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Mighty Easter weekender, with The Cure

Hope you've all had as good an extended weekend as I have. As is usual when I've been off for a few days and not written up just went on immediately, I'm starting to forget it all. We're up now, on the last day of our five day break and I have a few minutes computer time, so I'm making a few notes while I'm processing some video from The Cure and trying to get hold of The Colour Of Magic.

Thursday

We started off for London about midday, nice quick easy train journey with Dom and Jen, nice to be getting the train for pleasure, not like having to commute on it. We had vouchers for free main courses for Wagamama, so into Soho in the rain. Food was better than it has been recently in Canterbury I think. Then to a pub, can't remember the name of it though it's a Nicholson's so I can track it down, that'll be The Crown, Brewer Street. Didn't realise they were part of such a monstrous chain of other brands, though it certainly feels like a pub themed venue inside, but they do have proper beer so I'm not complaining. We contemplated the best time and way to get to Wembley, in the end it was just head down in the rain to Picadilly and we're on our way. Wembley seems a long way out but if you catch the right Metropolitan line tube you're there in no time.

Our hotel was fine, despite the ropey reviews on tripadvisor. I'd not recommend it unless you were going to Wembley, and the decor is maybe a bit dated, but the bed was comfortable and big, the lifts worked, the bar was open, it was fine. Cheeky drink in said bar before the gig (as there are just no pubs around there) and into the gig.

Didn't see any of the support band, just got in in time for the start of the gig. Pretty amazing show all told, I have got a few songs on video and some pics to upload, the sound and the atmosphere were great. You'll see from the media (I have yet to upload) that we were about ten or fifteen rows back from the front, apart from the bit were Dom disappeared to the front, dropping our five pints on the way... At this point Clare objects

That's not what happened and you shouldn't say that as he will read it. He went into the crowd, then came out again, then went to the bar and thought he'd get us all drinks, then couldn't get back to us all with two pints in one hand and three in the other, so he ended up giving them away.

I was adding colour to the story, that's how I'd rather remember it, it's simpler. Don't you really want to picture someone struggling to the front of the moshpit with five pints?
Setlist was approximately as we thought from previous gigs:

plainsong, prayers for rain, a strange day, alt.end, a night like this, the end of the world, lovesong, to wish impossible things, pictures of you, lullaby, from the edge of the deep green sea, hot hot hot!!!, please project, the walk, push, friday i'm in love, inbetween days, just like heaven, primary, a boy i never knew, shake dog shake, never enough, wrong number, one hundred years, disintegration,
E1: at night, m, play for today, a forest,
E2: the lovecats, let's go to bed, freak show, close to me, why can't i be you?
E3: three imaginary boys, fire in cairo, boys don't cry, jumping someone else's train, grinding halt, 10:15 saturday night, killing an arab

We met someone with a setlist during the gig, but "Killing an Arab" was written as "Killing Another", I wonder why? In case the list fell into the wrong hands and looked like a racist murder plot? You could work the last encore into one story certainly, not so sure about "The Lovecats" though.

Here's three songs in a row from the set, the only complete songs I videod on my little camera. First Walking On Sunshine Why Can't I Be You from my spot in the crowd. It looks like the opening credits to "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" but the sound is OK, and gives you a feel for where we were and how they were sounding:

And Three Imaginary Boys:

Also Fire In Cairo:

They played for about 3 and a half hours, it didn't feel like it though. We had one more drink back at the bar (I was on lager all evening, unheard of, this is why I don't go to gigs any more). I have about a gigabyte of video, hope it won't take me too long to edit it into watchable youtube chunks. Don't stay in waiting especially though, the visuals are not impressive, but you can experience where I was in the crowd and hear the tunes.

Friday

Nice lazy start to the Friday, didn't have to check out until midday. We'd already had more action than most weekends and this one hadn't officially started yet. We shopped first, well we went to Selfridges and Clare got pissed off with me not being helpful, so she left me in Starbucks to sit and read while she tried to shop, then we walked round Carnaby Street (which is really nice now), had lunch with Emma in a Thai place near there, did some retro shopping, afternoon coffee in the brilliant Pain Quotidien and then trained back home.

