Music again

Haven't blogged at all since the beginning of November so there'll be a couple in quite quick succession and of course music will feature. This blog covers three gigs no less. Went to see Airbourne with Kevin at the Kentish Town Forum at the end of November. Was supposed to be Tara as well but she was unwell (and decided that booking gigs between approximately November and February is a waste of money as they are the ones she's most frequently cancelled  because of Fibro).The first support were called Cellar Door Moon Crow and were truly rubbish! Only two of them, their first offering was a rap....it didn't get any better, dreadful!

Pre gig beer

Merch. Which I indulged in...obs!

Cellar Door Moon Crow, a dreadful act!

The second support were much much better. Called Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown they hailed from Nashville and were bloody good! Definitely want to buy their debut album, a great band!
Airbourne were very loud  and full of energy from beginning to end! Big Motorhead fans, at one point they brought out on stage a drinks bar and guzzled from a bottle of Jack with a little coke! Also flung half filled beer glasses (plastic ones!) into an appreciative audience! They were a cracking band and one I'd see again. There set list follows which was a good mix of old and new, their latest album having only come out a couple of months ago:

1. Raise the Flag
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2. Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast
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3. Burnout the Nitro
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4. Backseat Boogie
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5. Girls in Black
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6. Bottom of the Well
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7. Breakin' Outta Hell
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8. It's All for Rock 'n' Roll
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9. Boneshaker
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10. Live It Up
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11. Stand Up for Rock 'n' Roll
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12. Encore:
13. Ready to Rock
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14. Runnin' Wild

Onto my Birthday then & Tara had booked us a nice weekend in Oxford mainly to see the David Bowie tribute band Absolute Bowie. Having been given the good tidings shortly after the Airbourne gig that I was to be made redundant, again, we really needed something to take our minds off things and get abit of R and R. Absolute Bowie did the trick. After arriving at our b and b we walked towards the venue (02, Oxford) via a couple of pubs and had something to eat in The Rusty Bicycle.

Absolute Bowie didn't have a support as they did two sets, certainly working for their money. The first was from the Ziggy Stardust era and was quite brilliant the second from the 1980's onwards, sort of 'Heroes' era I suppose. The singer didn't sound like Bowie when he spoke but really did when he sang. It was a brilliant evening.

The place we stayed at had a café downstairs where we had breakfast. They tried to be abit different with their menu. My full English for instance had a portion of greens as well......didn't really go though!    After that we went native and got a bus into central Oxford and had a look round the Ashmolean Museum, which was great, it included some paintings by some late Victorian/Edwardian artists including Walter Sickert who knew Tara's Gran as a child, so it was interesting to see them, I quite liked his painted called 'A cup of tea' on show here . Then back to the car and off to get Ida from Tim who'd kindly looked after her for the weekend.

We'd had a great time.

Painting by Walter Sickert entitled 'The cup of tea.'

    Kas and Stan & later Dan joined us in the run up to Xmas, good fun as it always is with them we all went to our last gig of the year which was St Agnes Fountain over at the Hitchin Folk Club. Featuring Chris Leslie of Fairport Convention fame and duo Julie Matthews and Chris While ( a man down this year as David Hughes was ill) they play not just traditional Christmas songs but also write their own, and jazz up some others. There's always a warmth to their performance, its not just a music gig either as they all contribute a spoken word piece as well. it was a very good night.

Xmas hats!