Kitsch Lounge Riot

18 Sep 2003 Independent Page 18 (FEATURES) Edition FOREIGN (491 words)

"Here's to a heady cocktail of kitsch
CABARET Take three young men, add shades, suits, Sixties sounds and you have the latest club craze"


Back in 1996, a young rave organiser called Jamie Hinchliffe was waiting in the departure lounge at Bombay Airport when a Sixties Brigitte Bardot track began playing over the Tannoy. It was a life-changing moment. "I thought: `My God, this is brilliant,' " recalls Hinchliffe. "I wanted to get up and dance my socks off."
Hinchliffe's overnight defection to easy-listening pop of the Fifties and Sixties soon led him to cross paths with swing crooner Oliver Darley and lounge lizard Johnny Barran. Darley ran The Rat Pack - a Vegas-style cabaret in the spirit of Frank, Dean, Sammy et al - while Barran was a smooth-talking radio presenter.

By 1998, the sharp-suited trio had pooled their talents into the Kitsch Lounge Riot (KLR) - a live music club with Hinchliffe as DJ, Barran as compere and Darley as resident vocalist. Passionate about recreating the glamour of the "Big Night Out", the boys persuaded friends and performers from the West End stage to come on board as live acts. They found themselves at the forefront of the lounge revival. "People were bored of rave music and we offered them something more intimate and sophisticated - a friendly club where they could both dress up and let their hair down," says Hinchliffe.

"Kitsch music is in our collective psyche because it's everywhere - from television commercials to supermarkets," adds Darley. "What we do at the KLR is tongue-in-cheek, but that doesn't take away from the quality of the songs and the way they uplift people and trigger a sense of fun."

It's a formula that has more than stood the test of time, with the weekly Thursday bash at London's opulent Cafe de Paris attracting a mixed crowd, as well as actors and the occasional A-list celebrity.

Darley, who has appeared with Ray Charles and BB King, kicks off the show with some classic swing. Then comes the kitsch (Tom Jones, Mel Torme), followed by riot - anything from rock'n'roll, to disco to the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack.
In April, the KLR launched its own compilation album on BMG, with a predictably champagne-soaked party headlined by Mike Flowers and Gloria Gaynor. Now it's expanding with a Friday residency at Infernos in Clapham. The line-up for the opening night on 19 September, is as eclectic as ever, featuring crooner Jamie Cullum, then Jericho frontman Mark Shaw, the cricketer Mark Butcher and Leah Wood in her first solo performance.

As the main riot act, Mark Shaw says his role is to "get everyone jumping and down". Fresh from touring, he's planning a stormy rendition of his own "Big Area", and hell- raising versions of the normally kitsch "Avenues and Alleyways" and "You're Just to Good To Be True". "I love singing at the KLR. It's the only chance I get to wear a funky old suit and silly sunglasses," says Shaw.
KLR is at Cafe de Paris (020-7734 7700) and Infernos (020-7720 7633; www.kitsch loungeriot.com)
Picture Caption: Lounge lizards: Johnny Barran, Jamie Hinchliffe and Oliver Darley

- Independent (Jane Hughes)

18 Oct 2003 Guardian Page 31 (GUI) Edition (165 words)
Clubs : Kitsch Lounge Riot LONDON
Nick Green

Swap your beer and your fag for a glass of champagne and a cigar. Whip off the combats and slip into your whistle. Then enter the wholly original world of Kitsch Lounge Riot, an event that has graduated from a gay sauna soiree into a weekly cabaret and lounge music night of some esteem.

Begun six years ago by Talksport presenter Johnny Barran, artist Oliver Darley and publisher Jamie Hinchcliffe, KLR relies on its opulence, charm and the highly unlikely nature of its guests. Instead of your usual roster of DJs, bands and MCs, KLR has enticed the likes of Sacha Distel, Gloria Gaynor, Denise Van Outen, Frank Skinner and even Chuck Berry into the fray, with consistently excellent results.

Last year even saw Andy Williams play, 50 years after he had first performed at the venue. And then last week's guest was former world champ featherweight boxer Barry McGuigan. No logic whatsoever, and all the better for it.


- Guardian (Nick Green)

Over at Kitsch Lounge Riot (Thursday nights at Cafe de Paris) they've taken the concept one step further and actually rehearse their celebrity acts.

'It's all very well having celebrities singing on stage but you've got to make sure they're not crap,' says an insider. 'KLR started out as a night when singers from West End shows would get up and perform, and then gradually other celebrities started to hear about it and wanted to have a go.

To date, Kitsch Lounge Riot has boasted live performances from Barry McGuigan (he's apparently very good – really), Neil Morrissey, Boy George, Kevin Kline, Annie Hatheaway, Frank Skinner and Denise Van Outen. You don't get more of a cross-section than that
- Evening Standard

IS KING of the Jungle Phil Tufnell set to give up his trademark cigarettes as a preamble to making his girlfriend Dawn his third wife?
Former England cricketer Phil, 37, the laidback victor of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here II, will have to kick the habit if his sweetheart of two years, Dawn Brown, has her way.

