Keshco have, on rare occasions, ventured out into the big wide world with the aim of making some noise. Purple noise, orange noise, maybe even a little turquoise noise, but most of all greeny-browny noise. Silly sods.
We consider ourselves primarily a recording/filming band, but we still accept some offers for gigs if nice people are involved.
So, you can catch Keshco occasionally in London, Todmorden, Oxford, and around the world.
Keshco sometimes play home concerts, which are streamed on Facebook Live, YouTube Live and previously our Ustream channel: www.ustream.tv/channel/beware-vision.
On June 17 2020 at around 7.30pm UK-time, we will be contributing a 20 minute audio/video set to the virtual FloGlo Festival: http://www.flofest.uk/ This is a virtual version of a festival held yearly in Florence Park, Oxford. We’re joined for this by Andrew Walton. Our set will also be on YouTube and Facebook after the event.
Notable past gigs are below:
2020
May 8 – We contributed a 20 minute audio/video set to the virtual Patchfest in Brighton: http://patchfest.news/virtual Our set included “Stock Share Shuffle”, “Crimes Of Casio”, “Night Shift”, “Just Can’t Go”, “Climate Dance” and “Play For Your People”. Andrew Walton joined us with the poem “Unexpected Item in Bagging Area”. Watch our set here.
Jan 18 – An acapella set for the Hello Goodbye show on Resonance FM. Featured “Not Quite Sure – Sold Out”, “The Clap”, and a 10-minute medley featuring over 30 of our favourite choruses to date.
Jan 17 – live online performance for the worldwide celebrations of Art’s Birthday. Socialist poet Andrew Walton joined us via phone for a special poetry recital.
2019
Jan 19 – we returned to the Hello Goodbye lunchtime show, hosted by deXter Bentley, on London’s Resonance FM. Set included “Carved Up”, “Technicolor Universe”, “Never Eject” and “The Kesh Jig”.
2018
Oct 13 – We did in-store appearances and performances for Cassette Store Day.
2017
Jan 28 – We returned for a fourth performance on Dexter Bentley’s Hello Goodbye show on Resonance FM, London’s arts channel. We played four songs – In The 21st Century, Son Of A Systems Engineer Manager, Zoetrope and Stock Share Shuffle.
2015
Sep 19 – Todmorden Library – closing a local festival of psychedelia, entitled “Destroy All Rational Thought”. We played for a couple of hours, with a few videos beforehand including a new Kesh documentary.
2014
Nov 23 – 20th anniversary concert from London streamed over uStream, involving a live link-up with Buenos Aires. This is available on YouTube (why not put it on in the background?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LbDHK2HZLA
2013
Nov 23 – Our Ustream channel played host to a very special night of entertainment celebrating 19 years of Keshco, 30 years of Now That’s What I Call Music and 50 years of Doctor Who! A full set from psychedelic songsmith Simon Waldram was followed by a long rambling Kesh set, and then some team-ups and various oddities deep into the night.
Oct 19 – We made a return visit to the Hello Goodbye show on Resonance FM, hosted by Dexter Bentley. Also performing were the Rude Mechanicals. We played four songs – Enlightenment, Wafternoon, Porcine and Top Deck.
Sep 22 – At Finsbury Park in north London, we took part in the Hidden River Festival, playing in a big top. Andy had also sung earlier in the day with a folk choir.
Aug 31 – Finally, we were able to do another tryout for our Ustream channel, Beware! Vision. Our friend and fellow songsmith Simon Waldram kicked off the broadcast and we closed it. A cleaned-up audio version of Simon’s set is available on our Bandcamp page, as Beware! Vision Vol 1: Simon Waldram 31/08/13.
Jul 27/28 – We played for two afternoons in a row on behalf of the charity Scope, at the Virgin London Triathlon, taking place around the ExCel Conference Centre in East London. Lots of jamming.
Jul 26 – Brief performance at the King and Queen in central London, notable for an 11-minute-long medley.
Jul 19 – We played at a Stop The Arms Fair benefit night, where in an odd turn of events we were the only acoustic act amongst synth-poppers. Bit noisy room.
