Brightoned Up

Brighton Pavillion

Looking splendid in the sunshine

Still catching up, but as mentioned when talking about gigs, July saw us heading down to the south coast and a little stay in Brighton.

Topped By Gulls

The cascading fountain

The journey down was an annoyingly long train but at least it was brightened by a dog who wouldn’t let me stop fussing. Arriving in Brighton we headed down the hill from the station, abandoning one Wetherspoons as too packed, and heading across to the other, which had the advantage of being right by the hotel, and the disadvantage of being full of typically strange people.

Having revived from the trip and checked into the hotel we headed for a stroll along the shoreline. Heather got to have a ride on the seafront carousel and we both got to have a drink in a skater friendly bar near the weird doughnut (AKA i360). We’ve done that rather peculiar experience before so headed straight past it. What we’d never got round to investigating before though is the adjacent Upside Down House.

Oops

Heather struggles with the suction of the toilet

It is, as the name suggests, a house tipped on its head; floor becomes ceiling, walls hold pictures the “wrong” way up. It’s good fun, and makes for some clever photographs, though we could have done without the slightly over enthusiastic staff member determined to tell us how to enjoy it (they gave the impression of foreign student earning some money—you wouldn’t think they’d be that eager).

Taking a moment to regain our equilibrium after emerging into the normally orientated world, we continued along the beach before eventually deciding we probably should turn back while there was still some light in the day. That took us up through one of the many little gardens (presumably once private to the surrounding houses) as we decided to head back slightly in land. We called into the curiously named Maris And Otter and there started trying to decide what to do for dinner. For some reason the mention of sausages (and a name resonant with another, special, pub) led us to the Shakespeare’s Head. That was certainly a bit of trek into parts of Brighton we’d never been, up past the station and to a rather nice looking area.

The pub itself was nice too, despite the one member of staff behind the bar being very over worked (they had people off, and were still friendly and eventually, we were pleased to see, relieved by help). The sausages weren’t bad either. And then it was back down the hill to the hotel and bed.

Fancy Church

I like the top of the tower

After traditional Sunday crosswords in bed we lazily wandered in search of brunch to keep us fuelled for the day. We also called in the weird faux medieval King And Queen which is always a joy if only for its strangeness. We were really killing time waiting for the evening entertainment, but still found a chance to wander one of Brighton’s bizarres, an always fascinating experience. With a quick call back at the hotel, we found ourselves in a bar by the beach before heading for On The Beach.

Two Trains

At Middle Station platform

Monday morning saw us hunting food, and finding it in the rather good Kooks. When we were down in Brighton last, hunting Shauns, Heather actually won a gift card to be spent in Brighton shops. So we went shopping, starting at Socktopus, who couldn’t get the card to actually work, despite best efforts, which was slightly annoying. Actually, it took a couple more shops before somebody eventually worked out how to get things fully working!

No. 4

Looking very fine on a sunny day

Shops and a pub or two done we dropped things at the hotel before heading once more for the seaside. This time we finally got the chance to ride Volk’s Electric Railway, an historic small railway running along the seafront. We took it all the way to the end of the line, approaching the marina, but there’s not actually much there and we didn’t want to make the hike into the marina itself. So we hopped the train back again to halfway, beside one of our all time favourite crazy golf courses, Jungle Rumble. It also has a nice open seated area to look down on the sea, railway, and golf with a relaxing drink.

Having been up and over at the crazy golf we strolled along to Bison where we also grabbed some food, and indeed settled in for the rest of the evening, just enjoying chilling

Graffitti Outside The Hotel

Tooth and cat

While Heather had breakfast I packed up so we could leave the bags with the hotel and hit some more shops. Not least among those was the vast and strange world which is Snooper’s Paradise (Heather almost inevitably coming away with far too many thimbles). Just up the road we called in old favourite The White Rabbit before heading around the lanes and the Druid’s Head for lunch.

That left just about enough time to go for a walk along the pier, with the pub at the end before heading back to the hotel, and then back home.

Pics

Graffitti Outside The Hotel

Domes

Brighton Pavillion

Topped By Gulls

Waving Around

Oops

Something Fishy About This Sculpture

The Lorax

Fancy Church

On The Little Train

Train Selfie

Train Arriving

No. 4

Two Trains

The Best Hole

Gigs, And Gigs, And Gigs

Lots of music over the last months, starting with:

James

Duet

Tim and Chloe

James played the O2 Arena in , with Razorlight in tow, so a good line-up. We also took the delinquent student (AKA Gem) along for the ride. They were, of course, very good, though the Arena is still a pretty poor venue.

