Standing Room only - Oasis and Kasabian at Wembley on Sunday
Tenuous Canal Link - we are moored at Uxbridge, which has easy tube access to Wembley Park station and is one of our favourite moorings.
Blatant Non Canal bit: I think I have known the words to Wonderwall for 15 years but never imagined singing it to Oasis - along with something like 80,000 others who also seemed to be word perfect, of course. I didn’t know what to expect from an Oasis gig, never having been to one before and certainly was not disappointed with the music and organisation at Wembley Stadium on Sunday night.
Kasabian and Oasis at Wembley Stadium
Kasabian turned out to be an excellent support band and judging by the audience around us, just as many had come to see them as the main band. Vast amounts of lager had the crowd in great voice and that which wasnt being drunk was being liberally spread over the crowd in a torrent of plastic glasses. As with all good mosh pits a fair amount of the liquid raining on the crowd would be second hand lager and I dread to think what state the front few thousand were in when reality finally returned at the end.
The whole crowd was completely immersed in the music. Back in the stands, not one single person remained seated as Oasis proved conclusively that their classics really can stand the course of time, mixing in a fair few tracks from the newest album and the occasional acoustic track to help calm the partying.
“Anyone from Darlington” - boo. “Anyone from Manchester?” - small cheer then big boo. Anyone from “Liverpool?” ditto. Any lesbians out there? Huge cheer. Any Cockney bastards? Stadium erupted. Lager everywhere. The band seemed to be loving every minute of it too. They were however just too polite for megastars - must be their age!
Two hours of an epic performance - the last night of yet another sell out stadium tour - and I would certainly come again.
A final word about Wembley stadium. We were able to walk in and take our seats within minutes of arriving. There are something like 160 catering outlets, where it was possible to get served without more than a few minutes waiting, even if the floors were awash with lager! At the end of the night, there are so many exits that leaving the stadium takes only minutes and you simply join the brisk march converging on Wembley Park tube station, through police horse cordons designed to stop a surge, and literally you can join a train just like any other trip on the tube. We were back on the boat 45 minutes after “I am a Walrus”, the band’s classic final track. Well done all at Wembley for making this a memorable night out.
20p piece sold for £31 on ebay
The Royal Mint has made 200,000 20p coins without a date and a coin dealer has set up a very generous offer whereby the first 25,000 people to register online will be able to sell these coins for a profitable £50.00 . Their special website, www.undated20p.com, today says the first 10,000 places have gone with a further 15,000 places being made available now. I have registered even though I haven’t got one of the coins as there’s still a chance I may find one and apparrently I will get a discount voucher and have the opportunity to be contacted by “carefully selected partners” if I forget to uncheck the box on the application form. This seems very strange - almost like a stunt, but I can’t see the catch yet.
20p coin sold for £31 on ebay today
Some people are paying enormous sums for these coins on ebay where they are currently fetching several hundred pounds each. But this one really takes the prize - someone has just (within the last 10 minutes of writing) paid £31 plus 50p postage for a perfectly ordinary 20p piece - complete with date. Check it out on ebay here… http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270417730152. The vendor has been very lucky with this and has confirmed at every question that this is not one of the undated coins, but still 11 bidders have been battling it out to become its new owner.
I guess eBay will be blamed with something in all of this, but lets face it - is this not just plain greed?
Update: Thanks to Adam below for pointing out that it is indeed a coin dealer trading as The London Mint who has set up the website and seems to be offering £50 for these coins, not the Royal Mint. I suspect I am not the only one who has failed to see through this.
Herb garden
My new rooftop herb garden
On impulse I have just spent £9.99 at Homebase on a ready to use herb garden. Six well established varieties planted in a rustic box - at a price which compares favourably with buying a few packets at the supermarket. Well done Homebase - if you are lucky they may have a few left.
Wishbone Ash - Kidlington
Oh no - not another non canal post!
