summer 2016 hols – 4 song sets at rewind, a hat-trick of scones in london, some work at clitheroe and a few surprises in bingley

August

friday 19, henley rewind festival – up at 5am and then dorothea drove us to the airport at 6.30am, comfortable waiting and flight to gatwick

massive delays on the M25, took 2.5 hours to get from gatwick to the M4 turnoff, probably just as well, enabled us to arrive later than sabs and katie and pick them up in henley, then get on the site as the rain had stopped to put the tent up when it was dry, although it did mean we were a good way from the arena and the glampers

saturday 20, henley rewind festival – stayed fine in the morning for the jaunt into town for breakfast at the angel inn, tea was horrible
took boat back with hannah and eve

as i was walking back i heard someone doing a sound check at fairly low level in the arena, only clicked later that it had been tony hadley warming up with bridge over troubled water and life on mars, which was nice having a shave and brushing my teeth to!

rained in the afternoon, but cleared up to be sunny in the evening

http://www.rewindfestival.com/lineup

Tony Hadley and the Southbank Sinfonia Orchestra – leads with life on mars, which was brilliant and he used bridge over troubled water at some stage. overall a great start to the weekend, finishing on “gold”.

The Real Thing – excellent set of classics
Lloyd Cole & the Leopards – good, did 4 numbers and worth checking out when he comes to munich
The Trevor Horn Band – amazing how many of his classics i was unaware of, from frankie goes to hollywood to
Toyah – in excellent form, read in an interview with kay … in a yorkshire what’s on magazine later in the week how she was performing on the last night of the grassington festival with marc almond; she is a workaholic involved not only in music, but also writes and acts (a profession she says you never quite master), is married to robert fripp and the only thing that matters (in life/relationships) is creativity, also that she speaks so gently at times

Hazell Dean, Snap! and Jennie ‘Belle Star’ Matthias – only heard these on the way to and from the car
Leo Sayer – good set with 3 or 4 of his classics
Jimmy Somerville – professional thoughout and dancing didn’t miss a beat
Rick Astley – broad yorkshire accent and really got the crowd on his side with some great songs in the scott walker style
Erasure’s Andy Bell – amazing set and like adam ant tomorrow, re-launching his career

sunday 21, henley rewind festival

breakfast at the chocolate cafe round the corner from the angel inn and near the station, where katie and sabs had had a coffee on friday

today’s weather was sunny, followed by incessant rain for most of the evening

the line up today:

Blockheads – still sounding great even without ian drury, another good start to the day
The Beat – mirror in the bathroom but also some great ska classics
Earth Wind & Fire Experience Feat. The Al Mckay All Stars
British Electric Foundation, led by Marty Ware as MC/keyboards and programming:
Peter Hooten – excellent video and rendition of all together now, coinciding with the 100 years anniversary of the somme
Jaki Graham, Claudia Brücken, The Lotus Eaters, Mari Wilson – only heard these on the way to and from the car
Glen Gregory, did a couple of numbers including temptation

Living In A Box and Annabella of Bow Wow Wow – queuing to get something to eat whilst these were on
Roland Gift – lot of fine young cannibals stuff
Heather Small – the classics from a very energetic singer
Marc Almond – great set and many pink flamingoes for the final 3 consisting of tainted love, where did i love go and say hello, wave goodbye
Adam Ant – clear a lot of folks were here solely for him and it was a more impressive set than i’d expected, he’s making a comeback, did the classics in a half-hour set

monday 22, london – get up at 6.30am to pack up, i take a suitcase and bag to the car and by the time I’m back we start taking down the tent and wake sabs, meanwhile katie has woken the girls at their site, poorer/open security of course now, lots of people up and about, we get off for 9.15am leaving by a back road which is actually quite helpful since it takes us nearer to the M40 where we want to be. we stop for breakfast at the first services, then drive into london, just entering the congestion charging zone when turning off euston road and down southampton road/woburn place to russel square, waste half an hour trying to find petrol to no avail, in the end the top-up costing £ 28, since we’d done only 120 miles.

get to hotel and check in around 1.30pm, then we leave the girls as we go back to russell square after a shower to have coffee and in my case, a refreshing lemonade and scone

we wander around covent garden a little, where we are is so optimal next to covent garden, it’s right on our doorstep to the top of drury lane, neal street and endell street.

