Another bus

As with earlier in the month I managed to see two gigs in a week, well the month ended very much on a similar musical note. Having recovered from Wednesdays trip to see Oli Brown, I was now of with Del to see some Spanish band or other called Amaral?

Derek had mentioned seeing them on the TV in Spain and was so impressed brought a number of their CD's. Other than they are the biggest band in Spain, only sing in Spanish and they're music genre is a pop, folk and rock fusion I knew nothing else of them.

The gig was at the HMV Forum, Kentish Town, and so we headed off from work to catch the train into London where we would decide on what to have for our evening sustenance. We had plenty of time as the doors of the venue were not due to open until 21:00.

On a sudden whim we decided randomly to head to Euston and visit the Ravi Shanka in Drummond Street. We'd not been there for sometime, and while it is a fairly basic place we've never been disappointed although it does get somewhat mixed reviews. Given its simplistic nature, I guess I've never expected anything different? I always find it amazing that while the portions never look huge, I have never managed to finish a meal off in the past. This time was an exception, I had a tasty daal soup followed by a uthappam and managed, just, to plough my way through. We then headed around the corner to a new ale house venue we'd been told of. It is called the Euston Tap and is one of a pair of old buildings marking the entrance to Euston Station. Its matching building across the other side of the street is a cider house. I plumped for one of the porter beers they had on offer at 6.6% proof. A very nice and tasty beer it was indeed.In hindsight, given I was quite full from the meal, it was not such a bright idea to partake of something you almost had to eat! As we finished our drink to head for the underground and the three stops up the Northern Line to Kentish Town I was beginning to wish Greenpeace would come and tow me back out to sea. On arrival at Kentish Town, we headed around the corner to the Oxford, where I decided a slightly lighter ale would be a safer bet for my bloated stomach.  

We eventually headed the half mile up the road to the venue and began queueing outside waiting for the doors to open. It seemed very surreal that many of the pubs nearer the venue were barely full. Any other gig one attends there, the pubs are usually spilling out into the street. Its just a whole different culture. The doors eventually opened and the place began to fill slowly - very slowly in fact. This again is very unlike many previous gigs I've been to there, you could even get to the bar for a drink and be heard by the bar maids!

The support band came on about 21:30 and played for aorund 45 minutes. During the time after that, the place did begin to fill more in anticipation of the headline act who came on at 22:45! Of course we should have know better, when in Spain nothing happens until after 22:00 - this was the making of a potential long night. What a band they are! Very professional and I would say after Joe Bonamassa, probably the second best gig of the year for me. It didn't matter I cannot understand Spanish as virtually all gigs these days you can never hear the lyrics anyway so it makes no odds! As it happens Eve Amaral is a great singer and were I to understand Spanish, I'm sure I would have understood what she was singing. Her partner who plays lead guitar is also very good, nothing fancy, just some standard but good guitar playing.

As time marched on, Del and I realised we'd be getting the last train (01:40) home - if we were lucky! They finished their set to much applause at about 12:30 and then came the encore. By 12:45, thinking they'd finished we nipped to the loo before departing only to see they'd come back on again for more! This was looking seriously like becoming like a night out in Madrid when you don't get home until 09:00.  I did suggest to Del he asked one of the crowd if they knew any good night clubs for after the gig.

Knowing already the underground had closed - this is Britain where everything closes down at midnight - we decided to cut our chord and sing for it. We got to the underground in time to catch a late bus heading for Kings Cross and got there with about 20 minutes to spare before our train left.

Our train was disgusting and had it not been that I've been too busy, I would and perhaps should have emailed a complaint. It was so littered with rubbish one would be forgiven if you'd have thought it had ridden through a landfill site. The toilet at the other end of the carriage must have been blocked judging by the smell wafting down and one of the sets of carriage doors would not open which led to one couple not being able to get off at their stop.

But what a top night entertained by a top band and the suspense of will we miss the last train home and have to wait for the early morning milk train. We managed to get home by about 03:00 - no wonder I couldn't wake up until about 10:00, later that morning.

Another dashing gig

Well actually this time it was more akin to a trot. Having booked tickets for myself and Mr Tenses number two offspring to see the ever improving Oli Brown at the Stables, I found I was having to travel to Barnsley for the day on a site visit.

In order to ensure I returned to Milton Keynes in time for a much welcome evening meal at the delightful Tense Towers and get to the gig in time, I had to emphasise to my Yorkshire hosts the latest feasible train I needed to catch in order I got back to Bedford in enough time to drive the short distance to MK.

