David Holmes - Photo by Woulfie
David Holmes is an artist and there is skill involved in DJing, despite what the reactionists say, so this gig is included. I've been a fan of David Holmes for over 20 years and whilst a lot of people I've spoken with didn't know who he is, a lot of them will certainly have heard his music. He has written the soundtracks for numerous Hollywood movies, including the Ocean's Eleven franchise, created an admirable canon of his own work, produced artists such as Noel Gallagher and Primal Scream, as well as remixing U2 (can forgive him for that), Saint Etienne, and Ice Cube et al. This is the first time I've seen him DJ though. My personal favourites are his own tracks My Mate Paul and 69 Police and the remix of Skullcrusher by Dawn of The Replicants he did with Tim Goldsworthy.
I love Todmorden as it is such a quirky, creative and diverse place. It is such a release from my sometimes stressful job that I am buying a flat here and will hopefully have moved in by March. Ruth is keeping her flat in South Manchester so we will have one foot in (West) Yorkshire and one in Lancashire (Greater Manchester really but that doesn't have the same historical anchor). For future nights out in Tod we will have my new flat, but for the gig we stayed at a BnB. Had a lovely pre-gig Thai meal at Three Wise Monkeys which also has a great bar with a jazz band/duo playing. Talking of quirkiness the barman was dressed as Where's Wally? and as he had to keep popping upstairs to get the card reader everyone ended up playing the game. Great meal though!
I have never been to a venue that has such a diverse crowd before: the age range was from teenagers to people in their sixties and whilst most people were dancing away, the regulars were in there playing pool and chatting over a pint of bitter. It was so loud though that it was difficult to even order a drink and my ears are still ringing. The Golden Lion is a big pub that attracts great artists. Irvine Welsh is DJing soon and Andrew Weatherall and Daddy G from Massive Attack played in recent weeks. Not sure how they get this calibre of artists but it might be the amazing atmosphere and the money probably helps too.
David Holmes - Photo by Woulfie
David Holmes was great and he played an eclectic set thats only themes were being great tunes and funky as hell. The place was rocking and we staggered out at just after 2 in the morning. He didn't play vinyl which is a shame but I did benefit as at the end of his set he gave out copies of the CDs he has been using and I managed to get one from him, I reckon he was impressed by my Dub Soldier T-Shirt which incidentally has a golden lion on it. Looking forward to more great nights in the Golden Lion if my ears recover.
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