Forgot about this old blog that I started back in 2007 - suprised it's all still here - anyway I thought I'd post this to keep it "Live"

 Still here

Just been looking back through the old posts on this blog - ha ha! Good days before facebook took over the interweb!

I'm a bit fed up with Facebook - thought I would have another go at this blogging stuff.

Long time

I haven't used this blog for ages. I must start using it again! Facebook seems to have taken over everybody's lives as far as social interaction on the web is concerned. There is so much more to explore!

Well I haven't posted here for Donkey's Ears! (That's right donkey's ears NOT donkey's years as most people say. That's like calling stairs Apples & Stairs cockernee rhymes y'know). Anyway everybody is using facebook these days - can't understand why myspace didn't catch on in such a big way it is so much better - well that's life people always seem to go for the crap option when given a choice.

Went into a pub yesterday some prat came up and called me "Bruv" lowlife scum ruined my afternoon.

Concrete Henge

Did you know that Stonehenge was built by the victorians? Yeah it's true and most of the stones are actually set into concrete bases concealed beneath the turf! What a con!












Here is some info I got on the net:

CHANGING RUINS; Victorians used cranes to rebuild Stonehenge

STONEHENGE is as much the work of 20th century engineers as prehistoric man, it was revealed yesterday. One million visitors a year marvel at Britain's most famous ancient monument. But the idea that the existing circle of stones was created 4,000 years ago is a myth, according to historian Brian Edwards.

He has uncovered photographs showing fallen stones being hauled into place using cranes and scaffolding during a series of facelifts beginning in 1901

Lintels were put back up and the giant supporting stones pulled upright. It is thought 14 were set in concrete concealed under the turf and only seven are in their original sockets. Mr Edwards, 44, a post-graduate research student at the University of the West of England in Bristol, said: "Stonehenge was historically cleansed and the true history was hidden away. For too long people have been kept in the dark over the Stonehenge restoration work. "I'm astonished", he added: "What we have been looking at is a 20th century landscape which is reminiscent of what Stonehenge might have looked like thousands of years ago".

"It has in factbbeen created by the heritage industry and is not the creation of any prehistoric peoples."
Most guide books make no mention of the huge construction works begun during the Victorian era or the other restoration work carried out in 1919, 1920, 1958, 1959 and 1964.

The way the monument looks today is very different from when the giant stones lay strewn across salisbury plain in the 18th century,when there were only two stones standing upright.

English Heritage, the guardian of the monument, have issued a statement that they now intend to rewrite the official guide book, to make sure that the rebuilding is no longer glossed over and the public are made aware that the stonehenge we see today is only a reconstruction of what the victorians thought may have been the original configuration of these ancient stones.

English Heritage senior archaeologist Dave Batchelor, who will undertake the task, said: "The decision not to cover the reconstruction work in any detail was taken before my time"

"The work is a very important part of the history of Stonehenge and when people are told about it they are fascinated. The information was dropped in the 1970s but we are moving to remedy that."

English Heritage spokeswoman Elspeth Henderson said: "I don't think we have deliberately sought not to talk about the reconstruction.

"It depends what you focus on, and we think most people are interested in why it was built and the different elements of its development."

Hmmm....

Happy Christmas

Well folks, it's Christmas Eve and I'm still at work. Hope to be leaving in a couple of hours. Must get some brussels sprouts! Looking forward to the Star & Garter tonight.

Crow man beats pilchard & Sugar

Bob Crow is my new hero. This bloke knows what he's talking about - he should be running the country! I was impressed with his performance on question time on radio 4 at the weekend.

These are my thoughts

Let's tax the thieving rich bastards that sucked every last drop of blood out of the country during the boom period and then moved all their ill gotten gains offshore to avoid tax. These scumbags cooked the books and enslaved hordes of peasants on minimum wages, whilst receiving knighthoods. Where is that filth PILCHARD £BRANSTON now? the country's in trouble so let's make the pensioners, disabled, sick and unemployed suffer whilst PILCHARD SCUM basks in the sun on the proceeds. I say seize their assets and execute them all! Preferably by stoning and in The Pilchard's case I will personally cast the first stone - and a hundered more!

And who's that other ball of throbbing gristle - Anal Sugar - what a piece of shit! flying around in an aeroplane and bullying a load of wannabe idiots on that stupid TV programme. If that's reality I'm going back to cuckoo land mate. Made a pile of money selling second rate music centres and shit toy computers. Seize his money and put him down.

Then there's that scotch crook Sir Freddy Goodshit, who's theiving exploits put the country in this state in the first place - enjoying a £17 million pension pot at the expense of the disabled and homeless - Go on Mr Cleggaron give the thief a medal - he's already got a knighthood!

Seven Multi-layered Stars

had a nice time at The Seven Stars last night. I must get to bed a bit earlier though, as 3 hours sleep is not enough for anybody. Winter is definitely here. It was freezing this morning at the bus stop at 05:15. I won't be able to make it to the Star & Garter this Friday 'cos I have to work very early on Saturday - I could go, and leave early - but I've said that before and fallen out of the boozer after midnight. I've been watching this TV programme called "The Event" and it looks promising. I downloaded the first 7 episodes and watched them in one marathon sitting. But I am wary about investing to much time in a TV show that could go on and on like Lost did, only to have a crap ending that resolved none of the multi-layered storyline threads that had us all trying to work out what it was all about.

Vin Garabage

Hello my name is Vin Garbage. I'm great, So you must charge people at least £10 to hear me twang my guitar and sing my artistic drivel!!! I'm much better than those other folkies like Wizz Bones and Martin Farty ... Waddya mean you haven't heard of me? ...I'm great! It says so on my website, so it must be true. Anyway if you charge £10 (or more if possible)for my gig it will keep all those unemployed scum away and we can have a genteel evening with a well behaved nice middle-aged middle class well dressed clean audience. I love money ... GIVE ME LOADS OF IT !!!!!!!

Nicest Song Ever

Ain't No Never Not None No never No Sunshine When You're Gone By the great Bill Withers!

What a song this is! It gets me thinking about the universe and the meaning of life Bill knows I'm sure - he even says so in this song "... I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know!"

Total brilliance!!!

Back to work and farewell to folkmob!!!

I've just returned to work after a 3 week break on sick leave. Up in the morning again now at 4.20AM for the forseeable future - unless they make me a decent early retirement offer!

I've also decided to stop managing the folkmob website - bit of a thankless task really, I've been doing it for the last 10 years or so with NO input from any of the others apart from my mate Dave K. The new regime (excluding Dave, Sue & Mick) don't seem to appreciate the work that I've been doing over the years to promote folkmob and in view of recent comments made by certain people and the draconian attitude of some of the self-appointed busy bodies I've decided to pack it all in and call it a day!

I have been attending Crayside folk on Mondays much more fun - and no committee!