It had been a long day, given I had be up at 05:00 to ensure I got to Bedford in time to park and catch the 06:30 train. I then spent the day trudging around various parks and green spaces in what can only be described as a torrential monsoon,followed by a lengthy meeting. Needless to say, it was a struggle to keep my eyes open by the evening. But thanks to a terrific set by Oli Brown there was no danger of me nodding off! He played almost every track from his superb new album 'Here I Am' and its great to see him do his party piece walking around the audience in the auditorium playing to them.

Roll on the Bedford Rhythm Festival in August when he'll be appearing again.

Not such a dash

Two gigs in a week is rather like waiting for a bus. On this occasion travel to the gig was not so time critical on account I was a) on holiday and at home and b) the gig was local and a mere 30 minute drive to the venue. That being the glorious Stables at Wavendon on the edge of Milton Keynes. Its a lovely small seated venue, always with a pleasant atmosphere and audience who really go to listen to music. To be able to see the artists in such intimate surroundings adds to the night, particularly too when you get to meet and greet after the gig.

Tonight's show is a double bill of two of my favourite modern blues bands. Both scarily so young and talented. It's a breath of fresh air to know good live music does and will live on. Until recently I'd feared there to be no up-coming musicians interested in that genre of music. Its certainly been an eye opener to start discovering all these 'kids' that play as good as and quite possibly better than my old hero's.  I put it all down to two people - Paul Jones and Joe Bonamassa!

More often than not, I forget to tune into Paul's weekly evening blues radio programme. On this one occasion, about seven years ago, I tuned in and heard this awesome blues song. For once I took note of the artist and soon after was the proud owner of the CD Blues Deluxe. I then needed to see this guy who at the time was only in his late twenties - could anyone this young really want to play the blues? I assumed he would not be very popular in the UK, but when I bowled up outside the Shepherds Bush Empire, people were queuing around the corner of the block! What's more I heard people discussing one of the support bands - some kid of about 20? This can't be true, kids don't listen to this kind of music, never mind play it surely?

Anyway, sure enough there was this support band, a three piece power blues trio fronted by this kid called Scott McKeon - they blew me away, it was like listening to Cream, who I was way to young to see or for my ears to appreciate at the time. I even brought Scott's album Can't Take No More at the gig  Then of course Joe came on and that was the first time I ever saw him. Including the gig four days ago, I have now seen him about six times! Each time he gets better and as readers are now aware he no longer requires a truss!  

Since then, my ears have been opened to seek out new blues acts and I still am in awe at how many are actually out there. Tonight's two acts are no exception. The support band is Mitch Laddie, who was there promoting his new superb album Burning Bridges This his second album, the first being This Time Around.

I first discovered Mitch on Amazon when I went to buy Scott's second album Trouble. At the time Amazon were doing their usual trick of advertising a similar album on that page. Well it worked with me (mug! or not so). On this occasion, it was This Time Around and also a CD caller Innerevolution by Philip Sayce, another superb artist who I've still to catch up with live.

Mitch Laddie played a superb set this evening, covering many of the tracks from his latest album and very few from his previous CD. I've never seen him anywhere other than the Stables. The first time he played support to Walter Trout and last year he was part of the New Generation Blues tour one of the gigs of which was at the Stables. Appearing on that same tour, as they had also done a year before in 2010, was another young blues power trio under the name of Virgil and the Accelerators who were playing tracks from their album the Radium.  When I first saw Virgil and the Accelerators, I'd gone to the New Generation Blues Tour in 2010 to see another of my favourites Oli Brown who was heading the sessions that year. He will be the subject of a later blog.

Following on from Mitch Laddies great set, came the headline band of the evening in the form of Virgil and the Accelerators, for what is now the third time I have seen them, each being at the Stables. Again an awesome set played out from this three piece with Virgil's younger 18 year old brother Gabriel on drums - he can play like that at 18? Holy sh!! You can tell Virgil is heavily influenced by Hendrix among others and now looks the part with the mop of corkscrew hair and dress style similar to what Hendrix and Clapton wore in the late 60's. The following clip was filmed on the night.

Disappointingly, no hint of a new album and so being somewhat left behind by comparison to the other above afore mentioned acts. But none the less a great band and even better that both Mitch and Virgil are at this years Rhythm Festival near Biggleswade over the August Bank Holiday. Hoorah!!!

The great birthday dash

The long publicised arrival of my birthday celebrations came with the realisation of a potential spanner in the works. Crucial to my timings was good transport connections, however the Victoria line was closed for the weekend to carry-out engineering works. This was not what I wanted to hear.

For those not familiar with the underground system, the quickest tried and tested route is take the District Line from Putney Bridge to Victoria changing there, onto the Victoria Line in order to reach Kings Cross. Euston, today's destination, is the stop before. Sometimes you need to change at Earls Court en-route.

