Summer in May. And the Royston Club at the Roundhouse

We have had a spell of unseasonably warm weather, so that encourages me out into my garden

One cistus in full bloom

Wisteria coming to the end of its glory days

Snapdragons just starting to bloom

And an early butterfly

I only did one gig this week - the Royston Club at the Roundhouse. I was a little blind-sided by quite how popular the Royston Club are with a young audience. As I just buy albums and go to gigs, but  don't follow on social media or anything, I don't have much a feel for just how crazy popular they are with a totally different generation to mine. Basically it was an under 25 audience.

The relevance of this is that I turned up about 15 minutes before doors open expecting a modest queue, but instead there was a queue all the way down the road. I expect this if a band has a young teenage girl following, but the Royston Club are more of a lads band, so wasn't anticipating them to be so dedicated!

Anyway, it meant I could not secure a spot at the front, or anything like, but was left peering over shoulders. So just didn't even try to take photos like I normally do.

So there are the Royston Club. Top band if you haven't heard them. Lead singer has tremendous strong voice. They do a nice version of Waterloo Sunset in a quiet spell in the middle (sans most of the band members). The atmosphere is a bit like an old school football terrace (in a good way, I mean lads chanting support rather than fist fights!)

 

Zurbaran and Stubbs at the National Gallery

While I had seen many Francisco de Zurbaran paintings, I had never seen an exhibition of his works or read anything about him, so this exhibition was a bit of a revelation. Mostly because it took one through his output and allowed one to see changes in his style, and different subject matter to what I had seen, which I could best sum up as "religious paintings". Admittedly that does account for most of his output. After all one follows the money, and the money in Spain at the time was sat in the catholic church.

I might mention that this was the opening weekend of the exhibition so it was pretty busy even though I got there just after opening. I will go again when it is quieter and maybe take some more photos.

The crucifixions are impressive (of which there are several). They avoid excessive goriness which Spanish painters seem to love.

There is a gallery of still lives, of which this is the most renowned

Although many of the still lives are not by him but by his son Juan, who tragically died of the plague aged just 29. These grapes are superb

This is another religious work (and not a weird dead sheep thing as a friend described it!). It is Agnus Dei (lamb of God), a lamb ready for sacrifice, meant to represent Christ, an innocent lamb to be sacrificed for us.

Unlike many Italian renaissance and baroque painters, Zurbaran avoided male nudes, the exception being a cycle of paintings prepared for the Spanish king on the labours of Hercules, a couple of which were included here

If there is a weird painting it is this at the end of the exhibition, Christ crucified in front of St Luke, patron saint of painters. with his palette in hand.

He spent most of his working life in Seville but ended in Madrid when his style changed from these dramatically lit detailed paintings into something rather more colourful, gentle and domestic.

While in the Gallery I also popped along to see the little free exhibition on Stubbs, which featured three of his equine portraits that are in a private collection, plus a series of drawings on the anatomy of a horse. I don't think anyone has painted horses better, and he clearly studied them in enormous detail. Again, someone following the money. Rich aristocrats liked having paintings done of their horses.

 

Spring has arrived - or is it summer?

A lovely patch of warm weather and its into my garden to read in the unseasonal heat. Who needs to travel to the Med?

Star of the show at this time of year is the wisteria on my pergola

 

Permanent at the Dublin Castle

How about this for a quirky night? An Italian Joy Division tribute act. Called Permanent

.

 Definitely niche. But they were brilliant. A truly deep dive into Joy Division's song list.

The lead singer definitely had Ian Curtis' voice. And looked like him, if Ian had made it into middle age. This was Joy Division as dance music too, not gloomy songs to listen to in one's bedsit which is I think rather their reputation.

The band wanted a photo at the end to mark their experience of playing Joy Division in England. And as you can see below, although the crowd was predominantly pensioners there were some youngsters who liked the band too and enjoyed the night.