Tuesday 24 December 2013

Eu-piphany

It appears to be something of a tradition to decorate something innapropriate in these parts, and what's more inappropriate than a large brass instrument, albeit a slightly beaten up one from a car boot sale. Long hours at work, and intolerant neighbours mean that I haven't mastered it in the way that I'd hoped (it's only an octave lower than the trumpet), but in the mean time - it is just as useful covered in fairy lights.

It is, however, lacking the traditional figure at the top, but perhaps anyone who feels that should be rectified, Carrie has a picture of one....

So, anyway, happy Saturnalia, Solstice or Malkh, and see some of you on the other side...

Monday 9 December 2013

Daybreak in Holland

We went to see Fabian Holland after hearing him played on t'radio, and a local gig being plugged... a mention of him being a boatdweller (Tottenham, doing up a canal boat) got our attention, admittedly. We bumbled down to Twickenham Folk Club, to find we knew half the people there, including being pounced upon by people who recognised me from work, very scarily.

Anyway, nice gig, I neglected to think of taking any pictures, so borrowed one under a creative commons license from Pete Grubb's Flickr account. Good voice & guitar, reminded me a lot of Chris Wood - although still very young, so more of a Chris Sapling...

Inevitable boat chat happened, and it turned out that the couple next to us - Tom & Sally, I think - live on Daybreak, a Humber Keel built in 1934 and thought to be the last cargo vessel built for sail in the UK. They've had it since the seventies on the Thames, and their children now live on boats either side of them - although not for log as they intend to take it round the UK, initially up to the Humber where it started out. A blog is being 'set up', so should be interesting, although we never did quite understand why people want to muck about on the lumpy stuff...

In passing, we discussed Dylan Winter, who's sailing around the coast too and making videos as he goes, available as DVDs but also uploaded to youtube. Whilst briefly known for his 'heat a room with two tealights' video (the physics don't really add up, but there's so many variables..), I remembered him from some lovely radio work such as A hack in the borders.

Speaking of lovely radio work, RIP Ray Gosling, who's radio documentary work I haven't known bettered.