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05/04/2004 Giro Playboy - two more London gigs this week
Giro Playboy, fast-rising slacker rap poets, are headlining tonight at Hugo's Organic Café, Lonsdale Road, Queen's Park, London NW6. Directions: Their Thursday gig as Poets in Residence at the Whitechapel Art Gallery also continues this week. The Gallery is adjacent to Aldgate East Tube station in London's newly-boho East End. After catching Giro Playboy by accident recently, Anne Ritchie wrote here: "Giro Playboy is an exciting new writer - his eponymous books (vols 1 and 2) recently went on sale via Borders, and his work - mainly vignettes on the life and times of a very bright slacker, set in Brighton, London and Hartlepool, his unlikely home town in the unlovely English Rust Belt - has also been published in ultra-fashionable magazines like Zembla, and Straight No Chaser. "Flora P, his musical partner, is an Italian composer and performer who produces his work on his Apple Mac, and performs it live from the computer keyboard. "Their short set consisted of four works - The Seaside Town; Xmas; The Pub, and The Ice Cream Van Melody - finely chiselled little stories, with a profundity, variety and economy of expression that only very good writers can achieve. Giro Playboy's commanding performance of his work led the rapt audience on a roller coaster of emotions, from pity to pathos, hilarity to sentimentality, and loathing to repulsion, in quick succession. He evokes emotions to which everyone can relate, but which only very few can express. "The nearest musical reference point is probably John Cooper Clarke, another witty Northern English literary performer who attempted to cross over to the rockpop mainstream. But the comparison isn't too accurate: Giro Playboy is probably a more engaging writer than Clarke. Giro Playboy's words have the resonance, finesse and dexterity of great poetry. Their force reminded me of the sharpness of the explosively creative early Bob Dylan. "Flora's musical accompaniment is the measure of Playboy's words - atmospheric, appropriate, finely wrought pieces which blend with the words to create a work which is greater than the sum of its parts. "Most young musicians with talent fall down because they lack original ideas: their work is derivative. With virtually all hopefuls, you can readily identify their stylistic antecedents. Not with this duo, though: their creativity is refreshingly original - powerful, invigorating, challenging. "Giro Playboy and Flora P are set to release their first album: watch this space. You can catch them at their Thursday night Pulse residency at the Whitechapel, every other Thursday (check for details: www.whitechapel.org; tel 0207 522 7888). It's free at the moment, but this is bound to change soon. Giro Playboy are starting to attract an enthusiastic following: I can't be sure, but I thought I saw Julie Christie (or at least a very convincing lookalike) in last night's crowd. "I'd wager that you'll be hearing more of these two. Remember you heard it first on the Music for Grown-Ups web site." Recommended.
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