"I am a qualified fitness trainer and I am about to start working on him, " she confided at the recent Kitsch Lounge Riot night at London's Cafe de Paris.
"I plan to get him to give up smoking at the same time as I do."
So presuming the pair manage to make it through their cold turkey, are there wedding bells in the air? "I really missed Dawn when I was in the jungle, " Phil said.
"When and where we get married will be down to me but it won't be in front of the TV cameras."
With grubs and bugs served at the reception, Tuffers?
- The Express

19 Dec 2003 Mirror Page 26 (FEATURES) Edition 3-Star (100 words)

Clubs: KITSCH LOUNGE RIOT @ THE GRAND - Life is a cabaret
Sinead burke


One of the most sophisticated nights out in London, Kitsch Lounge Riot, have taken over another venue, the glamorously revamped Grand in Clapham.
Boasting a tradition of cool, swinging, cabaret-laced sounds, we've previously seen celebrity line-ups which have included Denise Van Outen, Boy George and Frank Skinner.

And tonight KLR welcomed back one of the biggest selling UK jazz artists to their stage, the baby-faced crooner, Jamie Cullum. He'll be singing some of his favourite numbers, no doubt many featured on his hit Twentysomething album.
Friday: 21-25 St John's Hill, Clapham, SW11. 9pm. pounds 10. Tel: 020 8287 4064.

- The Mirror

About as far removed from spending all night in a disused East End warehouse as it’s possible to get, Kitsch Lounge Riot start a new weekly residency at the retro-swanky, 1940s-style Pigalle Club on Piccadilly, intent on bringing their bulging contacts book to this late night lounge club. Expect the likes of Matt Stevens, Richard Shelton and Leee John in the upcoming weeks.

‘We loved it the first time we went down,’ says Johnny Barran, Kitsch Lounge Riot co-founder. ‘It’s a fabulous, intimate venue with the emphasis on fine dining while being touching distance from the live action.’
Kitsch Lounge Riot ran weekly at Cafe de Paris from 2001-2005, with Jamie Cullum their about-to-be-discovered resident jazz player. ‘We’ve yearned to drop to more intimate surroundings,’ explains Barren and, with a total capacity of just 280, intimate is exactly what it’s going to be.

Best leave your battered trainers at home for this one. ‘Our audience is a well-dressed, fun-loving crowd who like to revel in Vegas surroundings,’ says Barran, ‘and who have a passion for live music. Naturally, we do encourage smokers and chokers, but it’s not essential.’

- Time Out

Sacha is the Sunshine

Sacha Distel last night delighted an audience at the
Cafe De Paris, which included the Polish and Peruvian ambassadors, DR Stainslaw Komorowski and Gilbert Chauny.

It was the French crooner's first major London Cabaret performance for 25 years
and a major coup for the promoters, the Kitsch Lounge Riot. "I have just been working in America with Dionne Warwick and finished my run with Chicago here this weekend". Distel told me after a rapturously received show which included renditions of The Good Life, You are the Sunshine of My Life and Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head." I am off to Paris tomorrow to host a Eurovision Song contest show but I hope to come back sooner next time."

Oliver Wadson, Londoner's diary, Evening Standard, Monday, 19th March 2001
- Evening Standard

The Kitsch Lounge Riot is one of the best club nights in London and fortunately the media think so too. The KLR has received the following accolades:

"A brilliant club" Sacha Distel on the KLR - Hot Tickets 15 March

"Throw on your posh togs, light up a cigar, pour yourself a flute of Champagne - you're ready to Lounge" Evening Standard clubbing choice - Thursday 22nd March

"For those of you who have been craving kitsch, cabaret-laced clubbing, look no further" Metro, Friday 16 March

"A chic retreat, for London's cool Lounge clientele"
Evening Standard

"Critics Choice" in Time Out and the Guardian

"Clubbing Choice" in Hot Tickets

"Essential Selection" Evening Standard Online

"Hottest Tickets in Town" Metro

"Going Out clubbing choice" Evening Standard

"The grooviest swingers in town put on a Vegas-style lounge show with all the trappings."
Ben Bellman, Time Out

"A 600-strong crowd dancing the night away at The Kitsch Lounge Riot shows that the easy listening revival not only has legs but feet, arms and possibly even wings."
Stewart Husband, Sunday Express

"If you secretly crave creamy cocktails, James Bond theme tunes and music to watch girls by, this is the place to boogie." Sam Ellis, Evening Standard

"The KLR is a sophisticated easy listening night which combines some top musical talent, dancing girls and the odd famous face from yesteryear." Tim Marsh, Evening Standard Online

"A sumptuous evening of entertainment, with rubber clad dancing girls galore" Hot Tickets

"The Kitsch Lounge Riot is London's premier music club, it is a Mecca for star spotting with Celebs of past and present letting their hair down and maybe even performing" Big Issue



- General Media Quotes