Subject : Islington Festival 26th June 1999  
   
Date : Thu, 05 Aug 1999 08:35:25 PDT  
   
  
HI All 

Emma is a big fan of Billy Bragg - it's summer now so each weekend there is 
something happening in some district of London somewhere... 

As you recall I saw Desmond Dekker last year at the Beckton Festival and 
this year it is Ian Dury And The Blockheads, unfortunately I will be in 
Italy then. 

On this lovely cool sunny day 28th June, I had to work on Saturday from 
10-6pm. 

http://www.islington-festival.co.uk/final_index.html 

So I left work and had planned to meet Emma as well as mates from Hamilton 
David Karl and his wife Jo who have been in London since February. 

Traversing 3 tube lines I make it there on time, haven't been to Islington 
for a while, the last time was to see one of the guys from Cabaret Voltaire 
last year at the garage which is where most alternative guitar fiends play 
including Chris Knox etc. 

We then caught up with Dave and Jo, we're all pretty kitted out for a 
summery evening, though that proved to be a problem....... 

We walked around and I came to the conclusion this is one of the better 
street parties/festivals I've been to, not too many people to keep bumping 
into and not too few to make it look like a disaster. During the day there 
were various acts so we hung around watching other stages until Billy was 
due to come on at 8pm. On the left side of the stage we could look over the 
sitting crowd to a spare piece of green on the other side so we walked our 
way around and found a pile of vomit there so we sat a bit further back ;-) 

We sat down and it started to spit a bit, bugger !  But it soon died down 
when Billy and his band hit the stage, at that moment a couple of hundred 
people appeared out of thin air and were up the front of the stage ! So we 
all got up and got as close as we could and we got a great view. 

He played for 1 hour, From the top of my head the songs included : 

Milkman of Human Kindness, various Woody Guthrie songs from his latest 
album), Christ for President, All You Fascists Bound to Lose, California 
Stars, Glad and Sorry, Shirley, A New England, Hoodoo Voodoo. 

His inbetween banter was spot on and having just played Glastonbury festival 
earlier on the day he made a comment about The Manic Street Preachers 
exclusive toilets a debacle which is still mentioned in the music mags 
today. 

The following is swiped from site about Billy and his band. 
BRYCE if you are out there check out the photos of Lu Edwards he looks  just 
like you !!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyway suffice to say the band blew me away, amazing musicianship. The 
Keyboardist was Sir Ian McLagan who was with the Small Faces etc and the 
song 'Glad And Sorry' is by them. 

The concert was a delight, lots of drunken english men dancing around, a 
large black woman up front was dancing all the time (even for all the other 
acts), Billy asked her to come onstage and she a lot of fun to watch as she 
tried to encourage responses from the audience,  even when the band had 
finished, at the end security had to come take her off the stage, she was 
oblivious to the comment that Billy made about "what she was on."  I also 
enjoyed the small dog that was running around us and brushing against our 
legs. 


"Billy Bragg is currently touring with his new band, The Blokes. But just 
who they are has been a subject of some debate! The curious can find details 
below...... 

The Blokes feature the great talents of Ian McLagan who play Hammond Organ 
and Piano. In a previous life he has played with The Small Faces, The Faces, 
Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and every other musical legend you can think 
of! Oh yes and let's not forgot to mention The Muleskinners! 

Ben Mandelson plays Lap Steel Guitar and Bazouki (which he has even adopted 
on a live version of Walk Away Renee). He is a very close associate of the 3 
Mustaphas 3. 

Lu Edmonds plays Electric Guitar, Saz and Cumbush and sings. He has played 
with The Damned, Pil, The Mekons and Shriekback. He is a close associate of 
many close associates of the 3 Mustaphas 3. 

Martyn Baker plays drums and occasional backing vocals. Martyn has played 
with Shriekback amongst others. 

Simon Edwards plays bass and has spend many hours with Fairground 
Attraction, Talk, Talk and Kirsty McColl. 

