a parcel-passing fierce panda one sheet

The Thing: FIERCE PANDA'S 15TH BIRTHDAY PARTY (featuring two gigs within one venue)
The Date: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20TH 2009
The Place: LONDON KINGS CROSS SCALA
The Artistes Performing In The Main Room:
THE WALKMEN + HATCHAM SOCIAL + THE MOLOTOVS
The Doors: 7.30pm ‚ 11.00pm. The Damage: £15.00
The Artistes Performing In Room 2 / the Cool For Cats Room:
ELECTRICITY IN OUR HOMES + AN EXPERIMENT ON A BIRD IN THE AIR PUMP + DJs KATE JACKSON + THE SHE SET + ARTROCKER
The Doors: 11.00pm - 3.00am. The Damage: £6.00 or free with ticket for Main Room, space permitting.

The Plot: on February 24th 1994 fierce panda records released the 'Shagging In The Streets' compilation EP which was a tribute - if you will - to the then-vibrant New Wave Of New Wave scene. The hectic likes of S*M*A*S*H, These Animal Men, Blessed Ethel, Done Lying Down, Action Painting and appeared on the infamous double vinyl package and our the intentions were impressively honourable: to release this one single and retire. After all, you don't lumber yourself with a bobbins name like fierce panda if you're planning on hanging around.

Yet over 200 singles, 60 albums, seven t-shirts and one mug later the panda is somehow still struggling on, defying the laws of indie gravity and frequently being described as 'legendary', 'well respected' and quite possibly 'foolhardy'. Once famed for its ability to chuck out the odd buzzy one-off 7" fierce panda has slealthily grown in stature and has recently played host to frankly great albums by the likes of Art Brut, iliketrains, The Blackout, The Spinto Band, White Rabbits, Shitdisco and The Raveonettes.

And so 2009 will see the panda celebrate its fifteenth birthday with a selection of friends new and even newer playing across two rooms at the Kings Cross Scala. The first half of the action takes place in the main room. The second half of the action takes place upstairs in room 2. And that action looks something like this:

SCALA MAIN ROOM fierce panda presents THE WALKMEN (onstage 10.00pm) are five gentlemen from New York City who joined the panda fray for the September 2008 release of 'You & Me', their fourth album of pained, profound indierock ruminations which had the likes of Q and The Guardian scrabbling for their biscuit tin of superlatives. A month later they played a sold-out show at ULU which was so magical it started snowing in big London Town. Tonight they play this special Scala show to help us blow some balloons and to launch their new single 'In The New Year', released on the panda on February 16th. www.myspace.com/thewalkmen

HATCHAM SOCIAL (onstage 9.15pm) are three young men from London who are joining the panda fray for the imminent release of their debut album 'You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil', due on March 9th. Theirs is a charming, chiming guitarpop sound with a literate bent, a macabre undercurrent and a nicely turned out cardigan or two. www.myspace.com/hatchamsocial

THE MOLOTOVS (onstage 8.30pm) are five young men based in London Town who joined the fierce panda mgmt stable at the close of 2008, just as their 'Flowers' debut single crept onto the racks via Cool For Cats. French barroom muzak shot through with a precise English vocal is their forte, uplifting and lilting tunesmithery is their gift to the musical world. www.myspace.com/themolotovs

SCALA ROOM 2 Cool For Cats presents

ELECTRICITY IN OUR HOMES(onstage 12am) This is about as chaotic and disjointed as anything else that is out there at the moment. Just over a minute and a half of dirty, filthy art-rock. In the space of that just over a minute and a half, you'll be subjected to the sneering and vocal aggression of an amalgamation of Johnny Rotten and Mark E. Smith, a frenzied assault of anarchic guitar lines like Zappa fronting Melt Banana, and a rhythm section that could've been taken from one of Ian Dury and the Blockheads' lost singles, with the machine gun drums and humpy thumpy bass determined to march down your street, kick your door in and drag you dancing down your path in an impulsive paroxysm of glee.

AN EXPERIMENT ON A BIRD IN THE AIR PUMP(onstage 1am) ?ìA kind of noisy Ronettes meets the Banshees girl-group. In fact theyre exactly what the Jesus and Mary Chain were aiming for before they spoiled it all by being spotty Scottish guys rather than glamourously mysterious black-clad girls¬ù ?ìUnassuming but utterly engaging, their music possesses a minimal but deeply guttural vibe that reaches into Hades pit of horrors and proceeds to grab the ghastly beasts and pound their demonised heads around the drums like satanic pom-poms¬ù

+ DJS KATE JACKSON (the long blondes), THE SHE SET, ARTROCKER + more