London's newest music venue opened its doors this week, in a basement near Hyde Park Corner. Owned by the Hard Rock Café, instead of the now obligatory Mean Fiddler, we're not used to such competition in this market.
It's more like a kind of club/venue hybrid: despite having taps on the bar and glasses behind it, they'll only serve you beer in bottles with little change from a fiver. All this money is no doubt to fund the 17 flat screen TVs around the place, and not the stage, which appears to be several shoe boxes lined up on the dancefloor. The Hard Rock theme is continued with assorted musical cast-offs including Elton John's wellies.
Which is a shame, as the sound system is a notch above that normally found in similar sized venues (think your front room with a disco floor) around town, the bar is ideally placed for simultaneous leaning and band watching and the staff, oh blessed relief, are actually quite friendly.
Rialto continue the second-hand theme. After being dropped by East West, twice, in the space of a single album, they have returned with a new album, 'Night On Earth', which carries on where the first one left off. Only one track from the first album, 'Monday Morning 5.19' interrupts their showcasing of the new release.
Rialto's soundtrack melancholy and melodrama is at odds with their image. Louis Eliot is not a jejune indie kid who'd break in a mild breeze; rather, he gives the impression of a sergeant major who's swapped the battlefield for John Barry. 'London Crawling' and 'Anything Could Happen' are reasonably passable songs, even tuneful, with moderately interesting lyrics. But, unlike the dancefloor, somehow Rialto don't really light up.
