The Black Heart interview with Josh Retallick
by Antony Roberts
It may seem a bit odd to do an interview about a music venue, but they seem to be a bit hit and miss all around the UK at the moment. Many great venues have closed their doors over the last few years so it’s great when new ones open their doors to the Metal world. If you’re not a regular to Camden you may not have heard of The Black Heart pub. It’s a relatively new venue in the London metal scene, tucked in an alleyway just behind the infamous Underworld venue. They’ve got some pretty good things on the horizon so we ventured to have a pint with the bar manager Josh and find out more about this new venue and upcoming gigs.
So for those who haven’t been yet tell us a little more about the venue.
There’s a lot of of venues around London of the capacity 80-100 which are a similar size, but they’re spit and sawdust kind of places, with cans of carling, and ropey PAs. We’re trying to fly against that, obviously we’re the same kind of size but we’ve got a huge and obscure selection of fantastic beers, both bottled and draught, and now a state of the art sound system we spent £20,000 on. We’re not looking to do 300 shitty gigs a year, I’d sooner do 1 good gig a year. We’re not looking to do battle of the bands and open mic nights but focus on putting fantastic bands in a fantastic atmosphere with amazing sound.
I heard a little about this new P.A., tell more!
Don’t want to blow it out of the water, but it’s the kind of P.A. that even a band like Slayer on their day off could turn up, play through it, and they’d be like “that’s a pretty good rig”. We’ve also got a very good experienced sound engineer that can get the most out of it, and so we’ve got international shows like the Wino show, the same day as Conan coming up.
What’s the deal with the Conan/Wino day are they free gigs?
No no, the Wino/ConnyOchs gig is £6, it’ll be opening around 2 o clock with support coming from The Death Letter which is Jake and Fred from Dead Existence. That’ll finish at around 5 then we’ll clear the room and get set up for the Conan, Grimpen Mire, Serpent Venom and Undersmile show. If you’ve paid to get into the Wino show you’ll get into the Conan show, if you didn’t come see Wino but have proof of a Roadburn or Desertfest pass you can get in for free, or if you have neither you can get in for £5 which is a super bargain for 4 of some of the best doom bands currently in the UK. If you don’t fancy any of that the White Hills are playing at the Lexington that night, super awesome band, I really hope they get a good crowd too, I wish they could have come and joined our bill, it’s a shitty clash, but these things do happen.
We’ve got more stuff coming up, looks like we’re going to be putting only monthly shows for Subterranea, they’re gonna get involved with that Grimpen Mire show, should be a once a month thing. We’re not the kind of venue necessarily putting on full on Death metal bands but if it’s angular and wierd, it might be here, it’s not the kind of place you’re gonna see a mosh pit!
We’ve got lots more stuff coming up, I’ve got a lot of agents currently contacting me about exclusives and stuff. We’ve got some record release parties coming up I can’t reveal yet but shit’s looking good. Also got some nights on Fridays with Rise Above Will spinning discs, youtube on the screens, lazers and smoke machines creating some crazy scene like you’re in some 1984 metal disco. We’ve also got nights on with Olly from Moss and Marek from Amulet playing tunes, lots of fun stuff!
What days and times are you open?
We’re open at 3pm Monday to Thursday, and then Midday on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’re also open pretty late on Saturday and Sundays, 2pm, but any gigs we put on finish around 10.30-11 to insure there’s plenty of time for people to catch last trains home and so on. Talking of lateness Human Disease Matt is playing some tunes after the Conan show for those that want to stick around so strap yourselves in it’s gonna be good!!
Upcoming shows of interest to metalgigs fans:
March 24th – 2pm – Wino and Conny Ochs – 2pm matinee show £6 otd
March 24th – evening – Conan, Grimpen Mire, Serpent Venom, Undersmile – £5 otd or free with Wino/desertfest/roadburn ticket
Desertfest – 6th, 7th, 8th April – The Black Heart will play party central to the Orange Goblin headlined festival with band playing all 3 nights. Tickets and more info here.
May 14th – Dylan Carson (Earth) solo, with Undersmile (acoustic set) – £8 – tickets here.
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