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mhuey/liquidroom.html 

fin" 


Anyway after the concert we got Billy's autograph and headed on down Upper 
Street which is a REALLY long street to pick a place to watch the parade. 
The blurb says it is some spanish floats.  As we walk down this main street 
of this affluent district we pass many antique and interiors design stores. 
After 10 minutes we reach halfway and wonder if the whole parade will come 
this way.  As we kept walking we could see red flares lighting the road 
ahead and white figures lit up by it. 


Some enough the parade starting coming towards us with lots of drums and 
horns and noise, kids with workshop-made fish hats on, typical floats that 
we would see at home...... 

Then we saw what the big fuss was about, the spanish floats are metallic 
skeletal like meccanno figures !!! 

We saw a praying mantis about 2 storeys high, the mechanisms allowed the 
driver to make the mantis bend over and when he did you would have to get 
out of the way else get beaned !  Other insects abounded as well as whales 
and fishes. 

Much too good to describe ! 

Anyway afterwards we walked on down the rest of the road past the Walkabout 
Tavern then got a bus into town then into Wong Kei's for dinner then back 
home.. 

sigh ! 

 

Subject :a traffic jam in memory lane  
   
Date : Thu, 12 Aug 1999 07:58:07 PDT  
   
   
hi all 

here's an update on happenings. 
As I write this I am watching the South Park movie on my computer, a 750 MB 
file ! 

WEDNESDAY : 
I had been stressing for the past week up to this day, should I look at 
the sun or not ? Would be hard to avoid it when walking around ?   What of 
the animals and birds ? Due to the shifts I work it was my day off so I got 
up and ate and dressed as I had to go into town to get some lira, pesetos, 
francs and  Escudos as well as some travellers cheques for Emma. 

At 9am I don't know if it was me but the sun was feeling particularly 
bright and hot today (!) Full Contact was at 11:11am so about half an hour 
hour before and after we would be able to see changed. London would have 95% 
totality. I was going to go to the park because the leaves are supposed to 
ask as pinhole camera and one is supposed to be able to see multiple images 
of the sun on the ground. 

As it happened I went out onto the balcony and one of the girls from the 
hostel was the with a pinhole viewer made out of failed job applications. 
(Across from us we saw 3 young boys and only one had shades on, but not an 
actual eclipse viewer, we shouted over to tell them to be careful). As it 
turned out she was a dispensing optician so I stuck around. Sooner 2 other 
people joined us. Looking into a window we could actually see a reflection 
of the eclipse though only when obscured by the clouds, otherwise it was far 
too bright to see. And that was it !  I heard there was a lot of people in 
the parks and Dougie who works on a high building site said he could look 
out onto London and saw lots of people on the rooftops. 

So far this morning there's been reports of some 300 people with damaged 
eyesight.... 

Went home via Notting Hill Gate and did some cd shopping ! Picked up some 
cds I'd been looking out for for a while ! 

Got home and cooked dinner and then retired to the room to start tidying 
up and packing up everything into labelled boxes. Tonight I'll start putting 
them into storage. I had great joy last week throwing away bits and pieces I 
had accumulated in a year ! Lots of music and videos (unavailable in New 
Zealand) of course. 

TUESDAY : 

I really wanted to knuckle down and write up some more emails to you all 
but my wrists are playing up again, so I contented myself by playing Quake 
II on the network against a few other people, a bit of a wasted day !! 


MONDAY : 

got up at 5am feeling more lively than deadly as I'd been awake since 
4:30am. got on the central tube line and eventually after some mistarts got 
to Knightsbridge at 6pm get out the tube and see 5 people waiting outside 62 
Brompton Road right opposite Harrods. 

I took my place outside. The guy in front had got there at 5:45am. A few 
minutes later 2 guys appeared behind me. By 8am there was a solid 100 in the 
queue stretching back. 

