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Kick Out The Jams, a forum for best new bands

TheZineUK is Introducing the newer wave music industrious on an almost daily basis nowadays. It feels like we are definitely in the eye of the best kind of storm. Today, more good news into the ether; Legendary Venue to host Legendary events for the most Legendary of the new rock and roll artists. This is so up our street.

Kick Out The Jams presents a fresh faced, 16+, monthly live music club featuring the recommended, the acclaimed and the hugely tipped at Tunbridge Wells Forum in Kent. The shows are in association with Rotor Videos and Jack Daniels UK, whose #JackRocks imprint has become a by-word for supporting the new rising rock scene of Britain with events and festival stages nationwide.

On Thursday 19th October, the launch show wears the heart of the new rock n roll on it's sleeve; It's a fundraiser for Grenfell Tower. This tragedy has touched anybody who has a beating heart, and one of the key characteristics of 2017's DIY powered britpunk art, is empathy.

In turn, these are artists and their promoters/supporters that we care about, because they actually do care. "For the launch show we've set up a dedicated Just Giving campaign page so that people can donate to the charity whether they can come to the show or not" (Kick Out The Jams) : justgiving.com/crowdfunding/TWFGigForGrenfell

Kent touch this. Kent locals, Wake Up Leo, go from playing our music social on the Old Kent Road (above)

to playing for Roger Kent in Kent.

The fact that these line-ups come armed with a chart parade of potential hits is a bonus. None of that dreary dirge-pop beige drivel. These is monumental music for our times. Escapism. Noisy fun to DIY-chic up for, and to jump around to or fall in love with. The "good old days" are gone, but don't week for nostalgia, we make the good new days for ourselves. This social inclusion is an opportunity to get involved in what happens next and in true 'Almost Famous' fashion, it IS all happening. Check this heroic video created by our previously articled, rising talent CSD Videography for the anthem with attitude, 'Be Uprising', by ("our punky Piaf") Lucie Barât who plays the launch show on October 19th.

Austerity aware, it's worth checking out all the bills and tripling yer thrills. Advances are available from The Forum website, with a "3-for-2" offer available for anyone who buys tickets for all three shows together. "Multipass!". There are also concessions for students and musicians union card holders. Click the info links below for tickets.

And for artist links and fuller info the facebook events are here.

The above pic from our picture book story, by Tarquin Clark (Bang Bang Romeo at YNot Festival 2016,) has become a widely used, iconic shot of the newer wave rising. The band have come even further, since.

Further Reading / Fuller information:

These artists are life affirming. I have seen some of them more than once. Oh oh, addictive. Lucie Barât, Sisteray and most recently, as mentioned, Wake Up Leo, have played at TheZineUK London socials. Lucie is such a wonder woman that she helped curate the bill. Sisteray are musical activists, a staple of this tale. Their Welcome To The Monkey House club is definitely one of the live music events making it's mark, recently launching in Paris, we've caught some of our new faves there. Kick Out The Jams is a selection of artists who make new futures for their followings as they go along.

A lively live favourite who have graced both the Alternative Charts and Reading Festival this year, we captured some of Sisteray's chaotic Summer 2016 riot at Camden Rocks Festival. Front page calibre band, innit.... A few months later, the lovely lass under the framed pic, Sandy K. Moz, joined us as a photographer with a baptism of fire photo session with CABBAGE. When we say Kent music fans get involved with Kick Out The Jams, we recommend sincerely. Promoter, Roger, kindly supports what we do, so this has got good karma written all over it!

Another bonus of these artists is that they have got something to say. Nobody on these line ups is an x-factory, simon cowell-bowel fame hungry fuck puppet. These are respected musicians that have lit up venues, reviews and festivals alike to get to this venue (read more about that below and this all will make sense). That is not to say they're not ambitious. Jeez, live performances that pop out and stand out. Strong composition, adrenaline rush pumped performance. Shut your eyes for a second and hear the festival main stage potential.

Trampolene circus in town. Image above taken at the #JackRocks7 launch show, Spring 2017. Jack Daniels UK selected seven British bands with heritage potential to play 4 major national festivals this year. All of them have raised profile in 2017. Three of them are on this bill including Bang Bang Romeo and (snapped at Isle Of Wight Festival, below) The Wholls!

If you are young, hungry for a scene and looking for teenage kicks, this is gonna kick arse. If you stopped going to gigs because you've "seen it all before" and it's "not like in my day", well, that was then and the future is now and you have so much more to see. This IS your day. Live it, at these nights.

Above; Love for Bang Bang Romeo at the Sheffield Pirate Studios launch on All Cools Day 2017 (1st April)

If you think that this preview is insistent you take note, it's just because fun is so needed. Seeing the punky antics of poetic emotion that Trampolene possess on stage, and the sheer sex blues power of Bang Bang Romeo. It's worth telling anybody who will listen. Kick Out The Jams is gonna create Tunbridge Very Wells!

Above; False Heads. Iggy Pop loves them. Lotsa fans of punky rock do. They truly bring it. Off stage; "The underground will be mainstream again soon We're sick of manufactured indie pop shit as well. Needs to be wiped off the face of the earth." says their twitter at time of writing, and especially HARD on stage. Below; their show works on all size stages. False Heads have just supported The Libertines, are and are playing a UK tour before they hit Kent. And I do mean HIT.