Mar 28 – Keshco’s Easter Gameshow. Decent turnout on a cold night (payday?), seven teams took part in our Easter quiz. Craft Corner played host to some varied egg designs (all good in different ways), there was a story… which people talked through and didn’t applaud (would you do that if it was a song, a magic trick, a performance poem?), and then perhaps the easiest final challenge ever (for us, anyway) got the biggest round of applause! You get the entertainment you deserve. Happily, the entire playlist was music by us, proving that stereos don’t necessarily combust on contact with Kesh sounds.
Feb 21 – Keshco’s Love Gameshow. Five teams took up our love challenge. Craft Corner prompted some lovely handmade flowers, there was a saucy story, some unusual improv (leading to walkouts), and the winning team faced the terrifying sight of King Kong, tearing up buildings looking for his beloved Fay Wray. She Knows was quite funny.
Jan 31 – Keshco’s Space Gameshow. Another good turnout, with seven teams vying for interstellar supremacy. Craft Corner allowed people to let their imaginations flow via Play-Doh; there was a story about a trip to the outer limits, and the winning team got to help us fix our massive silver computer in return for comestibles and their £50 prize. We played a few instrumentals.
2012
Dec 20 – Keshco’s Christmas Gameshow. Good turnout for this one, we had seven teams competing til the end. Andy read a specially-written story, Bob did a magic trick – twice, and we gathered a veritable forest of origami Christmas trees to decorate Kesh HQ. The winning team met a paralytic Santa, and won food from our cupboards in addition to their £50. We opened the show with… Welcome To Our Corner Shop!
Nov 29 – Keshco’s Showbiz Gameshow. With a bridge closure right next to the venue blocking all traffic, and a bus strike, the area was dead; but we entertained the faithful traingoers with a tip-top comedy quiz all the same. Little bits of music too – Enlightenment, I Almost Died and more.
Oct 30 – Keshco’s Halloween Gameshow. Our first quiz night, with fine costumes, fiendish questions, flying waifs and famous stiffs. We made it through the inevitable teething troubles (e.g. silent mp3s, forcing us to sing the audio round) and learned a lot for future events. The winning team came face to face with a reclining Luciano Pavarotti in a belly-busting challenge. The show started with a rendition of Halloween, and we saw the gamers off with Task.
2011
Jul 17 – Our second gig of the afternoon, at arts and crafts family market Playtime, held at Space on Hackney’s Mare Street. This was another long set, though not a great turnout and they hadn’t really prepared for us.
Jul 17 – We played the Gallery Cafe’s open stage as part of the somewhat amorphous Shoreditch Festival. Quite a few people made it out despite the rain. Long set.
Jul 16 – We tried out music and film club GetCake.EatCake.Die at the Hobgoblin in Angel, taking the stage in front of “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed”. Poor turnout, which is a shame. The venue helpfully had South American football on the other monitors (with the sound up!) and most people were watching Brazil. Throat-tearing performance, including a fierce Ticketman, Below The Waves and Before We Began..
Jul 5 – Return visit to Freedom of Expression, in deepest Croydon, where we played: Task, Halloween, Come Let’s Be Strange, Wafternoon, Enlightenment, Technicolor Universe, Architecture Weekly, Before We Began. Decent performance. The entire gig is up on YouTube.
Jul 3 – We took part in Oxford’s Cowley Road Carnival, playing with very little amplification (a distorting Micro Orange Crush amp with all of 3W) but managing to snare a few wanderers. Our new friend Anne Boleyn helped from the comedy angle. Robert debuted his mini drum set up (snare, cymbal, chimes, triangle, tambourine). Beware! We can make a beat anywhere! Set list: Task, Halloween, Climate Dance, Here We Go Again, Wafternoon, Enlightenment, Livsey Street, Before We Began.
Apr 17 – Back to the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club once again, for Hungamunga’s 5th birthday bash. We played for about 40 minutes, including an extended take on Record Store Day single Orange Nightmare Record Fair, and lots of crackles and silences were provided by our delightful cables and their delightful PA. (The soundcheck went perfectly, though…)
2010
Dec 18 – Our second radio session for Dexter Bentley’s Hello Goodbye show on Resonance FM. We played Below The Waves, James Harries, I Almost Died and Jap Rock Go! A short interview followed. You can see the whole thing here.