Recent Photos

Here are some recent photos:



The Seven Stars Crayford Kent 19th July 2010


The Crown Otford Kent 18th July 2010

Seven Star Bears & Beers!

I went to The Seven Stars last night with my mate Dave Kenningham. There was a music session organised by the kentish rock stars "Tone deaf Leopard" Quite a nice pub with friendly staff and punters. I met the famous Rafflesbear who I have known for a couple of years only from his posts on mudcat he turned out to be a really nice bloke called Richard and he and his wife Linda are the parents of Martin Neal formerly one half of that excellent Folk Duo NORCSALORDIE who are sadly no more! The session was pretty informal and everyone managed about four or five songs. Pete The Hat turned up at about 9.30 just in time to celebrate his non-birthday with some loverly cakes cooked by Linda "Mrs Bear".

Nostalgia

Here is something I wrote for the folkmob at the end of 2003:

Well another year over! Phew!!! It was quite eventful. We had a lot of great guest performers at the Tudor Barn, mainly thanks to Brian Bruce who took on the role of A&R man for the club during 2003. The acts that were special for me were Derek Brimstone, Ron Trueman-Border, John Barden, Bill Gardener, Digable Cat, Joe Bouzouki and I mustn’t forget that wonderful exotic dancer who performed at Dave kenningham’s 50th Birthday party!

A group of Folkmobbers went to The Canterbury Fayre festival in August. This was a great event bringing together classic acts spanning five decades, including Arthur Lee & Love, Robert Plant, Mike Heron, Nick Turner, John Otway, and Roy Harper. What a pity it was the last one.

Linda Smith & Dave Bryant hosted two wonderful musical garden parties, that were well attended by folk musicians from near and far. The star performers though were a herd of feral parakeets leaping from tree to tree!

There were two camping weekends at Knockholt. 134 people attended the first one in June!!! That must be a record. It was a special 10th anniversary event and the weather was fantastic. Dave Bryant brewed a special “Knockholt knockout” ale and special guests Joe Bouzouki & The Missing Puddings played an acoustic set around our campfire. The September camp was a lot quieter but still enjoyable – I just love that steak & ale pie served at The Tally Ho.

Members of the FolkMob continued to support other musical ventures throughout the year, including: Performers night at Mycenae House every Monday, Jazz, Blues & Beyond at The White Swan every Friday, Jennifer’s Club at The Alma, Johnny Phelps’ nights at The Monty Club in Eltham and of course Alec and his band The Greenwich Traditional Musicians every Tuesday at The Cricketers.

New in 2003 we saw: the opening of Oliver’s Bar in Greenwich a great little downstairs venue providing live Jazz & Blues four nights a week; The Beacon in Hayes which has a super session once a month hosted by our old friends Walking The Witch.

There were also some goodbyes – notably our old mate Nigel Saunders, who ran off to Australia to seek his fortune – good luck Nige. The Duke Of Edinburgh in Lee seems to have died off – never was the same since Sheila & Brian went. The Anchor in Lewisham also fizzled out. Dorothy “Call me Dee” finally left The White Swan. She may have been a miserable old bag, but she did more for live music than any other Landlord that I know of in the borough of Greenwich. The final death knoll for The Guildford Arms, which was transformed from a little run down back street boozer, that played host to the Folkmob most weekends, into a trendy (upmarket?) wine bar & restaurant full of snoots.

Seems like a lifetime ago!

USB 3.0

The new USB 3.0 was launched back in January. It replaces the USB 2.0 format and will transfer data at over 10x the speed of the latter. My gripe is that you can't but a computer fitted with USB 3.0 ports - Why? probably because the big distributers have so much old stock that they are trying to shift it before selling the decent stuff! You will end up lumbered with a PC that can't connect to new devices without the need for a fiddly adaptor gadget or something! Also watch out for the new intel i series of chips - most retailers are offering overpriced systrms fitted with the NEW intel i3 chip - beware this is the bottom end of the series i3. i5 & i7, The i5. The i3 chip's performance is good for a low priced budget PC it has no place in any PC priced over £500. If you are thinking of purchasing a PC then hang out for a while. If you are spending over £500, then insist on USB 3.0 ports and an i5 processor preferably i5 -750.

May Fayre crooks rip off the poor

Went to the May Fayre at Eltham Well Hall yesterday. A few of my Folkmob friends were performing, so I brought Lucien with me. What could be a great local event is spoilt by money grabbing scumbags who were out to make a quick buck at our expense. The first one I encountered was charging £2 a go on some crap bouncy castle. the woman in front of me handed £8 to this bloke and her 4 little kids went on this piece of rubbish for what must have been 30 seconds before they got fed up and jumped off. I paid him £2 thinking that this would be for a long go on the piece of inflated plastic. "5 minutes only" said the scum. Give me my money back you thieving bag of crap! said I, and count yourself lucky that my grandson is with me, or I would have punched you on your criminal type hooter!
Then I was charged £1,50 for a crappy little doughnut - you know those little ones with icing sugar on that cost about 20p in Sainsbury! Then £2 for a little bottle of fruit Shoot, these are 8 for £2 in Sainsbury

FAMILY FUN day - yes lots of fun for the crooked bastards raking in the money! But not much fun for a young family struggling on income support I'm sure!
Yes this is our wonderful Greenwich socialist Council that allow these criminals to exploit the poor and the sad thing is that nobody complains!

What's going on?

Liberal-Conservative Coalition cock-Up Government, Oil fuck-Up all over the Gulf Of Mexico. Unemployment Up. Crime Up! National Debt Up! Inflation Up! All this "UP" is bringing me DOWN - let's go to the seaside sometime soon.

On the IPod
Chuck Berry "Oh Carol" The Stones covered this for their first single
Alex Harvey "Hammer Song" pre SAHB 1969 song - great!
Pigmeat Markham "Here Comes The Judge" First Rap record?
Patto " I Got Rhythm" Unluckiest Band Ever
Miles Davis "Guinnevere" A 10 minute exploration of David Crosby's tune by the master
John Lee Hooker "Leave My Wife Alone" who said you need 12 bars for blues?
Bo Diddley "Pretty Thing" Phil May's inspiration
Sam Cooke "Sad Mood" Real Soul music at it's best
Richard Thompson "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" Love the guitar AND it mentions Boxhill
Howlin' Wolf "Spoonful" who needs all that complicated chord stuff for a great song?

The other S&G

haven't had the energy to put stuff up on here recently. Too many late nights and early mornings. I went to a nice acoustic session last sunday at the Star & Garter in Deptford. This is organised by Jim & Isobel of BRUISE fame. Lots of old friends there. Ken, Shilela, Yael. Jim, Pete t'Hat and loads more. I'm npot sure if it is onece a fortmight or twice a month, but I think that they have enough people as the bar is small and all the seats were taken. Only £2.50 for fosters not bad!

