Face Of Cheam

Last weekend was action packed! On Friday I ventured to the Shpeherds Bush Empire for an evening of blues with Gary Moore. My 220 bus got stuck in traffic and when we got to Shepherds Bush, the driver decided to terminate the service there much to the annoyance of other travellers. None to me as I was where I wanted to be. I saw the first half hour of the dull England friendly in Austria, which was enough to see Owen get injured before getting to the venue and cementing my usual place on the left just in front of the bar. Mr Moore did a good show, similar to his set here a few months ago. Strangely the house lights got turned on after the end of his first encore ‘The Blues Is Alright’ which featured Otis Taylor on harmonica, which led to several people leaving before he returned for Parisienne Walkways. This meant I and a very nice girl called Corinne who I met earlier on at the gig were able to get very near the front for the final number. I decided not to make a bet with her as to how long the note would last in the final verse which is something I would probably do in male company. Alas she was heading back to Plymouth where she lives so unlikely that we’ll bump into each other again, which is a shame.
Saturday, me and a few friends did a good crawl of Tottenham Court Road and Holborn. Hopefully Dr Lovegrove will write it up on his site that is linked, if he gets round to fixing a few bugs. Highlights were for me sitting beneath the stairs in Bradleys and the coloured barmaid in the Intrepid Fox. Also the fact the Bloomsbury did Oranjeboom and whilst in here we learned that Israel beat Russia handing England a lifeline. As always with Holborn we ended up in the Polish bar and feeling rough the next day.
Sunday I was back up in the same area for Magnum. An awful rainy evening we got fairly wet as we did a mini crawl of North Picadilly / Soho before getting a quick eat. My brother went to MacDonalds where we saw Thunders drummer ‘Arry James in a Palace scarf. He confirmed he was only up here for the beers. We then had a quick pint in the Intrepid Fox, we went into what is now known again as The Astoria 2. (Good for the pub count!). We were ecstatic to see they now serve Tuborg in cans here, not so much when we saw they were £3.20. Magnum did two sets, the first one a best of, with five from their excellent Princess Alice album and the second playing the whole of their classic ‘Wings Of Heaven’ album. There was not a duff track here, and when you hear ‘Start Talking Love’ and ‘Don’t Wake the Lion’ live for the first time in years you wonder why they have been dropped from their normal shows. The gig, which was recorded for a live release next year, ended with an elongated ‘Sacred Hour’ showcasing Mark Stanways keyboard talents no end. A great show from a great band.