METAL MADNESS in The Quietus best of year list

Noel Gardner from The Quietus has chosen Labake's album METAL MADNESS as one of his 2025 favourites for the New Weird Britain feature. This means a lot to us, thank you Noel for your ongoing interest and support. We are proud of ourselves! Labake has been heard saying that she is happy to be famous. 

Two Christmas fairs!

The Gate participated in two craft fairs in two cities over the weekend: the Christmas Craft Fair at Tunnel Studios in London, and Art Mart at Strange Brew in Bristol. 

We had wacky patches, punk jewelry made from safety pins and badges made from upcycled consumer electronics on display. 

In Greater London and the West Country, the punters lined up to donate and in return, receive Christmas gifts for their discerning loved ones. 

The fairs were both a success and the Gate team returned home tired and satisfied with a good day's work.

Thank you to everyone that came and supported us. Thank you to Tunnel Studios and Strange Brew. Merry Christmas etc.

Individual zines!

Our talented in-house graphic designer is producing individual zines with Gate artists.

MR AKA AMAZING's zine gives the reader a visual insight into his personal world.

Jason's monochrome edition has a lot of scary faces. It's possible that these were inspired by horror films.

As always you can contact us to get hold of merchandise. Stay tuned for more zines.

Mary's T-shirt featured in Not So Difficult Magazine

Ran Devos, graphic designer and fan of The Gate, chose Mary's t-shirt in a list of fifteen of her favourite objects. The objects were featured in two double-page spreads of the Not So Difficult Magazine. 

The theme of the issue was 'inspiration'. Mary's text-based t-shirt artwork was chosen alongside other favourites including 'The sugar cube [Ran's] grandfather kept in his grey trench coat for nearly 15 years.' 

How did this sugar cube (see object no.4 above) remain intact in the trench coat for so long? 

Thank you Ran for featuring Mary's work. We hope that next time we send something it won't get stuck in customs. 

Labake Sabbath featured in The Wire's Below The Radar compilation!

 

The Gate at Cafe OTO!

How do you write the best blog post?

We're not sure but that's what we're going to try now so that we can do justice to the best gig of 2025, which was undoubtedly The Unbelievable Mistake at Cafe OTO featuring Sly And The Family Drone, LABAKE SABBATH, Mr AKA Amazing, 2 Decks and Gate Loops.

Sly And The Family Drone collaborated with members of The Gate on an improvised performance with  many drummers. It was very fast, rhythmic, hypnotic music and Sly's effect rack produced rib-rattling bass drones.

LABAKE SABBATH brought her narrative performance, told the audience about her troubles with London transport and then sung the transcendent songs about her experience. She also performed two memorial songs for Leon Moody, a much-missed member of The Gate who sadly passed away in 2020.

2 Decks took to the stage and blew the audience away with his crazy flow. A new song, 'Dancing Toy,' with a ridiculously catchy chorus got a few enthusiastic audience members singing along to the lyrics 'I wanna be your dancing toy / Cos every time I see you I fall in love.' 

Mr AKA Amazing tried something new, experimenting with a wailing vocal style to the instrumental versions of his tracks. He sung 'blah blah blah, blah blah' over an old song, 'MISBEHAVIOUR,' from his first album; sources close to The Gate said they thought this was very avant-garde.

Gate Loops, a new collaborative project, in which Eddy, Mary, James, Wayne, and Jason used tape loops, instruments and their voices to create a funny and charming auditory experience. Everyone was clearly having a lot of fun and it felt like being at The Gate. We were happy to give the audience a window into our world.

Last but not least, we also decorated decked the space out Gate-style with t-shirts and a huge colourfully painted banner.

Thanks to Robyn Rocket and Cafe OTO and everyone that came and supported us. We'll see you again.

Gate Kicks in The Big Issue!

10Foot likes Gate Kicks. In his article on Resonance, he says 'every episode is gold, better than anything I've ever heard on all the cursed, paid up, patronising stations stations put together.'

We like bringing listeners into the auditory world of the Gate art room and we like to imagine this experience being transmitted to many minds globally; from our room to yours, stay tuned.

 

METAL MADNESS reviewed in The Quietus!

Here are the paragraphs on Labake's album from the 'New Weird Britain' section by Noel Gardner:

There are 17 songs on the debut album by Labake Sabbath, but despite this relative glut and its variable styles, it flies by with a keen balance of emotion and humour, personal and political. It’s a window into the life of Labake, who makes music at The Gate in Shepherds Bush, London – an arts centre catering to the learning disabled community – where she’s been attending for about a decade and a half, and recorded Metal Madness over the last couple of years.

There is little if any metal madness to be heard on it, but instead Labake and her band/production team triangulate synthpop, post punk and folk rock with a taste for trippy effects that sometimes blur these modes into one another. ‘It’s Not Easy’ and ‘Life Stinks’, two distinct flavours of  private press-style synth heater, are perhaps this listener’s highlights, but don’t sleep on ‘Life And Struggle’ (proto-rap, no wavey funk bassline), ‘Rights’ (a demand for increased accessibility in public spaces set to a Messthetics-esque punk stroll) and ‘Sitting On The Dock Of The Gate’, one of two quasi-covers on here and which gives this soul staple a Young Marble Giants type do-over. Hearty recommendation!

Thanks to Noel Gardner for the review :)

SHREDDER: The Gate Art Show @ Fishtank Workshop

SHREDDER opened at Fishtank Workshop in King's Cross on Wednesday 2nd April and was up for a week, during which fans and followers visited and viewed the busy collection of artworks. On display was art made at The Gate's in the last year. Many of the works were collage based and cut-and-stick was the technique of the moment. 

Thanks to everyone that came and thanks to Fishtank for hosting us.

We also produced a zine to accompany the show. Please get in touch if you want one.

Andy Slaughter MP comes to The Gate

Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick, visited the Gate on Friday at 11am. Mandy asked him questions about benefits, social care, day centres and a few other things.

He said the government was going to make new policies on benefits and suggested The Gate could respond to the 'green paper'.

He said Hammersmith and Fulham council don't charge for social care but they're the only borough where that's true. He said that it was better not to charge.

Andy said he was concerned about day centres closing and said he was working locally with the council to help community groups keep control of their premises. He was interested to learn about The Gate's funding situation.

Mandy asked him why we had to pay for Liz Kendall's second home. He said some MPs had to come from far away.

Andy said Mandy had given him a good grilling and at about noon he had to leave to meet local business owners and explain to them why Labour had raised business rates.

Thanks to Andy for coming.

METAL MADNESS by Labake Sabbath CD release

METAL MADNESS by Labake Sabbath is released on CD and Bandcamp today! Featuring Labake's songs mostly from 2023 and 2024, recorded at The Gate.

https://thegate54.bandcamp.com/album/metal-madness