TT 09 Nov Of leeks and sailing wax

After another slow start to a day, this one brought on by our late end to the Oxford trip, I caught up on email downloads and writing TT08. I shaved to avoid looking like a mountain men and attracting too much female attention in Wales (hey it's a national sport Welsh-baiting, better be careful writing this tho), and braved 11am traffic to try and make the 1155 to Cardiff. Failed miserably at that thanks to mucho traffico, and am currently passing through Newport at 245pm almost in Cardiff, where I'll be waiting for Patrick who also was the victim of traffic and is on a train behind me.

On the subject of trains, being the organised kinda soul that I am I bought the BritRail pass while I was in NZ. And cos it's off season (just!) I splashed out for a first class ticket. Glad I did, comfy chairs, legroom, power sockets, a nice pastel purple colour scheme, nibbles, coffee, juice, water - it's all good. I have a fair few train journeys over the next few days, so this bodes well. Wifi would also have been great, but I guess you can't have everything.

Read the Guardian today, having done The Times and The Independent over the last couple of days. Still buzzing over the PT gig, but must focus on the Chris Rees one tonight. Hmmm weather is crapping out at the moment, Mr P and I should find some accommodation sooner rather than later.

I'll get back to this later. Although not sure when I'll get some internet access to upload it.

Met Patrick at Cardiff and, with much thanks to his iPhone (note: if you yourself are not a geek, it's a good idea to carry one around with you - times such as this showed their worth) we found some accommodation in a B and B above a pub. Spooky. So we dumped our gear off and headed off to find the gig. More use of the wonderful Google maps on the iPhone, and we found the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. A meander off and the food and beer situation was rectified. Huzzah for beer and food. Actually the food wasn't that good, but the beer was tolerable - a lager.
So the gig, well in terms of value for money it couldn't be beaten 6 pounds for 4 bands and a free CD. This concert was part of the Swn festival. From my recently acquired knowledge of the Welsh language, that means noise or sound. Actually I'm copying from the booklet. First up, over a pint of local ale, was Al Lewis. Described as a mix between Damien Rice and David Gray was actually pretty close. I enjoyed him, interesting lyrics, some in Welsh which forced me to listen to his music which was also very good. His was the free CD single, and I'll post a review of that later.
Christopher Rees and his band were up next. He played stuff from his new album (which I bought) very enjoyable stuff, his lyrics appear to have gotten darker. And his music has moved to an alt-country style, or at least its more predominant. Very very good stuff, and his take on the murder ballad genre was fantastic. I'm really looking forward to spinning his CD. when I have a iPod...again.

9 Bach were up next. Playing traditional Welsh folk songs. From the singers description of these songs (since they were in Welsh), it appears the Welsh are fans of wrist-slitting, very depressed songs. It was ok, but I'm not the biggest fan of some chick singers.

Julia Harris was the final act. A dreadlocked blonde with a guitar, stunning smile. Fun upbeat songs, quite poppy, but good. She's apparently rocking along on the Welsh radio stations - and from what I heard she could be the next kinda thing to be picked up.

After a somewhat convoluted walk (my fault), we got back and slept.

me x