Nov 23 – We tried out some recent songs at Freedom of Expression, a regular songwriters’ night at the Green Dragon in Croydon, South London. Set list: Enlightenment, Below The Waves, James Harries (clip), Got Lot Of Stuff, The Summer Goes, Spoons, Crimes Of Casio.
Oct 3 – We did an interview and played at community radio station NuSound, in East London. They were very welcoming: http://www.nusoundradio.com/ We played Enlightenment, Got Lot Of Stuff, and Technicolor Universe.
2009
Aug 5 – We had another TROLLEY CRASH night at the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell. The night’s other acts were Jude Cowan and Dead Cowboy Culture, and there was a little bit of comedy from the door guard. Our mainly acoustic set included: She Knows, Chancery Lane, Scandinavian Pine, Breaking The Tape and an extended freakout version of Spoons.
Aug 1 – A third concert for Vombat Radio, 2 hours 15 minutes long. The whole thing can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Set included: Inhale, James Harries, Got Lot of Stuff, The Summer Goes, Dak Whobble, Long Road to Castle Acre, and a special appearance by Paul McCartney.
Apr 1 – Another TROLLEY CRASH! Never rely on other people’s equipment, ladies and gentles. This time it was the venue projector and Mac that took an hour out of our setup. Still, our Austrian friends BOB played a cracking set, and Hot Roddy conjured up vast planes of imagination through his sitar and electronics. We did a quick turn as Bleak House. A Darwin lecture was also provided by Prof. Muldaway McDoon.
Mar 21 – Back to the Jericho Tavern in Oxford. Went OK apart from not being able to use our projections.
Mar 15 – Hungamunga at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. Fun, gentle night, with the projections blown up to one side (so big brownie points). Mixing desk had problems though (no end of changing mics and D/I’s), which made it much less enjoyable. Still, we got a really nice-looking version of Zoetrope.
Mar 13 – 333 Old Street, Shoreditch. Really sickeningly awful.
Feb 25 – The Legion, Shoreditch. What’s that satirical magazine again?
Feb 18 – Jericho Tavern, Oxford. Another fun set as Keshco closed the night: Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Those Germs, Anna, Scraping And Bowing, Task, Spoons, I Am Alba, Before We Began.
Jan 31 – A return concert at Vombat Radio. The whole two-hour set is downloadable as an mp3 from archive.org. Set included: Jewellery Boxes, Those Germs, Scraping And Bowing, Hunting Theme… and a special appearance by George Harrison.
2008
Nov 15 – Live web concert for Vombat Radio. We played for 2 hours, and there’s an 87 minute mp3 file available. Set included: Zoetrope, Think Alike, Alba, Climate Dance, Office Timewarp, Anna, Task, Middle Room 3, Here We Go Again, Icecream Kisses, Real Sharp Twig, Before We Began… lots of new instrumental bits… and a special appearance by John Peel.
Aug 8 – This was a special one. The first Keshco Night – TROLLEY CRASH (as evidenced by YouTube promo) saw us take over the Dry Bar near to London’s Barbican. We invited three of our faves – the Rude Mechanicals, Anat Ben-David and NOW – and performed twice under our twin guises of Bleak House and Keshco. Must remember: there are no night buses from the Barbican. There’s a review which Luke has pasted into his blog.
June 21 – Our first gig in Ipswich, as part of CSV’s Refugee Week. Our fun set included Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Anna, Spoons and a never-ending version of I Am Alba. We are still playing there now. See the photos on our Piccies page.
May 30 – Back to the Half Moon, Herne Hill, where we played at Nocturne Folks alongside the Dirty Cakes and the Tallyman’s Dark Omnibus. Not our best performance. Set: Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Midi Cassette, Anna, Alba, Icecream Kisses.
May 18 – Ryan’s Bar – at a night organised by synth kings iNiT. We enjoyed ourselves.
