Arcticterntalk.org
The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
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Lucinda Belle Orchestra. Magical evening and magical music
Occasionally one gets lucky with music. About a year ago my eldest daughter told me ( as she usually does) to listen to a CD by a band that I had not heard of. The drive home was about an hour and I listened, and listened and have not really stopped listening. Her presence on the social media front has been sporadic and the occcasional tweet sometimes informed that a gig was imminent. A month ago we were lucky to see her at the TurnerSims concert hall at Southampton university and there we learned that she was playing a 3-night residency at Jazz Club Pizza Express in Soho. Last night for a mere 15£ we went along. Just to be clear that this is the downstairs of a Pizza Express that has a club that unsurprisingly sells pizzas. The furthest table away is maybe 15 metres and the nearest literally less than a few inches. Acoustics are great, atmosphere is buzzy and prices not at all exhorbitant, bottlw of wine 17£ ( central london prices are often far more).
The music. Magical. She played a lot of songs from her album and a couple from her new EP, and a few new songs as the band are currently hovering in a studio somewhere and after the concert Lucinda told us that towards the end of this year we can expect more gigs. This girl is not just good but special. Her music is original and enchanting and varies sometimes to the pop end and then back down to what she called something like ” gypsy rock”. I am not sure why we have not heard more of her. She is 38years. Are her concerts and albums well marketed? In my humble opinion, no. When I compare the plethora of tweets from artistes like Tim Minchin and Kyla La Grange, who flog their concerts easily and then of course get the online social media feedback, her presence is minimal, but can be corrected.
All I can say is go and buy her album and follow this band online. Although Lucinda Belle fronts the band, and plays harp on most songs, she does relax and do vocals only on a few. Her band line up does seem to change but last night they totalled 7 members including Bass, guitar, keyboards ( a Matt Smith look alike), drummer etc.
Photos all taken without flash using ISO speeds of 12500-25000 so grainy shots as you expect.
Darlington Football Club . All football fans should read this story
The story of what has happened to Darlington is so well written that I am not going to even paraphrase anything other than to say it makes sad reading and could apply to any football club. just click the link
http://www.darlofc.co.uk/news.php?NewsID=923
My own photos of Darlington are all on my website
http://www.footballgroundz.co.uk
Angry Dentist and Angry Birds. A new App
As always these things happen just before going away, so I suppose thats good, better than happening when away. I do recall a visit to a Greek dentist 20 years ago, whose surgery was the living room and having to trample over people, family maybe, to get in. So,an excruciating pain equals an emergency visit. Three hours of drilling, sanding and filling, with huge sighs. Essentially though he wanted to take the tooth out and give me an implant, and having had an implant that for me was not an option. So Root Canal work it was. As one lies there things flit through the mind. Why cannot the drills be silent? Why does the dental nurse always get moaned at? Why does it cost so much…..but as the pain recedes none of these matter at all. He even tried to explain the dental x-rays to me. I am sure that a chest x-ray or a bone,I might reasonably still interpret, but teeth? were medical students ever taught about teeth? I do not recall such a thing…..
In three weeks time I have Round 2 and he is muttering about using lasers and poking wires into holes, sounds more like Angry Birds to me, now there is a thought. A new App. Angry Dentist……..what a great idea.
In case you are wondering, here is an Angry Bird, a baby owl up the top of a mountain in Benalmadena Costa in Spain
An Angry Bird. Baby Owl in Spain
Manchester. Not a city of Angels
Having spent the last 48 hours mostly in Manchester I feel sufficiently able to appraise folks of my findings. These are not exciting but might save you some time and money. Firstly, the issue of paying for wi-fi in hotels. Let me list some reasonable places where wi-fi is free in no particular order, McDonalds, USA,Italy, Munich Airport and the Worsley Pub next to Worsley Park Marriott hotel. Now a game. Lets find a place where they charge 15£ for 24 hours wi-fi. Yes you guessed it the Worsley Park Marriott hotel and in fact all Marriott hotels in UK ( as far as I am aware). This is a disgrace. So my first recommendation is yes to stay at the Marriott hotel ( its rather nice and not overpriced) but instead of eating or drinking there, walk 200 yards to the pub next door and eat for less than the cost of the wi-fi.
My second recommendation is to avoid central Manchester. Signage would be better in Antarctica. The roads are crowded with folks all giving good impersonations of intractable ADHD, not able to wait at red lights, junctions or anywhere in fact.
My final recommendation is to avoid the Palace hotel. A miserable excuse for a hotel. everything was bad.
Good things? Norton Caines Services on the M6 Toll are the best I have found this year. But avoid petrol there. I can buy my diesel for 137.9p at my local south london Esso garage. Diesel at Norton Caines was 152.9p. Put it another way. Filling my tank there would have cost me an EXTRA £10.
Not Manchester but in fact a view in January 2011 from outside a hotel in Coventry on a cold morning
The Food in Barcelona. Rotten octopus pasta.