Deep Feeling

Yes Deep Feeling that's the track! I've been saying for years that Fleetwood Mac's Albatross was copied from an obscure Chuck berry instrumental and now I've found it! DEEP FEELING it was the B side of the US issue of the single School Days - now although not exactly the same (there are more chord changes) don't tell me that Peter Green didn't have this in mind when he composed Albatross! In the youtube video there is Schooldays thaen at 2m 45s you can hear Deep Feeling and judge for yourself!

Happy St George

The Real George
"Every moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant, qualified , by nature and education, to exercise the office of persecution."
– Edward Gibbon (The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, 23)


The mention of an unnamed martyr of Nicomedia by Eusebius seeded The Myth that was to become St George, though there is no evidence whatsoever that such a character ever existed!

The ‘real' George was rather different than the one portrayed in popular English Christian fiction. As Gibbon and others made clear, ‘St. George’ was a legendary accretion around a notorious 4th century bishop, George of Cappadocia (in modern Turkey). Even the Catholic Encyclopedia of saints concedes that the story was borrowed from some incidents involving the treacherous Turkish despot.

The future archbishop of Alexandria began his career as a money lender in Cilicia, Southern Turkey. By ‘assiduous flattery’ or other means he acquired the contract to supply the Roman army with bacon.

"His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his malversations were so notorious, that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice."
Edward Gibbon (The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, 23)

Making his way to Palestine, George set himself up in the religion business at Diospolis , where he became a profane grandee of the ruling Arians. As a wealthy and influential opponent of the Catholics he was well-placed to take the bishop’s chair in Alexandria when Athanasius was driven into exile.

In his new lofty station George gave free reign to his greed, corruption and cruelty, establishing several commercial monopolies and pillaging the ancient temples.
"The tyrant…oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese,"
Edward Gibbon (The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, 23)

.So incensed were the inhabitants that on at least one occasion George was expelled from Alexandria by a mob and troops had to be deployed to get him back into the bishop’s palace.
His end came with the elevation of Emporor Julian. The angry pagans of Alexandria (probably aided by Catholics) took their revenge on George by throttling the bishop and dumping his body in the sea. It seems highly probable that some supporters of the murdered bishop recovered what they claimed to be remnants of the erstwhile bishop and made off with them to the nearest centre of Arianism, Lydda in Palestine. Emperor Julian himself sequestered the extensive library which George had acquired.

Post-mortem success
Yet the notorious prelate was to achieve a nobility in death which had been denied to him in life. The family of George built him a tomb and a church to house it at Lydda, and the shrine soon attracted a profitable traffic in pilgrims. At the same time, in the mid years of the 4th century, the hierarchy of the church had been seriously alarmed by the apostasy of Emperor Julian (360-363) and a resurgent paganism. His brief reign had threatened their but recently gained temporal power and the hierarchs were desirous of every possible device to prevent such a calamity again.
The Catholic Church was more than prepared to overlook George's heretical and criminal past. The ‘official’ legend of St George was created to symbolize the complete and irreversible victory of Christianity over paganism. Hence the image of St. George as a fearless warrior, defeating enemies of the faith by Christian forbearance, no matter what trials were to be overcome. In many of the ‘traditions’ the climax of the story actually has George smashing pagan idols.
Evidently the George cult spread outwards from Palestine. In the late 6th century two churches were identified in Syria with inscriptions indicating the veneration of a martyr called "Georgios". By then, the venality of George's real life had either been forgotten or merely white-washed. Thanks to the creative scribblers for Christ two hundred years later, his name was attached to a colourful story of piety, fortitude, divine deliverance and – ultimately – a princess and a dragon.

"This odious stranger disguising every circumstance of time and place, assumed the mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero, and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George of England, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter."
Edward Gibbon (The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, 23)
Quite a success story for an unmitigated rogue – and bacon salesman.

Pulsar Frauds

One of the greatest injustices of the 20th Century. Back in 1967 a young Irish scientist named Jocelyn Bell whilst studying at Cambridge was anylising data from metres of pen-graph wave observation printouts produced by a radio telescope array which she had physically built with help from other students over a two year period. She noticed a strange blip the other researchers had ignored. She brought this to the attention of her superiors and was told "just interference from pirate radio stations" She peruaded them to allow her to investigate further and after many sleepless nights and hours spent analysing more printouts and comparing results with another nearby radio telescope, she discovered what we now know as PULSARS her superiors laughed at her at first "Little Green Men" they sniggered refused to allow her to publish. Later after she had discovered 3 more pulsars they realised she was on to something and published a paper in Nature magazine!

In 1974 Antony Hewish & Martin Ryle received the Nobel prize for physics Jocelyn wasn't even mentioned! The pompous wanker Hewitt said in a BBC interview something to the effect of "It's like a ship on a voyage of discovery, any of the crew can shout "Land Ho!" but it's the captain of the ship who discovered it! - I am the captain - Jocelyn was just crew doing her job" How can this sort of bollox be allowed to happen? We must petition the Nobel prize people to put things right!

Bruised Swans

I went to folkmob last night. There was a guest slot from a band called Swan Street. They had a great sound with Guitar, Fiddle and Melodeon as well as a few other stringed instruments. Mostly covers including "Meet Me On The Corner" and "Honky Tonk Women" I particularly enjoyed their last number which was about "The Hunter" - no not the Blue Cheer/Free classic but a folky song aout Orion the Hunter. The wonderful Jim and Isobel from Bruise turned up to try out some new material and new instruments! Nice vocal from Jim and Tin Whistle from Isobel!

On my Ipod this week:
Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride
Patto - Singing The Blues On Reds
Jimi Hendrix - Valleys Of Neptune
Return To Forever - Hymn To The Seventh Galaxy
Justin Hinds - Carry Go Bring Come
Jefferson Airplane - Good Shepherd
Miles Davis - Live At The Filmore
Syd Barratt - The Madcap Laughs

Valleys Of Neptune

A new album from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. 40 years too late - where have they been hiding this stuff? It's fantastic. Some previously unheard songs as well as some later versions of familiar stuff - all studio tracks and all engineered by the original Hendrix engineer Eddie Cramer. One of my favourites is the fantastic full band electric version of "Hear My Train Coming" which was previously available as an acoustic demo. What a brilliant version of "Fire" with a blistering guitar solo that was missing from the earlier version. This album proves what a force Jimi was in the development of modern rock guitar technique. There has never been another musician that comes anywhere near producing such spaced out pschedelic blues masterpieces as James Marshall Hendrix.

