Unearthed Treasure

Just listening to Ken Bruce on Radio 2, and a record came on that I knew, and thought a friend of mine would love. I'd heard the record before, and the lyrics had a stylish familiarity. The song was London from the album "Don't Stop Singing" by Thea Gilmore . The album is a project in which Thea has taken unused Sandy Denny lyrics and set them to music creating a very beautiful album. Sandy was a wonderful singer and writer and it is amazing that her words can still captivate and amaze , brought to life by the wonderful Thea Gilmore.

On a similar note Woody Guthrie's niece or daughter (sorry about this) found a huge box of her father's / uncle's lyrics and gave them to Billy Bragg and Wilco who recorded the songs , now available in The Complete Mermaid Sessions , breathing life into writings that may otherwise have been lost to us. Both these albums should be in everyone's collections , two absolute gems which I have just ordered,



You can probably even get them on iTunes , Amazon have the hard copy and download options!!

Cirencester

Not a very inspired title , but Cirencester is an extremely pleasant place.

The original reason for this blog was going to be a diary of places I'd visited , hence the Seven Days In name , but that soon went the distance. Also someone pointed out that in could be read as Seven Day Sin , which I believe was a raucous American combo!! 

It is posh because there are no betting shops , and unfortunately no record shops, and has it's infestation of Boots , WH Smiths , Subway etc. I didn't notice a McDonalds or KFC though !!

It has some excellent resturants and top end shopping, However my shopping was all done in Poundland , not a shop I frequent , but came out with some USB Data / Charging Cables and a Nine Black Alps CD. It is sad when you music has to come from Poundland!!

Cirencester Parish Church

Anyway Cirencester has a lot of impressive buiding including an unfeasibly high manicured hedge and an imposing parish church. It's easy to park and you can easily spend a day there.

Big Hedge in Cirencester

I also noticed an inordinate amount of charvers wearing trackie bottoms and backward peaked caps hanging around phone shops , Poundland and bus stops.


Don't let that put you off though , the place is full of charm and places to see , as well as eateries and watering holes!!

Heston Blumenthal - Artist

I detest almost all TV Celebrity cooks and chefs . They are usually self centred , self serving and annoying. However many years ago I saw another , who previously I had assumed would be annoying , doing a program which was "In Search of The Perfect Burger" . That guy was Heston Blumenthal . And he talked sense and was interesting.

Since then I have watched many of his programs and seen very few things I would want to eat , and less I could try to make. The programs are incredibly watchable and interesting often using liquid nitrogen , blow torches and dormice in his cooking , often making edible plates and cutlery . The guy is amazing and a true artist. He has his own restaurant the excellently named Fat Duck , and while I may eat there one day it would be with some trepidation.

So while I wont be eating I will be watching for a very long time.......

Eastern Promise

After watching the excellent Homeland and having seen numerous films about the threat from the Middle East from Ian , Iraq , Al-Quaeda and the like , and obviously these are trying to keep us as scared as possible of the bogeyman , usually in the form of a variant of Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein.




Yes Team America took the proverbial very successfully , but I was wondering why Daniel Easterman (one of the pen names of Denis MacEoin) novels have never been filmed. Easterman is a superb author , and and expert in Middle East Affairs and his novels never fail to enthrall me . They have all the requisites for your average summer blockbuster , bombs , kidnaps , mysticism , conspiracies , religion , exotic settings , but I'm still waiting for the first celluloid outing.

Other than that he also writes as Jonathan Aycliffe , some excellent ghost stories such as the classic Naomi's Room , The Vanishment and The Matrix , one of the scariest books I have ever read.

If you have never read him track him down , I would have loved one of his books to appear on the World Book Night list.

Record Books

Well today it all happened . I packed up my copies of  Bill Bryson's "Notes From A Small Island" for World Book Night and headed into Newcastle to the High Bridge Quarter with instructions from Jim Stevenson to pick up a copy of Rory Gallagher's Stompin' Ground , a limited 10" vinyl offering for National Record Store Day.

Cat Faced Balloon Girl

First thing I say was a cat faced girl on stilts making balloon hats for kids and adults. This led in to High Bridge where there were lots of food stalls featuring Moroccan , Mexican , Italian , Greek and lots more food. So weel culinarily catered for. Freefall gave a nice little pack so I gave a book in return. They have some brilliant cards and stuff.

Buskers in The Central Arcade

This year there were two stages and lots of excellent artists including The Cornshed Sisters , The Futureheads , Big Red and many others included an excellent percussionist from Hartlepool!! The weather veered from bright sun to heavy rain but everyone persevered and was surprised to find how many people already had the book.

Food Stalls In High Bridge

However lots of people were very pleased to get their copy and hopefully will register with the World Book Night site.

Todays Haul

It's been a hugely successful day and I'm now looking forward to the next one . Nice haul of CDs and vinyl and a great day out meeting a lot of friends and seeing many great bands.

Sometimes You Never Know .....

Last season Mike Ashley sacked Chris Hughton and replaced hom with his cockney casino mate Alan Pardew . January 2011 Andy Carrol went for £35 million and who did Newcastle United get as a replacement in the next transfer window , a free transfer from West Ham.

This seemed to go from bad to worse with the sale of Jose Enrique , Kevin Nolan andeffective sacking of Joey Barton. Oh but  undersoil heating was installed on the training pitch and there was an influx of French players with exotic names.

Fans were hoping to avoid relegation and maybe get one over on the Mackems , but that was about it.

However with Tim Krul , Stephen Taylor ,  Coloccini etc Newcastle's defense looked more than competent . Midfield similarly  with Cheikh Tiote , Yohan Cabaye , and Jonas Guttierez all providing creativity and attractive football and Demba Ba scoring like theres no tomorrow.

Since January there's been the emergence of Hatem Ben Arfa and aquisition of  Papa Demba Cisse , who despite £10 million being spent on him and needing time to bed it is scoring goals at the rate of one every 70 minutes.

Newcastle United sit in fourth place three points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur who at one point were fifteen points ahead of Newcastle and played them off the park in a five nil thrashing earlier in the season, and four points ahed of a resurgent Chelsea.

Yes Mike Ashley managed to annoy everyone taking down the St James Park signs and putting up Sportsdirect Arena signs , but everybody know what it really is.

Basically the Toon are in a Pardew Wonderland with a distinct possibilty of European Football next season , who have guessed that in September?

It'll Either Rain Or Go Dark Before Morning....

One of the many pearls of wisdom from Charlie Cross , a farmer I had a weekend job with many man years ago. Very true of today , withich is National Record Store Day , World Book Night and High Bridge Festival in Newcastle.

The Box of Books

First task today was to hand write the front pieces of my twenty four copies of Bill Bryson's "Notes From a Small Island" with my name , where I picked it up from and a unique id so that the book can be tracked if the person I give it to wishes to log it on the web site.

Anyway I picked up the books and had panned to just print out the labels , unfortunately non of the shops I went in had anything suitable , so had to use my versatile printer , ie a biro!!

There is a flagship event in London on Monday night details here

Tickets are £10 but I think it is free after 7:30 pm , but check out the website.

Alan Reed's High Bridge

Anyway today I am going along to the record shops to pick up a coule of limited editions if they are available and enjoy  the delights of the High Bridge Quarter Festival with street food , entertainers music and the like. I'll be taking photographs and posting again on here after the event.

Hoping the rain keeps a way and we have a gorgeous day