wind down to end at the coal hole for 6pm and just get the same table in the corner where we’d met last time with pete and james

john turns up a little later and we have quite a nice meal in the packed pub, sat next to a couple of german girls

walked down to the river, over waterloo bridge down south bank and back over westminster bridge, along whitehall past downing street and trafalgar square back to the hotel

tuesday 23 london – breakfast all together, sabs crashes out too tired, so the 4 of us set off to investigate horse guards parade, st james park, the mall and buckingham palace, green park, shepherds market for a coffee then walking along picadilly and up shaftesbury avenue back to our hotel

later take a 176 bus from near the hotel and sit upstairs to enjoy the views over the river to be met by Matt at the Westmoreland Road stop where we alight

meet up with Til’s, Bertie, Nick and later Tom, Rosie and Harry come along for a lively discussion before we eat with the Rileys, a zesty “blonde” pesto and pasta, the pesto consisting of lemon juice on ground pine nuts and herbs (not sure what was used in these, probably works well with parsley, chives and of course, the normal pesto ingredient basil)

nice to talk with matt about how he now hears about bands via lawyers who they have signed for, rather than scouring bars and clubs
interesting how his career now sees him as Creative Director of Artists and Repertoire (A&R), from previously Hospital Records and the humble beginnings at the FOPP music store, the london branch on shaftesbury avenue, which we passed on the way back earlier today

take bus back around 10pm

wednesday 24 london – girls are amazing getting up early, we all have breakfast together at 8am and are then ready to go to the British Library for 9.45am, walking through russel square again and through the trees, arriving in good time:
http://www.bl.uk/

we are halfway through the treasures room and then go outside to meet up with nick, re-convening to finish off, main highlights for me were the beatles cabinet with the lyrics to “hard day’s night” on the back of a birthday card to lennon’s son julian, the shakespeare sonnets, works from leonardo da vinci, michelangelo and albrecht dürer and interestingly the musical score with precision timing for the part in “four weddings and a funeral” where gareth dies

Panufnik impresses me with his drawings of the 6 aspects of music composition:
sphere of harmony
sphere of rhythm
sphere of melody
sphere of dynamics
sphere of tempo
sphere of structure

the temporary display has a display called “visions of utopia” starting with the exploration of this book by Sir Thomas More (friend of Desiderius Erasmus), with Utopia here meaning simply “no place” then going onto books on this theme:
A Modern Utopia, H G Wells
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
1984, George Orwell
Super Cannes, J G Ballard
which are all presenting dystopic visions

have to search to find the the magna carta from 1215 signed by king john at runymede, annuled by pope innocent and later signed by john’s son henry III
the book beowulf and the anglo-saxon chronicles, some articles about king canute, son of swein and then aethelred the unready

the “punk 76-78” exhibition across from the treasures was also interesting, the roots from new york in the early 70s with richard hell, tom verlaine and patti smith
in retrospect, although explaining to sabs’ disappointment that the roots of punk were in the US, it probably could never have taken its broad appeal there, because of the conservativeness of the US and radio playlists, so it needed the UK or specifically london to ignite the whole scene

some interesting mix of the early bands, richard hell and tom verlaine in “television”, johnny thunders in the “new york dolls”, then johnny thunders setting up the “heartbreakers” with richard hell

although punk was mainly all over and done with by 78, the musical landscape was never to be so dominated by the major record labels, the real inheritance of the whole movement

there were some good items on display, especially around the anarchy in the uk tour and stuff from eric’s in liverpool, which seemed after the 100 club and a club in glasgow, to be one of the few places which stayed open throughout all the controversy and general outrage and cancellations by local councils of concerts up and down the country

best book recording the whole history of the era is taken as being “England’s Dreaming” by Jon Savage

had something to eat at the cafe in the library and then headed for kew gardens, via hammersmith, not a good choice and which cost us a lot in time, leaving only 2 hours for kew gardens before we had to take the boat back to westminster, which took nearly 2 hours, a lot longer than we’d anticipated, but chance to relax and enjoy the scenery as the boat negotiated what seemed to be an incoming tide, going downstream

we are lucky in getting a 24 bus right up to charing cross road and go via denmark street with its music shops full of guitars, back to the hotel arriving with a 25 minute turnaround before we head down one end of drury lane all the way to the bottom end to catch a quick bite to eat and drink, crisps for the girls, scone for me!

then from the snack bar we go next door to the aldwych theatre to watch “beautiful, the carol king movie”

enjoyed the musical with excellent singing from all parties and great seats, plenty of leg room

we rush back up drury lane and end up at pizza express in covent garden starving after the theatre and glad to have found somewhere open

interestingly found out later, that the prices are the same at all stores, which makes this for instance, quite reasonable for london and expensive, for instance, for places like skipton

thursday 25 london – go out to harrow to visit john as the rest go shopping down oxford st

have a lot to clear up at harrow, we go to wenzel’s and i grab a scone, before catching the tube into town

then we get back to the hotel and nip out for some groceries including waters and apples

arrive back for around 3pm, then investigate brick lane via bus to aldgate east

visit rough trade records, but sadly not staying late enough for the concert:
http://www.roughtrade.com/events/2016/8/2324
maybe check out “the parrots” at some stage, although the band “slow club” with their album “one day all of this won’t matter anymore” on wednesday night would have probably been more up my street.