To circumvent the dilemma would require staying on the District Line to Embankment and the getting the Northern Line to Euston. This has far more stops, thus adding time to the journey.

Setting off in mid-morning I headed into town with another friend and called into the Chancery Pub in Lillie Road, Fulham for our lunch. Always a good place to go for a pre-match pint and some basic in-expensive pub grub, all the better that on match days you get 25% off a meal with your match tickets - not bad as most of the food is less than a tenner in the first place. However, Plaice is not on the menu and the hiring policy is not as it used to be :o).

Leaving there we headed for the game and settled in our seats ready for the match. It looked like I was going to be in for a real birthday treat two minutes into the game. That man Clint, with what must have been his first touch of the ball gave us the lead, closely followed eleven minutes later with a second from Damien Duff. What a start to the day.

Unfortunately, my elation was short lived as the team then took on the role Muppet impressionists, reverting to an afternoon of sloppy play, particularly in midfield.

Granted we hit the bar and post a couple of times, but throughout the eighty minutes of the game I saw it was excruciatingly painful to watch and deservedly, Norwich did pull one goal back after 77 minutes.

As my colleague pointed out, if you took away the two goals and woodwork incidents in a series of highlights from the game, you'd have wondered why Norwich didn't score more.

With the transport spanner to worry about and a team playing like Muppets, I decided I daren't risk leaving any later than with ten minutes of play left. It took 50 minutes to reach Euston which gave me plenty of time to catch my breath and train. I'm sure if I'd left it until the end of the game I would have been cutting it more than fine. So OK I cheated a bit in my attempt to do the dash, but surely Joe was going to put on a better show for me than Fulham - I hoped so.

The train made good time to Birmingham New Street, arriving on time at 19:30, just when Joe was due to come on. Unlike some bands I've gone to see, who tend to come on stage anything up to 30 minutes after they're due, that's not the case with Joe. I think 15 minutes might be his maximum and he's very professional. I quickly found a taxi which took me the five minutes to the NIA gig venue. Then dashing into the arena, to find my two friends who'd arrived earlier, I saw Joe up there halfway through the first number of his set, ironically called 'Slow Train'. The video below was recorded by someone on the night.

What a gig, he was on for two hours plus a half hour encore set. He also had a guest up on stage in the rotund shape of Bernie Marsden former guitarist of Whitesnake. They duetted on tow numbers:   Further-on Up The Road and Blues Deluxe. The video below of them playing Blues Deluxe, was recorded the day before at Bournemouth International Centre and features someone called Rus Scagell along with Bernie.

He also played the title track, Driving Toward the Daylight, from his forthcoming album, as video'd on the night.

What an awesome gig and great way to celebrate my birthday. It was good fun to achieve the little challenge I had set myself. Great company all day with friends at the football and gig.

Great driving by Charlie to get us back from the gig and the night was still to finish with a slight annoying twist. Having dropped Ruth home in MK we then headed back to the motorway, deeming the alternative routes we passed to not be as fast as our chosen option. The only drawback with our plan was, unbeknown to us, our exit junction was closed and we had to go on a 20 mile detour to get home via the next junction.

A musical dilemma

For the past few months, I have been trying to master playing the unplugged acoustic version of the Robert Johnson song 'Rambling on My Mind' covered by innumerable people in various styles. The version I am closest to mastering is that played by Eric Clapton in this clip here:

However, I have also become rather interested in trying to play either of the following. Both have thier good points and I think in the second of the following two clips they actually play it better than 'God'! My preferences lean toward the second version.

Can I swap a vowel and consonant for two vowels please

A familiar request from that well known game show Countdown. After the little faux pas I'm about to relate, I certainly don't think I shall be putting my name forward to appear on the show.

In my previous post, entitled 'Tail chasing', I closed with mention of a visit to Tense Towers. One purpose besides of a social nature, was to deliver a concert ticket. The ticket was for my much blogged birthday bash, where I will aim to get from Craven Cottage in London, to the NEC in Birmingham, in 2.5 hours.

The smugness of my days incidental good bird list, continued by relating how clever I had been that not only had I got the concert tickets, but I'd also secured my seat at the earlier football match and brought a £15 rail ticket to get me from Euston to Birmingham International 15 minutes before the gig is due to start.

It was at this point, as I handed the ticket over to Graeme, he pointed out a major flaw in my plans. The concert is actually taking place at the NIA which is not, as I thought, a renaming of the NEC but in fact is a totally different venue in the Centre of Birmingham, near to Birmingham New Street Station. An extra stop away and ten minutes on the train.