Soundcloud

This is an old recording of my old mate Ray Bracey
singing "Stepping Stone" with me improvising
on an acoustic guitar plugged into a 15w marshall practice amp

Purple Haze Days

When I was 16 I started going to this pub in Blackfriars Road called "The King's Head" This place was famous amongst hippies & rockers from all over London for playing continuous "spaced out" music at high volume with full psychedelic, liquid light shows on all the interior walls of the pub. The place used to get packed solid every Friday and Saturday night. All the walls were plain whitewash so as to maximise the lighting effects. The music was fantastic ranging from Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come through Blue Cheer, High Tide, The Pink Faries, Hendrix, T2, Pretty Things! Friday night at "The King's Head" was where the weekend began. At closing time we would cross the road and jump on a 63 bus to King's Cross cinema for the Midnight to Six rock show, to see acts such as Hawkwind, The Pink Faries, MC5, The Pretty Things, Status Quo, Patto, The Stooges, Skid Row, JSD Band, Cockney Rebel, Kilburn & The High Roads! We would usually drift off in the morning to some cool pad such as the famous Larkhall Rise in Clapham where we would chill/crash out for a while, listening to more sounds and jamming with guitars before continuing our weekend boogey non-stop taking in another all-niter at The Lyceum followed by a lunchtime session at The Tally Ho in Kentish Town with live music from the likes of "Quiver" before finishing at The Roumdhouse on Sunday night! Then back to work Monday morning and that long wait 'til payday on Friday when it would all begin again! If there were funds available then few weekday gigs at The Marquee or Tally Ho didn't go amiss! Oh for those bygone years between 1971 to 1974,

Steele Guitars

It's been a busy week with lots of great music. Last night I went with my friend Theresa to Orpington Folk Club, I hadn't been there since Bruise played there last summer. Guest Performer was the great Paul Steele who was accompanied by his son Laury on lead guitar - this was the best performance I have ever seen from Paul - absolutely fantastic. The highlight was a stunning version of Dylan's Highway 61 with an extended "duelling Gibsons" guitar interplay. It was good to see old friends Steve Jennings, Ted Hanley, Tone Deaf Leopard, Stormin' Norman, Frank, Robin & Ivan.

Moldy Piglet Dwellers from Bolton

What a cracking night at The British Oak last night! Many olsd and new faces including The Moldy Moldy Men, Salvator Piglet, Cellar Dweller,Bruise, and the illustrious former Atomic Rooster Axeman Steve Bolton! Thanks to the regulars who gave up their spots or played shorter sets than usual so that some of the newcomers could play - there were only a couple of people who didn;t get on - but hey, come on you have to get there early to guarantee a spot not 10pm! Well we had 23 performers in total - not bad at all! That's Steve Bolton & sarah in the picture.

Savoy £branston Pickle

Well I did manage to get to the Savoy Tup on Monday 11th January - but I was totally exhausted after being back at work after 6 weeks off - getting up at 4.30a.m. travelling into London then home, then back in again - then a thre pints of london pride. I went to get another beer and changed my mind and headed home at about 8:4pm. This is a great session so I will take a day off work for the next one. Anybody who enjoys Hamish's music will be pleased to know that he will be soon doing guest appearances at both Blackheath Folk and Folkmob!

This week I've been up in Rugby at The Post Office training facility bashing away on a computer fot a few days.

£109 standard second class Euston to Rugby return on virgin trains - a joke. That Pilchard £Brantson character is laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of the British public. The thing is the bank is probably an offshore account where the grinning knight of the realm doesn't pay tax or put anything back into this country that he has leeched off for years, while his slaves slog themselves to death on minimum wages. To add insult to injury after paying £109 and seeing a poster "WiFi horspot" I checked out the small print andfound out that it costs £5 for an hour access!!! Taking the piss or what! Mind you if you pay £10 you get 24 hours - but that is valid for the next 24 hours only. That's OK if you are going to look at the internet for 24 continuous hours in a row on one of those great marathon 24 hour train journeys that are so common in the UK!!!

Anyway Mr Pilchard I hear you shat yourself that time in the hot air balloon and cryed like a big sissy cos you were scared - tosser!

See y'all soon folks!

Ocarina

We were talking about ocarinas last night. I remember old Bill Gardner used to carry one about, which he said he'd owned for over 50 years. He also told me that, although his one was ceramic, the original ones were made from dried out Sweet Potato! I have since found out that this is incorrect. Sweet Potato IS another name for an ocarina, because of it's similarity in shape. Here is a tutoral that shows you how to make one - If you have access to a kiln!

Sitting at work

I'm there - actually sitting at a desk in Rathbone Place. It's 07:10 and I've been here for just over an hour. I may do some work soon ... maybe. When I got on the 132 bus this morning at 05:20, guess who was driving it - my old mate guitarist/harmonica player Terry Evans - he has promised to come to the British Oak session on Tuesday. There is a session tonight at The Savoy Tup in The Strand. I may go, it depends on whether I am knackered after this first day back at work this year.

Glenn Zero Garter

Dennis Greaves

Glenn Tilbrook

At the Star & Garter session last night we had two suprise guests - Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) and Dennis Greaves (nine below zero) I think that it's fantastic that professional Rock Stars take the time to support local sessions!

Back to work on Monday! I've been off for nearly six weeks so it will be a shock to the system getting back into the routine of getting up at 4.30 every morning and commuting into the West End!

Back Soon

Well I've been off sick now for nearly 5 weeks and I'm due back at work on Wednesday! Looking forward to being mobile again. New Year's resolution? ... don't know yet probably give up alcohol altogether! looking forward to camping trips to Knockholt this year.

Fun in the snow

Here is Lucien playing in the snow!

Thats me at the Canterbury Fayre 2002 grooving to The Pretty Things - photo taken by Lord Snooty himself Craig High.

That Mycenae Kenningham Experience

Myself and Dave Kenningham went to Mycenae House on Monday - first time in over a year. It's £5 to get in nowadays! We went to The British Oak last night to see Coralie Raven & The Good Guys, who turned out to be none other that Mitch Hiller and Paul Hirsh. Fantastic singing from Coralie and brill guitar & keyboards from Mitch and Paul.

Looking forward to The Star & Garter tonight. That Nadeen White Experience will be performing. Pete D'Hat and Dave K will be joining me for pint swallowing exercises!!!

IPOD

Here's some of my favourite stuff that I've been listening to on my IPod this week:

Book Of Rules - The Heptones
Postcards From Scarborough - Michael Chapman
Prayer - Miles Davis & Gil Evans
City Of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
My Eyes Have Seen You - The Doors
World In Harmony - Fleetwood Mac
The Days Of 49 - Bob Dylan
Pleasures Of The harbour - Phil Ochs
Baby Lemonade- Syd Barrett
Time - Dino Valenti

Luverlee music ...