other artists standing out, eg. also highlighted not only at rough trade, but also on fopp’s nme advert are:
wild beasts (boy king), which sabs was also interested in and peter broderick (partners)

interestingly the album from this artist was on display, who is at Bingley:
http://iamannemarie.com/

spent a good hour in the shop and the rest turn up after their visit to the vintage market round the corner, go past the set of stalls which fabian had taken myself and stuart on his last day, way back in june i think

anyways, i couldn’t persuade anyone that this was the best meat treat they were likely to get this evening, at either the mother cluckers or meat porn caravans, so we went on around the corner and into the old spitalfields markets, tidily gentrified as I later discovered from an article in the free kensington, chelsea and westminster newspaper from july/august
we eat at “the Diner” on a corner in the market, sabs chides me for not being more upbeat

we get back having seen john off at covent garden after a nice journey through the city on the bus, then have just enough time to go back down endell street for one last look at the market and then a coffee/hot chocolate for girls and custard tart at a portuguese cafe at the top of the street near the hotel

friday 26 london – we get up for breakfast at 7am with the girls miraculously all present and correct!
bit of stress to get back in the room and get sabie’s baggage so that katie and co. can take this, fortunately the taxi is also a little late and we intercept the driver just as we are about to hail a black cab

friday 26, skipton/clitheroe – up early first taxi to liverpool st for katie, eve and hannah at 8.15am then a taxi to st pancras for sabs and i at 9am
watched sabs go through security and passport control after having chat at pret’s.

no seats so the camping chairs came in handy sitting and waiting at the place to meet up with john then train at 12 noon to leeds, but of course it took ages before the platform was announced and of course, there were hardly any seats provided

it was a comfortable journey up, then got hire car and visited mum, staying over at clitheroe

saturday 27, clitheroe – late up and took 2 doors to the tip after lunch at swales and sorting a few things out at the natwest

hopeless trailing round town to get something to eat, if one does not want to eat at the emporium, trailed even as far as the blackj horse – should have trusted my instincts and simply walked to waddington, cos we walked the equivalent of there and back in the course of the evening, ending up at a noodles bar which was good, at what used to be browns

sunday 28, skipton/clitheroe – went to baptist church with john for 9.15am communion service led by a katherine speaking on the good samaritan and the challenge of loving enemies and those ho don’t like us, the church turning to help outside

Mother Theresa had a daily prayer which addressed this; a change of paradigm to consider I – thou, not I – and uses it when faced with someone who needs help but who does something which we dislike or whom we simply dislike, since the temptation is not to help people we don’t like or who are doing things we don’t like

There was also reference to a book by Gregory Boyd, Present Perfect; also a church in stoke dealing with those on the outside, rather than being concerned with those on the inside.

took josh swimming with john, we had a fun game of water polo with initially john in “goals”, then I and Josh had a go

visited mum with john, got some shopping at the co-op at the roundabout then soup for tea and a bit of packing for the planned day out on the train tomorrow

monday 29, morecambe bare lane – left clitheroe at 7.15am, dropped hire car off and took 8.55am train to morecambe which had a few muddy stragglers from the leeds festival on it

lovely journey and read a bit to josh, his ever so slightly advanced book about ww1 stories, about a father who gets gassed and returns to his family although he is never quite the same again

we get off at bare lane one station from morecambe itself, since it was nearer hest bank which i wanted to visit:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/seenature/reserves/guide/m/morecambebay/star_species.aspx

on the way we discover happy mount park in bare near morecambe, which josh loves and we spend hours there as he goes on the big swings, obstacle course, round swing and trampoline

we have a picnic on the field at the back and observe a family playing cricket out for the day at the same spot

i left him to have a long swing as he was next to a lovely girl who was trying to engage him, well and get him off the swing for her brother, but i thought out things are at that stage thinking back to my own childhood and the inevitable “playground princesses” whom i have been entranced by on various camping holidays in the past

then we hike off to what i thought was hest bank, the town that is, but have to backtrack to the sea as it is on the mudflats of morecambe bay, which is ideal of course, just we endure an hour in the hest bank hotel for refreshments

