I love going to the Jazz Cafe, it’s a great venue and very convenient too, except when there’s a tube strike and I have to walk there from Borough Market, which took a lot longer than normal simply due to the crowds in London. Anyway, that’s my rant over with for now anyway.
Melle Mel and the Furious Five at the Jazz Cafe
I went to this gig with a couple of mates who were, to be fair, more interested in it than I was. However, I do tend to go along because it’s always good to see friends, and you never know if you’ll see something amazing or not. Luckily for me, this was the later.
It was a great gig. Lots of tracks I remember in the set, and a huge amount of energy in the performance. The audience loved it and it was a great evening. So I’m really glad I went.
Whilst I wasn’t a massive fan of theirs in their day I still liked a few of their tracks, so when the opportunity to see Aswad came up I thought, why not? I’m sure it might be a pleasant evening out. Well, it was much more than that in the end. In fact, it was an excellent evening out all in all.
The sound in the Jazz Cafe in Camden was excellent and Aswad were on brilliant form. They put on a great show and kept the crowd moving throughout the performance. I’m so glad I went now. I had a fantastic time, and I think I’d see them again given the chance.
It’s been a couple of years since I was on the Rail Ale train. It’s a lovely evening on the bluebell railway in Sussex and well worth trying out if you’ve never been. The format is simple. Steam train + Real Ale + Sausage and Mash supper + Jazz band. Easy.
The Rail Ale train, 31st July 2015
The atmosphere is lovely, especially if you have a really nice sunny evening to enjoy as well. The crowd is all there to have a good time and enjoy the beers, of which there were many, and all good in terms of those I managed to sample.
It isn’t the cheapest evening out, but as an occasional outing it’s well worth the money, and of course, as the Bluebell railway is a charity I don’t begrudge them the cash.
A beer voucher from Rail Ale, 31st July 2015
My favourite ale of the evening was called “Piston Broke”, which seemed apt in some ways for a pleasant evening of beer and music.
A couple of old friends and I decided to take a train holiday of sorts. In fact, to refer to it as just a train holiday does no justice to the vast amount of planning that actually went into this trip. It didn’t entirely work out for us in that we didn’t get all the journeys done that we thought we might, but it was good fun all the same.
We had rail rovers that covered a huge area in the North East of England.
Rail Rover Tickets
These made it possible for us to travel all over the place just with these. It was amazing as I didn’t even know that these things existed before this trip.
Our trip had three bases over three nights. These were, Carlisle, on our first night, Settle, on the second, and Blackpool on the third night. I hadn’t been to any of these, so it was going to be interesting no matter what. Although of course, some places are more interesting than others, if you know what I mean.
On the train to Carlisle
The first stage to Carlisle was very pleasant indeed. We started our trip with G&T’s and moved on to a few pints of a very pleasant ale. Off the train and on to Windemere for another couple of beers!
Nice pint
Day two saw us on the historic Carlisle to Settle line, although we had a few false starts on the way. We stopped off just after the Ribblehead viaduct in Ribblehead station, which was very pleasant indeed. Settle is a little market town and we stayed the night there in a lovely B&B.
Just outside Settle Station
From Settle we went out to Hellifield station and managed to catch sight of the Fellsman steam train going through.
The Fellsman leaving Hellifield Station
The station itself was lovely and retained some original features, although not all. Here are some of the details …
Platform at Hellifield StationFlowers at Hellifield StationDetail at Hellifield StationDetail at Hellifield StationDetail at Hellifield Station
From their we got another historical line. This time the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, which is the line that was used in the film “The Railway Children”. In fact, we went through the station that was used. Oakworth station.
Wet day at Oakworth Station
It was a lovely line. Very picturesque and pleasant, and it would have been even better if it hadn’t been tipping down with rain. But never mind. It was a very pleasant trip all the same. One of the reasons it was so pleasant was …
Yorkshire Farmer Ale on the Keighley line
Our final stop on Wednesday was Blackpool, and we arrived just before this lovely sunset.
Blackpool Sunset
We didn’t really get enough time to do much in Blackpool, we visited one or two pubs but that was about it before we had to leave in the morning to get on with the final day of our trip. However, before we left I grabbed a picture of this great old bus.
Vintage bus in Blackpool
Our last day had a couple of notable highlights to it. The first was Lancaster, which we visited twice in one day. The first time finding a nice little bar just near the station with an excellent pint from the Settle brewery called “Light”, and also sampling Fiddler’s crisps.
Beers and crisps
Very nice too actually. The second highlight was visiting Carnforth station where scenes from “Brief Encounter” were filmed. There’s a heritage centre there and a lovely 1940’s style tea room as well.
Photo taken at Carnforth station inside the 1940’s tea room which is part of the heritage centreTaken at the 1940’s tea room which is part of the heritage centre at Carnforth station. Where “Brief Encounter” was filmed.
So we ended up back at Lancaster for a pint in the Robert Gillow before the train back to London.
A nice pint had in the Robert Gillow pub/bar in Lancaster
And a very good pint it was too. So to end I thought I’d include the last photo from the trip which was taken at the Doric Arch pub at Euston, it sort of sums up everything I think.
Last Saturday was an awesome day for a wide variety of reasons. The company of Mr Miki Strange. It was great to meet him after all these years online and equally great to share two exhibitions I really wanted to see with him.
Miki has posted his views of the day here and here, and I don’t think I can put down my thoughts in a more concise manner than that to be honest.
I have known Concreted0g for a while now and I really do like his music, so when I was looking for some CDs and stumbled over this one again, which was the first CD of his music I ever heard, it was like bumping into an old friend again. It’s good to hear it again, and just as fresh as ever.
Of course, this is an electronic / circuit bent release, and is really only once facet of his musical talent. His more recent work is just as impressive but in a very different direction. He’s a talented chap you see, and I’m glad to know him.
If you get a chance to listen to his music, or indeed see him live, I’d grab it.
I listened to this a few days ago and it brought back so many good memories that I decided that I should post it to SoundCloud and let others enjoy it, or not of course, as the case may be.
I have this in my diary as the birthday of miniMusic, the Palm and iOS mobile music company. I think that they’re 13 years old today. Having just checked their site there’s no update there. In fact, the site hasn’t been updated since the 9th of March 2011. It’s a shame. I hope it doesn’t just fade away.
Anyway, assuming that miniMusic sticks around, as I most sincerely hope they do, here’s a very happy birthday to miniMusic.
I was listening to an old track that I’d made with a friend a long time ago. It’s something I was really proud of. Something that I think really stands the test of time. I hadn’t heard from him in a couple of years so I sent him a text and got a really quick reply, and it looks like we’ll be meeting up in the not too distant future. That made my day.
I am Ashley Elsdon 