Er, yes. So, on Monday, we took a train round the north of England, going from Leeds to Settle to Carlisle to Newcastle to York to Leeds. The Settle to Carlisle stretch of which runs through the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District, and is supposedly the most scenic rail journey in the british isles.
We didn’t have time to get out to walk much - and, besides, it was probably a bit too windy for that to have been a sensible thing to have been doing, anyway. But we did get to gaze out the window at parts of the country that I’ve never seen - or even heard of before (just where is County Westmoreland, anyway?)
The rest of the journey wasn’t so special - if I’d known how bland it was, we’d have just retraced the route back from Carlisle to Leeds - but a quick summary as is follows: Carlisle - holiday town for ugly people. Newcastle - mudflats, concrete, and bridges. York - er, we didnt leave the station, but it does have a very wonderful roof. feh.
Next stop; the Glanusk Estate, somewhere between Pen-y-gaer, Llangynidr, and Ffawyddog (no, me neither) for the Green Man festival.
Getting here on Friday was a bit of a pain - I left at 1515-ish, since I naively assumed that the requests to “check in two hours early” meant “check in two hours before you normally would”, rather than “check in two hours before your flight is due to depart”. bah. ah well, it could have been worse - easyjet’s baggage system had broken down under the strain, and three staff members were trying to deal with maybe a thousand irate passengers.
So, I got through security, only to find that my plane had been delayed by FOUR FUCKING HOURS. grr. yes, kids, jet2 have /no/ spare planes - and, since they aren’t part of an sort of international alliance, they can’t even borrow a spare plane from a partner airline. So, if one breaks down, the flight is either cancelled, or passengers are made to wait for a plane to finish its duties elsewhere. beh.
Saturday saw Sarah, Robertdane, Mark, and some of the manifesta crowd at the Faversham for the Data Panik gig. Now, Data Panik - whose very wonderful single, Cubis (I love you) can be had from here - are the band that rose from the ashes of the equally wonderful bis. Yes, themmuns from Top of the Pops and Eurodisco and the Powerpuff Girls and all that. yes, they /were/ great. really.
We turned up at nine-ish, to find the venue still in use for the wedding reception for a couple who’d met at a bis gig back in the Social Dancing era. In fact, when the gig did start, it was really just an open-to-the-public extension of the reception - complete with be-hatted bridesmaids.
I don’t do gig reviews, ‘cos I’m not nearly pseudy enough (yeah, yeah, I know you don’t believe me, but, really, it’s /true/), so, er, this isn’t going to be one. ‘ver Panik finally shuffled onstage just before midnight, and we danced around down at the front, and all was good.
The setlist contained the words ” * COVER VERSION * ” at the end, and, sure enough, they wheeled out - for the last time ever - Kandy Pop, much to the delight of those of us old enough to remember the song’s significance. Nothing has ever made me feel older than trying to explain the machinations of the indie universe circa 1995 to a bunch of 19 year olds at the party afterwards, but, well, it was worth it…
Well, yesterday was the day of belfast’s pride march. Sarah and I spent a couple of hours in front of the city hall, where an anti-pride protest was being held by the Sandown Free Ps. Despite having claimed in their Parades Commission application that 50 people would be involved, there were no more than 20 of them (and many of them had been shipped in from England or Africa to make up the numbers) - a bit of a letdown, really.

Also providing entertainment was Donegall Sq North’s usual population of angsty teenagers, who’d got themselves rather het up about the anti-pride types. They were almost certainly justified in doing so, of course - the headbangers’ “hate the sin, but not the sinner” brand of homophobia is particularly abhorrent, but the kids were a bit over-excited by it. Ah, to be 14 again.
We ended up taking refuge with the pigeons by the city hall, I think…




If you haven’t signed up for the Electric Picnic “who will be going” list, please do so. Unless, of course you don’t want to go. Obviously.
Also, there’s a similar wiki now available for the Blug Beer Walk.
etc.
As promised, here’re the results of last night’s #blug pubbage:
![]() dtw & rooboy ![]() PRAest76 ![]() ajg, PRAest76, mharrigan, dtw, dw ![]() dtw & dw | ![]() mharrigan & kungfuftr ![]() dw & roo ![]() rory & PRAest76 ![]() oh dear… |
…this is how to get people buying singles again:




(and better still - the first person on the thanks list is Adie Nunn! Adie Nunn! From offof the Region 25 MUSIC echo! bloody hell!)