on the prowl once again. Being caught out in the open, I find shelter in the effulgent belly of Village Underground where I’m instantly bombarded by a salvo of searching spotlights, big band music, and the excited shrieks of chaps and lasses dressed in the most felicitous of wartime attire.
A unique event that has turned one of Great Eastern Street’s most recognizable venues into a 1940s air raid shelter of epic proportions, The Blitz Party has worked Village Underground’s soaring ceilings, great glass skylights and refurbished industrial brick walls into a convincingly authentic atmosphere. I muse next to sandbags at the high-headed and hard shouldered presence of off-duty allied soldiers and munitions ladies with immovably rolled hairdos getting down and dirty in the trenches.
Appropriately they refuse to serve shooters here; sticking to champagne, cocktails and Spitfire ale, which are much more appropriate for this bunker-chic shindig. In case anyone is peckish after all their lindy-hopping, a makeshift snack table offers a mouthwatering spread of ham, pickle and cheese sarnies, and even the treat of a scotch egg if you have any ration tickets left!
The first band, Twin and Tonic, are a winsome and stylish quartet fronted by twin sisters with debonair stage presence. Calling to mind the old USO performances of yesteryear, they sing seductively through nostalgic styled silver-grilled microphones to a dance floor packed with revellers.
Last on is Ta Mere, a crowd-engaging and lively four-piece that brandish double bass, an unlikely bag pipe, and one virtuoso guitarist who executes Brian Setzer licks with the precision of a skilled sniper. Firing off big band and swing classics that rendered the dance floor more snug than Dunkirk, their catchy beat quickly enlisted a great profusion of sailors and factory girls to sally forth with their best moves.
It’s evident that the promoters of the event, Essence Communications, were unafraid to put a great deal of energy into the evening: the sheer amount of detail is breath-taking. What did it for me were the quaint mock-propaganda notices in the men’s room instructing one what to do in case of a homeland invasion. Emerging to find that the Hun has sloped off back to occupied France, I make my way home.
If you’d like to join the ranks of the London Blitz party, the next one will be held again at Village Underground on the 13th of March, tickets are going faster than canned rations so make haste!
Click here for more London Cabaret
Click here for more London Swing