after enjoying the views and sea air, not so many birds to see, heard a few curlews and saw what looked like lapwings, we clean up and walk back to the park again for a few more goes on the obstacle courses and swings

we never made it as far as:
http://www.visitlancashire.com/dbimgs/term-brochure.pdf

but nonetheless an interesting day out and the bay was just so peaceful and beautiful

later, the person leading the service on sunday 4th, tells us about a better RSPB sanctuary at Leighton Moss, for which it’s best to change at Carnforth station, which is also interesting due to its rail museum, another trip idea for another day

tuesday 30, skipton/clitheroe – have nice breakfast with john, then we go into town for a couple of jobs, take bus back to clitheroe for noon, then catch up on the washing and reading/emails:

The Low-Hanging Fruit You Can’t Afford to Miss

like the reminder to be aware of the life’s low-hanging “fruits”, this quote from poet Glenis Redmond calling it “cataloging beauty”:

“I am not against critique, but the world’s need to nick pic everything is a disease. What I crave is holiness.
We are so far away from the heart, when only the head leads with only what is wrong.
How about the million beauties you walked by today and did not see? Name them.
The world needs / I need your catalog of beauty.
What is your catalog of beauty?”

refer:
http://www.glenisredmond.com/about/

like the gentle praise from bill peebles, about voice and tone in writing style

wednesday 31, clitheroe – doing work at bright street with john
meeting with builder, dave johnston who convinced me to take a couple of squares out of kitchen ceiling to check just how that can be improved with respect to going parallel with the roof.

September

thursday 1 – working on bright street

friday 2, bingley music live – pick up car at 4.30pm from hire place and then go round to duckett street to pick up james, john and josh
we drive to the park and ride at the old bradford and bingley car park, then get the bus in, works well and we catch the end of the sigala set then
lightning seeds – bugged by technical problems on the sound, ian broudie doesn’t seem amused and the sound is pretty fragile, most folk get into it for “the life of riley”

we go to the discovery stage to catch
anne-marie – who was not bad, quite personal songs and revelations

then back to see headliners
echo and the bunnymen – this time with a much thicker, richer sound than the lightning seeds (broudie joins for couple of songs)

saturday 3, bingley music live – actually working until on the house until around 4pm since it was raining most of the time and we hoped it was going to stop

then set off for the park and ride at crossflats, arriving at the festival for around 6pm

as we arrived, heard the band Inheaven on the Discovery stage who sounded excellent and tight, we went to the main stage and caught the Peter Hook set which was a great best of mix from New Order and some Joy Division, then it was announced that John Power was playing as final act on the Discovery stage, so we headed up there getting gradually soaked – we saw the band Red Faces from Sheffield as we were stood back under the trees, they were not bad, lead singer shaking his head with a lot of energy
then John and i moved forward were right at the railings of the concert having waited nearly an hour in the rain under the trees and then moved forward as the rain thankfully subsided

the set from john power with lead guitarist jay lewis:
Fire in My Heart
Old Red Sea
Unknown
Sandstorm
Finetime
Dream
Walkaway
Get Up
Mariner (a folk favourite), containing the line “love will redeem you”
Alright
encore:
Flying

the first 2 songs sounded like gospel blues standards
he plays most of the songs seemingly in C and with quite simple chord progressions, clear and definite changeovers

after the excellent set we wander back to catch some of the Tinie Tempah set, with lots of pyrotechnics and shouts of “come on bingley” to get the crowd going which he succeeds in doing

we leave before the end, picking up the hidden brollies, since they weren’t allowed in

sunday 4, bingley music live – we set off for the baptist service at 9.15am
some interesting notes that the bible contains only 6 words referencing the self, such as self-discipline, selfless, selfish, whereas in our modern parlance we have become obsessed with sticking self onto everything as a prefix: we are obesessed with our selves. interesting song in “baptist praise and worship” number 590, Father in Heaven by Stella Rand, basicially Lord’s prayer to the tune of “Morning has broken”

we go round to see margaret and james and they travel with josh, as we meet outside the festival to get a ticket for margaret and then go into watch the main stage with:
the jacques – good band from bristol and who later were due to visit munich
clean cut kid – also quite good
take josh for goes on the waltzer, which he really likes, in fact, is the only thing he goes on, was interesting seeing him in the car on his own and then bunched up amongst a dad and his 2 boys, agree that since he is bored, we keep taking it in turns to take him on it, the waltzer is near the discovery stage so also catch:
fronteers – band from hull and not bad

