Tag: Brian Wilson

London Thirteenth Trip

In the summer of 2024, we finally made the eminently sensible decision to purchase a Two Together railcard which chops a commendable third off the price of your train fares. This is especially beneficial when considering the extortionate Avanti prices down to London and this inspired us to arrange a day trip down to the smoke.

Unfortunately, the train we were scheduled to be on was cancelled but we picked this news up in sufficient time to undertake a scamper to Stockport station and jump on an earlier one. As a result, we had no seats booked so commandeered some unoccupied ones that were booked from the earlier station of Manchester.

Twenty minutes later and by this stage comfortably ensconced in situ with coffee and croissants in hand, we were approached by a lady who claimed our seats. To my perfectly reasonable question of ‘Why did you not sit here from Manchester?’ she replied that she wanted to obtain some forward facing seats for her and her son, but she had now been slung out of the ones that she had purloined. Grudgingly and with some under the breath muttering we packed up and vacated but thankfully we found some better seats in the next carriage!

Covent Garden basement. Image Credit storage.googleapis.com

It was fine summers day so en arrival we walked down towards the river and arrived at London Covent Garden Basement and undertook a pit stop. Covent Garden is dually linked to the Royal Opera House and to the old fruit and vegetable market in the central square which is now a regentrified and touristy shopping area. It is bordered on one side by Drury Lane, where I believe the Muffin Man lives (the Muffin Man!!).

The Covent Garden metro stop also lays a claim to fame as having the shortest tube journey, a princely 270 metres to Leicester Square station and the London Transport Musuem is also in that district. There are sixty pubs and bars in the borough, which sounds like an attendance challenge I would have undertaken if I was a local resident! The area is referenced by Charles Dickens, Hitchcock and within My Fair Lady and Pygmalion. Whilst we were in residence there was a local singer called Joe Corti performing.   

We then had an al fresco lunch on one of the rare precious green spaces purchasing some tucker from the nearby Pret et Manger. Now I am always astonished regarding how many Pret’s are in the capital as it seems there is one on every street corner and undertaking some quick research, I have gleaned that of the 474 branches they currently have in the whole of the UK, 369 are contained within London.

We then mulched over to the southern side of the river where there numerous summer events and stages set up for entertainment later in the day. We deviated into theLondon Southbank Centre, which is linked to the Royal Festival, a venue I have covered in a previous blog when I saw Mogwai there. Within the open area of the centre, we saw an act called 3318 performing.  

  

Southbank Centre. Image Credit fabrique.com

Within the territory lines of Covent Garden there are thirteen different theatres, including our intended destination of London Adelphi Theatre for a matinee showing of a musical version of Back to the Future. The theatre, originally built back in 1806 is now located on the Strand and has traversed through three previous derivations and the latest building is now Grade II listed.

In 1997 the London production of Chicago opened at the theatre and had a subsequent eight and a half year run. In 2006, Brian Wilson had his last UK performance of his album Pet Sounds on the stage there.    

Back to the Future was a movie released in 1985 and I personally think it is proper popcorn fun and a very fine film and was immensely popular garnering around $400m at the box office. The musical soundtrack was provided by Huey Lewis and the News.

One of the amusing legacies is that a Chicago band was named 1.21 Gigawatts after possibly the most renowned line in the film, which is in itself a classic example of life imitating art. Also, to this very day it appears I cannot help myself from exclaiming ‘The Libyans’ every time I see an old blue Volkswagen campervan!     

1.21 Gigawatts. Image Credit facebook

We then headed onto the Somers Town Coffee House pub which is a regular go to establishment situated on an adjacent street to Euston train station. The hostelry dates back to the eighteenth century, and its name derives from the simple fact that it was previously a coffee house! There is also apparently a late night speak easy cocktail bar called Cosy located in the basement.

Nearer to the station, some essential drinks and snacks were then purchased for the evening train back. Upon reaching our carriage and our booked seats, I was surprised when a lady turned round to me and said whilst grinning that hopefully nobody was going to move us from our seats, at which point I realised she had also been on the morning train and witnessed my earlier altercation!   

London Tenth Trip

A Northern invasion of London is always to be savoured when Mogwai decide to play in the capital city. Thus, when they announced they were to be incorporated in the bill for the Meltdown Festival in 2014 by playing Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank we jumped at the chance to attend.

Uncle George, John and Tony Dewhurst and I headed down on the Virgin express to and dropped our bags across the road at our digs at the handy Premier Inn opposite Euston Station. We met Nigel who had headed in from Brighton at a boozer in Borough Market where we discussed my gig list and the very early germination at that stage of the idea to create this very blog!

We progressed down the river and had a drink at the bar within the Globe Theatre. As we passed London Tate Modern, I witnessed a young singer called Jolie Fox on a makeshift stage. We continued down the river afterwards to then arrive at the London Royal Festival Hall.

Globe Theatre. Image Credit travellousworld.com

The Festival Hall was opened in 1951 after an expenditure of £2m and was built as part of the Festival of Britain which was instigated to provide a boost to the national morale after the Second World War. It sits alongside the Hayward Gallery, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Purcell Room within an 11-acre site all under the auspices of the Southbank Centre, with the main venue having an all seated 2900 capacity.

It has been run as an independent concern since 1988 and the building has Grade 1 listed status. In 2014, their Festival of Love concluded with 70 couples, including 15 same-sex couples marrying on the main stage. On the musical front, Grace Jones and Patti Smith have played there and Brian Wilson premiered his sixth album Smile with a live performance.

Royal Festival Hall. Image Credit circular1.com

We mulched about briefly in the downstairs area and I purchased a new Mogwai t-shirt from the merch stand, Clinic had supported that night, but we had missed their set. We headed upstairs and grabbed our seats and admired the surroundings before Mogwai took the stage. I thought ‘Travel is Dangerous’, and a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ were excellent, with the latter track ending the initial set, before the aural assault continued into the encore with ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 1’ and We’re No Here’.   

Afterwards we jumped on the nearby tube for the commute to the final gig of the evening, but annoyingly I left my newly purchased T-shirt in the carriage when disembarking! Our destination was Chalk Farm station which takes you instantly into another of those innumerable London suburbs with its own high street, bars and community.

The tube station is next to the Roundhouse venue where many fine bands have undertaken residencies there, our next venue was not as highbrow and was namely London Chalk Farm Fiddlers Elbow.

Chalk Farm Fiddlers Elbow. Image Credit londonsubscene.net

It was a filthy rainy night (not in Soho!) and we struggled to locate the pub, but we landed eventually much to our relief. The hostelry was built in the 1840’s and was previously known as The Old Mother Shipton before holding the Fiddler’s name since the 1970’s. It is a Grade II listed building and a homely venue with Chesterfield sofas and a music room with a 150 capacity.

It is an independently run concern and they host alternate event such as poetry readings and book signings, but their main pursuit is live music, with both the Vibrators and The Damned having played there back in the day.

On the night of our visit, the band on stage were the MOBBS, who billed themselves as ‘garage punk rock ‘n’ roll at one hundred miles per hour’ but unfortunately, they did not quite live up to that rather enticing preamble!