Wishbone Ash, Kidlington Football Club
I’ll keep it quick then. By total coincidence I decided yesterday to check the spring tour dates for Wishbone Ash - a few years ago I used to go to up to ten gigs per year, including following them to Europe, so I guess I could have been considered something of a fan. That is until guitarist Ben Granfelt left in October 2004. Ben’s guitar playing was simply brilliant and I would stand in awe watching every move he made. I haven’t seen them since his replacement Muddy Manninen joined the band, who brought a new bluesy guitar style which I simply did not like at the time.
What coincidence? Well the band were playing that very night (Tuesday) at Kidlington Football Club, so I couldn’t resist the chance to see them again in such a local venue. How out of touchI felt though - I didn’t even know the first couple of tracks but as they settled in and played some of the old classics I still felt that the magic has gone. Andy Powell is still guitarist supreme - there is absolutely no doubting his ability, nor Bob Skeat on bass - who still punches out superb rhythm with powerful new drummer Joe. But sorry, I feel that Muddy just doesn’t gel with the band’s style and - only in my opinion - his interpretation of classics such as King Will Come and Phoenix is just not what the twin lead guitar style of Wishbone Ash is all about, and to bring in a tabletop slide guitar was simply wrong. In fact I was just as disappointed with him as I feared I may be.
Muddy Manninen (left) and Andy Powell, Wishbone Ash
So on the plus side it was still a great gig in a lovely little venue - and Andy joked that due to the overwhelming success of this 40th Anniversary tour they may even play in some bigger places in the future. But for me, this lineup of the band is not my favourite and I think I may wait until Muddy moves on before going out of my way to see them again. The crowd seemed to be enjoying it though - all is not lost - in his 40th year of touring with Wishbone Ash, Andy Powell still knows how to entertain.
Holiday report - no canals this time!
Riga
What an anticlimax coming home to lashing rain and colder temperatures this morning than we had in a week of travelling through Latvia, Estonia and Finland.
Looking outside at the rain I can’t get inspired to write anything about canals today so here’s a few jottings about our holiday instead. Personally I can’t see the attraction of sitting on the same beach for a week, so we tend to do the opposite and sit on buses and trains instead, which I can understand will not appeal to many especially those who prefer to relax on hols!
However we had the most marvellous time, starting in Riga, thanks to Ryanair. I find Ryaniar’s use of technology to be superb and rather than complain about being charged extra for using their automatic check-in terminals at Stansted (as opposed to free online check-in) I will actually praise them for thinking out a radical new solution to preventing check-in queues. It took no more than 2 minutes to find a free terminal, collect our boarding passes and hand a bag in to the baggage drop desk.
Riga was wonderful but surprisingly desserted. There was no traffic, no noise, no pedestrians in many streets - altogether a little bit eerie. The old town centre is very attractive with a mixture of quaint and very grand buildings. Every corner has a coffee shop - no queues - and free wifi is the norm. The cheaper restaurants offer self service menus till late into the night and we especially liked the Pelmeni - self service bowls of different flavoured ravioli style dumplings - a great feed for a couple of quid. You are charged by weight, which is a very common feature in Latvia - pile it onto the plate and pay only for what you take, weighed at the till.
The day’s highlight for total relaxation turned out to be a tea shop with hundreds of teas to choose from and a first floor piled with cushions to lie on with a view of the park, all within a couple of minutes of the town centre.
The river Daugava was perhaps 400 yards wide through Riga and with at least a three foot swell I was pleased to be visiting by land and not arriving by boat on a river with breaking waves. A narrowboat here would have no chance of staying upright but boat trips do exist, although like so much aimed at tourists here, the operating season will only be May to September. Read more
Wifi in Finland and Estonia
Helsinki trams - wifi enabled
Changing the subject from life on board slightly, this week I have been on holiday. Not quite as exciting as our last trip to Moldova and Ukraine, but still off the beaten tourist track. We flew last week to Riga, capital of Latvia, travelled overland to Tallin in Estonia and flew back yesterday from Helsinki, Finland.
When WiFi was in its infancy in 1994, Estonia was reported by the BBC as being the most advanced nation in the provision of wireless hotspots for everyone. WiFi.ee still maintains a huge wireless network for public access, and absolutely everywhere we travelled almost every bar, restaurant and even shops also provided completely free wifi access to the public.
