horsemouth (and howard) through the looking glass

after much effort (well none at all actually) horsemouth and howard made it through the looking glass and into the new london (down at the tides festival in north greenwich).

horsemouth arrived first (by tube) - there was a woman djing an african music selection at the first stage and some house music at the second stage. there were friendly helpful security people everywhere and pale ale vans with 50 uses and then recycleable plastic cups (one pound deposit - 5.50 a pint). there were crafts and food stalls (horsemouth assumed he was too poor for these and so had had breakfast and lunch before he came out).

the sun shone and people milled about wondering where the entertainment was. the festival was in honour of a new elevated walkway - horsemouth walked it - it was elevated.

by the time howard had arrived (by bus through a tunnel) it had all gone quiet again - they had a beer and wandered back and forth a bit. they sat in some deckchairs and watched some art videos and then a guy djing. humanity you were beautiful but, judging by the noise you made with the mass of djembes left out, you have no sense of rhythm. eventually they decided to go for a walk down the river towards the thames barrier and kill time until the main acts - they wandered through the last remaining bit of industry and then found the anchor and hope pub and had a pint of bitter and a packet of crisps there.



then they wandered back and saw a little of sudan archives (violin and backing tracks decent) and then a pause and then mulatu astatke - a venerable old ethiopian jazz musician (with lots of young dudes).



horsemouth dug it (and the crowd dug it), those horn chants are really memorable and there were some great 3 rhythms. the sound was quite spiky - horsemouth had to retreat from the speakers. in the end howard needed food - so they went and got some humous and bread at the tescos and then off to their various homes.

horsemouth’s friend jenna’s band (bad wives) were playing that night (but horsemouth was too knackered to go).

will horsemouth go back next week for oumou sangare? howard was saying no - horsemouth he’s not sure (the alternative is walthamstow garden party but the queues there are always horrendous).

saturday morning stick in the wheel are playing (that’l be good). howard had mentioned a film called the l-shaped room when horsemouth was in it was on telly so he watched it. today is cold and grey and rainy - there’s supposed to be a picnic (but horsemouth can’t see it really).