Still waiting

People are always moaning about what a bad service Royal Mail givse, especially with the current dispute and strikes. A lot of cowboy operators are now trying to take advantage of this and are taking on more delivery work. They are grabbing the money from panicing businesses that are worried about delivering to their customers on time. But without the expertise of the trained Royal Mail professional, they simply can't cope or even begin to give full quality driven nationwide delivery service. They will never be able to provide anything comparable to RM in it's prime,that's before the massive scaling down that has been enforced by the LABOUR government over the last 10 years. Here's that proof:

I ordered a RAM chip for my netbook and it was sent by my supplier via a bunch of cowboys called UPS It was fully trackable so I looked online and saw that it had arrived at their Dartford depot early Tuesday morning and had been sent out for delivery at 7.10am that morning. That's good I thought I can now upgrade my RAM and install Windows 7 on my netbook! No chance - after waiting all day I looked again online and it stated that my item had neen "missed" and would be delivered next day! Ha ha it's now Thursday and here's the travking record copied straight from their site:

Icarus club

Went to a fabtastic music club on Thursday check out The Icarus Club at The Station Hotel Hither Green London SE13 every Thursday. It's also free admission! Not exactly an "open" mic, as all the acts are pre-booked. It is a showcase for new talent. Lovely atmosphere, fantastic sound quality, these guys really know what they're doing. All the acts were fantastic. The biggest hit for me though was a young duo called PACER unbelievably good guitar & bass with intricate weaving of harmonic structured melodies that are rare in modern rock/pop music. Here are a few photos that I took.

Bruise @ Orpington Folk Club

I went with johnny Evans, Steve & Val to Orpington Folk Club for the first time in over a year. Bruise were the guest act!

I'm a poet

The British Oak is a strange affair
The landlord is never there
The locals like to read old papers and smile
Some have dogs
"I'm just out to walk the dog luv, may be a while"
There are clean bogs
There are plugs
The amplifier fires up
My lager deserves a final sup
I need to learn driving
The folk club is thriving. The ceiling is bare
Lynne isn't there, Richard Russell is buzzing. Some good new faces appear
It's great to hear
The return of Gordon with his mandola and John Lee churning out musical waves on the hurdy gurdy. Welcome back also to Neil sporting a Flying Burrito Brothers T shirt!!!

Fiddlefit for a king!

The excellent duo Fiddlefit did a cracking half hour set at The Blackheath Folk Club last night. Bill & Judith really put on an outstanding display of musicianship with their own brand of violin and guitarfolk music. It was also good to see the return of old favourites Bruise, who have been touring England, Scotland & Europe throughout the summer. My old mate Richard Russell also turned up and treated us to one of his poetic rants. The highlight for me was Martin and Simon's impromptu performance of All Blues to celebrate the 50th ammiversary of the release of Mile Davis' Kind Of Blue album.

Crayford Arms 19th September 2009, Gong Scourer Morris and various folkies!

Hellooo

Well I haven't been on this blog page for some time now. It was nice last week at Knockholt! I also had a good time last night at Blackheath Folk Club. Blahh Blahh Blahh!

Lucien's First Bike

Well I'm going to try an alternative to youtube called DAILYMOTION so things may go haywire.

Lucien's First Bike
Uploaded by mickywoodsie. - Discover videos of people, family and friends.

Night Time Blues

Well here I am sitting in an office on the 3rd Floor at Rathbone Place. It's 1.15AM and I can still hear the drunken crowds of revellers in the streets outside. I'm doing a one off night shift for my revisions project (job cutting) all it involves is counting the numbers of workers in specific work areas every 10 minutes throughout the night! That's so exciting man ...

Can't wait to get down to the Star and Garter for the Friday night blues & Folk & comedy revue with good ol' Steve & Kelvin..

I went to folkmob last night. Fairly quiet night as a lot of people are away on holiday at this time of the year. Pete The Hat's son Gavin gave a superb performance of two West End musical numbers. There was also some stunning guitar playing from young Darragh and young Chris. The lager tasted exremely good and was lovely and cold, just right for this hot weather!

Plop

Well I didn't last long on the wagon - 4 days! This is because I just had to go to the British Oak last night, it was calling me "Come, come, come to the folk club, come to the folk club Theresa's there!" like that old Black Widow record! It was a rather quiet night, but we still had fun. It was good to see Neil Clasper playing some tasty lead guitar with Matt & Jerry. I even managed to do 3 songs myself, all Dylan stuff - Positvely 4th Street, One More Cup Of Coffee & Lay Lady Lay. I think I must be after Fred Dylan's job! Good to see Theresa & Fran out. Thanks for the lift home Big T! Pete The Hat was there with his son Gavin, very nice young bloke who promises to learn the guitar and perform before his next visit all the way from St Albans. I thinks I will have to go to folkmob tonight - but that will mean drinking, could it be physically possible for me to go there, go up to the bar, say "good evening Fran, would you be kind enough to pour me a slimline tonic with ice and a slice?" ... Ooooh that will be hard work, especially when all my chums are sitting back, swilling gallons of fine english ale and litres of the coolest golden lager, right there in front of me while I stand with this stupid little glass of watery plop in my hand. Let's wait and see.

Lurgi?

A great night at The Blackheath Folk Club last night. I have now finished jury service and am back at work again. I don't think I will be at folkmob tonight I feel a bit sick, hope it's not the dreaded lurgi flu. Oh I nearly forgot, I went to Colin's session at the Pelton Arms on Sunday and that was great too! Here are some pictures:

Jury causes lack of interest in folk

Well I've been on jury service again this week, so haven't had much time to put anything on here. Both Blackheath Folk and Folkmob were sparsely populated this week. I'm off to The Star & Garter tonight, so lets hope that this fares a bit better.

Star & Garter

I went to the new session at The Star & Garter on Friday with Pete and Graham. It is run by Steve Bowditch and Fred Dylan. Fred was away on holiday in Crete, so we missed his "Sounds like Bob" show. The host Steve Bowditch was excellent with his unique brand of comedy and song with guitar accompaniment. His current theme is "I'm A Pirate" and it had the audience in stiches! Especialy his take on Village People's "In The Navy" I didn't get the name of Steve's mate, who was co-hosting the evening but he was really funny as well, joining in on percussion and backing vocals with Steve and some of the other acts. There were a couple of old faces performing, Tony & Keith also a couple of bands "Warpigs" and a tro who's name I didn't get (Little something people) who's singer sounded just like Sandy Denny.

British Oak

It was a good night at The Blackheath Folk club last night. We had our youngest performer Daniel Goodwin aged 10 who played Ukelele and piano for us.

Moldy Moldy Men

We went to The Royal Standard last night. Funny all the years I've lived in and around the Blackheath area I'd never been in this pub before. Anyway they are going to try live music for a few weeks on saturday nights, so we thought we'd give it a whirl. The duo playing were The Moldy Moldy Men. They comprise of Jonathan Glew and Niall Costigan who are both regular performers at Blackheath Folk club. They did a two hour set of a mixture of covers and original material. Very good stuff and I recommend that you see them.

