Crisis hidden gigs

Hot Chip, Filthy Dukes, The Bluetones, Dodgy join forces for charity

18 March 2009 - A host of bands are set to perform nine hidden shows across London in May and June, in support of the homeless charity Crisis.

Indie-electro dance outfit Hot Chip - who are doing a limited amount of shows while they are in the studio working on their follow-up toMade In The Dark- and guests will kick off proceedings on 5 May.

The series will also see Dodgy and The Bluetones perform somewhere secret on Sunday 17 May.

Other acts confirmed include Filthy Dukes, Bombay Bicycle Club, Cuban Brothers, The Bays and The Pipettes, with more artists to be confirmed at a later date.

In keeping with the ‘hidden’ theme, the venues will be disclosed on the day of the gig, via text message, and Chief Fundraiser Andy Page explained why: “The purpose really is to help us promote the issues of those that are the hidden homeless in London, not those that you see on the street, but the thousands of people who actually move from day to day or live on friends floors, those that you don’t see.”"Some of them will actually be curating those evenings themselves and bringing other bands along with them."

Andy Page

All proceeds will go towards Crisis and Page told 6 Music it all came about after a hugely successful show last year with Paul Weller at the Roundhouse in Camden.

“From that, the music industry has connected itself with Crisis and once news got out that this was something that we were planning to do, we found that different labels and other agents were very keen to bring the bands in that we were looking for.He went on to say fans can look forward to some surprises: “The bands themselves have really offered their time and involvement and have come up with ideas. Some of them will actually be curating those evenings themselves and bringing other bands along with them.”

Crisis consequences

It’s not the first time the charity has teamed up with musicians to raise cash and awareness.

Last year approximately a quarter of a million pounds was raised with the Crisis Consequences single, which featured contributions from the likes of Gossip’s Beth Ditto, Paul Weller, Supergrass, Graham Coxon and New Young Pony Club.

Paul Epworth, who’s produced the likes of Jack Penate, Bloc Party and Maximo Park was the musical brains behind the project.

He told us about the process of making the track: “It was a really enjoyable thing to do, quite stressful but what we set out to achieve was to create something that was a little bit grand and that was definable by its scale. I think we succeeded.

“I think actually we wrote quite a good piece of music considering it was a bit like cutting and pasting different peoples ideas and trying to work with them on the fly.”

As for future release plans Andy Page revealed they are planning to take live recordings of the series, in order to put together a CD or look at putting out various downloads.

Tickets go on sale at 11am GMT on Wednesday 18 March and are available from.