mayhem or mists?

Additional mayhem provided from the more offbeat sounds of the Incontinentals, and simply fine singer songwriting from Scottish singer Jo Hamilton, taking our minds to Highland Scotland .

folk songs are your friends

Priddy Folk Festival originated from a Parent Teachers' Association. Now it is a good sized event with a very friendly vibe and a great selection of bands and singers, over a long weekend interspersed with cider, beer plenty of sunshine and a variety of tasty foods from around the world.

Everyone is friendly and the bands and singers happliy sit amongst the visitors between gigs and play and sing from the grassy areas around the venues. There's the larger tents with well-known names and the smaller club tent which is showcasing new singers. We wandered around happily between all of the areas and found almost exclusively accomplished, entertaining and tuneful singers and musicians.

So here's a few samples...We started with KTB, singer, songwriter, performing with a small ensemble of accompanying guitarists and violin players. Tuned 'Close enough for folk' and entertaining.

Then it was Ember, who I particularly wanted to see. The photos from the set were rather blurry, so see instead a moment captured on the grass the next day, with engaging and humourous troubadours Emily and Rebecca playing alongside KTB. Next we rushed to see the end of the Jim Moray set which included some sonically experimental moments. By co-incidence, we met Jim's sister and then Jim the next morning and had a good chat about life on the road, guitars and clever effects.

The final act of the evening was Waterson and Carthy, who are proper folk royalty, playing a strong set and on this occasion complemented on accordian by Tim van Eyken. We enjoyed the set which ended around midnight; an appropriate time to stroll back through the starlit village.

priddy bands

You'll have to make do with these Priddy bands until I can get blogging again. The red one means access to the whole event and the green one is for the camp site. I've just removed them from my wrist now I'm back from a sun filled weekend of music and mirth and right now am swapping sandals for smart shoes as I go straight to a global thingy which starts tomorrow.

Thursday Thirteen (V26)

This week I'm preparing to visit the Priddy Folk festival, which starts tomorrow.

1) So tonight I had two different dinner invitations and had to give up both of them because of time
2) We did have some strawberries, cream and Pimms this afternoon, though
3) I have to find several items for tomorrow including my acoustic guitar
4) A harmonica may also be useful
5) A russian tank commander T shirt with a red star is always effective at a pop concert
6) Some sort of jacket with the same water repelling capability as a trash bin liner
7) Come to think of it, some bin liners are always good for improvisations

8) Camping paraphernalia
9) One of those swiss knives with lots of different gadgets
10) A day back pack
11) A digital camera and loads of batteries
12) A book about the universe
13) Sandals and beads

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OTA Wordless Wednesday

electricity

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

Fourth of July

As a Brit with a blog often visited from across the pond, it is an important decison whether to comment about the Fourth of July (I notice it is usually quoted in this European format rather than July 4th).

Fortunately, although the day celebrates the independence of the United States from the Kingdom of Britain, as proposed on the Seventh of June by Lee and voted on the Second of July, 1776 most sentiments about Independence Day are nowadays a celebration of all things American.

So, even if there was a bit of a misunderstanding about the tea, back in 1773, and that old taxation thing was a sore point (still is today for most, I expect), and we Brits wanted to put stamps on everything, then I can see the point that some Americans thought the whole thing was Intolerable.

Anyway, the place seems to get along mighty fine nowadays, so y'all have great day!

angry alien

Sometimes I just don't have time to relive all those great moments from my favourite movies. Luckily, angry alien has sprung to my rescue with high speed version of many famous movies (such as alien, brokeback mountain, casablanca to name three from the alphabet) each lovingly told in 30 seconds by a cast of bunny rabbits.

A highly useful service.

alison

I couldn't delve far into my Sven research yesterday without remembering the work of Alison Jackson, who has a rather creative way with pixels.

This goes back at least to a Schweppes campaign using look-alikes a few years ago (there was Sven, Camilla, Cherie Blair and others) and most recently inspired a couple of UK-screened television mocumentaries about the young Tony Blair and the romps of Sven.

