02/09/24 - 08/09/24

I went home for dinner after work on the Monday then, rather than stay around for D&D, went back down to The Lower Third where Sovereigns were playing their last ever gig. I ran into Bennie almost straightaway and he was as friendly as always (it couldn’t have been more of a contrast to my experience at the New X Inn the week before). On first was Heidi, also from Southend, who had a powerful voice which she was mostly accompanied on the guitar, before a couple against a fancy backing track at the end. There was also support from Saint Clair, an enjoyably rocky young quartet, and The Maddocks down from Stockport. Sovereigns brought all their usual energy to their full complement of engaging tunes and will be very much missed.

I was at a gig again on Tuesday, this time up at The Horn in St Albans, which I headed straight to, grabbing food as I passed through Finchley Road. I mad good time so went through a little wander around the pleasant town centre before doubling-back to the pub. I was mostly there to see support band Torus, who were just releasing their first album, and well worth the trip, but I’d also seen headliners Laughter before, who were once again enjoyable. I was home the next couple of nights: N was out on the Wednesday but I cooked for us on Thursday night.

E, PFW and I were going to the Martha gig at The Garage on Friday night but arranged to meet for a drink at The Brewhouse first, along with all our various partners, which was really nice. When the three of us headed into the gig, we were part-way through support Former Champ (who didn’t grab us much) but also ran into venta & ChrisC, who it was lovely to see. Martha were as glorious (and their fanbase as dedicated) as ever.

On Saturday I travelled up to Oxford: for once I got the train rather than the Oxford Tube, which both brought me into the town centre and got me there more quickly, so I had a nostalgic wander from there up around the Town Centre (particularly taking in the Burton Taylor and the basement of Blackwells), then up around the parks, before reaching LMH, where L was holding a book lunch for Telling Tales in Nature her compendium of re-tellings of classical myths. We were in the graduate centre they have built out the front of the college, so I didn’t really get to nose around the college as I remember it, but I did see a fair few familiar faces, including A&J and A all in the same place for the first time in well over a decade.

I walked back to the station along the canal and got back into London in almost perfect time to head across to Shoreditch for a gig at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes. First on were Leeds trio Scum, with a frenzy of guitars, then Kitchen Lover were a punky duo who got people moving. I was there for Mofgy, for whom the packed, sweaty basement was the perfect setting; their guitarist seeming to have been replaced by a guy that had joined them on stage for the occasional song previously.

On Sunday N & I headed down to Abbey Wood, then via a specially laid-on Routemaster and a bizarre mini-railway that only ran about 500m, to the Crossness Pumping Station- a wonder of Bazalgette’s Victorian sewage system, nestling amid the aroma of the current sewage works. It had an interesting exhibition and Heinz Woolf style demonstration, then we were allowed in timed groups into the ornate pumphouse itself. Claire had come as well, albeit on a different cycle to us, and we had some lunch in the café and walked back to Abbey Wood with her. Back up in Tottenham I did a shop and had Family Zoomtime in the evening.