Well, in terms of anticipation, the gig of the year so far. Hopefully, I won't get sued for using the band moniker 'Goblin'! To be honest I get confused with the amount of times the band Goblin have reformed and fallen out and due to legal reasons called themselves 'New Goblin', 'Goblin Keys', 'Goblin Four Of A Kind', 'Cherry Red' or 'Goblin Rebirth'...
Anyway, 'Claudio Simonetti's Goblin', a.k.a. 'Daemonia' was the band I had on my list of ten bands to see before I die. And although Simonetti is only one of the members of Goblin; film director Dario Argento has used him to score several subsequent films in a solo capacity after the initial dissolution of Goblin; so I guess he is still the member the majority of horror fans want to see play live.
I'd never been to Union Chapel in Islington before last night, and it was a great venue in terms of atmosphere and sound quality, although next time I might just bring a cushions as the church pews which provide the seating are somewhat hard!
An eclectic mix of people enjoyed Simonetti and his band perform the soundtrack to Dario Argento's film Suspiria live along to the screening of the film. I was about 5 rows back from the stage with two friends from Folkestone and a row behind the TV presenter and film aficionado Jonathon Ross. Bizarrely, across the aisle to my right was someone I know who lives less than half a mile from me, and who I never knew was a fan of Argento movies or Goblin's music... Actually after the gig I got to speak of him and I think the evening was a bit of an eye opener for him as he was visiting friends in London and not previously a fan of either!
And as for the concert / film, did it deliver? You bet it did!
Saturday 18th August 2018