Stage Shot

Duet

Butterflies

How Many People?

Daisy

On The Stage

Foo Fighters (times two)

Rocking

Foo Fighters in full flow

Quite a bigger gig over at the even worse venue of the London Stadium, that great hulking thing in the middle of a park which is neither athletics, football, or music venue. The Foo Fighters had to work pretty hard to make up for the insane entrance arrangements (why do we always end up walking round half the stadium having entered via the designated entrance?) and crowd control (it took an insanely long time to get through the queues to the tube the second time, because they seemed to decide to let the other half of the crowd go first). Still, the Foos are big enough and offered a great night and two days later a possibly even better one (helped by Gem being along to the second).

Up Front

Foo Fighters

Foos

The Crowd

Dave

Rocking

Hot Milk Action

Guitar

Courtney Barnett

Late Night

Which Leg Is Wet?

Green Day

American Idiots?

Maybe

A saw another big rock band in town, Green Day playing the much better venue of Wembley (even if again, we had to walk literally about three quarters of the way around the stadium to get in!). Nothing But Thieves supported, but hardly stole the show. Green Day were on very good from, and hearing the whole of Dookie and American Idiot was pretty cool.

Cloud

Explosive

Airplane

Heart Grenade

American Idiots?

Over The Crowd

Billy And The Boys

Nought But Robbers

The Killers

Killers

And all their flamboyance

Another week, another gig, and a return to the O2 Arena, except this time way up the seating, at such a height that it did actually induce a bit of vertigo (not helped trying to climb the steep steps with hands full). I spent most of the support act (Travis, who were surprisingly good) trying to deal with a way to watch without feeling too dizzy! The Killers eventually took my mind of it though, with their normal roaring set and staging.

Together

Killers

Down

Blue Lights

Show Business

Roulatte

Crowd Work

Travis

Ashtray Heart

Sneaky

No photos please

A bit of a last minute announcement and scramble for tickets, but managed to get to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire for Ashtray Heart (AKA Placebo). Up in the gods, but at least we had what felt like an almost private bar for that level, and still a semi-decent view down. They were awesome of course.

On The Beach

Screens

Watching the action

As mentioned when discussing our trip there, we travelled down to Brighton not just for a break but to see The Libertines playing on the seafront. It was an all afternoon and evening affair, to which we arrived across the beach (thankfully only having to deal with the ridiculous “self service” beer dispensers the once) just in time to catch The Big Moon. Their chilled out set seemed to set the vibe, helped by it being a (very) hot day, with the sea to one side. The beer was cool though, and the crowd quite friendly, even if I don’t think the guy in front of us clinging to his bottle of wine, barely able to stand, made it to the end.

Following Big Moon the Irish band The Mary Wallopers were entertaining and quite funny, taking the piss out of the boats off shore. They were followed by the ever great The Charlatans who ran through a fine set—even if it was a bit weird to be seeing them in daylight; Sproston Green remains one of the great live experiences whatever the time though.

By the time the headliners came on Heather was feeling a bit too hot and bothered, so we had moved back beyond the central big screen (which was a bit too close to the stage to be honest—it could have done with being a bit further back). So we watched the boys mainly on telly, but still hearing them live. It was less chaotic than some Libertines gigs, possibly a reflection of the sort of day it had been. All in all, a fine little one day festival—unlike the next one…

Big Moon Perform

The Mary Whollopers

Tim Says Hi

Strolling The Stage

The Reds And Golds

Screens

Tim Back Out

End Of The Night

The Big Moon

Priory Live (Sort Of)

Having missed last year’s Priory Live thanks to the torrential rain, we were looking forward to this year’s, particularly as it turned out to be a lovely hot day. With Space and The Farm headlining it looked like being a good time—except it was spoiled by the pretty awful organisation. For a start the second stage was far too close to the main stage, meaning in quiet moments the dance music drowned out the main performers. More importantly though, the bar quickly developed a queue of epic proportions and, more seriously, ran out of anything non-ale (no cider to start with! A serious misjudgement somewhere on how much Pimms would be needed). And frankly, we gave up after the first handful of acts and went to the pub instead.

Politics

I’ve railed against our electoral system before but tomorrow there is a chance for real change within this country—it’s just possible your vote could make more of a difference than usual.

It’s important to remember that a party you vote for doesn’t have to align with your position on every issue—that’s never going to happen. The heart of it just has to be as close as possible. And, frankly, it’s hard to see any heart within the incumbents. So—Get the Tories out. And if you think it will make no difference, just remember the shit we’re in now, they’ve had twelve years creating.