On Monday March 2nd Drew McConnell's Helsinki headlines London's seminal 100 Club to celebrate the release of the 'A Guide For The Perplexed' album, which is released on that very day on fierce panda. As the name may suggest Drew McConnell's Helsinki is the side project of Drew McConnell, bass player in Babyshambles and musician to the stars, judging by the roll call of musicians on his record which includes Pete Doherty, Albert Hammond Jr, Fionn Regan and Emma Gillespie, Seb Roachford (Polar Bear) and many more.

Some of those people might well be there onstage on March 2nd. Some people who definitely will be there are boisterous beardies Sean Grant & The Wolfgang and folk dreamsters Liu Bei, or at least their frontman Richard Walters in solo mode. This much we know because they are confirmed as supporting cast for the show, as per below.

We can now also announce that this show will double up as Club Fandango's 14th birthday party, for it was March 7th 2001 when they launched their half-crazed brand of new band showcases at Camden Dublin Castle, where they stayed for virtually every Tuesday night for virtually nine years, putting on seminally legendary shows by Arctic Monkeys, Death Cab For Cutie, Bloc Party, Keane, The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs and, our first ever headliners all those years ago, KaitO. Having fought valiantly but unsuccessfully to keep the doors open at the ill-fated Bull & Gate in Kentish Town, Team Fandango now regularly lives the live dream at a variety of venues across town, from the Shacklewell Arms to the Sebright Arms and several well-armed pubs in between.

fierce panda & Club Fandango present:
HELSINKI (onstage 10.00pm)
+ SEAN GRANT & THE WOLFGANG (onstage 9.00pm)
+ LIU BEI (Solo Set) (onstage 8.15pm)
LONDON OXFORD STREET 100 CLUB
MONDAY MARCH 2ND 2015
DOORS: 7.45PM
£8.00 ADVANCE TICKETS FROM www.wegottickets.com/event/308158

HELSINKI (onstage 10.00pm) The sweet irony is that for all the guests and personalities appearing on the Helsinki 'A Guide For Perplexed' album the lead-off single is the terrific 'Rising Heights', released on February 23rd, in which Drew McConnell stars on his vocal lonesome. Like the rest of the album, due a week later, it is a song with its heart on its tattered sleeve and its tattered sleeve reaching for the ragged sky, a coy melody uncurling from a nonchalant gumbo of organic acoustic soundscapes which are jaunty and sulky and trampy and ever-so-gently riotous, frequently all at the same time. At one choice moment in 'Choices' you will experience the exotique sounds of French reggae, and nothing will ever be the same again.
www.facebook.com/helsinkiofficial

SEAN GRANT & THE WOLFGANG (onstage 9.00pm) Expect dynamic punkoid folkisms from four rowdy roustabouts from the land of the Milton Keynes roundabouts, with perpetually bruised melodies and frequently battered knuckles. Once referred to as the missing link between The Libertines and The Lumineers, the lupine collective’s current excellent ‘War Machines’ EP opens with a song called – slightly confusingly – ‘War Machine’ and never lets the ripping up from there.
www.facebook.com/seangrantandthewolfgang

LIU BEI (Solo Set) (onstage 8.15pm) Pronounced Lou Bay, Liu Bei are a London-based collective who’ve gathered together to create grand music which is part wistful, part watchful folk with a cinematic overdrive. They have friends in high musical places too – Rachel Goswell from Slowdive joined Liu Bei onstage at their recent Shacklewell Arms show to reprise her role on ‘Fields’, which lurks on Liu Bei’s current goodness-filled ‘Goodness’ EP. Tonight sees a solo Liu Bei set from frontman Richard Walters, so it does.
www.facebook.com/liubeiwins