later we watch the soundcheck and get near the front for:
tempesst – band consisting of various members including singer from Aus, keyboardist from bradford (they are all staying at his aunt’s), took long time to get the vocals right, which was understandable since the singer had quite an interesting voicing, sound like “house of love”, were very professional, dressed in suits

via the waltzer we go back to the others who are still about 10 rows from the front of the main stage centre, which is quite handy for seeing later:
we are scientists – whom margaret later called “we are scissors!” which we had a laugh about, us group touring, bit samey but not bad

all saints – an energetic set,

then the headliners travis, where I’ll expand what is here, with notes on what fran healy played or said:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/travis/2016/myrtle-park-bingley-england-bfc6942.html
with notes about which guitar fran healey was using and what he said
Sing – 12 string and lead guitarist uses a 6 string banjo for the verses, then back to a les paul gibson for the chorus
Selfish Jean – telecaster
Writing to Reach You – stratocaster
As You Are – acoustic with lead guitarist using some controlled feedback holding the guitar near to the mic picking up his amp into the main system
Driftwood – 12 string with capo on 7th fret
Animals – acoustic, song written by bassist and on the new album
Re-Offender – 12 string, explains that the song was written for his mum who stayed too long with his dad and recites a poem about how, if not careful, aggressive behaviour can be passed on, the poem:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/64716.Philip_Larkin
Where You Stand – telecaster
Moving – goes into crowd during this song on the shoulders of one man and then changes to another, get to shake his hand and pat his back, dripping with sweat
Closer – another acoustic – explains about how when they started they just wanted to make good music and not commercial music, when the listened to the music it wasn’t written with anything from the head down, it was purely what record companies thought people would buy
also jokes with the younger ones about picking up a guitar and changing things

All I Want to Do is Rock – telecaster and lead guitarist climbs the lighting frame, healy shouting “get a light on him”, seems to make it part of the song
Turn – stratocaster

Encore:
Flowers in the Window – solo with acoustic guitar as if busking
Magnificent Time — stratocaster
Why Does It Always Rain on Me? – gets everyone pogoing for the chorus

monday 5 – get up at 6am to rush around and do all the final jobs and packing needed, set off at 7.40am so mad dash to get car back, but there weren’t too worried a few minutes late with the hire

take train to leeds with john and then we split up, watch john’s train pulling out for london

my flight was delayed due to a forgotten tablet on the plane, so get home thoroughly tired out at around 7pm

Recommendations

Camping and festivals

really only need two types of footwear when there (driving might require another set of shoes!):
wellies and sandles/flip-flops

sou’wester and plenty of kagouls or cycling capes, ponchoes

torch
camping knife

Food shopping – Skipton
http://keelhamfarmshop.co.uk/pages/skipton

Around the Hotel in Covent Garden

direct number for the travelodge hotel at covent garden, postcode is WC2B 5RE
0203 195 4524

taxis are cheaper when booking direct, even than via the hotel who would add a commission:
spottycars.com – 0207 383 3333, the one sabs and i took to st pancras
0207 112 8326, the one katie and girls took to liverpool st

best fish and chips, although not tried, but was really busy up to 9pm on the outside tables:
rock and sole plaice at the top of endell street

interesting coffee shop and the best custard tarts:
also on endell street, further up from rock and sole plaice

Ideas

following mostly from the national express magazine summer 2016 – 30 free things to do, good examples imho

st martins in the field lunchtime concert and morning prayers

markets: berwick street (if not yet gentrified and cleaned up), borough market and east market near Matt&Til’s

more london festival at the southbank – music films theatre – arrive early with cushions!
BFI. also southbank – watch archive films, can be booked in adv

angel comedy club, islington – from 8pm be early
abbey road at nw8 9ay

rough trade records on brick lane, actually behind spitalfields and the caravan eateries – regular free gigs if you buy the CD of the group, check online

meditate at covent garden inner space for 30mins
alt: postmans park in central london

hampstead heath or richmond park or epping forest
london walks, there are free online guides incl audio guides

changing of the guard at buckingham palace at 11.30am – be early!

tower bridge opening – see times online
sky garden on fenchurch st

british library – magna carta, shakepseare, beatles texts
tour of somerset house – tuesday 12.45 and 2.15pm – catholic queens
visit to high court of justice (own suggestion – to research)

portobello market, west london
speakers corner

Matts list

Borough Market

London Zoo

The museums

Something super cool – Franks Cafe in Peckham has amazing skyline views :

http://boldtendencies.com/franks-cafe/

Shopping in Covent Garden – or Westfield Shepherds Bush

Cycling in Richmond Park

Take a boat from the Southbank to Greenwich and go to the observatory

British Museum