“Keep Charlton live!”*

08 Tuesday Jan 2013

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Rock’n’roll thrills are fairly thin on the ground in Charlton, so it was pretty exciting to see Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook playing a set at Cattleya’s on Charlton Church Lane on Sunday evening. Playing with a version of The Los Dawsons with the addition of Dennis ‘Nine Below Zero’ Greaves on guitar, and occasional Ripchord Gus Glen on bass, Glenn rattled through an hour or so of covers, joined for a couple of songs by Dave Suich of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on vocals and harmonica.

Here’s a snippet of Gus singing Buddy Holly’s Rave On.

 

(* “it never f*ckin’ was“, according to the man at the bar)

Greenwich power station and the O2 Arena, shot from the Observatory

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

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On a New Year’s Day walk. The park was busy; full of people trying out Christmas presents: bikes, radio-controlled cars, roller blades, etc – some more confidently than others. We lost a toddler’s mitten, then found it again; saw the young deer; were amazed at the queue for the Observatory cafe; resisted Honest sausages. A good trip out.

Most of the effort in processing this was on trying to keep the river a silvery tone, while holding some details in the foreground trees. I hope it works.

Vague ambitions for 2013

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

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I’m not wild on the idea of New Year’s resolutions (January is surely the worst time to make radical lifestyle changes, even if you actually wanted to), so here are a few things I’ll be pleased if I achieve in 2013:

– make more photographs, or at least keep up the current splurge of photo-taking activity (plus the digital photographer’s perennial aim: print more of my photos)
– an early return to Wilton’s Music Hall.
– lots of swimming at the lido when it reopens
– the purchase of a bike (and, perhaps more importantly, somewhere dry to keep it), for riding to the lido
– write more for The Charlton Champion
– do more home recording (I have in mind a track a week, though this may be a little ambitious), and even…
– write an actual song, rather than just surf guitar instrumental doodles. This necessitates getting over the horror of writing words, though…

A short walk along the old A1 at Neville’s Cross, Durham

30 Sunday Dec 2012

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A Sunday morning walk on the outskirts of Durham, from my parents’ house to visit the parents of one of my oldest friends.

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A wood has grown here in the last 10-15 years, planted by housing developers in what was a field for dairy cows, obscuring the view across the valley to the north west.

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Converging parallels: peering down to the East Coast Main Line as it approaches Durham station.

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This was once a half-decent pub; now it looks as though the owners have taken Phoenix Nights as an aspirational business model.

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Looking West towards Ushaw Moor and Langley Moor.

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It were all filling stations around here when I were a lad. Now housing developments, some completed, some on hold for the foreseeable.

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Scrubland on the outskirts of the city.