I went for a hang epping forest way with a fellow van dweller on route to grab the new sliding door for Pickle in Chelmsford, and got to check out the white water course that was built for the 2012 summer Olympics in the Lee Valley.
Just like a massive lazy river.
The main course is 300m long and drops 5.5m, the warm up course is 160m and drops 1.6m, a 10,000 square meter ground water lake is the source for the course's water and the Lee Valley regional park authority aims to bring in £45,000 a day from visitors to cover pumping cost.
We were Lucky enough to catch team GB in training as well, I definitely had the over whelming urge to hit the course in a rubber ring.
On route to get Pickle's new door and having been around white water canoeing and relaxing rivers all day I remembered the large plastic sea kayak that had been sat under a bush at my folks place, dormant for the last decade, that my brother had acquired during his days as a marine cadet.
I also realised I hadn't been to my parents home for about two years and definitely well over due a visit.
Off to norfolk for a couple of days.
After strapping a kayak to the roof rack, seeing ma, pa and their home not far off being a petting zoo, my semi relaxing day and a half had come to an end and it was time to get back on the road down to the Crown and Anchor https://www.facebook.com/crownandanchorw4 for Original acoustics.
With out doubt one of my favourite nights in Chiswick. It was awesome to see a load of friendly familiar faces and a bunch of new too, and what a treat to have all the boys rock up... Josh on percussion, the Beirne on guitar, and George got there eventually to give us some funky bottom end.
Thanks to all that came for the hang.
Saturday was spent making my way to Weston Park for Dubs Mania, my second year here and a very cool show at a beautiful venue.
Although there is camping on the Saturday and a bit of trading going down, Sunday is the main event and I had Josh, Luke, and Beth coming to get involved then and in true Beth and Josh fashion they were a good couple of hours late for no particular reason at all. None the less when they do arrive I'm always glad they have.
Introducing the Kayak (hell yea)
It was a sick day and was so glad to see so many of you coming over and digging the tunes, Thank you.
Luke and I called in to Shrewsbury Sunday night as I had enjoyed my time there so much a few weeks back and we had to go drop off this door at MV Engineering https://www.facebook.com/mvengineering on Monday.
We parked up and as we do in all new towns for us went hunting for an open mic, we didn't have an awful lot of luck until we found a pub on the other side of town an river called The Wheatsheaf https://www.facebook.com/wheatsheaf.frankwell where we met Colin who was very hospitable and got us up a couple of sets through the night.
Good to meet ya Colin and the gang.
Monday we busted one down to Telford to drop off the door to Mario at MV, and I was relieved to hear that I hadn't just bought a piece of junk, in fact it would do the job nicely, Sweeeeet!
Back in the van and down to London to schedule rehearsals and recording for this week.
It turned out a really wicked cool couple of days down that way. Wednesday evening took me to a joint called Birthdays in East London to catch a new band for me 'MARINE' and I'm so glad it did.
Marine are an all female outfit with some seriously cool vibes going on. As I stood and watched I could hear some very tasty flavours, the likes of which I get from Jeff Buckley 'Grace', Kate Bush, and Incubus 'Wish you were here', but thats just what I got then.
You must go check these guys out!
They are putting on a single launch July 21st here's the event link https://www.facebook.com/events/969057213139239/
Get involved!
I also managed to win, and I never win anything apart from the odd tombola, a couple of tickets to go watch Natty at a secret location the following evening.
Natty is an alternative, reggae artist with threads of colourful musical styles from all over the world delicately woven in.
I first heard of his tunes back in summer 2008 I believe, when his single 'July' was released and I have enjoyed and been inspired by his songs ever since.
The whole thing came about through a conversation with Anneliese from Grand Chapel as Natty had been in a couple of years back to do a session, and then seeing a post on Facebook about a secret gig on his candle light tour and to email in to get tickets, so I did, and Thursday eve Anneliese and I went and hung out on a street corner in North London with a bunch of other Natty appreciators, waiting to be led off to the show.
We were directed down an old rail line and told you'll see Natty under the arch after the bunting...
There he was.
All greeted with a smile and blessings, we parked down on blankets by candle light and Natty played about an hour set of new and old tunes. It was truly magical intimate show that will not be forgotten.
Here's a session he did at Grand Chapel of a song 'Steal Away'
That delight of an evening swiftly led to the morning of potentially the longest day in the van yet.