  At 8:45am we got let in, I followed everyone to the 3rd floor that then 
found out that this was for passports only so we quickly ran down to the 2nd 
floor....damn, there were now 6 people in front of me !!  We come in and 
grab a ticket, only 40-50 applications are processed a day. The girl comes 
in and starts sorting out everyone. Looking around I see people of various 
nationalities as well as some perturbed australians. Suffice to say it is a 
despair of gloom, and I feel sorry for the girl who has to deal with all 
this, she seems snappy and curt but I can sympathise with her. 

I'm a bit shy but eventually I go up with all 50+ pairs of eyes on me and 
enquire as to how to correct the date. She looks at it and tells me to sit 
down. Later on, the south african fellow that was in front of me comes back 
down from the 3rd floor as his date is wrong ! 
Eventually the lady calls us up and we finalise the correct details. We wait 
for 20 minutes more and I am outside getting a breather talking with an 
indian lady who sister and husband are from Australia and how they have 
wasted 3 weeks trying to get visas ! We all feel sorry for the girl and how 
overloaded she is and how we all felt like going up and giving her a hand 
with the clerical stuff. I feel sorry for south africans who need visas for 
EVERY country ! 

Anyway, eventually we get the green light and go up to the third floor to 
pick up the passports. The floor is packed with families and everyone that 
was in front of us is still here !  We manage to get out  at 11am. I manage 
to get back to work at 12, they didn't miss me. 

FRIDAY: 
Today I swapped with a workmate so I have the day off. Emma had BEEN 
fretting about her portuguese visa and finally it arrived !! 
I opened it to check and OH NO the wrong date ! Oh Bugger, Looks as though I 
have to get into the Portuguese embassy early on Monday morning...... 


THURSDAY : 
Finally saw Matrix !  when I got off the bus to walk to it I passed Greg 
Proops in the road. He is same height as me. Went to Wong Kei with Emma and 
Shaun a guy from Hong Kong who works for my company.  In town it was the 
celebrity premiere for Wild Wild West so we caught a glimpse of Will Smith 
etc. Lots of loud screaming etc. 

ONE DAY IN EARLY AUGUST : 
Because of a falling out between Australia and Portugal, supposedly 
Australia has started charging for visas so Portugal has started doing  it 
as well. Total chaos and headlines as the queue outside the Portuguese 
Embassy is 80 deep every day before 7am (opens at 9am). 
Emma takes a day off and gets there at 6:30am but misses out on one of the 
first 50 tickets so ends up having to send it via post, they would not 
accept it over the counter so she had to send it via registered mail from 
the Post Office right around the corner ! 

ONE DAY IN EARLY JULY : 
My normal shift has changed from Monday to Friday to a week with Wednesday 
off so I took this opportunity to get dicounted flight tickets with our 
newly acquired student cards ! 

ONE DAY IN JUNE : 
Busabout tours had a deal where if you booked before July you would get a 
ticket for halfprice. So instead of 269 UKP it was 159 UKP for a 15 day 
unlimited coach pass in Europe !! 
We scrounged the money together and Emma went to campus travel to get the 
tickets. She went in and there was Sally who used to live at the hostel! To 
cut a long story short she ended up getting up International Student (ISIC) 
cards for us which means we ended up paying 130 UKP and discounted/free 
entry to various museums, cinemas for the year ! 


NEXT WEEK : 
so here's the plan ! 

Saturday we leave Heathrow on Air Belgium at 9:30am then hit Brussels at 12 
then to Venice at 2pm. 

Venice 14-15 
get here saturday afternoon and leave on monday 16th. 
rome  16-18 
Anna-Maria says she will be our tour guide around her city ! 

florence 19-21 

nice 22-24 

from here we will check out cannes, monte carlo etc which are really really 
really really supposed to be expensive. 

barcelona 25-27 
madrid 28-29 
......... 

On the 30th the ticket will run out so have a week or so to explore Portugal 
and Spain ! 


The hostel may be getting sold soon, hopefully not while we are gone, so 
please don't send anything to my postal address here. 

I have packed all my stuff into boxes and stored them away so that if 
something does happen someone will help take our stuff with them. 

Andrew seems a bit upset at our imminent departure for 3 weeks. 

