Average White Band at Ronnie Scotts 2016

Soho, London. Thursday 14-July-2016.

Introducing another friend to the joys of Ronnie's, this time Christine Low.

Couldn't find a picture or a review of this specific gig so here is a picture from an earlier Ronnie's show:

This was the third time I have been to see AWB. We were even closer to the stage than this picture as we went for priority seating. Really good view and the show much the same as the last two AWB gigs - a rollicking good evening with all the hits.

Cleaning the Wandle July 2016

Wimbledon. Sunday 10-July-2016

A lovely day to go paddling in the River Wandle. Very early on I found a duvet and a complete bed base. The latter was a bit of a bugger to get out as it was well buried in the silt. Lots of teamwork and heaving and grunting eventually got it out. Shortly after I found the mini-trampoline you can see behind it.

Unfortunately I managed to puncture my waders on the bed-springs and ended up with some very soggy jeans. Fortunately I have a spare repair patch kindly given to me by Polly the organiser.

There was the obligatory bicycle, but only one this time.

Meanwhile further downstream the others found a washing machine. At this point the concrete channel is a couple of metres high so more teamwork was required to grapple the beast up onto the bank.

Hurrah!

And this is why we do it. A couple of tons of rubbish cleaned out of the river.

It is a great way to spend a lovely Sunday. Most satisfying!

The Wandle Trust is an environmental charity dedicated to restoring and maintaining the health of the River Wandle and its catchment. They hold community river cleanups on the second Sunday of every month, up and down this unique urban chalkstream – pulling out everything from shopping trolleys to shotguns, and improving the environment for birds, fish, insects and local people. For more visit: http://www.wandletrust.org/.

Keb Mo at Union Chapel 2016

Islington, London. Tuesday 05-July-2016.

This concert pushes Keb up into third place as the artist we have seen most often (behind Marcus Bonfanti and Van Morrison). We first saw him in New Orleans at the Jazz Fest in 1998 and again there on one of our subsequent visits to NOLA.

The third time we saw him he was supporting BB King at the BIC. We were wearing our Keb Mo T-shirts and at the interval people came up to us and said 'He's brilliant" and asking "Which album should we buy?"

Then we saw him two years ago also at the Union Chapel. On that occasion we bumped into Pete and Amanda so we know they'd be up for a repeat performance. We also persuaded our friend Barbara to come along as well. As last time, we went for a meal at Tierra Peru beforehand and then joined the long queue for doors open at 6:30.

It is unreserved seating and last time we were up in the balcony. This time, despite the long queue in front of us, we got second row seats in the stalls. Bit off to the side but still pretty good. No support this time, straight into the main act so we got a good long set.

Since we have six of his CD's we knew pretty much all the songs which added greatly to the enjoyment.  A cracking concert. Mary and I went for a quick beer afterwards in The Famous Cock Tavern to round off the evening.