South London Folk Blog

The gentleman on the right in the stripey jacket is Edward C Byles of the Harmonica Scamps. The Scamps were a Harmonica Orchestra who trod the boards in Norfolk / Great Yarmouth back in, I believe, the 1950s. Sadly Mr Byles passed away last year but his harmonicas remain! and lucky fella that I am a I acquired them for a few pieces of eight from his niece. I’m currently reworking a few new recordings in order to, in particular, incorporate the the deep and dark sounds of the Hohner G Bass. Oh the joy - I know there’s an answer!

 Been lucky enough to have been working on the beautiful game project being run by Billy Franks. The proceeds of this venture will be going to the charity formed by Prince Harry and Lesotho’s Prince Seeiso, Sentebale, which cares for orphaned children in Lesotho, Africa. So far I’ve been in the studio and on location and am currently knee deep in edits and footage. These are really exciting times! Check out the link above and while your there the 10 second tease for the project film/ music video - you’ll find ‘the tease’ on the video page.

It would appear that the snow might be upon us again. I look out of my window, I’m sitting at my golden oak 1930’s desk, and I see light snow or sleet blowing in the wind. Is this a bad thing or just a cold and wet thing - its certainly a good thing for my fur hat, in which I look like a cross between Ignatius J Reilly and Chas out of Chas and Dave (the fatter one with cheeky grin), for elsewise it would likely be confined to the cupboard for yet another year only to be rediscovered after the first fall of snow. Some sort of rule must surely apply to things like that - like remembering the party poppers after the party and like remembering the packet of Xmas cards you bought in the January sale after the following Christmas. What should it be called? Sods Law is just to obvious - we must come up with a new law - a too much stuff law, an it sounded like a good idea to buy it at the time law. Don’t get me wrong - I love my fur hat, but I also love my army green square cap, my grey felt fedora, my cowboy hat, my australian funny waxed hat (loved only a little if I’m honest), my Wimbledon FC baseball cap from the 4th Division days, my grey woolen Bruce Springsteen sitting on the New Jersey boardwalk sort of thing, my Brain Wilson Pet Sounds peaked cap, my black Casey Jones/Swat peaked cap. For gawd sake how many hats does a head need. And with that thought I return to my copy of George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier. There’s a sort of irony there!

We took the ferry to San Rafael a few days ago - the guide books said it was best avoided but Viv wanted to visit a fabric shop Dharma Trading so off we went. Ferry to Larkspur Landing and then a bus into San Rafael - the guide books are wrong - lovely town and lovely people - we were scerenaded by a lady at the Mission who thought we were on our honeymoon  and we ate handsomely at the crepevine. Bought a few trinkets and had a brill day - and for all you Johnny Cash fans there was the added bonus of passing San Quinten on the ferry - who’d have thought Alcatraz and San Quinten in the space a few days.

It occurs to me that there are plenty of things I’ve forgotten to tell you about - firstly on Monday night we went to the Utah Hotel for its weekly open mic. We chose this mic because it was a reasonable trollly bus ride and walk from our appartment. We arrived 20 mins after ‘list’ and I found myself 62nd on a one song each night! Now being in the pub/bar at 7.00 was bad enough but having to wait until near midnight to sing just one song was just too much. So after 3 pints of Stella and a mega basket of fries, and 21 Neil Young’s we beat a retreat. Oh what a shame. We also went to the Museum of Modern Art we saw some Ansel Adams photography and Georgia O’Keefe art - both excellent but Adams far more to my liking. Inspired so much was I that I went back to the appartment and painted a picture of Ocean Beach - makes you want to vomit don’t it.

Well before we whimmed out and went to Ocean Beach we spent the afternoon in China Town. Really weird hardly a restaurant in site but loads of tacky souvenir shops selling stuff I use to read about in the back of DC comics when I was a boy. Xray Specs, fuzzy beard magnetic faces, exploding cigars, Anzio Beach plastic soldier war set - weird weird weird. Hardly worth the visit but considering it was only 3 blocks from our Hotel it was no effort at all - the architecture remains worth seeing as do the shop fronts and contrast between new corporate and old San Francisco - so worth a visit after all.

Last night on a whim we took a BART to Ocean Beach - we saw the Pacific - we saw the waves - and we danced as the sunset. A beautiful day.