Play with the city - London

What a beauty! We took the QQ away for valentines weekend to whitstable. We stopped at the windy ridge guest house, and stayed in a room that was once used to take copious amounts of drugs, have orgies and make beautiful psychedilic rock in the 60’s. We blitzed the town, soaking up the cracking little art galleries rinsing the records shops for 45 inch records and of course the chippy for chips. Those were the best chips I’ve eaten in a long time. Totally recommend a trip out to whitstable. It’s beautiful, everything is within 100 yards of the coast, plus it has a vibrant arts scene. You can see why there’s a lot of londoners who’ve bought a place here. the quiet little town has character, charm and soothes the soul. I’ll defo be back in the summer.

We rose at 6am to head to the Covent Garden Flower market the thursday before valentines day. Although it was a wee bit early for me and m’lady, having the qashqai meant we could check out the bustling market near vauxhall. Unfortunately I think we’d left it a bit late in the day to see the mad scramble for flowers, but ultimately it was an enriching experience. The flower sellers in contrast to the delicate buds they were selling, were proper london geezers, sun readers and bacon butty brethrens. I was hoping for a magnificent bustling market but really got a large warehouse packed full of sweet smelling colourful flowers. a bit empty, a bit early, but very lovely. Certainly worth a look and a sniff.

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Have a gander @ Portasound’s perfromance at maida Vale for Huw Stephens Radio 1 show. Well done chaps.

It’s All Good hit The Haggerston way back in the year… Twas rammalladingdonged. ie busy. Andy & crew threw a super party. Steph’s new Bo Grace popped open the Crystal, G Dog was so juiced he couldn’t open his eyes, and I wished I still lived in Dalston. The party & tunes were immense. The sound system was not. If you love music, like me (sorry that sounds really crap dunnit), you’d have had to stand under the speaker to get a jist of what was going on. which I did, but I love a place with good acoustics. I can sniff a dodgy treble level a mile off. In all fairness, It’s All Good & andy Newcombe’s crew are better than the venue, and they know it. funny old place the haggerston though. a good ol’ dirty east end pub, that’s been shabbed up for the lo fi crew. I mean, I had a wander upstairs to see what was going on, I discovered a karaoke party, and I swear what those girl did to Prince’s “1999″, should be punishable in a court of law. I left, saw two in skinny jeaned kids being sick on their winkle pickers, then got a taxi back to my green abode in East Dulwich. Good night Dalston. Still love you, warts and all.

Apologies for the distinct lack of posts in the past couple of weeks. I blame it on Jack. My weakness is 24, and any fans of 24 will know that series 7 is well and truly underway. Jack Bauer, (aka big Keith) is back to save the day, and boy is it good. Oh my god it’s so good. I’m up to 10pm now, so I’ve spent a good 16 hours or so on tenterhooks watching jack take on the sengali Juna regime, save the president about 5 times and still have time flirt with his foxy red haired side kick assistant (Rene Walker) who’s definitely loving a bit of the Bauer too. I could dribble on and on about this program, but I’m not one to give away what happens (it’s not in my nature), plus you really couldn’t give a monkey’s flipflop about what I’m watching as I hibernate in these cold dark winter months. Back to the qasqai antics nissan? okay cokey let’s sing Karaoke!…………Let’s not. let’s drive. Go on Jack!!!

…and it is. My good friend Andy Newcombe puts on a splendid party. disco-tastic, friendly faces and lots of tunes to throw your hand in the air to. Andy’s got fingers in many pies; DIAL, It’s All Good (I designed the flyer by the way) & Discobox (next one’s Friday 27TH FEB @ East Village with special guest Leon Mayes-The Off Key Hat). Every Party’s a gudun. Last time I went to discobox I heard a blinding set by Bill Brewster & had to be restrained after trying to find out what track Leon Mayes ended his set on. Turned out it was one of his productions & he sent it me. Check it here (Emergency Calling).

