The Green Dragon, Croydon

Good beer, and some of the best Dj's in croydon today. check out Steve and Helen(?) on saturdays...

soundtrack heaven and anything goes :D

2 Jan 2009 14:06

The Ship, Croydon

You know you are in for a good night when you walk into a venue and you can find the dj booth in the immediate vicinity of a circle of teenage jailbait, too cool rock and roll chicks, and 40 something mums in make up, the DJ himself, a drunken mess, manically playing whatever comes to mind no matter whether it fits, is suitable of if anyone likes it, fending off all complaints with a swig of snakebite and a cheerful �F**k OFF! Leave if ya don�t like it��

Yup, the man with the huge ears, who I recently found out is called Steve, but seems to go by about ten different names, ranging from just that, Steve the ears, to the oddly spelt freakboy, (freekboy? Freekboiy? Something like that), an entity who used to back in the day with his cronies holding him up play wholly unsuitable music in the legendary ship of Croydon, (he was apparently supposed to play rock and metal, and in the many times I was there this was the basis of what he played, but seemingly randomly playing sets of Motown soul, rock and roll reggae and dub, electro/ house/techno, rap j-noise classical and anything else that seemed to piss off the newbie�s and/or took his fancy) needles to say, the guy was a legend often ending the nights naked atop the bar or dj booth, randomly walking around the pub abusing people, and being a drunken mess� then I stopped going to the ship for a while, only to return to find he�d quit DJing. So myself and my friends consoled ourselves with the thought Ziggy and Linton still played and found somewhere else to drink�
We caught him a few times outside the Ship too, mostly in London like club x and Dingwalls, and the underworld, tho he was spectacularly thrown out of the underworld mid set for being extremely abusive to the owners better half., much as we tried to follow him he never advertised when or where he was playing and we resigned ourselves to the truth that he really had had a kid and quit.

Later

Over the road, the green dragon rose from the ashes of the hogshead, and with a new music policy and as I�ve since found out Esther wot used to run the ship at the helm, this sounded good so we tried it, found some wonderful bands and some wonderful DJ�s, (mostly ex ship types we discovered to our joy) Sam and les. Benny the indie guy and more. One Saturday we drunkenly fell thru the door around 11insh hoping to catch last orders and low and behold... that slightly smaller circle of women, the hair was gone, but the ears stayed... yes we had found Steve again. He has a new partner, (CherryBomb? Helen? No-one could seem to hear above the music to find out, and the bar staff were too busy dancing to answer tsk tsk) a slightly different take on music, a little more mainstream but still just as random, but still bloody awesome. And to top it all off the Green Dragon was open till one am� the music screamed with what seemed to be 90�s alt. classics, the Dj�s were friendly but took no sh*t as always. We got drunker and staggered home happy.
I�ve since been back on the off chance to see if they were still playing there, but alas, no-one seemed to know for sure, aside of one night a month, usually the last. I have heard that him and his old compadre from the ship did a one off night there, and I�m assured by the landlord that they will be back in the beginning of February and I shall keep my eyes out for that, but all in all, I urge all and any of you with half an interest in the weirder side less predictable side of music to go check this guy out� just look for the huge ears and the loudest most obnoxious person there and you�ve found him, and you know your in for a treat. You will not like all of what he plays, some of it is pretty unlistenable, but the point is he plays it. And anything else no one else will play. Ask him and he will do his best to get it on, just don�t expect him to be polite. Or dressed. Seriously, one of the best Dj�s around today.

2 Jan 2009 14:03