Nine Feet Underground

Atypically, I'm returning home today.  Q has an appointment this morning and a bunch of things to do, so I've planned a mid-morning departure. Q makes us an enjoyable cooked breakfast, which we enjoy together before I finish my final bit of packing. ETD around 11  a.m. That was a journey!  Thunder, lightning, torrential rain and very strong winds interspersed with bright sunshine meant that it was a very tiring journey. As is seemingly becoming customary for this time of the year, the satnav directed me off the M40 to avoid a traffic jam, unusually at Banbury, earlier than I've ever done before.  I had a surprise tour of the Northamptonshire countryside passing near Hinton-on-the Hedges airfield and RAF/USAF Croughton, whose myriad aerials and golf-ball structures are always a fascinating sight. Well, they are for some people. On arrival home, I began with my normal visit to E, to say hello without going into details of my previous week, Idler aside.  Son #3 hel...

It's becoming a habit! Yes, I've been back at South Street Arts Centre in Reading, this time to see much-touted Dutch Indie guitar band, Pip Blom supported by Adan & Elvis and Holiday Ghosts. Guess I ought to begin with the two supports, the first of which was Reading  (?) band, Adam & Elvis.  A seven-piece band, as you can see from the shot below (for which credit to the Adam & Elvis Facebook page), who meld a variety of styles - a smattering of ska, a dash of punk and a large dose of rock. Having such a large line-up does mean that the mix has to be pretty much spot on for it to work, otherwise there's a danger everything else gets lost in the overall drive to be lead. For several songs both guitar and keyboards seem to be taking the lead which meant at times the vocals were lost, especially when the sax joined in. [Aside: I was front and centre of the stage for the entire gig and the mix seemed to lose the vocals in all three sets, so either tha...