Alison Goldfrapp’s The Love Invention is stuffed with chic electro dance anthems. So it makes perfect sense for her first solo album to make its live debut at HERE.
Part of London’s new Outernet development, it’s a high-tech venue four floors beneath those massive audio-visual “immersive experiences” that have popped up outside Tottenham Court Road tube station. The sound system is astonishing. A huge high-definition video screen covers the entire wall behind the stage. The bar is more like something out of a Mayfair hotel than the usual £7-Carlsberg-pints-or-bust situation at most live music venues. The floors aren’t even sticky. Essentially, it’s the kind of place where you could imagine 2000 sweaty bodies writhing on a Friday night while a DJ spins high-energy bangers from that booth one storey above the dance floor.
Nils van der Linden 