Keane at Kenwood

After Saturday at Reading festival came Sunday at Kenwood to see Keane. A lazy day compared to Saturday. Started with drinks at my friends in Hampstead at 6pm, a strong contrast to packing morning trains to Berkshire and trekking through campsites in drizzle. And you get a better class of tipple at a Kenwood do. A pint of Elderflower cider. Seriously nice.

First up was the very classy Laura Mvula, with a very classy backing group. Would perhaps have suited a more intimate venue, but still a fine set. (A harp always adds a touch of class don't you think?)

But we were there for Keane. A guilty pleasure of mine. You do get a wide age range for Keane. There are young followers, but one can't get away from it, they have a very senior audience. Indeed I fit quite happily into this band's age range. But they are just very good, and I will continue to see them whenever I can, although rarely will get the chance for a nicer setting than Kenwood House.

 

Reading Festival 2013

Annoyingly I chose the wet day of the three to attend the Reading Festival. But having said that it wasn't all that wet.

I met a couple of Brummie blokes at the station and had a nice chat as we walked to the site. And that kind of set the tone for the day. Not an auspicious start weather wise. Leaden grey sky and I purchased my noodle lunch just as the rain really started. So no real alternative but to head to the NME stage, alias the biggest tent.

For the true tent lover

I arrived during the set of a pleasant enough band called Theme Park, but only saw/heard a couple of songs.

The first full set was from an American band Darwin Deez. Now I really really wanted to like this band. Quirky, intelligent, witty - their lead singer struck me as the most intelligent of the acts I saw all day. But at the end of the day you have to like the music. I didn't. Not bad, but I think the problem was that any of them could be playing on any different song. They felt a bit like they were all playing on their own. Maybe too clever to be enjoyable.

Much more enjoyable, even if maybe less talented, was Deaf Havana. An honest rock band, raucous and loud, with a good following in the audience. Now let me say something about the Reading audience. Notwithstanding that it is very young, it is also very knowledgeable. Pretty much everyone one sees, even if obscure to me, will have a number of fans in the crowd. But then I guess there are 80,000 to choose from.

I said an honest band. Their lead singer made a point of saying they played all their instruments and unlike other bands who just had recordings of music which they performed which was embarrassing. And I guess that would have fitted the next band, Modestep. No photos of them. By the time they came on I was down the front, and the drum and bass crowd that had now filled the tent were going mental. No way could I have got a camera shot. I was lucky just not to get nutted or elbowed. One issue with such a young crowd is they do get rather over-excited. Does that sound condescending? Good.

Awaiting Palma Violets I started chatting to this American guy who was touring Europe and took the opportunity to attend Reading. Neat. Anyway, we both enjoyed Palma Violets. The first band on the bill which I had seen before. Fine for those of us who like indie rock. A nice experience - they even got a couple of mates out of the crowd to join them at the end.

 This was the end of my solo festival. I now met up with friends and spent the rest of the evening with them. It also marked my return to the outside world from the tent, but not before some teenage lad just came up to me to say how much he loved the next act, Johnny Marr. I guess because I would be the only person in the tent of roughly the same age as Mr Marr!

Anyway, we started off by getting the end of the White Lies set on the main stage. I will see them later in the year. So onto the next at, the Foals. Not a band I had much liked or listened to before, but quite enjoyed this set. Its part of the value of spending time with friends at festivals. You get taken to things you might not otherwise see.

Then my personal highlight of the day - Chase and Status. Way back from the action, but by the sound of it the action at the front was excessive and they had to stop a couple of times to let things settle down. Those over-excited kids again. This is a great act. The quality of the songs tends to vary with who is on guest vocals. But the light show helps, and the music is quite exciting. Went down a storm.

 

 As you can see we were indeed far back, but very happy.

We then managed to get back into the NME arena to see the whole set of that remarkable young man, Jake Bugg. Generally seen as the new Bob Dylan. This isn't normally I thing, but he is just so capable. And a very nice chilled appreciative audience.