I left at 9:30 to make my way to Stevenage to collect new t-shirts, yea thats right and they're bloody cool.
Then make my way to Leicester to grab Luke at mid day, then on to Alnwick Castle for Mighty Dubfest approximate 5pm arrival.... thats not how it worked at all.
I got to stevenage to collect my wonderful new range of merchandise, CD's are not there, they're a half hour in the other direction, off I go.
Cd's collected, back on the road, fuel is rather low, no fuel station, Pickle stops.
luckily with this new phone I have purchase I can locate a petrol station approximately a half hour walk down the A10 up the side of a fly over, through some woods and in to a village.
I unstrap the 25ltr jerry can, I never keep fuel in, from the rack and head off in the blazing sun.
25ltr can is very light, 25ltrs of petrol in a 25ltr can is bloody not!
I got back to the van about an hour later covered in tree sap, sweating my nuts off having learnt why big jerry cans stay on the vehicle full, the little green plastic jobbies are for the emergency stroll, and scaling a flyover in sweaty flip flops is a shit idea.
After filling up and sucking fuel through the lines to get to the carb I was back on the road and on a traffic rich road to Leicester.
I got to Luke at 4pm, he had been patiently sipping on Corona and conversing with the Locals, he climbed aboard and off we went again.
We got to Alnwick about 6 and a half hours later having stopped to get supplies, fuel up, suck fuel through the lines again, get stuck in more traffic and end up just outside Newcastle at a pub called Alnwick Castle, almost an hour short of our destination, because I typed Alnwick Castle in to maps and assumed that when it came up with Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, that must be the one... twas not.
We rolled up to to Alnwick at around 22:30, loooong!
We had a bang tidy spot overlooking the castle and some wonderful neighbours, The Dandy Lion Cafe to our left, a bloody wicked bunch of folks with a really cool set up who kindly hosted our Saturday night unplugged session. Have a look at what they do!
Then to our right we had the lovely Louise Parker with her stall of delicious ciders of all fruity varieties "Mansack" Check out her wares at https://www.facebook.com/mansackgiftsack
Luke isn't a big cider drinker, he was at Mighty Dubfest.
Louise may even be joining us in September for "A Pickle Down Under" fundraiser fest that I have yet to announce :)
Stage with a view
We had some super cool artists come by over the weekend to have a play from the van including Hannah Lamb, whom I met at Mighty Dub last year, a truly beautiful talent https://www.facebook.com/hannahlambmusic
Martha Raine came and played some her tunes for us, a soft magical voice and well crafted songs. https://www.facebook.com/martharmusic98
We had the local school swing orchestra come smash out some renditions of standards and new commercial tunes.
Hugh Dunford came and played an awesome set, a wonderful man, and player, and it turned out my old man use to teach his boy in a town over 300 miles away.
Thanks kindly to you all for getting involved it was certainly a pleasure to have you and hear you.
I think the highlight for me had to be the Saturday night sesh at The Dandy Lion, such a cool chill with all the gang sat round in a circle, boozy chai tea's, and some acoustic tunes. I don't remember what we played because of course I was very merry, but I'm damn sure we had fun!
If any one has and footage or photos of that night I'd love to see them.
Bruce and the Mighty Dubfest family thank you so much for having me again and congratulations on another great show at a stunning location.
Sun Child at The Grand Chapel
The next week me and the boys were booked in to get going on the "Sun Child" EP. It's been talked about for good long while now and even attempted, but I can now happily confirm the deed has been done and I'm now in the mixing stages, so with a bit of luck it could be ready to get to you guys in a couple of weeks.
We set up Tuesday afternoon and started getting some sounds ready for running takes on Wednesday morning.
I've approached this recording in a very different way to the previous as I want it to be a truthful representation of what I do live, when with the boys.
So there are no flutes and whistles, the tunes have been arranged up by myself and Oscar and then the band has rehearsed up, we got sounds and we played the songs all together.
We have attempted to capture a vibe, the only over dubs are vocals due to bleed but the original performance is sitting in there too, a couple of guitar licks, and some shakey/tamborine bits, and there ya go!
Here's a bunch of shots from the day.
Welcome
Dads art in it's new studio home
George Golding, Bass bad boy!
The Beirne
OB aka Jazz Monkey
Sleepy Oscar Peterson
Break time
Howling zebby
Tired Zebby
Tired me
I can't thank Luke, OB, George, and Oscar enough for all their passion and commitment to help create this recording and help me bring the songs to life.
