The Others Go Underground

• 28th Feb 2005

The London Underground was once again the scene of guerilla warfare from The Others on Friday night, but this time it was in the subway rather than on a train…

Off-the-wall, meticulously planned yet seemingly spur-of-the-moment, guerilla gigs may well be the uber-cool fashionista activity of 2005 (see Beck, U2, Razorlight etc) but Dom Masters and co proved once again they they and only they are the genuine article.

The Others were originally due to perform at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. “A strange choice by the band”, some might say. “Are the venue off their trolley?” might say others. Well, with 48 hours notice the Museum realised what they halet themselves in for and pulled the gig. In true Others fashion, the band decided to instead perform on the museum steps, and yours truly showed up at half seven, bracing the february chill, prepared for a traffic-stopping open-air performance.

It was then that a further twist in the tale came to be. Messages were passed on to the hundred or so waiting in anticipation, that they should make their way to the nearby subway, and sure enough, on arrival the band were just launching into This Is For The Poor, in front of an already sizable crowd.

Now the subway at South Kensington is about twice as wide as any other subway in london. Fortunate that, as within minutes it was absolute carnage with some 200 devout Others fans whipped up intoa frenzy in the confined space. Arms and legs became a blur as crowd-surfers flew over the obligatory set-up of toy drum kit, battery-powered amps and megaphone. What was lost in sound quality was more than made up for in intensity and atmosphere.

With the gig halted by police only in the final song, the crowd disapated as quickly as it had appeared. Gigging in a subway? This really is For the Poor. Except of course for the fact it was South Kensington.

picture: Strasbourg