Black Francis 'pre-core' London show moved indoors by police

Black Francis was forced to move his special 'pre-core' London gig to an indoor venue today (February 13) because police feared too many fans would show up if he performed on the street.

The Pixies singer was due to play a special acoustic outdoor set ahead of his solo Shockwaves NME Awards show at KOKO in the UK capital tonight. But the show had to be moved indoors to The Social venue after the planned stop at nearby Rupert Street was ruled out because of health and safety fears.

The star had already attracted around 1,000 fans to the 'pre-core' gig in Dublin last weekend.

Once inside The Social, Francis treated the crowd to set that mixed solo material with Pixies tunes.

He also explained the concept behind the 'pre-core' gigs by telling the crowd: "I don't like doing encores, so I thought I'd do an encore before the show."

Franis played a series of songs from new album 'Bluefinger', including 'Angels Come To Comfort Me', 'Lolita' and 'She Took All The Money'.

Before his version of the Pixies classic 'Where Is My Mind?' he revealed that "my ex heard me singing the first verse of this one day and told me it was good. If it wasn't for her I would have probably forgotten about it and it's done quite well for me. So it's her I have to thank.

"To this day I don't know what the first verse, which is also the third verse, is about. The second verse is about going swimming and being scared by fish."