How can line ups this cool come ready fab to town? Kick Out The Jams is the brainchild of music industry veteran and Tunbridge Wells resident, Roger Kent, who is curating the line ups, and aims to bring "the the cream of a new crop" at affordable entry prices". It is a co-promotion with Jason Dorman and his team at The Forum.​ Having met the awesomely affable Jason at a Venues Day a couple of years ago, and had a most animated conversation with Roger about the passion for the exciting new music around, I am excited as feck.

Blackwaters at the London #BigIn2017 show, the underground's antidote to staid awards shows etc. They've definitely lived up to that accolade, and then some.

There are an increasing number of great live music promoters involved with the guitars are very much alive train of thought. From Loud Women and This Feeling to Clit Rock and, dare I even say ourselves, serving close range experiences with artists that you'll pay more to see from much further away in the near future if there is any justice in the parallel dimension to the world. There is. We recently interviewed Bang Bang Romeo and Blackwaters at the launch of This Feeling's ALIVE tour. A game changer. Both bands are key names for "I was there" moments.

Actually all of these bands are and the launch show starts with "Paying It Forward" in aid of Grenfell Tower. Roger says; "I got the idea of supporting this charity from one of the artists playing the first show, Lucie Barât, who has been raising money for the cause for some time already. She introduced me to Charley Ann from the Tabernacle Christian Centre at a recent fund-raising gig she organised in Camden Town. Also, although he is not able to play this show due to prior recording commitments, The Libertines and Babyshambles frontman, Pete Doherty has endorsed the lineup - as both personal friends and respected cohorts of his, and has donated a generous sum to the Grenfell Tower fund raising effort, as well as donating a piece of his original artwork which will be auctioned for the cause. Charley Ann and a team of her volunteers from the Centre will also be collecting money on the night"

Remember, remember, it's Rews in November. This video below, 'Shine', rocks hugely;

Above - snap shots and preview words/opinions; Caffy

Below - further further reading - Location location location: Tunbridge Wells Forum

“When I’m rich and famous, I’m going to come back, buy this place and sack you!” - Liam Gallagher. Staff at The Forum in Tunbridge Wells are still waiting for a phone call from Liam Gallagher, confirming his purchase of the venue, following his altercation with barman Spike many years ago. Spike committed the cardinal sin of refusing to sell Liam cigarettes and alcohol after closing time.

Oasis are just one of the many, now, world famous bands who cut their musical teeth on the so called ‘toilet circuit’ and have played at The Forum over the years. Others include Green Day, Mumford and Sons, The Vaccines, Mansun and Muse (the latter played to a nearly empty room). Other visitors such as Coldplay, Adele and Bloc Party all suffered the indignity of having the support slots that they were playing being ignored and talked over by gig goers only there to see the headline act. Little did they know!

The Forum opened in 1993, after the above mentioned Jason and his team secured the lease on the building on Tunbridge Wells common, which was famously a public toilet in its previous life. Jason and friends had been putting on local gigs in pubs, clubs and village halls for several years, before being kicked out of the club they were running by the brewery. They spotted The Forum, sitting forlornly on the common, realised its potential and the rest is history.

To quote Jason, “Over 20 years and 20,000 performances later The Forum survives on the volunteers that work there, the musicians that play there and the audiences that listen there". 11,000 watts of amplification fill a bare brick room just big enough for a 250 standing audience, facing the metre high stage. Musicians, poets and comedians vent on battered Shure microphones, on both national and international tours.

Local performers depend on the venue too, often playing their first ever gig here and then returning to support other bands, or to play headline shows. Like all unfunded entertainment establishments in the changeable music industry, The Forum has had to adapt. Years of peeling paint and sweat soaked plaster was stripped and the main hall refreshed, the P.A. system overhauled and a full digital recording studio constructed during 2012. All of these improvements were done by the people who work at and use the space and facilities. Artists can now rehearse, record and then perform their next album here live.

There is a bar – but this isn’t a pub – and when the doors open, with everyone singing and dancing to their new favourite band, only an arms length away, it becomes clear this is far more than just a building. It's also where BBC Introducing Kent create live sessions. We are fans of Kent folks, Mourning Birds, Abbie McCarthy and Slaves (all also in this story) and would love to see how Kick Out The Jams develops.

The Forum was awarded the ‘NME’s Best Small Venue’ in 2012. It is with this kind of support, and that of Independent Venue Week, that we can help raise awareness of The Forum and the handful of independently run venues that remain in the UK today.

Years of running a small venue brings its challenges. There are tales of of band members falling through holes in the stage and of having to find an ironing board for Vic Reeves and Ian Astbury (of The Cult), just before they went on stage, only to see them use it as a surfboard!

Then there was Goldblade (fronted by TheZineUK's dear friend, John Robb), a band from Manchester, who used a fancy wireless bass guitar, only for it to pick up a Chinese Elvis impersonator from a local restaurant better than it did the bass itself.

And let’s not forget Hampshire born Carl Barât , of The Libertines, (Lucie's bruv) refusing to speak to anybody apart from Max, the sound man, for the whole evening. Not only that but he insisted in speaking in a Scouse accent too.

Now for the next generation; You are about to meet and enjoy the new legends. Right now it's time to Kick Out The Jams....

Below; Blackwaters and Carl Barât at the London Pirate Studios launch with This Feeling, Spring 2017

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