Swimming in a putrid pool

I had a good birthday on Wednrsday, my head was still spinning the next day, but I managed to get to work OK. Bruise were very good at Folkmob and the beer was certainly flowing. As part of my new "get fit" regime I went swimming in the new Eltham Centre this morning. The water smelt bad of putrid human sweat. I noticed that the water was not chlorinated, so it must be a hotbed of bacteria and all sorts of infectious stuff.A load of schoolkids had just left the pool, so they had probably pissed in it as well, dirty little bastards. I didn't stay in there very long as the stench was overbearing. I think I will have to give up alcohol for a few weeks, I am getting to like it too much! I'm off work for a few weeks with jury service starting on 20th July. Not looking forward to commuting daily to Tthe Elephant & Castle.

British Oak

Went to the British Oak last night for the folk night. There was some big threatening looking git standing at the bar shouting "go on the Irish!!" "Oi diddly diddly" "Go on you catholics" and shit like that, during performances throughout the session. The thick bastard didn't understand that folk music can be played and sung by any nationality, in fact apart from myself I don't think there were any Irish in the pub and there certainly were not any Irish songs or tunes performed. It's brainless scum like that that can ruin the night. Other than that it was another good night with some outstanding players and singers.:

Nuclear bastards

Although it is good news that the russians and americans are talking again about arms reduction and cutting back their nuclear stockpiles. I don't really think it will make the world any safer, because it all means nothing when there are still loads of hateful, evil bastards such as Korea, Pakistan and Israel armed to their rotten teeth with nuclear weapons and threatening the very stability of our planet. Let's hope that when the LHC finally gets up and working, the magical secrets that it reveals are never shared with the likes of these filthy warmongering scum. These sacred secrets should be kept in the hands of reason and used to ensure world peace and the exploration and eventual colonisation of deep space... Amen

Where did the time go?

This is my last night shift. When I finish in the morning I will be off work for the rest of the week and then all next week. Then from 20th July I will be on jury service so, with a bit of luck I won't be back at work until August. Looking forward to Wednesday, when I shall be looking backwards at my life so far! It will be my birthda, 54 years old, thats an old man! And here's me I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. As Sandy Denny once said "who knows, where the time goes" I certainly don't. Anyway the great duo Bruise will be at Folkmob and I will buy my friends a beer or six.

Wanna kill some peasants? Here have some dosh!

I've just read this on the BBC news site:

"The UK is to spend £1bn a year in overseas aid on countries that have recently emerged from conflict"

The UK is a Trillion pounds in the red and one of the poorest countries in the developed world. Who the fuck decides to give away money that we haven't got to countries that will spend it on murdering their own citizens?

Blues Abused!

Went to the British Oak last night to see The Steve Morrison & Mark Walker incarnation of Blues Abuse. Although we missed Al Richardson's harp playing, it did mean that Steve could treat us to more guitar solos than is normal when Al is blowing full steam. Mark's drumming and occasional backing vocals added a new dimension to Steve's sound. There were also some new (for me)songs, as well as different versions (harp free)of old stuff. Good to see lots of my friends from the folkmob at the gig, This is a great pub and worth a visit if you haven't been yet!

Clattershack

I went to The Crown in Chislehurst last night with my mate Pete. This is home to a monthy session run by old friends Missiuri Gutts. Here are a few snaps:

Liz Simcock

Myself and Graham went to see Liz Simcock and her band at Orpington Friday Folk last Friday. This is a lovely little folk club. I am always amazed at the number of quality guest acts this club manages to put on during the course of the year, for such a small club. This is thanks to Sue Tuckey who runs the club herself! There you go, a committee of ONE, so there are no arguments or disagreements. Liz Simcock was her usual faultless self and we enjoyed two outstanding sets. Floor spots came from the unbelievable glam-folk pioneers Tone Deaf Leopard who were augmented with Ian on double bass & Warwick on lead guitar, Liz looked a bit concerned that her band may leave her to pursue a career of fortune & fame! Big Trevor Little also did a solo joiny-in gospel song which was outstanding. My old mate Peter Twiddle gave a cracking couple of numbers as did Ralph Henning. The beer tasted good the company was great - what more could you want on a friday night!

Sky Saxon

Everybody is talking about the recent death of that Michael Jackson bloke, and Farah Fawcett , but sadly the death of one of my heroes on 25th June went by unreported in the mainstream media.

The great SKY SAXON (later Sky Sunlight) leader of sixties psychedelic punk/garage band died aged 71 on Thursday 25th June 2009. His early song "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" was recently used on a TV ad ( don't know which one) but surely he will always be associated with that brilliant anthem "Pushin' To Hard"

I first came across Sky's music during the early seventies on Lenny Kaye's wonderful compilation NUGGETS. I then managed to get hold of some of the early Seeds albums including an original copy of WEB OF SOUND album on a stall in Portobello Market for 30P! Their early stuff was solid proto-punk but they later developed a more pastoral psychedelic sound and Sky in true weighed in fashion Sky went off his head and joined a hippie commune and changing his name from Saxon to Sunlight. During the Punk/New wave boom of the late seventies I remember buying a record by Sky Sunlight and The New Seeds - but for me he never recaptured that raw innocent sound of the early Seeds records.
RIP

Ramsgate

What a dump. We drove down there to take my grandson Lucien to see the sea, as he has never been there before. After a 2 hour journey then £2 to park in the carpark near the beach. The public toilets were closed, The swings and other children's things were also closed!!! This is at 2pm on a sunny afternoon in late June!!! Some dodgy looking crook types sitting outside a "seafood" bar selling imported, defrosted, prawnshit & factory compressed fishmeal from some cesspit in the far east as "local seafood" No wonder this country is on it's knees. Bloody lazy bastards "can't be bothered to open up, think I'll go back to bed" attitude that made this country what it is. We then went on to Herne bay, at least some stuff was open there - but all very tacky, gimme-your-money-for-shit type stuff. funny that these beaches all have signs saying NO DOGS ON BEACH between May & Sept yet there were hordes of those arseholes with baseball caps on their peanut, brainless sculls, sporting cheap gold toilet chains on their scrawny necks, with crap tattoos on their idiotic arms grinning at each other whilst excercising their ugly mutt shit-machine bull terriers, rot-while-errrs and other fierce mad dogs. Yeah we'll be rushing back there!

Knockholt

Here is some video footage of this year's Knockholt This Is Summer. The footage isn't much good and it has been compressed, which means on top of crap footage you have poor quality. However It was just a bit of fun. I will try and upload a shorter uncompressed version when I get time.

Blob From Shanghai

Got back from Knockholt on Saturday morning knackered. Not sure if I am fit enough anymore to endure 3 or 4 days in a field drinking beer! Anyway when I got back I lay there on my bed and turned on the TV. There was a movie on called The Lady From Shanghai, I vaguely remember seeing the last 15 or so minutes of this film about 30 years ago and being impressed by the pschedelic/surreal sequence at a closed fun fair. I thought then, that I must see the complete film at the next opportunity, I soon forgot all about it. Anyway, all these years later I finally decided to watch it. Well what can I say, that Orsen Welles bloke is a genius. The movie site IMDB say that this film is great but flawed! They are talking through their bottoms - it is a brilliant film and I urge anyone who appreciates good movies to see it.

