first monday of every month in North London..it’s a family affair

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Just after I took this photo a little gust of wind took all the seed heads off this beautiful dandelion  They danced across the landscape. The dandelion head was a shell of its former self.  A few minutes later the sun was gone, and  the light all slowly seeped away . Today is a day for making sure I appreciate everything as it is RIGHT NOW, as you never know when a gust of wind might come and change it all.

SONG OF THE DAY  The Rolling Stones -Paint it Black

I was just a bit too young to get into the Stones the first time. I heard 2 friends do this as  an acoustic number at our club, and realised I had never heard the words before so I then arranged it for acapella. It was the top song in the  choir poll for a while. Here is a version beautifully sung by Earthly Voices  CLICK HERE in the summer of 2009 (LIVE!),  you can really hear the words, and then listen to the original !

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Today I am introducing you to Hannah Double Barrel and her marvellous spoken word. I am directing you to her marvellous blog where you can read A poem by Hannah, and then many more as you travel around her blog. 

Hannah and Mr P. has a special relationship ( ha ha ) as when Hannah was little and went to a dreaded after school club, Mr P was one of the play workers. Now she is all gorgeous and grown up ( ah) she is a mistress of the spoken word. Her blog is cool and full of marvellous stuff…..more on that tomorrow, particularly on her undercover Zombie work.

Pierre Barrel and Margaret Double
Pierre Barrel and Margaret Double

Her Mum and Dad perform at our acoustic club ( like to keep it in the family) which we had 2 mights ago. It was a quiet, yet intimate night as there must have been something good on the tv. We don’t have to use that excuse anymore now we have catch up. Perhaps lots of people came over all wussy as they panicked about returning to work the next day. Any way it was a lovely evening and my guitar playing just gets better and better.

SONG OF THE DAY

Yes ! Travolta dancing on the lighty upy dance floor. I had a job as a bar maid for a year in a big night  club when this came out, and on our nights off we all went  there and danced all night, so I am through no fault completely steeped in DISCO!


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art modern

I am sorry this is a little bit blurred…so excited to see it I sort of lost my cool. Have been waiting ages to see this exhibition, as it was so hard to get tickets. The artist Krapy Rubsnif spent ten years building up layers of paper on a tiled background before using a kitchen knife to investigate the layers. I would love to have this in my bijou lounge next to my Jackson Bollox. Sorry I can’t keep this up any longer, I took a photo of a wall in Finsbury Park underground, Victoria Line northbound, where they have taken down the poster and not put a new one up. The reason it is a bit out of focus is the train was about to come in the station so I was a bit short of time.  Talking of trains as I do often…I noticed a strange type of light as the newish Victoria line train came into Seven Sisters on my return and realised it had LED lighting at the front which completely changed the ambience in the station from the old headlights we have on the Northern line…check it out!

Drum roll please……..I was only thinking about Sue and there she was with her mate Emily who I am going to adopt (well cook dinner for now and then).

SONG OF THE DAY Robots In Disguise – Chains

I chose the live track on the roof of a pub in Camden Town as your introduction to the ROBOTS just so you can see what groovy live chicks they are. Sue came to our  tiny club this week to sing-aling-a-songalong…she has been coming for years -hurrah!. Her and Dee are just putting the finishing touches to their fourth album. Once you have seen them live and you think you like them, ( which I know you will) you can start to explore their back catalogue. I am particular fan of ‘the dj’s got a gun ‘ and don’t copy me’ though I was actually thinking of having my hair cut like Sues as she has always had the coolest hair cuts in the world, and even makes the ‘Maria Von Trapp’ look totally cool.

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And the star of the evening was….Paul!  We don’t know any more about him except that he does not work at The Star in Chester Road N19. That- was closed when we arrived at 8.30pm last night, all set for our monthly acoustic evening. We could see lights on at the top, but the bar was definately closed. So, as others were already planning music at Neil’s with tea, we held on, tried to find phone numbers and then noticed a man with a crash helmet lurking outside the pub.

It was Paul’s takeway, and if he had not ordered it to arrive, then our evening would not have been half as jolly. He was just staying over the pub while the owners took a well deserved night off…away….All I can say is, he is a top diamond geezer as he phoned the owners and let us all in, stayed and watched the music , sorted out a makeshift bar which he manned with one of our performers the lovely and very talented Nikki.

It was a good night as Strong White and Stephens had come home from Uni  for the hols and brought all their mates which is always amazing as the average age of us all rapidly decreases by about 30 years..great atmosphere…the  fabulous Big Heath (played with glock and accordion) Bruin’s Ruin, Cynthia, DonanElla ( who won), Peter and Maggie, Stetsun Stan, Mickey and I (playing my guitar to!), Rob to name but a few and Siggy on MC duties. So thanks Paul and the owners for letting us have a great night.

SONG OF THE DAY

I heard it in a cafe today and it is without doubt the song with the best ‘additional vocals’ ever and boy have the Pips got the moves…choir members beware! any day now I might get you doing these.