Experimental pop band Cowboy Flying Saucer are an essential part of Walthamstow’s weird and wonderful culture, and so it only made sense that they played the annual Stow-a-Thon event at Ye Olde Rose and Crown on Sunday 5 May.

Stow-a-Thon was in its sixth year for 2019 and is famous (or perhaps infamous) around the borough as the 24-hour non-stop music festival that raises money for a good cause. Acts from all over Walthamstow that are varied in their genre play throughout, encouraging locals to head down for some drinks, dancing, and donations. This year the chosen charity was The Havens that supports survivors of sexual violence in the local community. For more information on The Havens, visit their website here.

What made Cowboy Flying Saucer stand out?

Back to Cowboy Flying Saucer— a band as nonsensical as they are brilliant— whose set drew a sizeable crowd to the furthest corner of the pub. Friends and fans alike, with many donning the group’s t-shirts or stickers, cheered the four-piece on as they played tracks from their recently released second LP, Travel Lodge.

Lead singer “BK-13” is known widely around Walthamstow and yet is still somehow was an enigma before the crowd at Stow-a-Thon that you’d be hard-pressed to figure out. His stage presence is second-to-none, as is his songwriting which he shamelessly presents in the form of tracks like ‘Crack Grandma’ and ‘Travelodge Wedding’, the latter of which was inspired by a stay at the Gatwick Airport Travelodge in which a rowdy wedding party was taking place. The rest of the band, made up of “JV”, “Spanna” and “Dave B”, were methodical in their delivery, with the talent and efficiency between them putting even the most seasoned of professionals to shame.

Why did the set feel so unmistakably local?

Every track the band performed was wildly different from the last, mad poetry that draws from a variety of different influences and inspirations on top of math-y melodies. It’s raw, it’s dazzling, and it’s inherently Walthamstow— a band that we can be proud of that isn’t… y’know… Blazin’ Squad.