The rain and snow wasn't quite so bad, and we'd arranged to meet pa-in-law for a drink, so we headed to Chambers for their traditional Easter Ales Festival. Not that busy when we got there, and not the traditional festival crowd, but a great range of ales and ciders anyway. Can't remember what I started off with, something nice anyway, but second beer was a "Haba-beer-o" special edition chilli beer. Was sceptical, but it was brilliant, a strong savoury chilli taste to it, and a little bit of heat too. Instead of flitting from ale to ale rating them as I went, I stuck to this one for the rest of the evening. Well, it's a limited edition, you don't know when it's going to run out, or if I'll see it again.
Spoke to the landlord, he recognised me as having the quiz team name Folkestone Gerald and asked if it was me that wrote it. He didn't look like he wanted a fight, and I don't think there's been anything objectionable for ages, so I 'fessed up, and he said he loved it. Probably just for all the favourable mentions of Chambers, well here's another. Chambers is brilliant, you should go there, best pub in Folkestone by a mile.

Saturday

Up early for house hunting. Saw a lovely place in a different area of Canterbury, 3 bedrooms, garage, conservatory, shed, everything. Top of our budget and I don't think we can compete with other buyers really, I'm sure it'll go soon. If it doesn't, we'll think again. Then saw another place over by Canterbury West, not the nicest street and a bit unloved. Nice and cheap for a three bedroom place, but unfortunately no room to put even a single bed down flat in the third bedroom, so a no-no for now. Third property, the agent was late, it was snowing, really really cold, I spoke to the office and told them not to bother. I'm sure the owner was in the property while I was waiting outside, but not responding to my knocking. Didn't have double glazing, and I could really only think about temperature that day, so it's a right off.

Had lunch somewhere between these viewings at Pizza Express, and got our favourite table looking onto the river. Even in the freezing rain and sleet people were still doing the boat tour, and pausing by our window.

After lunch, Clare had a hair appointment so I amused myself with more shopping and a brief stop in The Brewery Tavern where they also had a beer festival on. No festival punters in site, no-one even manning the temporary bar with the dozen guest ales lined up on, not really a festival vibe at all. Probably not advertised well, it's a nice place, not one you'd associate with real ale so I don't suppose they'd have had much walk up trade apart from me.
Bus home, too cold and wet to consider going back to Chambers really, so we got a Chinese takeaway and stayed in.

Sunday

Free lunch! Round to the in-laws for dinner, very nice. Still not sure what's going on with the sale of their house, everyone seems to be lying to them at every turn. They've officially handed their notice in on the business, and so resigned themselves to not selling it, but still other people in the chain seem to think that it ought to go through as normal. I hope it does, we'll find out now within the month.

Another night in. Clare was meant to be going out with her brother, but it was freezing at wet again and a night in mostly watching TV Lost: meh. Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency: meh. Both a bit weak I thought. Not sure what to think of Lost at the moment, they do seem to be drifting more into the realms of the supernatural, though I guess the writers won't decide until the very end whether they want to go this route or not, and they can easily change things that happened in the past, and "back explain" things. Getting fed up with it, wish they'd not string it out so much. It's sure to fizzle out before we get to a conclusion at this rate, maybe that's the plan.

Today

A bit sad that it's over. We still have most of the day ahead of us, no great plans except for regular Sunday chores like shopping and cleaning, making and eating chilli, and watching some TV, hopefully the aforementioned The Colour Of Magic (that was exclusively on Sky One yesterday).

Back to work tomorrow, still, a short week.

Beer festival on today in Dover

Mmmm, beer festival, at the town hall, starts today but is also on tomorrow, hope there's some beer left.

The Easter Ales Festival is back in Chambers in a few weeks too, over the, uh, Easter weekend. See you there.
Rated 7.88/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Good drinking weekend

We checked out the annual Easter Ales Festival at Chambers on Thursday and Friday nights, and have had a couple of nights back at the flat playing pool and listening to my new Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs collection, and had a day in Canterbury (including lunch at Wagamama and a pint in Simple Simon's), and still the weekends not over! Having a quiet afternoon, then off to a quiz later at Saltwood Castle. And then we still have another day left to recover!
Hope your weekend is as good.

