THE GIN RIOTS

The Gin Riots mission is to make music to “lift London out of its ordered gloom and back into the drunken haze of the eighteenth century gin palaces”. With their own twisted drunken cabaret night looming at old gin palace ‘The Ivy House’ in Peckham, the band also known as ‘the soaks’ are already brewing up bawdy revels in the dankest nooks and crannies of London town. Composing dirty little ditties seems to come easily to the young band. Songs doused in Dutch courage spur you on to swing arm and arm round the room with your sloshed up neighbour. As a live act they are immense. Guitar, bass and drums play tight and punchy with the time signature. Their tunes sketch out social dramas in homage to eighteenth century artist William Hogarth’s own satirical engagement with society and the city (as epitomised in his famous engraving ‘Gin Lane’). Like a more rosy-cheeked version of The Pogues, The Gin Riots are also of mixed Irish and English descent. Traditional Irish folk influences infused with a raw sound harking back to the English Punk movement. There is much merriment to be had with The Gin Riots, a lively bunch of fellas currently clamouring against the eardrums of London’s debauched underbelly. Be prepared for a ballsy bedlam of a knees-up.