On a completely different subject, I came across a strange phenomenon the other day called Quantum Lyman-Alpha Blobs - these are pulsating blobs of plama/matter about 8 quadzillion miles across and they are like huge jellyfish wandering around our universe zipping in and out of reality eating galaxies for breakfast. I looked through my telesope last night and saw one with it's hungry eye on me!

Movie Update

Here is an update version of the latest Pete The Hat blockbuster. The earlier upload to Youtube contained some encoding errors so lets try again:

Barbeque

Linda Smith had a barbeque yesterday. These BBQs are set in Linda's lovely garden in sunny Mottingham are an occasion that I always look forward to. Thanks Linda for once again hosting a great afternoon. The beer was brewed by Linda herself for the event and it tasted fantastic (as did the botted lager, and the bottle of wine ...) Here are a few pictures that I took:

Solitary Electron Soul

I've got a couple of weeks off work coming up soon. Knockholt is on the horizon. I'm getting worried about my leg, it is more painful now than it was before the operation in February - I could hardly walk yesterday and the pain is stopping me from sleeping - whinge, whinge, moan, groan ...

Did you know that in the whole universe there is only one electron. It zips from location to location in and out of reality and time. All of every thing is everything and nothing at the same time and time does not exist! Blimey where does that leave me?

Well I reckon that this particular quantum mechanical theory could be applied to the "soul" That would mean that there is actually only one "soul" in all of space and time and it zips instantaniously from person to person across time and space covering every human that ever lived or ever will be. This happens in a never ending continuum that takes less than billionth of quadrillionth of a nanosecond for each cycle. So that means that you are everybody. So you better be nice to your fellow man because he/she is, or will be you!!!

Pig's Ear

I went to the Pig's ear Folk Ale festival Friday through to Monday camping with a load of musicians, next to a pub in scorching hot Kent! Isn't life hard! Pig's Ear are a fantastic folk band based in Edenbridge, Kent. Each year they organise this small friendly festival at the Kentish Horse Pub in Markbeech. The Pub Landlady own's the three adjoining beautiful fields, which are surrounded by some of the most beautiful countryside in England. There is a mixture of Rock, Country, Americana, Folk Song & Folk Tunes on the main PA stage, a singaround in the pub every night and loads of small sessions going on in varous parts of the camp and certainly something there to please everybody. There was maypole dancing, Childrens entertainment, great pub food at reasonable prices and a huge choice of real ales.

Got it!

The asus 1000HE was delivered yesterday. I've only messed around with it for a short time, but so far, I'm impressed. I can connect to my wireless network at home and now, thanks to the £5 a month add-on to my vergin broadband account I can access the internet whilst wandering. That means I can take the asus to knockholt loaded with music and browse the net as well!

Netbook & Ale

There's a fantastic new netbook out called ASUS 1000HE it has a 9 hour battery life, XP,Bluetooth, camera and only weighs 1.45kg. I was thinking of getting one as my laptop is heavy and bulky. £309 should I ...?

I am thinking of goinhg to Pig's ear Folk & Ale next week. My mate Pete is going on Friday I may go on thursday. It's a musical camping weekend - in a field behind a pub!

Nigel Performs

Nigel is going back to Oz on sunday. He treated us to a brief performance of Neil Young's "Hurricane" last night at folkmob.

Fat Bloke

I put on tons of weight over the last year - I think it's because I haven't been going out to pubs as much as I used to. Sitting at home surfing the web and watching DVDs whilst eating ice cream, sweets, take-aways and other rubbish has taken it's toll. That along with drinking cans of coke all day and no excercise. By March 2009 I ended up weighing nearly 17½ stone!!!!

Enough is enough I said. I want to be able to wear normal clothes again. I don't want to die of a heart attack! I am now on a strict selective food regime. No cokes, cheese, white bread, red meat, eggs, potatoes, sweets etc. Lots of fish, salad, fruit & water, one or two cups of black coffee, occasional chicken breast, occasional slice of wholemeal. Now I do go out for a beer now and then, mainly Tuesday & Wednesday for the folk clubs. I am not going to be silly and not have a few pints - so those pub visits are excempt.

Since starting this on 28th March I am back down to 15½ stone and there's no stopping there my target is 12½ stone and hopefully be able to fit into a pair of Levi's again.

Nigel

It was great to see my old friend Nigel last night at Folkmob. I haven't seen him since 2001 - doesn't time fly. He's made a new life for himself on the other side of the world. He was in England for a short stay with his partner April and their 4 month old daughter Indigo here are a few photos that I took:

Rochester

I had a great day at The Good Intent yesterday. John Barden was running a great singaround in the bar and Dal was running a beer drinkers paradise in the garden - 30 guest ales! I would have loved to have tried them all but I found the wonderful Whistable East Indi Ale and stuck to that as it was luverly! Good to see a good folkmob turnout. Sue & Mick Forde, Mike & Chris Porter, Dave, Pete, Jim, Linda, Rachael, George, Babs and Richard. Missed Richard Bridge. I didn't bother with the High Street this year and went straight to the Good Intent arriving at 11:45 to find about 6 people waiting outside the gate. I don't know why they don't open earlier!

Icarus Club

I went to the Icarus club on Friday. This is a short season of gigs at Blackheath Halls promoting new bands and local performers. The first act was The Kittiwakes, a trio playing all original material. Folky stuff most of which relates to Lofoten Islands in the artic. The Next act was our old friends Bruise. They played well, but the person doing the sound mix did not do them justice. there were a couple of other mediocre acts then a super set from Dennis Greaves & Mark Feltham from Nine Below Zero.

Easter

Easter Sunday. It's not snowing, but it's a miserable damp grey morning. Bruise were excellent last night at The British Oak. It was good to see a fair turnout of folkmobians, including Dave K, Mike & Chris Porter, Mr & Mrs John H,John Evans and Graham. I'm looking forward to their show at The Rugby Club on July 8th, my birthday!

Good Friday rant

It's Easter already. Last easter only seems like yesterday when it was snowing! There's not much happening today, so I'll just sit around and play with computers and stuff. I think I'll go to homebase and buy some tomato plants, but they're probably closed. I gave up eating rubbish a couple of weeks ago, that includes eggs, cheese, burgers, sausages, white bread, sweets, ice cream, coca cola, crisps, peanuts, cakes & biscuits. I have been drinking only water and black coffee. I still drink lager when I go out which is only two or three times a week these days. It's a slow process and I've lost about a stone (6kg) I need to shed at least another 2 stone to be where I want to! Bruise are playing at The British Oak tomorrow and I am looking forward to it. The are a really great duo/band and nice people to boot.

