Catscratch Fever - Saturday 31st March - White Lion, Streatham

Tyla J Pallas

An unusual one this. An unprecedented trip to Streatham for a show in aid of a local cats charity and a children's charity. A lengthy "all day" event, we decided to get there a bit later to concentrate on the 3 headline acts.

First, a quick check out of the pubs Streatham High Street had to offer. Most were absolutely fine (despite a £5 pint, yep really, of Moretti in our first stop). Gastropub prices gone mad! The backstreet option we found was a little more weird. I can only assume the "all-day bender" is alive and well in some parts of town!

Into the White Lion, which is a decent enough old fashioned pub with the gig surprisingly in the front area overlooked by massive windows. By no means full, but a healthy enough crowd was in by the time we turned up, checked our names were on the list (always nice when they are!) and handed over our catfood donation!

Our first act was Brijitte West who I'd never heard of, doing an acoustic set. Turns out she is the singer from NY Loose and was really good. Despite not knowing any of the songs, her half hour set flew by. After quite a long gap, the band we'd really come for, The Peckham Cowboys, were on. Featuring ex-Quireboy Guy Bailey on guitar, this is not a photogenic band! That matters not, when they play some good quality bar room blues and rock though. A solid show, but only about 25 mins worth which was a shame. Hopefully they'll do some of their own shows soon.

Headline act was Tyla from Dogs D'Amour. For me, this was the surprise of the evening. In his 90 minute acoustic set, I didn't know any of the songs (unfortunately no "Satellite Kid"!), but it was enthralling. A mixture of soft heartfelt ballads and some punchy rock numbers all played expertly whilst sipping on various drinks (Guinness, Red Wine etc) between songs. As Richard and I left, we commented how that will be tough to beat as the value gig of the year!