Tag: Mogwai

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!   

Electric Fields Festival – Part 2

This week I shall continue the tale of our attendance at the 2018 Electric Fields Festival in Drumnlarig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway. It was a three-day event, but we decided to head up there for Days 2 and 3 which were the Friday and the Saturday thereby missing Orielles, Ride and James amongst others on the Thursday’s roster.

I now had an extra hour on my journey with the initial leg from Manchester to Preston where I picked up Jez Catlow and Uncle George en route. We then decamped at the Booths Café in Fulwood and nursed a cappuccino whilst awaiting John Dewhurst finishing work. We all then dived into John’s transit van with the additions of his brother’s Paul and Tony who were also in attendance.

Now, fate and timing had dealt us a kind hand due to the fact that Paul’s sister-in-law Bernie had recently opened up a bed and breakfast in Dumfries located centrally near the train station. She generously offered to provide lodgings and fed and watered us for the weekend, a lovely lady she was!   

The Electric Fields ‘Red Stripe’ posse. Image Credit Tony Dewhurst.

On arrival, we had a skelp around some of the town’s hostelries before jumping into a cab down to the festival entrance point. We slid down the hill and it was a green tinged and pretty location, and the weather was thankfully behaving itself.

They had pronounced themselves as being encompassed within the boutique festival category, and the set up reminded me of the Connect Festival I attended at Inverary Castle back in 2007. They also had the huge bonus of a real ale tent which provided a welcome alternative to the frothy Tennents Lager!

It was quite a small site, and the acts played across two areas, the Main Stage and BBC Introducing Stage. I have struggled to find a day bill listing so am going to rely on my memory as to who I think played each day.

First up were Out Lines who are on Mogwai’s Rock Action label and are a collaboration of Kathryn Joseph, producer Marcus Mackay and Twilight Sad’s James Graham and they had recorded their one and only album ‘Conflats’ the year before.

There was then some psych-pop from Hallo Maud, MC rapping from Lady Leshurr, indie rock from Soccer Mommy and ex Coventry University students Feet, hip hop from Edinburgh’s Young Fathers and a perennial festival appearance from The Coral.

I witnessed a decent country folk set from Tracyanne & Danny who were a collaborative project consisting of Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura and Danny Coughlan from Crybaby. There was a fun performance from the old troubadours Idlewild who I was witnessing for the seventh time and then Teenage Fanclub who fitted into the day like your old Arran sweater!

The most enjoyable set of the day was from Public Service Broadcasting. They were in fine form and the best I have seen them, and they had just recently expanded their sound to include sporadic blasts of joyous brass which only enhanced the sonics of their performance. There were then some predictable taxi shenanigans, but we eventually made it back to our digs.   

On the Saturday we attended a couple of pubs on the other side of the river to make it easier for a tax pick up. In one hostelry there were a posse of disgruntled Queen of the South fans, Dumfries football team, who had left the nearby ground in disgust when they were 4-0 down to Ayr at half time!

Idles on stage. Image Credit www.pinterest.com

I saw a portion of the Horrors set and some rock/dance crossover sounds from Makeness which consists of a UK based producer called Kyle Molleson. The latter has recently had his biggest tour so far with a support slot with Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I also caught a noisy performance from Brighton band Black Honey and a couple of tracks from Noel Gallagher & the High Flying Birds on the Main Stage.  

My favourite three acts of the day were on the BBC Introducing Stage with first up being Baxter Dury. He has chiselled out of a music career for himself and moved away from being famous just for the fact that he was Ian’s son. Next on were Sunflower Bean, a three-piece from New York who I thoroughly enjoyed with their swirly sounds, reminding me of Fleetwood Mac and The Orielles.

 The undeniable highlight was Idles who are a proper throwback band with their socially conscious ethos, passion and glorious intensity. They pour everything into each performance and must be absolutely exhausted afterwards. The only downside was that we had already booked a cab for a specific time which resulted in only catching two thirds of their show, and I never yet seen them again!  

The New Bazaar. Image Credit cdlh.co.uk

The day’s music wasn’t finished though as when we landed back in town, we headed to Dumfries New Bazaar. The pub’s main claim to fame was that it was the location of the formation of the aforementioned Queen of the South and there is a plaque to commemorate that first formal meeting on 26th March 1919. On the night we saw a local band called Nearly Not Guilty which wrapped up nicely the weekend’s entertainment.