There's a precious gem hiding in London's industrial borough of Southwark. It's a large derelict warehouse, which was uninhabited for 40 years, but has now been taken over by a group of passionate artists and renamed The Oubliette. The squatters have transformed the old building into a hospitable creative space, complete with an art gallery upstairs, a bar and a living room containing several couches. Last week the Gig Junkie team - who happened to accidentally stumble upon The Oubliette as it is located right near the GJ headquarters - decided to investigate it further and check out the art exhibition/gig night they were holding there. Turned out to be quite an enjoyable evening!

Filling in for The Thirst, who could not make the gig as their vocalist had fallen ill, was Sim Jones from The Wholigans. The young musician confidently got up on stage (by stage I mean undersized, slightly raised plank of wood) with just a guitar in hand and played a handful of self-written acoustic songs. He quickly captured the attention of the audience gathered around on the mattresses and couches provided and seemed very comfortable on stage with an amiable presence. I particularly liked the song 'White Rhino' that he said he'd written whilst sitting on a mountain, reluctant to come down. Gentle vocals and catchy guitar lines made for the perfect introduction to the night's performances.

Next to take to the minimalistic stage was the Comedy Terrorist, Aaron Barschak. He entered the room draped in a white robe, his head smothered by a black cloth and a plastic lobster hanging around his head. He rested his shepherd-like walking stick on a pillar and wandered around the room pointlessly with his triangle instrument, giving off high-pitched ringing tones. I personally found this illogical rather than humorous. The comedian didn't get as many laughs out of the audience as he probably would have anticipated and my guess is that the majority of his material was based on contentious topics such as politics and religion, which divided the crowd rather than united them in laughter. Nevertheless I'm sure there were a few people amongst the crowd, who appreciated his jokes about the Queen's gynaecologist and Kilburn's land of lunatics.

And to top off the evening's performances was the endearing singer songwriter Esther Flatters. She usually performs with a band a.k.a. The Sugar Daddies but last night she did it all herself and went down a treat with the audience. Miss Flatters' music is a fusion of jazz burlesque and neo-swing and she performed a string of songs on her piano, two being accompanied by backing tracks. Heavily inspired by the 1930s burlesque era, Esther certainly looked and acted the part with her corseted getup, pearl necklace, impressive 30s hairdo, charismatic presence and batting lashes. She introduced all her material with a brief description of each song and captivated the crowd with her dreamy vocals and romantic lyrics.

Check out Esther Flatters and the Sugar Daddies on their myspace here - http://www.myspace.com/estherflattersandthesugardaddies

For anyone that would like to head down to The Oubliette and discover the art gallery upstairs or enjoy some intimate gigs or other interesting events going on there - feel free to visit their website for more details - http://theoubliette.co.uk

Click here for the Facebook event page.