Devo, South Bank, Prince, Ightham Mote, beer and Cleethorpes…

Ages since I posted so a quick run down of what we’ve been doing.

First off, I finally went to see Devo at Shepherds Bush Empire. I’ve wanted to see them for 25 years, and this was the first chance in more than 15 years.

It was strange being in an audience where ther majority of people were actually older than me! And the band did look a bit like old fellas, but they did a great show, lots of their singles and really rocked! Bought myself a t-shirt and an energy dome hat (for laughs).

We spent a Sunday afternoon at the South Bank, visiting the Anthony Gormley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, which was pretty interesting, including spending some time spotting as many of the “Event Horizon” figures dotted around the walkways and rooftops of the area as possible.

There was also a strange water installation outside called “Appearing Rooms” which had walls made up of jets of water which would appear and disappear randomly.

Appearing Rooms at Southbank

A couple of weeks ago, Vic and I, her sister Lorna and Lorna’s friend Caroline all went to see Prince’s second concert at The O2. The concert was “in the round” and our seats were quite close to the stage. Felt a bit sorry for some people sitting way, way up high looking almost vertically down.

Some people were disappointed with the concert as Prince didn’t do many of his hits, even though the concerts were billed as the last time he’d be playing them. He put on a great show though, and showed his obvious desire to be the new James Brown with carbon copy moves. His band were great too, fantastic brass especially from Maceo Parker, who used to be in James Brown’s band.

Prince did a few of his hits though, including “U Got The Look”, “Kiss”, “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Purple Rain”.

The weekend before last Vic and I went to Ightham Mote, a medieval moated manor house near Sevenoaks in Kent. It was a lovely sunny day and we enjoyed a stroll around some of the grounds as well as a look round the house itself. It also houses the only Grade I listed dog kennel. Which is nice.

Ightham Mote

Last Thursday evening we journeyed out to Earls Court for the Great British Beer Festival. We had plenty of half-pints to sample the various beers, tried a couple of ciders too and bumped into all sorts of people we knew. A good evening and plenty of good beer.

And finally, we’ve just spent the weekend up in Cleethorpes visiting my parents. We also managed to fit in a trip to Ernie Beckett’s for fish and chips, a trip to TkMaxx in Grimsby, the first football match of the season (Grimsby vs Notts County, a 1-1 draw) and a nice walk along the beach.

Cleethorpes seafront

I really will try to keep things more up to date now, honest…