Saturday: walk through (mostly) rainy London

London Bridge was closed to traffic for the London Bridge 800 fair. To celebrate the 800th anniversary of the bridge, they set up stalls similar to what would have been there 800 years ago:




leading on from the temporary market on the bridge it was just a few steps down to Borough Market, always packed at the weekends:


along the South Bank by the Royal Festival Hall all the trees along this busy stretch of the river have these red-with-white-think-bubbles coats on them right now. People seem encouraged to write their thoughts or whatever on them, and most of them are covered in graffiti:

the ever popular fountains outside the RFH:

Gamelan workshop/demonstration in the lobby of the RFH, there's always something going on in there on the weekends:

Vauxhall:



this is the street of Denis Severs House
at the end of it a new gigantic and IMO very ugly and unoriginal looking office tower block looms, but inside this street time stands still and worlds collide:

The Gwaun Valley

or the mysterious Gwaun Valley, as it's sometimes referred to... Pembrokeshire is mostly about the coast, but this lush green valley is hidden away between the Preseli Hills and the port of Fishguard where the Gwaun flows into the sea by the Lower Town (also pictured). It's difficult to even find the road that goes there, it's only a small B-road, and once you're there you enter a beautiful and mostly fairly steep valley with ancient woodland, and the occasional meadow, bridge or farmhouse. Apparently people there still follow the Gregorian calendar and all sorts of other old traditions, and it certainly feels like a forgotten place that's left as it's always been...on that day it had rained all morning so it was very green everywhere!

Plus, Paperbag & The Flying Gambinos at the Cross Kings, 11. May, the evening in pics and video

soundcheck:



Paperbag:


Plus:




















photos by me, Simon and Hebe.

setlist: Plus Today / Double Shine Dustbowl Future / I know I know Colony Collapse / Shades of Green / Tired Eyes / 48 Hours / The Cracks of Language / Steamrise / Lemonade Laminate / Ephedrine Daddy

it was another good night, a bit chaotic but it worked, we were quite busy, and I got to wear my new lederhosen with my beehive wig, a good combo! Hebe the DJ unfortunately couldn't get the data discs she brought along to play over the venue's sound system, and I only had one Cocteau Twins album on my ipod, Milk and Kisses, so we did play a bit of that, but also the great 1 hour DJ set I got from werasagtmussauchbsagen (friends of Joerg's from the Munich scene) a couple of years ago, plus later Anderson had some good stuff in his that we played, so it wasn't a huge problem, just a shame as she spent a lot of time preparing her Cocteaus DJ set. The Flying Gambinos played in a new lineup for the first time, including their cover of our song "Antique Doll" (see video below), Paperbag rocked out power pop style, including a Police cover at the end of their set. And we just did our thing too, I did a bit more falsetto than usual, possibly to let hang out my perceived Cocteaus influence, we played a slightly different set again, some songs we hadn't played for a while, several people came up to me later who I didn't really know and told me they really liked it, so thanks! everybody!