Freethinking music and bourbon aplenty at The Lexington

She bought The Lexington in 2008, bringing a love of American beer and whiskey with her. More than 50 bottles of the latter line the shelf at the back of the bar, while porters, stouts and pomegranate wheated beers fill the fridges.

“It’s an owner’s indulgence, but it’s gone really well,” Thomas tells Access. “It coincided with bourbons really taking off in this country. Five years ago, you could only get Jack Daniel’s and few others, but now there are so many more. People associate American beer with Budweiser and American whiskey with Jim Beam, so it’s great to be able to say, ‘Hang on, what about this 18 year old rye whiskey, or this 27 year old bourbon?’ There’s no comparison.”

You have to walk away from Upper Street’s passing trade to find The Lexington, about 10 minutes up Pentonville Road, and while there’s a great atmosphere, good food, and a real contender for London’s best jukebox when you get there, it’s the bands that bring the people in.

A more traditional bar runs along the back wall of the 200 capacity room upstairs. The stage is about eight metres away, across a sunken dance floor, and the sound is crisp and clear. Thomas hired in PA after PA over a six month period, often lugging the boxes up and downstairs herself, before opting for a D&B C7 system.

Resolutely free of the mainstream, together with full time booker Matty, she has developed a network of bands/agents to talk to directly, leading to gigs from Seasick Steve, The Soft Pack, Camera Obscura, Natalie Imbruglia, Wolfmother, Juliette Lewis, the phenomenal Gallon Drunk, and on and on.

“We had a lot of heavy hitters play last year. We’ve got a good reputation.”

Stacey Thomas, Lexington owner

“Wire are playing the second of two nights this evening, and it’s that sort of thing that’s put us on the map,” says Thomas, “The Quietus has been trying to get them for ages, Matty was in the loop, and it all came together, we’ve got two sell out nights.” In truth, they could probably have done seven.

Adapt

With that size audience, a band of Wire’s stature and legacy plays to the wholly converted. But where once they toured with their own tribute band, to avoid having to dip into the back catalogue, the 18 song set is across the tracks. Two off 1977 debut Pink Flag, five from their latest album Red Barked Tree, and beguiling points between.

“To play 1970s stuff in the 1980s was retro, and nobody was interested,” singer/guitarist Colin Newman shrugs. “Now, all types of music exist at once, and we have a significant percentage of the audience who aren’t old enough to be nostalgic about the 1970s.”

The gigs come before a major UK/European tour next year, in bigger spaces, to larger crowds, but Wire bring all of their invention, appetite and exceptional live power with them to The Lexington.  

“There’s such a thing as large stage obscurity,” Newman tells Access over a coffee before the show. “In 2004, we did a performance at The Barbican, and we did a warm up for 130 people at On The Rocks. I only ever hear people talking about On The Rocks, nobody mentions The Barbican.”

“Last night was being filmed by three different sources and it’s going to go out into the world, so the size of the place doesn’t really matter,” bassist Graham Lewis adds. “It’s about being able to give account of yourself in whatever space.

“There’s a little venue in a place called Diksmuide, Belgium called 4AD. We played there two years ago, so we asked them if we could come back for our production rehearsals, and play a show. It’s a similar situation to The Lexington. It’s one of these wonderful little clubs, a third of it is the stage, there’s immaculate sound, they do a four camera video shoot, and you get the material at the end of the day, which is something we needed for our ammunition.”

Lazy critics seem to stay dazzled by the band’s first phase, the three albums released on the Harvest label more than 30 years ago. But Wire are still reinventing themselves, and live the mix is riveting. From the kick of 1979’s Two People In A Room to the crunching Moreover off the new LP, it’s a great, great gig.