Well, it's finally here. HDIF's tenth birthday. Ten years of indiepop and northern soul. Ten years of friendship and falling over, ten years of losing yourself to songs you've never heard before and songs that have been saving your life for years and years. Ten years of waking up the morning after with LOVED stamped on your hand. Ten years of the Buffalo Bar, The Canterbury Arms, The Phoenix, Nambucca, The Windmill, JAMM, The Grosvenor and the 100 Club. Ten years of making your way home at 3.30am in a tired but contented daze, the lights of late night/early morning London twinkling, beautifully. Ten years of something I thought would only ever last for one night. Ten years of feeling at home.

Our guest DJ is Bob Stanley. If you've made it this far, you won't need to be told why. Over ten years before the start of HDIF, when I was still learning how to DJ around the dives of Camden, I remember playing "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" three times in one night, totally besotted. I didn't realise then that the song was based around a sample of a Dusty Springfield classic, that there was a direct link between indiepop and classic soul, that "The Train From Kansas City" on the Shop Assistants album was a Shangri-Las cover, that Talulah Gosh had drawn a straight line between punk rock and sixties girl groups. But the penny dropped eventually. Now mixing indiepop and soul together feels like the most natural thing in the world.

Some details. Doors open at 9pm, as always. Advance tickets are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/162281 - and Bob is on from 10.30-midnight. There's a free CD for the first 100 people through the door. Not a homemade compilation CD but something else - you'll see when you get there. The April HDIF is traditionally our T-Shirt Weather Special, so please come along wearing a band or music related t-shirt if such an item lurks in your wardrobe. It could be a Smiths or a Belle & Sebastian t-shirt, a Hefner or an Allo Darlin' tee, a Tamla Motown or a Supremes tee, whatever takes your fancy (and if you'd rather wear a cool shirt or a vintage dress, then that's great too, of course). And as it's International Record Store Day on Saturday, if you bring along a receipt to prove that you've bought a record on Saturday, then we'll give you a pound off the price on the door. There's loads of cool sounding events and gigs happening in record shops all over London, so you could always go to one of those and then come to us afterwards.

Hope to see you then!
Ian x

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How Does It Feel To Be Loved?
Saturday April 21st
The Phoenix, 37 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0PP, three minutes walk from Oxford Circus tube station, 9pm-3am, £4 members, £6 non members. Membership is free from http://www.howdoesitfeel.co.uk
Advance tickets - http://www.wegottickets.com/event/162281

Guest DJ: Bob Stanley

We play:

The Smiths * The Supremes * The Go-Betweens * Dusty Springfield * Belle & Sebastian * Love * Tammi Terrell * Aztec Camera * The Ronettes * Orange Juice * Beach Boys * The Temptations * Velvet Underground * Felt * The Shangri-Las * Primal Scream * Otis Redding * The Field Mice * Dexys Midnight Runners * Camera Obscura * The Four Tops * Melba Moore * The Orchids