And so to the finale, Alt-J on this stage. (Not bothered with Eminem on the main stage.) Unfortunately, I had to get the last train home, so could only get the first part of their set, just three songs really. Sad, as they are an interesting band, and I was much enjoying the company of my young friends. But time for home.

Getting home was fun. Perfect timing. Or cutting it very fine. Just arrived at Reading station with a couple of minutes to spare, or would have been if it had arrived in time. As it was 10 minutes late, I proceeded to get the last tube out of Paddington, and then last one out of Kings Cross. Tight. But I got home by about 1:30am.

Up on the O2 and a day in Greenwich

Now let me start this entry with a paean to the O2. Much derided when the Millennium Dome, it has been converted into a great private enterprise. Its still a bit of a pig to get to, and as a 22,000 capacity music venue it is not exactly intimate, but as a piece of architecture it is really rather striking. It pays to wander around. And the area is now filling up with shops and flats and the like. So on a nice day it is all rather photogenic. Especially if you like big bold geometric shapes and interesting textures and patterns.

  

But today my aim wasn't just to do some random pottering. I had managed to persuade a friend to allow me to take her and her youngest son out for a day. And my particular angle was to climb the Dome. You see, the O2 owners have found lots of ways to sweat their assets as its known in the trade. This includes not only packing the interior with restaurants to surround the music venue, but also the outside. they have built a canvas walkway right over the dome so you can climb the outside and get the views of London.

Now I really didn't feel I could justify doing this on my own. But the availability of a 13 year-old suddenly gave me an excuse. his mum not being great with heights, we piled into the copious amount of gear they give you (safety first of course!) and duly trekked up the sides. It is actually a very easy climb. Only the beginning and end are at all steep. You get taken up in little parties, ad it is all made to feel a little like mountaineering (the reception kiosk being "Base Camp"). Nevertheless, I think his mum was rather relieved not to have to undertake it.

 

Once you make it the top there is a circular viewing platform on which you get 10 minutes to admire the view and take photos. Like this.

And I think young Tom enjoyed the experience too. We certainly had the perfect day for it weather-wise. Unfortunately, his camera batteries were flat, but being the ever resourceful youth, just had to revert to camera-phone. We really do just take for granted the number of small devices we have available now.

 Having completed the climb and with a little time to kill before lunch we did, after a little bit of persuading on Tom and my part of a somewhat reluctant Tamsin, do the cable car trip across the Thames. Unlike Tamsin's previous experience with cable-cars, these are ultra-secure. You don't feel exposed to the elements. Although not sure if Tom's musings as to whether the carriages would float were helpful!

There is, frankly, not much on the other side apart from the eco-museum, the Crystal hosed in this curious building. It is a rather depressing place, the general theme of which seemed roughly that we will all perish on a degraded planet. I reassured Tom it will all be ok as his generation will sort it all out for us. He seemed to have less confidence in his peers than I do. Which is worrying.

 

On returning to the O2 we settled down to a massive Chinese buffet lunch (there are so many restaurants to choose from it is mad. And at a lunchtime they have hardly any customers so we almost had the cavernous place to ourselves. Any gig night however there are queues outside them all.

Then we headed into Greenwich Naval College, one of the underestimated tourist sights of London. Even on a glorious sunny day in the summer holidays, while not empty it was far from overrun with tourists.

Highlights are the Painted Hall

 and the Chapel. Clock the ceiling

Outside on a glorious day we just meandered around, taking in the Cutty Sark

 and climbed up to the Observatory for the views. Which are stunning, especially on a day like this. The contrast of the old Naval College and Queens House (which we didn't have time for) with the new developments of Canary Wharf, works very well. Well I think so.

 We finished off with a stroll in the park (allowing me to take some arty photos of pebbles in a fountain)

and then a little break to chat in front of the Thames before heading off for dinner at a Tapas bar. Overall, a lovely day. And the nice part is that we seemed to be able to chat all day without the conversation drying up. All credit to a very lively bright 13 year-old! And I think he managed the whole day without the need to resort to i-phone or whatever. An achievement in this day and age.