May 16 – The Cavendish Arms in South London. Quick set to test out stripped-down versions of… Chancery Lane, Jewellery Boxes, Ticketman, Icecream Kisses.
May 9 – The Wheatsheaf Inn, Lincoln. Keshco played on the auspicious occasion of Drew Walton’s wedding. Set included: Chancery Lane, Spoons, Think Alike, Climate Dance, and a super Beatles medley.
Feb 22 – Keshco closed the night at a Resonance FM event at the Half Moon, Herne Hill. The set stretched for a whole hour: Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Spoons, Before We Began, Here We Go Again, I Am Alba, Anna, Village of Death.
Feb 21 – Back to the Plough Inn, Walthamstow, performing as Bleak House. Thanks for letting us play a slideshow! Set: Here We Go Again, Before We Began, I Am Alba, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Climate Dance, Spoons.
Feb 15 – A fun night at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford. Set list: Chancery Lane (good tramp dancing to this one), Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Anna, I Am Broken I Am Alba, Task.
Feb 14 – The Criterion, Leicester. Keshco finished off a quirky bill including Dead Cowboy Culture, Alberteen and Simon Waldram. The set went: Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Spoons, Halloween, Passion In My Life, Zoetrope, Think Alike, Anna, Task.
Jan 31 – The SKIP night at the Amersham Arms featured a 30-minute Keshco set amongst all the other dancers, performance artistes and other creatives.
2007
Oct 27 – Halloween Special at the Pleasure Unit. Keshco’s set started at 11.55pm. Nice costumes.
Oct 26 – Sound is a club at 1 Leicester Square. Keshco played their socks off. If you find them, please send them back.
Sep 27 – Keshco played both as themselves and as their folkier relations Bleak House, at Tunnel Vision Thursday in Walthamstow. Much fun was had. The set went: If You Were, Spoons, Halloween, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Task, More Life Less Ordinary, Anna, and Chancery Lane.
Sep 16 – The Pleasure Unit again – Keshco played on a Sunday night and did a 30-minute set, which went: Midi Cassette, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Anna, Task, Doogies Song.
Sep 14 – Keshco found themselves at the Motherbar, upstairs at 333 Old Street in London. Their 30-minute set went: Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Halloween, Anna, and Task.
Sep 8 – Back to the Pleasure Unit, where Keshco played on a Saturday night, on a bill that included Cocoma and Dead Spies. Much larking around was done for people’s general amusement. The 30-minute set went like this: Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Hallowe’en, Anna, and finally Task.
Aug 15 – The Pleasure Unit was to be found in the heart of Bethnal Green. Keshco played on a rainy Wednesday night, after Shortwave Fade and before The Go-By. It was all rather fun. The 33-minute electronic set consisted of: Chancery Lane, Climate Dance, Think Alike, Zoetrope, Hallowe’en, Anna, Videoesque, and finally Gloom Monger. Proper review by Alissa Ordabai at Sugarbuzz magazine.
2006
Dec 2 – The Dublin Castle is a venue in Camden. Keshco played there at a night called Read The Fanzine, in support of Sounds Like Stellar and NOW. The truncated set consisted of seven synthy numbers, with much accompanying comedy business. Great fun! Set list: Chancery Lane, Livsey Street, Gloom Monger, Zoetrope, Think Alike, Anna, Hallowe’en.
2005
July 24 – South London Pacific is a rather swish little tiki bar in Kennington. The Keshco performance there consisted of nine electro numbers, bookended by a couple of acoustic pieces. Quite fun to do. Set list included: Spoons, Think Alike, Sink Into Syngamy, Zoetrope, Videoesque, Anna, Gloom Monger, Climate Dance, Midi Cassette, Icecream Kisses.
May – The Creative Swing has taken place in many venues over the last couple of years, and this time it was Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. Closing the night, Keshco played a five-song electropop set. Set list: Climate Dance, Anna, Hallowe’en, Gloom Monger, Midi Cassette.
April – The Fleamarket II, a weekend event in Deptford organised by art boffins temporarycontemporary, played host to a jovial two-man set that started with eight electropop numbers, then some acoustic pieces (the act after us had cancelled) and finally some freakout nonsense. New 45-minute projection loop. Most enjoyable!
