Gig at Hitchin’s Club 85 offers food for thought
TV Smith will be appearing at the anti-austerity gig at Hitchin's Club 85 - Credit: Archant
If you’re planning to pop along to Hitchin’s Club 85 next Sunday night, remember to pack a little something extra in your pockets – like a tin of soup or a packet of pasta.
That’s because as well as music there’s a message, and a collection for the team operating the Letchworth Foodbank, which has its Hitchin HQ just down the road from the Whinbush Road venue at the town’s Catholic church.
It’s all part of a nationwide network of gigs under the We Shall Overcome banner, billed as an anti-austerity weekend that aims to draw attention to how government cuts are affecting the most vulnerable people in our society.
There’s a big name headliner to draw in the punters, and the pasta.
TV Smith was the front man for The Adverts, one of the seminal set-ups in the first heady wave of British punk rock in the mid 1970s.
Their single Gary Gilmore’s Eyes, about a notorious murderer being executed in the USA, was a landmark hit of the era and he went on to form TV Smith’s Explorers, scoring another hit single in Tomahawk Cruise.
Now nearing 60 but still staying true to the punk ethos, the Romford-born national treasure of alternative music continues to tour the world with a solo show.
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He’s also been the subject of a full-length BBC4 documentary as well as appearing on the channel’s Punk Britannia music history strand.
The Hitchin date on Sunday, October 4, will also feature Astronauts Acoustic and Fishwife’s Broadside.
Music scene veteran Mark Astronaut has been described as ‘the post-punk Dylan of Welwyn Garden City – he’s been a familiar face on the free music circuit for three decades, building a huge songbook of distinctive compositions along the way.
Fishwife’s Broadside describe themselves as an acoustic punk folk rant pop octet from Bedford with a hard-hitting edge – the term ‘acaustic’ could have been created just for them.
You can catch all three from 7pm on the night, and tickets are £5 in advance or £7 on the door – and don’t forget that donation for the Foodbank cause, cash will be just as welcome as food.
You can find out more about the gig and other events on the programme at Club 85 online at www.club-85.co.uk.