Brilliant. Pop down to The Haggerston for plenty more of the Good stuff. The line up for friday includes Jonty Kenton, described by Time Out as “the DJ most likely to play anything”, Damo, a contributor to the Bright Times compilation series on the London Fixed-Gear & Single-Speed forum, plus residents Andy Newcombe & Festus Williams. If you like feeding your ears & moving your feet, pop along & say hello. It’s All Good.

PARTY INFO:
Friday 6th February 2009 7pm - 2am
Guest DJs: Jonty Kenton (Traficante Records) & Damo (Bright Times)
Resident DJs: Andy Newcombe (Discobox),  Festus Williams (Multigrooves)
Music policy / File Under: Party! Funk, Soul, Latin, Boogie, Disco, Latin, Hip Hop
Cost: FREE!
Where: The Haggerston, 438 Kingsland Road, Hackney, E8 4AA Tel: 020 7275 0105
Nearest station: Dalston Kingsland
Buses: 149

www.itsallgoodmusic.co.uk

This has nothing to do with London, and everything to do with Yorkshire, otherwise known as God’s Backyard. I’m very grateful to Nissan for letting me have the QashQai, because it allows me to get my Yorskshire Top-up and spend some time with my fam & folks.  Last Weekend was the first time I’ve popped up in the badboy, but certainly not the last. It took me 3 hours to get home, I listened to Wossa, 6 albums, Radio 1,2,4&6 and my favourite station to drive to… classic fm. It might strike you as a rather old fogey music to listen to, but it chills me out & the only time I ever got a ticket was listening to Shy FX on the old “One in the Jungle”. I learnt my lesson then.

So, I went back to the Ellis residence in Netherthong, a village outside of Huddersfield which is very close to where Compo & his “Last of the Summer Wine” cronnies take it in turns to push each down a hill in a bath. And I love them for it too.  I took the QQ to all my favourite spots in Hudders; my grans, my cousins, Morrisons, grandad fred’s & Castle Hill (see Pic).

We all sang Ilkley Moor Ba Tat, we’re tight with our money, and called everyone “Luv”. No but seriously, before I go full blown Yorkshire man and start saying stuff like “trouble downt mill”, and “are you Lecking?”, let me say this… Go. It has some of the warmest people, breath taking scenery & freshest air aboot. I’m planning to pop up at the end of Feb, so if anyone fancies a lift, I’ll be happy to oblige. That is unless you’re Prince Harry or a murderer or just annoying.

Yum yummy yum. The Green Papaya, 191 Mare St is blooming lovely. I popped along with G dog, who’s a regular there & we scoffed our faces off. We polished off Tender Hoisin Beef, Fresh crisp & juicy Thai Veg, with Sweet & crisp Satay Chicken. The plates were clean. The staff were super friendly, service was timely, everything was spot on. I thoroughly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.
There’s lots of fodder to choose from in Hackney; Caribbean, Turkish, Vietnemese, Polish, Lebanese, Yorkshire (?). At it’s best Hackney has everything, a real multicultural fusion of food, people and everything they bring with them. Green Papaya is definitely one of the best in the area for sure.

Our meal came to 15 queens chins each with a few beers thrown in.We’ll be back

Green Papaya Info

To but it simply, Portasound Blazed the Social. They Created a frenzy of arm waving through their electrically gifted bass jazz, and most importantly had a very good time of it. The social itself was rammed full of slanty haircuts, with young filly’s strewn over bearded manlads. It was youth all the way. I became more aware of this as I ventured to the front to do my leg dance and the air con above me kept blowing my comb-over the wrong way. hey ho, bobby charlton here I come…. Back to the Portasound…Speaking to Mr James Dow (one third of portasound) after the gig he told me two things. He had been approached by his first groupie and Huw Stephens from Radio 1 had come upto them after the gig and asked them to go go Maida vale & record a special Portasound show for his radio show. Bingo?

Me? well I found an impressively large frisbee on my way to the Qash Qai. Winners all round me thinks. I’ll post the link to the show when it’s out there. Exciting stuff eh?