Alison gets published in the glossy weekend sections and I recommentd a look at her website for more subversive, amusing and edgy photographs. There's life with Bush, the Royals, various WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends if you don't read tabloid) and all manner of unexpected candid shot snapped up by every genre of UK newspaper and magazine. I believe Al Jazeera published some snaps in the past as genuine.

sven its over for England

Undistinguished Karlskoga ex-player Sven Goran Eriksson can finally leave the England team manager role after England losing tonight to Portugal.
Tactics from £100k per week Svengori concluded England only needed one striker to score goals. It didn't seem to work.

Instead of "England romps to victory", I suppose we will all be checking the google "Sven Romps" searches. Gosh I found 730.

Now Sven has always been somewhat controversial and there have been a few bad taste jokes about him through years. However, his agent Athole Still seems proud enough to support Sven who will have collected around £25m over the last few years. Here's his (ahem, alleged) video escape with the loot.

England played with spirit, and Portugal played with gamesmanship. After 90 minutes it was 0:0. Then another 30 minutes and still 0:0, so a penalty shootout. So another 4 year wait.

England's team will be at the airport tomorrow. I'm still wearing a three lions shirt, like half of England tonight.

its only a game?

The estimate is that 25 million Brits will watch the England game this afternoon on television. Thats around half the population. Another 100 thousand are in Gelsenkirchen.

Expect:
a) pubs to be packed
b) power cuts at half time when the kettles go on
c) an England win

phone it in

tonight's blog entry is being typed on my treo phone. I'm in a hotel in Lancashire and don't have internet capabilities except via the telephone. So tonight I'm using that well known browser called 'Blazer'. And I'm typing this with two thumbs onto my phone keyboard. At least the journey here was straightforward because I suspect everyone had decided to go home early to watch the soccer. I missed today's game and realise as I type this that I don't know the score - but I expect Germany won!

Thursday Thirteen (V25)

I'm combining the iTunes lyrics meme with a Thursday Thirteen. The iPod meme is about listing first lines from tracks as played on shuffle.

Those of you that have visited my last.fm will see the type of sounds I listen to, or maybe even have indulged in rashbre radio, which broadcasts 24x7x365 via the last.fm radio player.

I decided instead, to grab a selection of old vinyls and take first lines a la HolyHoses Simon. And Simon is looking for extra comments at the moment... Go on, you know you want to!

So here's my first lines serially from a stack of disinterred thirty three and a thirds, along with assistant Bianca demonstrating the true meaning of vinyl.

1) When the night falls and the silence can be heard I hear you calling my name.
2) Oh come on come on dig my mine, Oh come on come on kiss me all along my spine.
3) Oh the feeling, when you're reeling you step lighly thinking you're number one.
4) The wine it was drunk, the ship it was sunk, the shot it was dead, all the sorrows were drowned.
5) As I did travel all on a journey over the wayside and under a dark moon hanging above a mountain.
6) And if you feel that you cant go on and your wills sinkin low, just believe and you cant go wrong. In the light you will find the road. you will find the road
7) Lime and limpid green, a second scene; a fight between the blue you once knew.
8) Don't you know they're talkin' 'bouta revolution - a whisper.
9) Oo, I bet you're wond'ring how I knew 'bout your plans to make me blue with some other guy that you knew before.
10) Hey can you follow, now that the trace is fainter in the sand try turning your face to the wall.
11)I was the master's best friend he was the only man I knew; its been a tall harvest that he turned us all onto.
12) Out on the wiley, windy moors we'd roll and fall in green; you had a temper, like my jealousy-Too hot, too greedy.
13) Standing on the corner, suitcase in my hand; Jack is in his corset, and Jane is in her vest, and, me, I'm in a rock'n'roll band.

Now some of you know my musical taste is somewhat eclectic, so can anyone name any of the tracks, artists or any other relevant fact?

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Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday