Toki-O Nights lands at Mad Cats on Redchurch Street for two Wednesdays in October, 7 and 21, with music from 7pm. Free, no RSVP, Technics on the sound system and Japanese highballs at the bar. The first night is Tony Higgins, who literally co-wrote the book on Japanese jazz.
We covered this when the series ran at Mitsu in August, so the short version: Toki-O Nights is built on kissaten culture, the Tokyo listening-bar tradition where you sit down, stop talking over the record and actually listen to it. That is the opposite instinct to most London nightlife and it is why these nights work.
Mad Cats calls itself a kitchen and hi-fi bar, and the front of the building tells you the rest: striped awning, four record sleeves lit up in the window, a brass cat for a door handle and A FUNKY SPACE REINCARNATION painted along the bottom. It is a smaller, scruffier room than Mitsu, which for this kind of night is an improvement.
7 October: Tony Higgins
Higgins DJs as The Jazz Dad and is the closest thing Britain has to an authority on Japanese jazz. He co-curated BBE Music’s J Jazz compilation series and co-wrote J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz Albums From Japan 1954 to 1988, the book that sent a generation of diggers hunting for records they had never heard of. His sets come out of a collection built over more than forty years and do not stay in one lane: Japanese jazz, yes, but also funk, soul, reggae, Latin and disco.
21 October: Euan McGinty
McGinty is a multi-instrumentalist and DJ, part of the team at Time Capsule, the London reissue label, and a former resident on south London’s BMC Radio. His selections run from dubbed-out disco and sunlit samba through to Japanese new wave, which is a good fit for a series that is essentially about what happens when Japanese and British record collections meet.
The kit, the drink and the catch
Technics supplies the sound set-up and Toki Japanese Highballs are served through the evening, which is the traditional listening-bar drink and also, transparently, the reason the series exists: it is funded by Suntory Toki. There are complimentary highballs and Technics prizes to be won on the night. Worth knowing so you are not surprised by it, and not a reason to skip a free booking this good.
Our take: book a table even though you do not have to. Both dates are midweek and free, which in Shoreditch means the room will be full by half seven, and the whole point of a listening bar is having somewhere to sit while you listen. Redchurch Street is five minutes from Shoreditch High Street station. If you only do one, make it 7 October: a forty-year Japanese jazz collection played on a proper rig is a genuinely uncommon thing to get for nothing, and Higgins is the reason this booking is better than it looks on paper.
Need to know
- What: Toki-O Nights, two free listening bar nights inspired by Tokyo kissaten culture
- Where: Mad Cats, 107 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DL
- When: Wednesday 7 October and Wednesday 21 October 2026, music from 7pm
- Price: free, and no RSVP required
- Booking: not needed, but a table is worth reserving at madcats.uk
- Nearest station: Shoreditch High Street
More of the neighbourhood in our Shoreditch guide, and more rooms worth drinking in in our guide to the best new bars in London.