There is nothing wrong with Spanish food but what I have been served this week has been in general terms very poor. Let me rant through it. The hotel breakfasts at Diagonal Zero hotel were the same each day, and I don’t mean the same type of food but the same food exactly. What was not eaten was put back. Pineapple with black bits attached of dubious origin appeared each day. Eggs of various descriptions appeared and all uniformly ranging cool to cold in temperature.
Dinner night 1 – in the hotel bar an alleged Salmon Club Sandwich – well ok, nothing major to complain about
Night 2 – Dinner in Barcelona FC. Set menu. first course smelled of rotten fish and I think was rotten fish ( octopus in ravioli with squid ink sauce) followed by uncooked steak with vegetables so small that they may have been grown in Gullivers Kingdom . Lukewarm
Night 3 – Tapas. Ok ish. Everything fried. Fried cheese on a stick, fried this, fried that……..no vegetable. Lukewarm.
Night 4 – Harmless Burger and chips in hotel
Night 5 – Set menu in restaurant called Limbo. Strange assiette of starters , I assume a sort of Tapas, including deep fried asparagus. Main course of chicken bones in nondescript sauce, all Lukewarm
Maybe this goes down as good food there but for me I just cannot eat uncooked, lukewarm, horrid looking food. And thats why I have lost weight this week in Barcelona. What I would have given for a KFC
Squid Ink surrounds a lukewarm octopus in pasta. Believe me it smelled worse than it tasted.
Lucinda Belle Orchestra . Another priviledge to have been at Southampton
I first heard the music from the Lucinda Belle Orchestra about a year ago and was impressed. During this last year I had never seen any concerts advertised and very little in the media generally about LBO. The very occasional tweet but that was it. The album is fairly unique featuring harp music that can best be described as replacing the guitar. So when about a month ago I was told that they were playing at Southampton the chance to get tickets was an easy one to agree to.
The venue is the theatre TurnerSims that is part of the main campus at Southampton University, this means easy parking and a nice venue. The band were amazing. Lucinda Belle held the stage for the whole set with comfort and the only criticism might be that the set was not long enough. She mostly sang and ” harped” but for a few songs took to the microphone to sing. Her outfit was interesting. Striped tights that caught the eye and heels that placed her 6 inches off the floor. The band also were good to watch and listen to. A Serbian double-bass player was making his debut and looked like he would take off with excitement at times. The hall sadly was not anywhere near full and I may be imagining it but was Lucinda Belle a little glum? She deserved that place to be full. Afterwards the band members came out and they were selling CDs etc, which in a funny sort of way seemed a little desperate. For me people should be queueing to buy the CDs.
The band are in the studio for the next few months working on their next album but they are playing some gigs at Pizza Express in London. If you go onto the website you can download a free couple of tracks. This band is good and it will be a shame if they eventually call it a day.
Hotels and WiFi and What will hotels do with all those extra foam pillows?
Recently I seem to have travelled a lot and in each hotel it is costing £15 for 24 hours wi-fi. Now a couple of things to mention here
- How often does one ever actually stay in a hotel for 24 hours? It is more like 12 hours as the norm. Ever an option to pay 50% of the price? no…..
- Wi-fi is free in almost all USA hotels, MacDonalds and various other hostelries
- Rarely is one given the option to buy a hotel package that includes wi-fi
This is a total disgrace. I will specifically cite the Marriott hotel in Glasgow because not only did they charge 15£ but the wi-fi reception in my room was appalling and hardly worked.
So Mr Marriott can you please give us free wi-fi, free car parking and in fact everything else that you should give us free ( breakfast in my opinion) and stop ripping us off. One day a hotel chain will do the EasyJet version and provide all this at a knock down price, companies will insist we stay there and then your lovely hotel will be empty. What then will you do with all your extra foam pillows?
End of rant……
Tim Minchin and Band. A priviledge to have been there.
Sometime last week a tweet from Tim Minchin advertised a concert at 100 Club in London for which there were 42 tickets remaining. Two were purchased. The gig was advertised as a humourless affair just music. The venue was a quaint throwback maybe 30 years. A basement under Oxford street with few chairs and two bars, but most importantly a stage. A curious entry procedure which led to a wait of 30 minutes in a slow moving queue due to each person being ticked off a paper list. Beer was 4£ pint, very reasonable. The venue is constructed like a rectangle meaning that it is impossible to be far from the stage.
Tim Minchin came on and announced that this gig was more of an experiment and that they only had 7 songs, he then confessed that he had written one more this afternoon, so eight songs. The music began. The music was simply amazing, enjoyable, whatever…..I felt privileged to have been there at the start of what might become big. No ego’s present. The band and Tim drinking afterwards with the few crowd members remaining and happy to shake my hand and briefly chat, with no eyes-rolled-to-heaven kind of look. Humourless ? I don’t think so. No humour intended but he is just a really funny man. Lots of humour but none that overshadowed the music.
My photos are rubbish taken with the I phone but no-one minded those who brought proper cameras along. I shall spend tomorrow looking to see when he is playing again . This might be big and we were there at the start. That I like.
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
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