So as you can see last weekend was pretty stressful, with the passport visa 
problem on Friday as well as the news that the hostel may be closing down 
(albeit temporarily). 


I'll try to keep you guys uptodate !! 

I've finished watching South Park movie, it is ok but doesn't really hold 
your attention. I wouldn't spend money on it ;-) 


lots of love 
darryl 

 


Subject :  Young Nubile Blondes Waiting for U ! Right Now ! Click ME !  
   
Date : Fri, 27 Aug 1999 11:20:58 PDT  
   
well I thought that would get "someone´s" attention. 

hi guys, emailing you from barcelona now, finally got to an internet cafe where the keyboard has completely upsidedown to the UK one or it is a single 64kb isdn link shared between 50 machines all trying to do hotmail ! 

I thought I´d better send something to you guys to keep you uptodate with happenings ! 

The idea for this email came a few days ago whilst I was floating on a pebble beach shore in Nice on the coast of France (resting my weary body from literally kilometres/miles of sightseeing everyday since leaving London; calming my mind from all the worry about where to eat and to live; and of course resting my eyes which were suffering from whiplash on this particular stretch of beach :-)  As would happen some young kids nearby pass the ball to me and this cute little topless girl comes up to retrieve the ball and says "merci", for some reason this reminded me of some people back home, so you can thank some goddam frogs for this email ! * 

(*actually before some of you ask for slimey details, as I did not have my glasses on I could not see much on the beach, just a lot of black tan on the rocks) 

We got up early on Saturday morning in London and left Heathrow at 9:30am got to Belgium for 2 hours which has the most boring airport terminal ever, then onto Venice. the moment I stepped off the plane the heat hit me and my black pants, I wanted to strip off right then and there as I´d heard it was the "continental thing" to do (living la vida loca and joie de vivre and all that claptrap) but Emma warned me against it. 

As some of you may have noticed, I´d spent months of preparation before the trip (during work time of course, natch) brushing up on my command of italian as well as french, spanish, portuguese and some would say english, so I was totally prepared on how to ask italians, THE french, spaniards and portguese if they spoke english. 
Strangely enough quite of a few don´t, so I was pretty well buggered... 

Nevertheless I fumbled things through in my normal manner and after much trekking we managed to find our hotel with balcony and of course plenty of mosquitos at night ! 

Venice is nice. 

A few days later we joined the Busabout tour which is a jump on jump off thing for which we have a 15 day ticket. It is August and real buys so everywhere we saw fellow australasian travellers, luckily most english go to Benidorm so I have heard so there was no need for sunglasses. 

Almost to a year ago I met an italian girl called Anna-Maria we had lots of fun and did both days of the Notting Hill Gate Festival together.  Anyway she´s a roman and for the next 3 days she happily looked after us. When I first got into the car with her I fumbled with the seat which was a bit tough, she said don´t worry I wouldn´t be needing it... so began an adventure that would last for 3 days as we dove in and out of traffic, ran a stop sign and almost got totalled by a taxi, honked at anything slower than 40 miles per hour ! 

You cannot see you have seen Roma until you´ve seen it with the wind in your hair, as though you were a stuntman in the "Italian Job"and a Pope XVII (?) air freshener dangling in front of you ! 

One night she took us to a market than was affiliated with the socialist party so there were stalls for amnesty, greenpeace, hippie beads, gemstones, new age music etc. It used to be an abbatoir and in fact in one of the pubs there if you look at the ceiling you can see the rollers that used to hang the carcasses from ! 

Anyway better wind this up here´s a brief list of things we have done : did the sights of roma: bocca della verite (the mouth you put your hand into), finally met some beggars, went all the way into town to see the chruch cemetary where all the statues such as angels are made from monk´s bones, sweltered, went to florence and saw all the lovely bits of art, attended an audience (along with several 1000 others) with the Pope, it was a very uplifting moment !, went to Nice and visited neighbouring Monaco and Cannes, got kicked out of a casino, natch, I´ve just done the sights of barcelona! 

okay, back to some fun. 

c u soon. 

take care 
darryl