I know where it's at... Bushstock Venue No. 1: St Stephens & St Thomas Church Hall

Source: www.ststephensw12.org

Yes, you have read correctly. One of the four Bushstock venues is a church hall. In fact, the newly built hall belonging to the church of St Stephens and St Thomas, on the corner of Coverdale Road and Uxbridge Road, will be the pseudo-HQ of Bushstock as it's where festival goers will need to exchange their ticket for wristbands. It is also where tickets (wristbands) can be bought on the day (this Saturday June 4th) for £30 if you are still um-ing and ah-ing about going.

A few months ago I happened to have a lovely chat with a member of St Stephens' who explained to me that the hall was built with the very intention of being for the local community. I was told that the hall was intended to be an inclusive, positive place in Shepherd's Bush for local residents to benefit from regardless of their beliefs or backgrounds. To demonstrate this the hall is now being used for a film club for local elderly residents (and soon the homeless as I blogged about earlier this year) and by  Ballet Black, a dance school which aims at providing "dancers and students of black and Asian descent with inspiring opportunities in classical ballet", amongst other similarly local pro-community causes.

Source: www.ststephensw12.org 

St Stephens is no stranger to being a music venue and indeed Communion Records have hosted a number of successful nights there featuring acts that will be returning to W12 on Saturday, including Daughter who will return to the church hall. Here's a video of Daughter filmed at St Stephens in March this year.




Among the other artists who will grace the acoustics of St Stephens are my three favourites:

Fink - Jose Gonzales-esque intense folk



Sarah Blasko - Aussie singer who is similar to but way, way, way, way better than Katie Melua.



Marques Toliver - (fast forward to 0:28 to ignore two silly people messing about behind a barrel of hay) who received an outstanding reception at Brighton's Great Escape (which I sadly missed as I was busy on a hen do playing get the chocolate willy into your mouth from your forehead, without using your hands). This is my kind of music; unique, soulful, eclectic, skillfully delivered by a hot man in a checked shirt messing about with a fiddle. Marques is DEFINITELY a Birdie top tip for Bushstock (I''ll be the one at the front of the audience reaching out trying to stroke his bow)