Gigs & Farnham 16/02/26 - 22/02/26
Mar. 7th, 2026 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
satyricaI was back with the D&D group online after work on Monday, then Tuesday I came home for food and headed out again to Camden, where I met up with Ketch for a gig at The Elephant's Head. The gigs are all free there, you can register for a 'ticket' but it seems to carry on functioning as a normal pub and this time it was unpleasantly full but we managed to wedge ourselves in. We heard the end of Ina End (from France, apparently) a one-woman-with-electric-guitar artist, who I would like to have been able to pay more attention to from what I could hear from the back of the crowd. We managed to shuffle forwards a bit for young psych-rockers Bitter Pearl, but we were there for headliners Another Day: their poet guy was more integrated than last time, delivering sections of vocals on some songs and playing tambourine on the rest, rather than just bookending the performance. They somehow made space for their backflips as well and impressed again. I was back out and meeting up with Ketch after work on Wednesday too, also with A, who had been having dinner with her grandson T locally before coming to the Old Blue Last. The singer from the previous night's headliners, Another Day, was in the crowd although Ketch wasn't feeling great and bailed before we got through all four acts. First on was Anthony Ferreira Cullen a guy sitting down playing Brazilian-tinged tunes that were alternately sunny and soulful; I think those in Portuguese were covers and in English originals and at its best he was spellbinding. Next up came Leo Walrus, playing with a band, who had strong 60s vibes and I'm pretty sure I've seen before. Beth Jones was accompanied by a bass and a cello (at one point a dulcimer came out) and I found her music haunting and beautiful. We'd come for Adult Cat, who played some new songs that seemed a bit less country than recent tunes, although they then smashed out a full-on bluegrassy cover of Let the Cocaine Be.
My gig-heavy week continued on Thursday when I headed straight from work down to Peckham and met up with A's friend Mark at the Peckham Arches, a cool little outdoorsy space where we had a drink and tacos before heading on to a venue called Vespers, which was only just opening shortly after we got there. It looked more like a club venue, with a raised area around the dancefloor in front of the stage. The first band on were Border Widow, two women, one singing with a guitar and one singing with a stand-up drum and cymbal, performing to a backing track, who had a pagan, mesmeric energy to them. I was there for House Arrest, playing their last gig before two of their members moved on, and many of the Windmill Crowd had turned our for it. There was great crowd energy, although it seemed to drag on and become a bit self-indulgent, no doubt the departees keen to drag out their final moments. This meant that the headliners, Spanish Horses, who Mark had been most interested in, came on pretty late: they were a five-piece, originally from Paris, who definitely had more musicality woven in to their urgent guitars, but the vocals [provided by Jarvis Cocker's son] got rather lost. Conscious of last trains, Mark had to leave before the end and I headed out with him. On Friday I came home and cooked then once more headed out and met up with Ketch, back on form, this tim at the Water Rats. We were there for The Great Malarkey, playing without a support, but with a break in the middle of the set, accommodations to age and Alex having to get the train back to Ramsgate. She constantly gave shout outs to all her mates in the audience and the whole performance was exactly the kind of glorious chaos we have come to expect from them.
At the weekend I was due to meet up with K, getting away for her imminent birthday: we were meeting in Farnham, although she got held up so I had the chance to have a quick poke around the town, which seemed nice, then we were going back to The Princess Royal, close by, where we'd been a couple of times before. The Fullers pub was busy for the rugby but we went straight up to our little suite and holed up there for the duration (I only ventured down to get some wine and crisps K had delivered via Uber Eats): we didn't have a Murder Mystery this time, but an online escape room kept us busy, alongside our usual distractions of cards, word wheels and dancing to the songs of our youth, before crashing out at about 4am. I made it down for the complementary breakfast and K dropped me back to the station after check-out. Back in London I went to Sainsbury's then had a nap in the afternoon, waking up in time for an earlier-than-usual Family Zoomtime at 5pm, then heading in to the Shelter (at the Church of Scotland) as it was my week and this was the only evening I had free.
My gig-heavy week continued on Thursday when I headed straight from work down to Peckham and met up with A's friend Mark at the Peckham Arches, a cool little outdoorsy space where we had a drink and tacos before heading on to a venue called Vespers, which was only just opening shortly after we got there. It looked more like a club venue, with a raised area around the dancefloor in front of the stage. The first band on were Border Widow, two women, one singing with a guitar and one singing with a stand-up drum and cymbal, performing to a backing track, who had a pagan, mesmeric energy to them. I was there for House Arrest, playing their last gig before two of their members moved on, and many of the Windmill Crowd had turned our for it. There was great crowd energy, although it seemed to drag on and become a bit self-indulgent, no doubt the departees keen to drag out their final moments. This meant that the headliners, Spanish Horses, who Mark had been most interested in, came on pretty late: they were a five-piece, originally from Paris, who definitely had more musicality woven in to their urgent guitars, but the vocals [provided by Jarvis Cocker's son] got rather lost. Conscious of last trains, Mark had to leave before the end and I headed out with him. On Friday I came home and cooked then once more headed out and met up with Ketch, back on form, this tim at the Water Rats. We were there for The Great Malarkey, playing without a support, but with a break in the middle of the set, accommodations to age and Alex having to get the train back to Ramsgate. She constantly gave shout outs to all her mates in the audience and the whole performance was exactly the kind of glorious chaos we have come to expect from them.
At the weekend I was due to meet up with K, getting away for her imminent birthday: we were meeting in Farnham, although she got held up so I had the chance to have a quick poke around the town, which seemed nice, then we were going back to The Princess Royal, close by, where we'd been a couple of times before. The Fullers pub was busy for the rugby but we went straight up to our little suite and holed up there for the duration (I only ventured down to get some wine and crisps K had delivered via Uber Eats): we didn't have a Murder Mystery this time, but an online escape room kept us busy, alongside our usual distractions of cards, word wheels and dancing to the songs of our youth, before crashing out at about 4am. I made it down for the complementary breakfast and K dropped me back to the station after check-out. Back in London I went to Sainsbury's then had a nap in the afternoon, waking up in time for an earlier-than-usual Family Zoomtime at 5pm, then heading in to the Shelter (at the Church of Scotland) as it was my week and this was the only evening I had free.
