Excitement at playing an iconic London venue!

The False Dots
Rambo, Fil Ross, Rog T, Trumpet Tom
Our new album coming soon

I'm a musician, I have been all of my adult life. My band, The False Dots have been going for 47years and we've done a fair few gigs in that time. Music venues are my lifeblood. In 2015, I started a campaign to save them in London. We made a list of all of the grassroots venues in London and encouraged people to support them. As for me, some are special as both a punter and a musician. Sadly, I've not played all of the ones I've dreamed of playing, but I've managed a few.

When we started, our ambition was just to do a gig. No one wanted to give us one, so we booked the Harwood Hall in Mill Hill from the local vicar. We paid him a tenner, charged a £1 to get in, got two bands to play with us, paying them £20 each. A hundred and twenty people came. After paying the bands. I made £50 and thought, this is the life. When we were done, I took the band and all of our mates to The Mill Hill Tandoori, when it stayed open until 1am and spent most of it. I thought we'd made it. The gig night was preserved for posterity by The Vektors, a local band from Edgware, who played with us. This is their rendition of Sound of The Suburbs! 

No one really had video camera's then, so this is a real gem

For us, the Harwood Hall was the pinnacle of our career in 1980. In 1981, we decided that we needed to do more. In April, we made it out of Mill Hill to Hendon! We played at The Midland Arms (now the Claddagh Ring) supporting Way of The West, who had a Radio One single of the week, with their hot tune "Don't say it's just for white boys". It was actually a big gig, the Midland was a decent venue. In the Autumn, I moved to Stockholm. I managed to blag the band a tour in January 1982. The keynote gig was at The Underground Club in Stockholm. A large venue, popular with Swedish Hipsters. It had a capacity of around 400, we pulled 250. For a band that had played no futher than Kenton previously, it was amazing. 

Our ambition had always been to play The Moonlight Club in West Hampstead. We'd seen the Damned, and bands like Joy DIvision there. It advertised in the NME. We thought if we played there, we'd have made it. We achieved that in March 1982.  We got a mini residency there and played several more times. 

In 1984, we hot the pinnacle of our first iteration. We played Dingwalls in February. The venue was sold out and we absolutely blasted it. Offers of record deals and management followed. Nothing materialised. We signed up with a manager, who promised gigs and did nothing. We did a string of local gigs until we knocked it on the head in 1990.

Then we got back together in 2002. We mostly played local charity gigs, In 2010, Connie Abbe joined the band and we started doing Camden again. We started at The Fiddlers Elbow, one of the best Camden gigs for up and coming artists. From there, we did the much missed Purple Turtle. That was a great venue (sadly gone). We also played at The Water Rats, another London legend, But it didn't last.

We did the launch of the Save London Music Campaign at The Fiddlers Elbow in 2015, but largely were back to local venues when Allen Ashley was singing.

In 2022, after Allen left, we were invited back to Camden, to the Dublin Castle. A residency followed. It is our spiritual home! We love playing the Dublin Castle. I've always been of the opinion that you should be loyal to promotors, so Tony at the Dublin Castle is our Camden go to. However tonight, I tick off one of the real legendary venues! We are playing at the 100 Club on Oxford Street. All of the punk bands I love have played there. Most of the Ska and London Reggae bands. I've seen such iconic legends as The Boys, 999, Menace, Jah Wobble, The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra there. I didn't see the Sex Pistols, but it is part of the legend of London music. When we started, there were four venues I really wanted to play. The Moonlight Club, The Marquee on Wardour Street, The 100 Club and The Roundhouse. Although I'd do it and it would be amazing, venues like Wembley Stadium and The Millenium Dome etc are massive but not my really thing. Sadly, the Marquee is gone, so that is a pipedream. The Roundhouse? My name is on the wall, and maybe one day one of my mates in a big band will do me a favour! But tonight it is The 100 club. At the age of 63, I am realising a dream I've harboured for nearly 50 years!

It is sold out, so you can't get a ticket. If you have one, see you there.

All I can really say is hang on to your dreams.