Entitled Sons at the Half Moon in Putney

I do like catching a new band. And a new venue.

So I piled down to Putney on Saturday night to see the Entitled Sons. The Half Moon is a traditional live music pub, which like other small venues prides itself on the big acts that started there. Their big name is the Who. I must confess when I got there I was rather surprised at how small the venue was. And not the usual crowd behaviour - everyone clustered at the back not rushed to the front. Although the back might only have been 6 metres from the stage! I took up a spot at front but right at the side despite the vacant middle solely because it allowed me to lean on one of the speakers. Normally I lean on the barrier, but this place was too small to have a barrier! Eventually security had to usher people to the front.

Now if you go to see an act in the back of a pub, you expect any support act to be pretty rubbish. My second surprise was how good the support act, Bowen, really were. I normally find an indie guitar band with a female lead singer is a bad sign. Only because most female vocalists just don't have the voice to carry over a crunching lot of rock guitars, either too quiet or too shouty. But this girl was really good.

 

And then onto Entitled Sons. They have a very particular claim to fame - they are literally a family band - four teenage brothers and their father on bass. They performed all their own compositions with just the one classic rock n roll cover. But their strong point is not so much the music as the stage presence, plus they can really play their instruments despite their youth. Especially the two youngest, Raff on lead guitar giving it all the rock star treatment, and the 14 year old on drums.

But the star is Charlie on lead vocals who has a real rock voice and properly plays the stage. Only catch was he desperately needed a bigger stage than this!

A really good experience, I will catch them again. All the excitement of youth but none of the gauche introspection. What they would be really good at is a small festival. The issue wasn't the intimate venue, just the available square metres on stage! 

Coventry 3 Man Utd 3 Wembley FA Cup semi final

As a Coventry fan, I am devastated and disconsolate. Heart breaking.

 

You can imagine what it was like in the City end; proverbial emotional rollercoaster.

 

Resignation as we went three down, pleasure at getting one back, hope at two, delirium at last minute penalty equaliser, beyond ecstasy at last minute of extra time winner, at which point we were looking far the more dangerous team, devastation at having it ruled out for an offside so marginal it was impossible to see with the naked eye, then elation at first penalty saved, then inexorable unravelling of all hopes and dreams….

 

A friend who was watching on TV with his 9 year old said they had to turn off the coverage at the end because of the harrowing shots of crying boys in the crowd. I saw some of them close up. Hard to tell a 10 year old they will suffer worse as a football fan as they get older. Probably not the consolation they were looking for.

 

I got there early!

It is difficult to convey the excitement at our end as the comeback progressed. This lad who whipped off his shirt was not alone. And to put this in context, it was not warm - I was wearing jacket jumper and thermal underwear, and gloves!

Start of penalty shoot out

Telling part was the scene at the end. Coventry end applauding the losers, United end emptied immediately, skulking out in embarrassment at the winners. Have seen some of the social media stuff and United fans incredibly unhappy. Essentially that was an incredibly expensive Premier League team that looked in trouble as soon as Coventry actually gave it a go, which we didn’t do at all in the first half.

 

Montreal by hop on hop off bus (and my birthday)

Given my then walking difficulties it seemed to me that I could only get around Montreal by bus. And brilliantly, like many cities Montreal has a hop on hop off bus that does a circuit of all the main tourist sites. There was a stop really near my hotel, and you can buy tickets online. Perfect. Except...

There is absolutely no point in buying tickets on line. Because as I found when I bought them, you have to collect your ticket physically at the main ticket office in a central square. I would have been as well buying them there than having to show them my purchase on my mobile. And of course it meant I had to limp all the way there, rather than go to my nearest stop.

It was my birthday so I had my birthday lunch, on my own, in a restaurant on Place Jacques-Cartier. For a change, I thought I would try out a creperie

And a cocktail. Hey, it was my birthday!

That was the restaurant

A museum down at the Old Port. Now in part the reason to visit is just the views 

The permanent collection is on the history of Montreal. More kitsch than fine art. But very well displayed

The foundations are the foundations of the oldest settlement in Montreal

There was also an Egyptian exhibition on at the time.

This is Montreal's more Bohemian district

University grounds

Top deck of my bus. Not always this empty!

Mary Queen of the World Cathedral - sort of modelled on St Peters in Rome

Victoria Square

A rather nice little museum in the home of an early settlor

Literally the first car in Montreal!