I have been to many events over the years but I had never before been to the funeral for a venue. Sadly The Luminaire, my favourite local venue for the past few years has lost its battle to stay in business and in typical Lumi style decided to go out with a bang. Courtesy of their self-styled "Wake Week" they held a week long vigil for the venue.
The only night I decided to attend was the very final night, for
which tickets were only released to those of us on the right mailing lists who then had to write a letter making a case for the tickets! Otherwise you had to be a promoter or former member of staff or a band member. I must have made a good enough case as I was rewarded with two places on the guest list.
We got in fairly early and hadn't realised that we were meant to show up dressed for a funeral as most of the audience had. For 'Wake Week' they had placed chalk by most of the walls to allow
for final decorations by the mourners and floral tributes were placed around the venue so we could all pay respects for this great club where I managed to see over 70 of the 3000 plus acts
who played there. It's often forgotten, but everyone from Wanda Jackson to Madam Pamita to Chuck Prophet or the first ever
london show by Bob Frank with John Murry have graced these boards. My favourite nights here included the surprise of getting to see Trad Gras Och Stenar or a secret gig by UT, discovering Kitty Daisy and Lewis opening for the Coal Porters or in fact seeing John & Jehn opening for a very rare Cindytalk show. Yes, it's true to say The Luminaire has been a very special venue for me over the past few years.
So onto the actual show. It was opened by Andy Inglis' faves SPINMASTER PLANTPOT who has been around for a while and is a short chubby guy who looks and sounds quite a bit like Omid Jallili only not as funny. He was humourous enough though and his style is quickfire almost rapping in need of some cheap casio keyboards in a John Shuttleworth style to flesh things out a bit. Still he cuts up snippets of lyrics from all over the place to come up with some quite fresh songs.
After that interlude, the coffin of the Luminaire was sombrely paraded through the venue and placed on the stage in time for SON OF DAVE to read the Eulogy, wherein he gave his memories of playing and being at the venue over its short life. It was moving and touching and had much praise for Andy Inglis. It gave us many opportunities for us to raise our glasses to the memory of the club.The Eulogy was followed by a short speech by Andy
Inglis, the man behind the Luminaire, who explained how he came to open the place and thanked all the engineers, sound men bar staff bands and punters for making it what it was.
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He then explained that he had asked the members of Mopar I think he said they were called to promise to play at his funeral as he liked them so much. Well, as they have broken up he got their singer Boonie to make good the promise and play Andy's two favourite songs at the Luminaire's funeral. Boonie thus got up and did Satellites and Walking Home, both of which were pleasant and slightly sad songs.
Then soon enough it was time for the final ever performance at the luminaire by club favourites JOHN & JEHN who featured their new drummer. The last time I saw them at The Lexington was the
old drummer's last gig and now they have a new very young looking skinsman to help out. Time for The Devil sounded great with huge keyboards from Jehn, while after London Town, John
commented on how much The Luminaire meant to the band as it was the first club to give them gigs in London. He himself had worked there, doing everything including being Wanda Jackson's security guard which if you know how skinny John is made me
laugh!
With Jehn out front on bass they did a delicious version of And We Run but the new arrangement of Fear Fear Fear seemed a little too quick and poppy compared to how it used to sound, not as
dark and brooding as it used to be when they were a two piece rather than a quartet.Vampire, though, still sounds like a hit single to me with good breathy vocals and a great sweling sound.
Here's hoping some of the ghosts of the Luminaire come back to haunt the new residents of the flats the club will become. If memory serves, they finished with Love is Not Enough with John taking his Vox guitar to the ceiling and actually punching holes in the pediment that surrounds the mirror ball so there was plaster and debris all over th estage by the time the band left the stage.
The wake ultimately staggered on till 5 in the morning although we left long before the end. All in all it had been a good send off for a great venue that will be missed by bands and fans
alike.
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