2004
July – Keshco played eight songs at the Attik in Leicester. A rock audience, who weren’t expecting the acoustic set that we had to play. Set list included: The Delay Of Lying, Anna, If You Were, Spoons, Icecream Kisses.
June – Bleak House played nine songs at an Imperial College all-dayer, accompanied by projections. Preserved in a rather lo-fi recording. Set list included: If You Were, Anna, Here We Go Again, This Perfect Day, Bury You In My Garden, Those Germs, Health and Efficiency, Village Of Death.
April – Solo performance by Andrew at Wakefield’s Theatre Cafe. Nine numbers. Sadly, only the first song was captured. Happily, there was lots of cake.
2003
Aug – A brief North London outing at a club called Potty Mouth. Terrible problems with the PA.
April – Peculiar performance at the launch party for “Livesey Regales”, a self-financed comedy effort by outrageous camp auteur Roger Livesey. Going all out, new projections were unveiled.
2002
Winter – Robert stepped out with guitar to perform at an event in Ipswich, fundraising for his College’s Rag effort.
Aug – A little outing for Andrew at odd club the Klinker, in North London. First play of “The Delay Of Lying”, when it was actually ahead of the curve. Not that anybody noticed.
May – Two Leicester gigs for the House on consecutive nights – at a vegan cafe and at the (now defunct) International Arts Centre. Debut of If You Were. Happily (for our sanity and shoulders), the final appearance of the CZ-5000.
Feb/March – Bleak House played twice at the Half Time Orange in Leicester, featuring cheery material like Death In The Family, Here We Go Again and Weapons Expo. The first time, Andy had a cold. The second time, the CZ-5000 died on the first song.
2001
Dec 17 – Bleak House’s debut, so Luke Sample’s debut, and in front of a decent-sized audience as well. Thirty-five minute set comprising eight songs, of which the last was an alternatively-lyricked version of “In The Bleak Midwinter”. Sweets were handed out too. What larks! (See the BH page for further live dates and details on this fine establishment.)
March-May – Occasional Monday night mini-performances at the Musician folk club from Andrew and Dominic.
March 7 – The debut full-length performance of w/trem meets keshco, the electric folk project of Mr Brain and Mr Dominic Fox. Two blokes with guitars, five Keshco numbers, five w/trem numbers. The audience was sparse but more responsive as the set progressed. Went down well with night’s other acts, which included the very lovely Sugarfix. A CD of this performance is available, email for details, or can be downloaded via www.codepoetics.com if you’re lucky.
2000
August 23 – For this fractured performance, the lineup was Mr Brain on guitar and vocalizing, with Mr Follen on drums and keys. The set consisted of five numbers “in the folk schtylee” and then a twenty-minute freeform freakout. The freakout went down surprisingly well, probably because of a peculiar little device called the Dynamike. The night’s other acts included a band called Garlic, who were really rather good. Set list: Those Germs / Death In The Family / Here We Go Again / The Guest / Livsey Street / freakout.
August 5 – Poorly-attended lunchtime gig on carnival day, but nevertheless some pleasing Keshco noises were made. Peakirk-based Luke Aldington was drafted in to slap his bass around the Shed, which made any sort of rehearsing possible ‘cos he’s got a house. Photographists Steve and Drew did a great job with their pin-holes, and so we got some good shots. Photography-wise, it wasn’t too hard to snap us making grunts and squeals on stage, and various niceties in 2-D were creatively ejaculated. The concertina is preserved via a dictaphone, thank Walsoken for the dictaphone. Lineup: Andrew on guitar and lead vocals, Gaf on synths and vocals, Robert on drums, synth and vocals, and Luke on bass. Set list: Plastic And Glass, It’s A Cliche, Took Me Back, The Guest, Neville’s Toys, Half A Lungful, Oh Angel, Lucky Star.
1999
Summer – Beautiful busking. Andrew and Robert set out with various instruments and made the most of some fine days in Peterborough and King’s Lynn. Small children seemed to enjoy the Beatles numbers, whilst their parents preferred Pulp.