I am eternally grateful to The Grand Chapel for their support and belief in me, the #pickledownunder project, and the "Sun Child" EP, I am immensely glad our paths crossed and don't quite know if I'd have got this recording done should they not have.
Thank You!
Battlesbridge
So second year at Battlesbridge a very cool little show Essex way, Luke and I rocked up early afternoon Friday 19th for a nice chilled set up before the hoards arrived.
OB joined us shortly after and we had an all round pretty cool but fairly quiet night.
Saturday started off all good, apart from for OB, he had to hobbit out for the majority of the morning, it was his first VW show and I think we broke him :D
A broken OB.
The Set up
you know Drew don't ya?
Friday night, I think
Lukes pixie profile
The last of Friday night
The band!
Later Saturday the cloud of misty rain rolled in after our first set, which was cool the tree had sheltered us pretty well from that, but then the heavens opened and we got saturated attempting to erect the structure below to protect the gear from natures fury. when we finally completed it the rain had stopped.
Bodge Shelter
Jay from the T.O.M.I.E team fashioning his new Logo t-shirt the boy bought him for fathers day.
Cheers for the photo's Lucy Barrett and Sam Gaut.
I also had a super talented little dude come play a few tunes called Josh Gleaves, the little bro is only 13 and well worth checking out at https://www.facebook.com/JoshGleavesAcousticMusic
Scott and the Battlesbridge team it was a pleasure to come play your show again, thanks for having the gang.
Electrics
After Battles bridge I made my way up to Manchester to hook up with my pal Christian. I met Chris last year and then again at Spring Dub, the first show this season, where he had offered up his assistance with getting pickle ready for #apickledownunder.
It was time to call on him.
I've had no electrics in the van for over 3 years and even when I did it was all hooked up to the main battery.
I rocked up Tuesday eve just in time for a bloody awesome Chinese Becky (Chris' partner) had whipped up, now I'm not big on Chinese food based on the standard take away you get but this was fresh and tasty as!
We went down to Chris' garage in the morning and got going. Chris got going on hooking up a leisure battery to a split charge relay, some LED interior lights, and thank god... radio fix. I attempted to get on with a few bits that'd had been pissing me off for a while e.g. automatic choke flapping about in the engine bay, indicator not working, window not winding.
Chis definitely achieved a lot more than me in the day.
I know have music, both indicators, 3 12v charging sockets, leisure battery, interior lights, and a good idea on what to do next.
Thanks Christian!
Vdub at The Pub
This weekend just gone I headed to my first Dorset show Vdub at the pub and it was awesome!
I was stoked to be invited to come play this show as I loved the sound of it, a vdub show in a field down by the river, mmm sold at river.
The guys booked us for the Friday night but we ended up staying the Saturday as well and playing on and off between other bands and kayak sessions.
I intended to be there for 13:00 to have a chilled set up and play in the river, but found this gash in a coolant hose before setting off.
So that took a temporary fix involving another jubilee, and a load of sealant, and put me back a few hours.
How ever, got in mid/late afternoon and got set up in our spot for the night.
I intended to be there for 13:00 to have a chilled set up and play in the river, but found this gash in a coolant hose before setting off.
So that took a temporary fix involving another jubilee, and a load of sealant, and put me back a few hours.
How ever, got in mid/late afternoon and got set up in our spot for the night.
Washing line up, check!
We'd planned to do a jerk chicken in OB's dutch oven on the fire pit but were then informed that there were no fires at this show and all cooking was on gas, a little of a downer but the guys lent us a big old gas tank and hob so we dutch ovened some jerk on gas!
Whyyy!
That night was a great crowd and we ate Chicken and rice about six hours after putting the bad boy in the pot.
The after mischief
OB chose this way up to the stage.
Photo by Wimborne photography
A very cool show, and definitely one of the most enjoyable this season. Thank you to Alan and the rest of the team for having us come play and solid blessings to all of you that came over to enjoy the songs, followed on line, got CD's and shirts, it means the world.
I am now sat in the mix room at grand chapel observing Mike work his magic on "Buy me a boat" for the "Sun Child" EP, and catching up on #pickledownunder preparations.
Camper Jam this week end, who's in?
Come check out the new baseball shirts, t shirts, and posters, for #pickledownunder fundraising and say Yo!
The next London show is the 10th July at The Crown and Anchor.
Peace x
