FINDING THE MUSIC SCENE IN THE U.K. (PART IV of OF IV)
As is customary, during his travels Notes from Vivace will not go on holiday without making a decent effort in seeking out the local music scene from whichever far-off locale he jets off to (click here to see some of his past adventures). This time it was Edinburgh and London. This is a IV Part Series. For Part I click here. For Part II click here. For Part III click here.
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Tuesday
It was off to Stonehenge. Yes, a bucket list item for me. What a wonderful experience though I will say this, luckily, I brought a jacket. I was thinking of leaving my jacket behind. Edinburgh was freezing, but the weather was great in London. For some reason, it was down right chilly around Stonehenge.
And a funny observation. As we were all in the van waiting to head back to London, we had to wait about ten minutes for two individuals. The driver “Isn’t it ironic that the two people that are late are the ones who need to catch a flight today. They kept on asking, ‘When will we arrive back in London as we have a flight to catch?”
Random thought. Sometimes I wonder if we over-interpret what the ancients left behind. For example, there is a place called Bubble Gum Alley in San Luis Obispo. I wonder if in 500 years some archeologists will think it is an attempt at great art.
I’m not saying Stonehenge is a joke, but I wonder if what is found around these massive rocks aren’t related to the ceremonies that experts believe happened there. What if people were just out having a picnic and failed to clean up after themselves?
Language. England is a flat country. I think it impacts their language. The audio guide said at one point, “Over to your right, you can see two hills.” I looked to the right and saw some bumps. They didn’t look like hills to me. I half wondered if I was looking in the correct direction. Maybe the audio guide should have used the word “knoll” or maybe “those small bumps out that way.”
After Stonehenge, it was off on a number of small trips across London. First, finding an Internet café to surf the web. Second, getting an advance train ticket to get to the airport. It took me a very long time to get a ticket as one of the individuals in front of me spent a significant amount of time trying to figure the cheapest way to get from point a to point b to point c and so on. Third, it was off to get something to eat on the west side of London. I headed over to a restaurant called Blah Blah Blah, but it was closed. I then went all the way across town to Vitao where I had a really good meal.
From there I went back to Rough Trade where I caught Cults. I saw Cults for the first time at FYF. I loved them. I wrote at that time that it felt like their set was cut off by five minutes and that I wanted one more song. Well, I was getting a full set as a follow-up in London.
Comments from the night:
Madeline Follin: “I’m happy to see that there are babies here. I wish there were more babies at our shows . . . right over there [pointing out the baby].”
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