Thursday is the weekend, right ?
The Weekend seemed to start early this time, with a jaunt down to Big Red on Thursday night for a 'sluts' meet....Sluts is a London goth mailing list of London people of old....It was created to take the chat away from Tarts which was a whats on list. The mailing list is quite quiet these days with the hey day of a few hundred posts of waffle a day gone and only a little bitching on the 'which pub are we invading this Thursday voting list'. Anyway Big Red being Holloway meant car access for me was easy and quick not really having to venture into the heart of London (Highgate would be better and Barnet i'd hardly even use the car...)
So i wandered out. I knew dj_alexander and an old friend Steve from cambs turned up. Plus a few newly acquainted London people from Whitby and around. The Nachos and Chilli were cheap and *HUGE* and soft drinks reasonable. Bizarely by 11:30 i was the only one left and wandered off home, making it back in an hour and as such not really being out late at all.
Friday i met up with dmh for lunch in Peterborough which is pleasant as always and manages to break the day nicely. Evening i wandered over to Cambridge and the Elm tree which was quiet although i persuaded ebb out and things never seem quiet with her around. We did get booted out 11ish and popped over to the cricketer which was rather nice and made me wonder why quite we ever bothered with The County anyway ???
Saturday started reasonably. A picnic had be mentioned by dj_alexander and seeing as i was intending to go to a gig in London anyway, it would have been poor of me not to go and investigate. I ummed and ahhhed about train or car and unsurprisingly the car won. Its just too nice, fun and easy. I parked by the Union Chapel which was were the gig was and jumped on the tube round to baker street and Regents Park. I was late on the 3pm start being nearer to four, but quickly found a sprawl of black and some friends. It was rather pleasant even through the occasional breeze and wasn't until 6ish we decided that a pub was in order. I went to the weatherspoons for one and then onto the gig.
The band i wanted to see was The Johnny Parry Trio with chamber orchestra. I went because jonny of the aformentioned is a friend Liz's other half and as friends i met them in a pub in bedford and got told about what seemed a magical gig. It was and i was really impressed. However trying to describe the music is a tad hard. His vocals were a little like Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen mixed together. The music reminded me of Joe Jacksons Heaven & Hell and the venue was just perfect....i tried taking pics and will have a look at them later, but know they will not do justice.....An awesome gothic octagonal chapel, a beautiful round window of stained glass, projected images and up-lit columns, red wall lighting and some sparkly stuff that could have been candles. Amongst this the stage with Jonny on an upright piano. A drummer centre stage. A guy with bass guitar. A trio of operatic trained female vocals. A 4 piece string quartet of the highest calibre and a three piece brass section. Quite an ensemble. Music which scanned the whole dynamic range from almost nothing to a cacophony of sound, although never pretentious. An awesome experience. I want a CD, but am almost too afraid it wont sound as good....First listening and there were a couple that sent shivers down my spine, very impressive.
After that buzz, i wast quite prepared to call it a day, so wandered over to Reptile at the minories, which i met a few people from the picnic and a load of the sluts. Nice convivial company and the music was quite good, although the blown speaker outside did nothing for it. Made a sisters track sound as bad as the live experience ! This ended round 3:30 and i wandered with a car full of people towards home. Handy as i travel down the Holloway road and a load of them live just off it. I made it home round 5:15 as i was almost starting to tire and enjoyed the end of my audio book rather than speeding too much.
Sunday started later than planed and i had a crick in my neck from sleeping oddly which killed my ideas for going to gotham. I did plan a lazy afternoon of films and xbox fun, but got all too easily persuaded out to the pub by ebb. I failed to note the directions down properly and missed the intended pub, but this meant ebb being lovely and coming to find me, so we had a half there before returning to the planned venue, the Geldart, where we found two huge slovenly armchairs and wallowed the afternoon away chatting over halves and ginger beer and it hit neigh on 10ish before we even realised. I like it when things like that happen.
Today is Monday...and i was in early as my foreman is away. Also being down to a couple of staff means i end up on the shop floor. But it is bright and sunny and life aint so bad =;-)
So i wandered out. I knew dj_alexander and an old friend Steve from cambs turned up. Plus a few newly acquainted London people from Whitby and around. The Nachos and Chilli were cheap and *HUGE* and soft drinks reasonable. Bizarely by 11:30 i was the only one left and wandered off home, making it back in an hour and as such not really being out late at all.
Friday i met up with dmh for lunch in Peterborough which is pleasant as always and manages to break the day nicely. Evening i wandered over to Cambridge and the Elm tree which was quiet although i persuaded ebb out and things never seem quiet with her around. We did get booted out 11ish and popped over to the cricketer which was rather nice and made me wonder why quite we ever bothered with The County anyway ???
Saturday started reasonably. A picnic had be mentioned by dj_alexander and seeing as i was intending to go to a gig in London anyway, it would have been poor of me not to go and investigate. I ummed and ahhhed about train or car and unsurprisingly the car won. Its just too nice, fun and easy. I parked by the Union Chapel which was were the gig was and jumped on the tube round to baker street and Regents Park. I was late on the 3pm start being nearer to four, but quickly found a sprawl of black and some friends. It was rather pleasant even through the occasional breeze and wasn't until 6ish we decided that a pub was in order. I went to the weatherspoons for one and then onto the gig.
The band i wanted to see was The Johnny Parry Trio with chamber orchestra. I went because jonny of the aformentioned is a friend Liz's other half and as friends i met them in a pub in bedford and got told about what seemed a magical gig. It was and i was really impressed. However trying to describe the music is a tad hard. His vocals were a little like Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen mixed together. The music reminded me of Joe Jacksons Heaven & Hell and the venue was just perfect....i tried taking pics and will have a look at them later, but know they will not do justice.....An awesome gothic octagonal chapel, a beautiful round window of stained glass, projected images and up-lit columns, red wall lighting and some sparkly stuff that could have been candles. Amongst this the stage with Jonny on an upright piano. A drummer centre stage. A guy with bass guitar. A trio of operatic trained female vocals. A 4 piece string quartet of the highest calibre and a three piece brass section. Quite an ensemble. Music which scanned the whole dynamic range from almost nothing to a cacophony of sound, although never pretentious. An awesome experience. I want a CD, but am almost too afraid it wont sound as good....First listening and there were a couple that sent shivers down my spine, very impressive.
After that buzz, i wast quite prepared to call it a day, so wandered over to Reptile at the minories, which i met a few people from the picnic and a load of the sluts. Nice convivial company and the music was quite good, although the blown speaker outside did nothing for it. Made a sisters track sound as bad as the live experience ! This ended round 3:30 and i wandered with a car full of people towards home. Handy as i travel down the Holloway road and a load of them live just off it. I made it home round 5:15 as i was almost starting to tire and enjoyed the end of my audio book rather than speeding too much.
Sunday started later than planed and i had a crick in my neck from sleeping oddly which killed my ideas for going to gotham. I did plan a lazy afternoon of films and xbox fun, but got all too easily persuaded out to the pub by ebb. I failed to note the directions down properly and missed the intended pub, but this meant ebb being lovely and coming to find me, so we had a half there before returning to the planned venue, the Geldart, where we found two huge slovenly armchairs and wallowed the afternoon away chatting over halves and ginger beer and it hit neigh on 10ish before we even realised. I like it when things like that happen.
Today is Monday...and i was in early as my foreman is away. Also being down to a couple of staff means i end up on the shop floor. But it is bright and sunny and life aint so bad =;-)