Beer festival for the weekend!

Chambers hosts it's Easter Ales festival this weekend, running from Thursday to Monday. Twelve guest ales, plus four guest ciders, and I'm sure entertainment on each day.

Get in there early, before the beer runs out, but save some for me.
Rated 7.88/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Chambers Easter Ales Festival

Chambers in assocation with The Ship Inn present their Easter Ales festival this weekend! And I'm going to miss it, DOH! It's on from Thursday 24th - Monday 28th March, and the runners and riders are as follows... Your four regular ales are Adnams Southwold, Ramsgate Dark Ale, Hopdaemon Skrimshander and Ringwood Old Thumper. These beers are generally to be found at the bar in Chambers anyway. There are 12 guests lined up, these may change but right now they're Church End Bats in the Belfry, Titanic Iceberg, Black Sheep Best, Hanby Cherrybomb, Trip FFF Comfortably Numb, Widdey Valley Golden Rivet, Wye Valley Owd Sarah, Ramsgate Dogbolter, Spring Head Roaring Meg, Downton Brewing Co Chimera Gold, Hook Norton Double Stout, and On The Good Ship Chambers Festival Ale brewed especially for the festival by Hopdaemon! The four guest ciders are all rippingly strong; Biddendens Dry, Inch's West Country Dry, Thatchers Cheddar Valley, and Winkleigh Scrumpy Med Dry...

Enjoy!
Rated 7.88/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Chambers Beer Festival

The Chambers "Easter Ales" Beer Festival was a raging success, from the first day to the last. It seems to have taken everyone concerned slightly by surprise, but according to the landlord it will be "at least" an annual event, so here's to the next one...

We started "gently", quite late on the Thursday evening with a selection of ciders, and we filled out the helpful and fun "tasting notes" questionnaire that was provided. Starting with the Moles' Black Rat (6% ABV), we apparently thought it was "yummy". Thatchers' Cheddar Valley (6%) scored a "not as good", Weston's Old Rosie (7.3%) "ooh, bit strong", then the notes become unreadable by the time we had the Biddenden's Extra Dry (8%). This was just the first day. We perhaps struggled slightly because we got there too late to get any food. The place was exceedingly busy from the off, and by the time we found seats the chef had retired for the evening. I recall there was some kind of swing jazz combo playing at some point, and it was quite nice.

The following days saw us work through most of the rest of the menu of beers (highlights being Old Thumper and Dragonhead Stout, also with a musical accompaniment. Friday night saw slightyly trippy blues rock from Sicknote Blues, by the time they had finally got going and the beer had started slipping down, they were alright, though some of my fellow tipplers found them very dull. Saturday night we were at Kapetan Michales (review to follow), and Sunday night saw an indie covers band (Loki I think) giving us the likes of Coldplay, Turin Brakes, Foo Fighters and more. Not wanting to see anything go to waste, and at the landlords recommendation, I ended the festival with a fierce snakebite of Biddenden's Dry and cherry Kriek, which was as sweet as it was strong, not recommended.

The next time there's an event on at Chambers, get there early, and camp out for the duration, you'll love it.

Rated 7.88/10 on Folkestone Gerald

Chambers Beer Festival

Folkestone's finest boozatorium, The Chambers is holding an "Easter Ales Festival" over the Easter weekend (Thursday 8th - Sunday 11th April). They're planning to offer eight guest real ales, four guest ciders, and live jazz and blues every evening.

The beers will be Smiles' April Fuel, O'Hanlons' Yellow Hammer, Orkney Brewery's Dragonhead Stout, Crouch Vale's Crouch Best, Brains' SA, Uley's Pigs Ear, Badger's IPA, Hopback's Summer Lightning, Black Sheep Best, Hook Norton's Old Hooky, Ringwood's Old Thumper, and Hopdaemon's Incubus. Ciders will be Moles' Black Rat, Thatchers' Cheddar Valley, Weston's Old Rosie, and the truly death defying Biddenden's Dry... See you there!
Rated 7.88/10 on Folkestone Gerald