OK, I’ve posted stuff about the wonderful Spookey probably more than just about anything else. And, I suppose there’s only so many ways in which you can explain just how wonderful the experience of seeing them live is or how brilliant their recordings are. But, they have been back in the country. I saw them play three times. Here’s kinda what happened roundabout those gigs.

And, lo! So it came to be that the band were down to play Brighton and a scout hut in the middle of nowhere close by over the September weekend. J had the time booked off for some misguided plan to go to the rescheduled Truckfest and, working in education, I just get it off anyway.

Back in the day, I had a real fondness for Brighton. Recently, I’ve found myself back there for various reasons. As can only be expected, I’ve noticed a lot more gentrification/affluence. Probably a lot more pronounced due to the gap in time since I’d been there. Although, thankfully, unlike the parts of Glasgow that have had the soul ripped from them to facilitate the burgeoning boho-classes and their tanker truck prams of offspring, there’s still enough unbranded, rough and downright funky (in it’s truest sense) places to kick back and enjoy.

Central to this is the North Laine area. It’s a ramshackle network of terraces and pedestrianised streets. It abounds with vegetarian cafes, second hand clothing shops and “antiques dealers” (ie fun to rummage round junk shops). The town is often referred to as Camden-On-Sea due to the influx of young professionals unable to afford London’s trendier areas, and weekend revelers. And, while this district is the epicenter of such painful trendiness, it still manages to maintain a genuine buzz that has been being dismantled in similar places all over the country.

After my last experience staying at their London Bridge branch(es), I swore blind that I would never stay in a St Christopher’s Inn again. However, on my last time I was in Brighton I’d clocked that their hostel there could not possibly be more central. Literally it’s practically across the road from the entrance to the Pier, right next to the bus ‘station’. Unlike their capital counterparts, all of the front-facing staff were as helpful and friendly as you could hope for. The attached Belushi‘s bar is mainly a ‘sports bar’ and full of backpackers. ie. Not somewhere you’d chose to frequent if you were in your right mind, but all right. The accommodation is not as bad as some of their places, but not as good as a lot of similar establishments I’ve stayed in. Functional, and a little tatty. And, no, it’s not ‘character’, it’s wear and tear. Biggest complaint: The cleaner bursting into our hungover room on the Sunday morning yelling about checking out time. Then bursting back in to holler about how she was sorry and didn’t know we were staying another night. Hopefully she had to deal with the aftermath, when we left, of J coming down with the bug I’d got over just before we got there.

The day was spend wandering round just checking the place out and enjoying the occasional drinkie. We were handed a bunch of fliers stapled together (actually a good idea) at one point. This featured info on the gig we would be going to the next night and other stuff on in the town. One of which was Club Meow Meow hosted by the band of the same name who had toured with the girls last year. We decided to forget the travel out to the ‘middle of nowhere’ and to go along to that at the Prince Albert. Well, we might as well try and absorb some of the local atmos.

For dinner we went to a rather cheap Chinese place right on the edge of The Lanes (no ‘i’ this time) near the hostel. Sadly I can’t remember the name of it, which is a shame because the food was good enough for the price and plentiful (I failed abysmally to clear my bowl of Tom Yum) and this would be handy info to pass on to anyone that might find themselves down that way. Looking at the map, it’s very possibly East St (or Lane).

A leisurely pub stroll up to the venue. (Central Brighton appears to have one hill. The train station is at the top of it. The pub is next to the station.) One of the pubs we visited was the Heart and Hand. It has a Northern Soul record label for a sign and there are pictures of Johnny Cash behind the bar. What more could you possibly want? Well, coffee, TBH and they’d just switched off their machine. So we continued on to the 3 Jolly Butchers where the rather delightful barmaid offered to stop cleaning the Gaggia and make us some coffee. Double espresso, double Jameson‘s and sat outside on a beautiful evening. Ah, I neglected to mention that we got caught unawares with it still being summer down there late in September. For the first time ever I heard J utter the words and, have one for yourself. He claimed it was because the barmaid had been so helpful and accommodating. Aye, right.

The Albert itself was well cool. Well what else can you say about somewhere with a mural of John Peel on the side of it and a Banksy? (The snogging coppers one, now under a protective plastic shield.) The also serve a rather lovely local made perry. In fact we spent the night sat outside just talking to the folk that drifted past or elected to share our table. The worst thing about that being we could hear the bands (upstairs) but didn’t have to pay to enjoy them. I fell slightly guilty. But, not very.

Photos courtesy of Joste Bowen

At the start of September, I took a trip to Bristol (my first time in that fair city) to catch the second ever Brain Donor gig. I’d also just received my new camera. Needless to say, I took it with me. My pics of the gig can be seen on the post about it (not many decent ones came out), and some snaps of the folk I met for the gig (and my brief stop in London on the way back) are on my Yahoo Photos. Anyhoo, here’s some of the better ones of the town…

I got the overnight bus to the smoke and then caught a train down to B. Got there about ten in the morning. First thing I did was head down to the harbourside where not only the venue was located, but also the hostel I would be staying in. Well impressed with the painted buildings so tried to catch some decent shots. As you can see the sun wasn’t up yet and it still being summer down there (which no-one warned me of) it was very hazy. But, it gives the idea.

Having located everything (and unable to check in or start drinking yet) I set of to explore the town. Very pretty. Only though to get the camera back out, though, when I hit the council offices. Which looked more like a university campus, to be honest.

And then, things started to go a bit wrong. Well, kinda. Basically, I took a wrong turn (as the following pix will illustrate greatly to anyone familiar with the city).

What looked, mistakenly, the way to the city centre actually took me right round it in a consistently uphill direction. At least when I was heading up White Ladys Hill stuff was interesting enough to keep me snapping. Like this old cinema that was for sale.

Or this particularly gnarly looking chinese restaurant. (here I learnt a valuable lesson about the delay on the camera as a result of the autofocus. None of the shots I thought I’d taken had people or cars in them) I didn’t go in.

Neither did I go into this rather lovely victorian ‘pissiour’. Those apples are actually growing through the roof, which you can’t really make out that well.

Actually, there was a bloke parked just under the shot of the apples who got out his car and came over to threaten to thump me for photographing him loitering in a car out side a public convenience. Anyway, here’s another shot (with him cropped out) that shows off the nice ironwork.

I thought that was the top of the hill. More fool me. Anyhoo, I went into about five pubs on my travels and they all seemed to be called The Shakespeare, here’s the only one I thought to photograph. This was also the place where I changed into the last of the clothes I had brought with me (having sweated everything else to bits) – I really needed to find the shops soon

Finally heading back in the right direction, I found the work of a local artist…


This is some museum. While I was there it was actually the site of the National Organic food Festival, which was very tasty indeed. As you can see, though, my eye for a composition still leaves a lot to be desired. We were onto early evening, I was checked in, changed and showered. Much better. Time to find the pub I was meeting everyone at. Spotted this:

The pub wasn’t opened yet, so I went and sat by the water for a bit for a moments quiet contemplation.

And, that one I’m quite pleased with. It captures the atmosphere and gets everything in that I wanted (boat, bird houses) and nothing extraneous. I will get good at this…

(Aye right, wait ’til you see the ones from the Irish trip)