Soaked wet through from someone’s beer and someone else’s sweat. You stink. The only thing holding you to the floor as Guillemots storm through Trains To Brazil is seven years of forgotten chewing gum and stale beer.

It’s the same every night but that has never bothered the 2000 strong fans that flood Astoria to see the likes of Nirvana, Rolling Stones, The Jam, The Libertines.

Sadly sentiment alone wont save this venue as Ken Livingstone confirmed this week that Astoria will be demolished to make way for new rail network Crossrail.

Recently I’ve been lucky to see The View/Metros play storming sets there to a sold out crowd.

It will be a sad day when this place gets demolished.

There’s a funny sort of balance with online celebrity status… somewhere between being the number-one Google result for an everyday word like Metros, and having your own Wikipedia page… this is the balance that South-East-London indie five-piece The Metros have achieved in their drawing of inspiration from 70s punk legends, and at the time of my writing nearly 8000 people are friends with the band.

These are all people who have already picked out The Metros from the murk of metropolitan yob-rockers, each band desperately struggling to get hold of even the bottom rung of the music industry ladder… And now 1965 Records, the label home to The View and The Draytones as well as other well-established but less well known acts, has stepped forward for the release of Education Part Two, a slightly-less-than-subtle dig at high school exams and the lowly outcome of those who choose not to play by the rules. Its the sequel to the apparently non-existent Education Part One…

Read it all..