Shed 2 (The Gazebo)

 

And I'm going camping this weekend. Best take the waterproofs!

 

Any instruction manual that has a section called "Don't Panic!" pretty much guarantees I'm going to actually read it.

 

The first page sets a reassuring tone: "Problems? Don't take it back to the shop, they won't be able to fix it. Ring the helpline, it's a local rate number"

 

This is followed by a list of standard do's and don't's that start with an informative piece of advice: "Read the instructions, keep them safe, pass them on if you pass on the appliance."

 

 

...now, to be honest, we're not sure about that last one - Debs tested this one by leaving the cleaner unattended for several minutes when plugged in and it didn't do anything - perhaps we're lucky and have a well behaved one.

 

Cable - Pull out as much cable as you need from the back of the cleaner. The yellow band around the cable tells you there's a metre left. The red band tells you "Stop pulling, you've run out of cable!"

 

Carrying and Moving - Lift the cleaner only by the handle. Do not sit it upright - it'll fall over. You may move the cleaner around by pulling gently (that's gently), on the hose.

 

Finished? - Press the button and hold it in - the cable will rewind. Keep clear of the cable. If it catches on anything stop pressing and it'll stop rewinding. We've tried to make it not too powerful, to avoid wrecking your home.

 

Don't Panic! - If the cleaner starts to get noisy, or you start to lose suction, don't worry, it's not the end of the world, you've probably just blocked it... Spread newspaper on the floor, you're going to make a mess... use something blunt, like the blunt-end of ball-point pen to dislodge any blockage... if you haven't cleared the blockage by now, try again.

 

 

Thank you for sharing that, Dean. I may have to option Russell Hobbs products in the future. 

 

Anyway...

 

To the Music -  people my age who look exactly like me don't necessarily like the same music I do - it's a disappointing fact, but a fact never-the-less, they have a penchant for blues rock and folksy blues rock bands that I don't share and the billing for the three days reflected a lot of that, but thankfully they also like Prog and there was some of that too (not a lot, but some) - Saturday saw Martin Barre trucking out Jethro Tull's greatest hits, Curved Air and Karnataka where also there ... 10cc headlined that day - prog related but it was just Graham Gouldman from the original lineup .. we were busy that day and couldn't attend anyway, though I would have liked to have seen Curved Air and Karnataka again after all these years. So to today (Sunday) - first band we watched (on the Beekeeper's Stage... seriously, that's what it was called) was one of those bluesy rock bands that people my age who look exactly like me seem to like because it comprised of musicians my age who look exactly like me ... we stayed and watched, we'd seen them before in a local cricket pavilion, John the lead guitarist works in the same college as my good lady wife, not watching them seemed rude, so we watched and enjoyed, it looked like they were going to over-run, and that made the host/compare very nervous as he hovered in the wings waiting to usher them off, "Sorry", said John, "We don't do short songs". We then wandered though the rustic rural café (stopping for a cup of tea) to the Old Kiln Stage (I'm really not making this stuff up) where a very young local lass of 16 very young years called Aimée bore the stage with a startling degree of confidence and accompanied herself on guitar as she sang songs that if you closed your eyes sounded exactly like those young girls with long blond hair who know every Joni Mitchel song by heart - her younger sister stood next to her and scratched away at a violin exactly like you would imagine someone that young scratching away at a violin would sound, but give her the credit she deserves, she did it with confidence that must be a family trait and she also sang some rather nice harmonic counterpoint to her elder sister, who had a remarkably voice for one so young. There are a lot of girls out there who think they can sing and a lot of girls out there that know they can sing, only a very few ever make it big, I hope that if Aimée is one of them she retains whatever magical quality her natural voice has now. Several other bands and artists happened, we saw many of them, some we enjoyed some we didn't - Charley Farley Sunday 4 were fun - skiffle versions of pop songs that had the wimmin who look fetching in cagoule and wellies jumping up and down and doin' Jazz-hands...anywhere else that would have been a "look away now" moment (if you want to hear a skiffle version of Rihanna's Umbrella you can do your own YouTube searching). Anna Phoebe was not a name I knew - she's a violinist who as toured as part of Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson's touring band, with Roxy Music, with the late Jon Lord and as part of the Trans Siberian Orchestra (The Lost Christmas Eve and Night Castle) - a good deal of prog relatedness going on there so definitely worth a listen, and that snap assessment wasn't wrong - stunningly good mix of Celtic, rock, jazz and middle eastern fiddle playing that was a million miles away from Aimée's younger sibling.

(Note Well: the relative "fitness" of Anna Phoebe vis her being a brunette and not a blond has no bearing on why I posted this picture, it is merely an illustration of her use of the pizzicato technique)

 

Next prog-ish band was After The Fire (on the Village Green Stage - the only festival stage I know of that has it's own steam railway station alongside) - I say prog-ish with reservation since I saw them several times in the 70s when they were a Genesis/Yes influenced symphonic prog band and once in the 80s when they most definitely were not - and sadly today they were firmly in the "were not" camp, knocking out their synth-pop hits like Der Kommissar and One Rule For You - but occasionally there was a flash of brilliance from Peter Banks on keyboards that hinted at their former prog rock style and one very extended guitar solo from John Russell that was rather pleasing to hear. A quick stop off at the Old Kiln Stage to listen to the Bill Posters Will Be band ... if I said band names like The Temperance Seven, The Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band and Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band and mentioned names like Bill Spoons and Roger Ruskin Spear and you knew what the 'eck I was going on about then you'll know exactly what Bill Posters is all about - silly fun done superbly well. And finally (Cyril) ... Steve Hackett in fine form - old songs, new songs, three genesis songs - an hour set - it was too short and this isn't a review:

(Steve's second guitarist is Amanda Lehmann - she's pretty good, then she'd have to be to compliment Steve's playing, apparently she's a blond, not that I noticed - she's not a south-paw so I don't think she was in The Electric Mayhem)

 

Asia were up next - I like the guys individually and in other bands, but just not in Asia - we didn't wait around to hear the only song of theirs we knew and went home instead (the cats needed feeding).

Just A Minute - BBC Home Service pilot show with Nicholas Parsons, Beryl Reid, Wilma Ewart, Clement Freud and Derek Nimmo. From December 1967

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n2sl6