Animal Kingdom Close the Year With a Sold-Out Performance at Barfly

Posted on Dec 21st 2009 4:47PM by Animal Kingdom
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Holed up in a North London church-turned-studio, Animal Kingdom are gathering material for their sophomore album just months after the release of their breakthrough debut, 'Signs and Wonders.' The British quartet will be checking in during their creative brainstorming process with personal anecdotes and photos. Here, the band describes their year-end visit to XFM, and their performance at the legendary Bar Fly.

The U.K.'s top indie radio station XFM invited us to play their last of the decade "Exposure" show on Thursday, hosted by main man John Kennedy, who politely came and introduced himself to us during in the sound check. His show is undoubtedly one of the most diverse shows on the wireless in the U.K. and he digs deep to keep bringing new, quality music to the ears of London's indie fans. In fact, his ad on the XFM website reads: "The man is an absolute oracle of the hotly-tipped, the seer of the next big thing, the guru of the soon-to-be-great."

We did a live session for his show earlier in the year and he has been extremely supportive of Animal Kingdom since our first single came out. The night prior to the show, he interviewed Rich on the phone live on air. Unfortunately for Rich, he could only get phone reception outside the studio -- it was drizzling and freezing cold, but he managed to keep up a 10-minute conversation without his teeth chattering too much. John played both 'Two by Two,' which is our next single here in the U.K. and 'Chalk Stars,' which he called his track of the year. What a super chap!

We spent the day rehearsing in our freezing cold (until we rock it warm) rehearsal room, going through a couple of new tunes with our live man Yuuki McClure, who plays 2nd guitar with us on tour. We've nicknamed him "Hot Licks McClure" due to his love of bad blues and comedy hot licks.

The show was at the infamous Barfly in Camden Town. It has been long established as the place to cut your teeth on the London music scene, and many great bands have played there -- Oasis, Feeder, Coldplay, Muse, Doves to name but a few. Having played almost every other venue in London, this was the first time our feet had stepped onto the sticky floors of the Barfly, and, thanks to the great support from XFM and our London fans, it was SOLD OUT and heaving in there!

Now , what you've all been dying to find out all week -- what was under the trap door? Was it skeletons? Gold? A treasure map? A secret tunnel leading to Buckingham Palace?