The giggling over my error was so intense I couldn't but help to start coughing! With tears nearly streaming from laughing, we then looked up what I might see at the NEC. It turns out I could have visited the Memorabilia Show. It has lots of celebrity guests attending - I could even get to meet some of those actresses who in their day, when I was but a young pubescent male, I would have thought phwoar!!!

Fortunately, there was plenty of time to rescue the situation and the next day, following a quick phone call I was able to buy a ticket to take me the extra stop on the train. Phew a close shave indeed. Although I did rather like Graemes' suggestion that they shouldn't have told me and called me up on the train to check if I knew where I was going! This caused yet more giggles.

Birthday plans afoot

I have a growing theory that as you get older your ability to do stupid things increase. Often they are unintentional and sometimes intentional. On this occasion it falls into the latter category.

Recently, there have been some thoughts passing through my mind (with the size of mine, it tends not to take long), regarding two interesting events on the same day as my birthday.

Captain logic says, it is only sensible to do one or the other depending I guess on where your allegiances lay. However, there is also the issue that as a male, we are notorious for being incapable at making a decision.

Now what do I do when one event happens to be in London during the afternoon and the other Birmingham in the evening and there's about 2 hours travel time between the two venues. The answers obvious because there's an element of fun and the 'cock-up' factor is VERY high, I will go to both. I do love to challenge my abilities.

Part one of my plan is already in place as my tickets have arrived for the Joe Bonamassa gig at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena. Doors open at 18:30 and the gig starts at 19:30. I know now that I'm not going to make it by the start! Joe Bonamassa is currently one of the worlds leading blues and rock guitarists and a very professional musician who now does not need to have a warm up support band.

For those of you who don't know of him and there are some, here he is, courtesy of YouTube, playing live, one of my favourites, a combination of the instrumental 'India' (featured on his 'Slow Gin' album) which segues into 'Mountain Time' featured on his 'So its like that' album. The live version of the tunes also appear on his double album 'Live from nowhere in particular'

All that is required for part two of my day of stupidity is for the Fulham versus Norwich fixture to remain set and not be moved to another date. I will need to get tickets still for that, just as soon as they go on general sale to the public.

I think my transport conundrum has been sorted by the fact I have two friends signed up for the gig who can get me home. My plan is to catch a train from home to the match, then get a train from Euston to Birmingam. There's a fast train at 18:00 which gets me there just after 19:00. The land speed record from Craven Cottage to Kings Cross (one stop after Euston) is 48 minutes and the match finishes at 16:45.

Bring it on!

Have I died and gone to heaven or is it a dream?

Now some people might be wishing I had. However, after a lovely morning participating in some practical conservation work, I'd got home and proceeded to get a few chores done prior to an evening out to see the Packhorse Players of Sutton's interpretation of Robinson Crusoe. Having seen it the night before I did wonder a little if I would enjoy the performance a second time round. Fears were unfounded - it was indeed a much better performance than Friday. 'Oh, yes it was'

As you may have read from my Blogarohia post, I have been without Internet all week save for occasional access through my mobile to that well know network Facebook. It was via that very network, I suddenly realised it was half time and my team not surprisingly were losing at home to the Mags (Newcastle) 0-1.

It was just after that, the combination of a long busy week, late night and long morning must have caught up with me and I fell asleep for a while. Waking some half hour or so later, I checked the score and was confused to read: Fulham 3-1 Newcastle. Thinking there was still something wrong with the Internet connection on my phone and still not fully awake from my snooze, I checked again and refreshed the screen. This time it read 4-1!! By now I was definately confused so I tried to refresh it again and this time it read 4-2!

I scrolled to and fro through the minute by minute match summary, and it was beggining to dawn on me that I'm either dreaming or that in heaven, Fulham win all their matches! No wait a minute, yes I can see penalty - Danny Muphy levels the score, Clint Dempsey makes it 2-1 and again 3-1. Then Bobby Zamora with another penalty and then they pull a goal back. Then, it refreshes on me and its that man Dempsey again - scores with his left, scores with his right and makes Drogba look shite! Its now 5-2. Or is it?.........................

Demsey celebrates  (c from FFC website)

I start having an FB conversation with Mitch Laddie a brilliant blues guitarist from Newcastle who was posting about the poor performance of his team. Asking if he's playing any gigs to promote his new 'Burning Bridges' album he told me to check his website (well he could have told me to do something else in veiw of the football).

I let him know I would, once I get Internet access back. I decide a little while later to give it a go regardless. It was then I discovered I had Internet once again on my phone at least and those nerds at Beatie were giving misinformation again.

The new album cover as advertised on Mitch's website