Crap

I am thinking of buying a bicycle, but all the bikes that I look at have millions of gears - well about 18 on average. Why would any normal mortal need 18 gears on a bike? I used to cycle a lot years ago. In those days I had a BSA bike with 5 gears of which I used 3 most of the time.

Why is everything crap? I went for an eye test a couple of weeks ago and picked up the new glasses the other day - I couldn't see through the things! "you're not used to them yet" said the woman on the phone "wear them for a week and see how you get on" If I wore those things for a week I would have been blind by now. I brought them back and asked for a re-test - these tests cost £28! The optician said "oh dear those glasses are wrong, sorry we are crap, I'll order another pair" £425 spent and they got it wrong - crap opticians D&A Eltham. Later that day I went down to PC world and bought a laptop for my daughter. the spec looked good on the Advent 6552 so I handed over £400 and took it home and presented it to Sarah. All was going well until she unplugged the USB card after transfering some photos - as she pulled it from the USB slot the computer screen went blank. The laptop was dead and would not power up again. I brought it back and they gave me another one - guess what! The thing worked fine until she once again transfered her photos and pulled the card from the socket - it died! Back to PC World I trotted. Whats going on? This computer is a pile of poo" said I "yes, I know we are a crap store and we sell poop" said the assistant. "Well you can take this pile of poop back and give me an HP laptop instead" said I. The HP is working fine to date touch wood

Back to work

I went back to work today after 4 weeks off. I have been stir crazy during that time just sitting about the house, unable to do anything strenuous. I've put on about a stone in weight over the last year, giving up smoking 3 years ago didn't help!. Drastic measures are called for. I have been consuming just salad, seafood oily fish, fruit, wholemeal bread, black coffee and water for a week now and am still the same weight - i need exercise. Looking forward to the folk music session down in Richard Bridge's local The Nag's Head this sunday.

Spotify

Anybody use spotify yet? It makes your computer into a juke box. It hasn't got everything e.g. no Floyd - but it has got some great stuff just try it out!

Here's the LINK

In The Ghetto

Another two weeks off work ... Getting quite bored. I ventured down to Eltham this morning. Have you noyiced the shops in the High Street? Pound Stop, Poundland, 99p store, Lidl, peacock etc all selling crap. That along with the 6 charity shops & 5 phone shops makes it a wonderful shopping experience. I went home empty handed. I'll give it another year or so and it will be a Ghetto like Woolwich.

Operation

Had my knee operation on Friday, they brought it forward by a week! Not too bad painwise, but as expected I am unable to bend my knee yet. The main problem is that I pur my back out before the op and that is still causing problems with movement. Have been watching old episodes of Dalziel & Pasco, this is a detective series which is every bit as good as morse and I recommend it to people who enjoy good murder mystery drama.

Brrrrm...

Just back from the British Oak. A good night, loverly relapsed atmouse fear! I'm off sick again my back is in a painful spasm and my knee has ceased up. I am having surgery next week, so I won't be back at work until April. Kay's just got a nice new car, so she is happy. That's good.

Hope

Well here we are, February already. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun. Anyway I thought that I would post something here as I haven't done so since January. The Folkmob seem to be settling in nicely at their new home at the rugby club. One day i will bring my guitar down there and do something. Richard Bridge is hosting a sing-around at The Nag's Head in upper nowhere next week and I am looking forward to that. Kay is ill and awaiting further surgery that won't be for at least another 6 weeks, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. Poor ol'Theresa Findlay is back in hospital with complications following major surgery before Christmas. The theiving evil financial fat cats have drained our country dry and the money in pockets isn't worth anything. Let's hope something good happens soon.

Boiled Baby?

Did you know that Jonathon Swift once proposed that the solution to poverty in Ireland was to kill unwanted babies, then butcher them for their meat and fine leather for the rich! The main stock of catholic peasants would be farmed, allowing one male to regularly service four females and thus keep a constant supply of babies for the marketplace. The pamphlet that Swift published was called "A Modest Proposal" It was supposed to be satire, but I'm not so sure. It also mentions reducing the number of "papists among us"

French stick

Went to the rising Sun last night with my old mate Graham Atwood. I needed a pint or three after spending all day at the hospital with Kay, who is very ill at the moment. Anyway myself and Graham are sitting there enjoying our beers when a lanky frenchman comes through the door and says "Geeve mee a light!" wiggling a cigarette in his hands "sorry mate, we don't smoke" said Graham "yeah sorry,I gave it up" says I.
"you no geeve me a light, why you geeve up smoking?" he leers across at me "... You got lung canceer?" " geeve me a furkeeng light"

This onion pedaling, snail chomping, kisser of nazi's bottoms is now getting on my nerves

"Fuck off French wanker" says I

"Watch your language" says the cheese eating surrender monkey

He walks out, I follow him through the door. He runs away.

I now think I understand Ron Trueman-Border's song Everybody Hates The French.

I wonder if it was one of those French fags that smell/taste like shit that he wanted to light?

Nag's head

Went to a song session yesterday in Lower Stoke. Here is a short extract:

Christmas Eve

Well here we are Christmas Eve! All the shoppimg done , I'm waiting for Kay to get back from the hospital. No boozing tonight, just a quiet night in watching some DVDs and preparing stuff for tomorrow. Thinking about my friend Theresa poor girl has just had some major surgery and has to stay in hospital over Christmas. Her husband Tom is a great bloke - he's booked in at a hotel near to Guy's hospital so that he can be near her. Let's hope 2009 brings them both some good luck!

Feeling rough

Blimey I drank three pints of lager last night and I feel terrible! My mate Sion Humphries played some fine songs last night at The British Oak, including my favourite "my Child". He is moving on to pastures new in Sussex - Good Luck!!!

Last night at the Tudor barn tonight.

Fare-Thee-Well Hall

It will be sad to see the folkmob move out of the Tudor Barn. This wednesday is their last night there, after 12+ years. I hope I can make it for thye occasion. My friend Theresa Findlay is still in hospital following major surgery to remove a cancer tumor. I wish her a speedy recovery.

Dave Kennington

Dave has got engaged to Sara - good luck to both of them! It's the Folkmob Christmas party tonight, I think I'll pop along for a couple of hours.

Snow

Blimey it was snowing this morning! Mind you the rain has washed it all away again. Kays birthday today she's 44 doesn't time fly. Lots happening recently, I've been off work with a dodgy left knee, it's really painful to walk. Had some x-rays done last wednesday. There is arthritis in my knees and hips and one of the bones in my left knee is askew. I will have to have another arthroscopy and some special goo injected into the knee.

Brian Bruce

My old mate Brian passed away this morning after a three year battle with cancer. I knew Brian for nearly ten years. He loved performing and was an accomplished vocalist and guitarist. He had been suffering particularly with severe pain badly over the last few months. Let's hope he's keeping them entertained "up there!"