With memories fond we dwell
In towns beginning with L

Leeds is a city of many virtues, all of which were completely overlooked by Mr Joseph Porter on June 2nd 2002, which was the day Blyth Power played The New Roscoe. This was because he had spent the whole day gallivanting around Yorkshire in a car with Mr Chris from Bishop's Stortford, and the distinguished Mr G.M. Hill, published railway photographer, during the course of which he had walked through hallowed precincts, and photographed an awful lot of rather fine diesel traction units. In a word, he had been trainspotting. Thus, on being deposited at the stage door of The New Roscoe, the sated despot could only sigh and roll his eyes in fond memory of the locomotives over which he had drooled that day.

Fortunately everyone else was on the ball, and the evening passed without any unfortunate incidents, the band doing their usual thing of simply playing an enormously long set at this venue, rather than having a support act.
Of course we're still in the quiet bit at the moment, so the only other gig the band did in June was at the Leamington Peace Festival, which we'll get to in a bit, but that's why this section of Blythwatch UK is being padded out with some nonsense about Mr Porter's solo doings. What do you mean you don't want to know? It is folk music by damn! I tell you it is.
Or something very nearly akin to it. For those of a more WOMAD orientated taste, the Leamington peace Festival was the place to be. And here is how events unfolded:
Tragically our regular HVC Transit van was unavailable. This is because some churlish character had hired it the week before and brought it back with the whole of one side ripped off. "I simply don't know how it happened," they are alleged to have said. "It hit a skip - we were only doing three miles an hour." This preposterous tale meant that instead of a fuel-economic Blyth-sized transit, with no frills except an alarm that has in the past defied the worst of Kettering's hardened twockers, we were obliged to accept a wheezing wheelbarrow of a machine, which although cheaper to run than any of the white elephants we've had in the past, was not a patch on the usual contraption. It puffed and blew even harder than TDL when he's chased a grid the length of Derby station only to miss the shot when the signal goes green while he's in the final furlong.

Still, Annie and Joseph made it to Leamington without incident, to find a well-run, well-organised event that was hardly running late at all, and at which everybody seemed to know what they were doing, and no one was running around like headless chickens. It soon became apparent that this was because the people running the show did, in fact, know what they were doing, and indeed at least one of them was playing in Fire Daze, who played on the day before us, and some of whom used to be Dead After Dark who you will all remember from the General Wolfe in Coventry all those years ago. Oh no you won't - only eight of you were there.
Camp was set up next to the stage, with the hire van doubling as Ye Olde Blythe Shoppe for the afternoon. Assistance was provided for the load in by nephew and niece Alex and Ellen, who we would like to take this opportunity of thanking, and all things considered a jolly good afternoon was had by all.
TDL was moved to reminisce on his previous experiences of the town. It is thanks to Leamington that he started writing down train numbers again in 1985. A friend was studying acupuncture at Leamington's Traditional College of Chinese Medicine, and he was a practice patient, travelling up on the 06.50 from Paddington every Friday morning, and back in the afternoon via lengthy pauses with his camera at Banbury, wherein he was moved to photograph coal trains en route for Didcot and the like. It was this regular dose of classy traction that got him hooked again. Those who expected him to point out that his previous experiences of Leamington had been a bunch of pricks were disappointed, as the early pre-watershed stage time precluded such indelicacy.
It was also in Leamington, at The Hod carrier in 1985 that he met Bambi for the first time. Crikey! What a lot the town has to answer for. This and the night of the Poll Tax riots, when Blyth played with some famous punk bands - can't remember who, but it's on the gig history - comprised the sum total of our collective Leamington experiences. Anyone with any other jolly memories of this lovely spa town is invited to post them on the guestbook. Looking forward to hearing from you…
We are pleased to say that the gig itself was excellent. The sound was great, the stage crew efficient, and nothing went wrong at all, except Steven's trouser leg, which remained inexplicably at half-mast for most of the set. Can we come again please?
That was it for the band in June. Mr Porter, however, did a couple of unorthodox solos throughout that month, which are worthy of a mention.
First up was the Nottingham Punx Picnic on Friday 14th. This was a ripping good evening for Annie and TDL, as they got to see a galaxy of stars from the punk rock scene, and Mr Porter got to play an acoustic guitar at a bunch of punk rockers, which is always fun. Actually in our experiences it usually works better than those occasions when he plays in folk clubs. Everyone was jolly nice to him on the night, and we were particularly pleased to see Kismet HC and Cupid Stunt in action. Top hole!
The following week the benevolent one played twice in Derby on the same day, and all for a bit of petrol money. What a saint. First up was the MIND drop-in centre in the south of the city, to which venue he had been invited to play to local drop-inners along with Mr Chris Butler.
This proved most enlightening, as it wasn't your average Blyth audience, and they were most genteel. TDL and Chris B took it in turns to play short batches of songs, and no one hurled anything at them, so everyone was happy.
Then it was straight on to the Victoria, where a benefit for asylum seekers was being held with TDL, Chris Butler (again), Eastfield and The Bus Station Loonies.
Actually it was straight to the station, where TDL and Jessi Adams spent a couple of hours practicing the gentle art, during which they established that Etches Park sidings are now inaccessible except for suicide runs. TDL wore himself out chasing 56007 on a steel train, and eventually the rest of the bands turned up courtesy of Virgin Trains.
As both bands contained the same three members (Jessi, Ben, and Chris Wheelchair) for this particular gig, soundchecking was easy. Chris Butler did a set to start off then Eastfield played, with Chris Wheelchair standing in on drums and Elaine crooning as well. TDL was up next, and did four of his own songs, then dragged Eastfield up to join in with noisy renditions of The Mob's Mirror Breaks (2 chords) and the usual Zounds' Dancing (3 chords).
The evening was rounded off by The Bus Station Loonies, in which singer Chris stood in for his own drummer, and TDL joined in for the last two numbers of the set which were Wat Tyler's Hops and Barley, and a version of Kids in America with somewhat different words.
A jolly good time was had by all, especially the benefiting asylum seekers who all seem to have stayed at home to watch Big Brother instead. Jammy buggers.

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