WiFi.ee currenly runs 1164 hotspots covering 45,000 square kilometers and almost all of them are free. Using my iPhone I was able to connect within a few yards of first trying without any problems at all.
So it was actually even more refreshing to discover that, after taking the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki (free WiFi on board of course) , virtually the whole city is WiFi enabled. Hotels try to make their money by charging but over most of the city is a combination of official free WiFi hotspots, an even bigger network of shops and bars providing access and best of all, the number 4 tram from the ferry port to the city centre also provides free WiFi. Other tram and bus routes may also be covered, under a trial scheme.
How cool to be able to log on for an email check on the way to town on the tram, but it doesn’t stop there. Trams are fitted with GPS devices which as well as updating the “next tram” signs at the tram stops, even show their location on Google Maps.
Snow Patrol concert, Manchester MEN Arena
Saturday night, 7th March 2009 - Manchester Evening News Arena - Snow Patrol
Seeing Snow Patrol was actually the reason for this trip to Manchester. I would hazard a guess that I was the only member of the audience who had made a 7 day round trip - and it was certainly worth the effort.
Every time I see a band these days I am just as amazed by the quality of the production - both sound and visual, and tonight was no exception. The sound was simply fantastic and the moving projection screens which formed the back of the stage were amazing too.
The band of course was absolutely brilliant too - one of the best concerts I have been to in a long time - when the entire stadium knows most of the words as well as the band, then the effect is amazing. Despite the huge size of the venue lead singer GaryLightbody went ahead with performing from a random spot in the crowd where he suddenly appeared with acoustic guitar and microphone. This was live entertainment at its best - some silly girl got hold of the microphone and screamed into it, but he recovered the situation with a simple “well that won’t be happening again!” and continued the song - with every electric light in the building being turned off and the crowd invited to take out their mobile phones and light up the arena like stars.
“Its like performing in space” he said.
Lost in the post
Digressing from canals for a minute, I need to vent some steam after a seemingly endless dialog between me, two guys who bought something from me on Ebay, a guy I bought something from on Ebay and the DVLA.
To cut a long story short I sold my old car to someone in Poland. I wanted to retain the number for my new car and although I put this in the advert I found myself apologising day after day that he couldn’t pick the car up until the DVLA had sent the replacement tax, MOT and Log Book. Apparently the first two normally come within 7 days but the latter can take a further 4 weeks. Without it the car can’t realistically be sold. However after 14 days DVLA decided that because my old car was itself an import it had to be referred to Swansea causing even more delay. Many boring bits later the paperwork all arrived, I had new number plates made, signed all the forms in the right places and waved it goodbye as it went off to Poland.
I looked forward to getting 10 months tax back, so duly wrote to the DVLA as required to do when a car is sold for export, enclosed the right bit of the V5C form and a V15 application for tax refund, together with the licence disk. Sent first class recorded delivery, just for safety’s sake.
Today 3 weeks later they wrote back saying this had been rejected as I was not the previous keeper of the car, nor had I told them it was sold to someone else. 15 agitated minutes of holding on the phone I was put through to the refunds section who acknowledged that they had received my letter, and had marked the car as exported but they denied receiving a tax refund request, which of course was in the same envelope. They admitted they must have received it, being as they had written to me to reject it, and so rather than sort it out by phone my only recourse is to write something on the back of the rejection notice and send it back for them to reconsider.
Concurrrently I sold an item on Ebay - I couldn’t believe how excited the purchaser was getting, but it turned out this car amplifier was a long lost match for his current one, and to have two is seemingly so much better. He texted me to tell me every step of his journey to the post office, the postal order being put in an envelope, stamped and despatched. And yes it came the very next day, so I called DH a well known parcel carrier and personally handed the well wrapped parcel, all labelled up and paid for, to the collection driver.
I began to think there may be a problem when the tracking number suddenly stopped showing anything sensible. For the record, when DHL tracking shows “Security Check” in the status it means they have lost it. Phone call after phone call failed to make it reappear. The standard response of well make sure it is sent out in the morning begins to wear thin after a week has gone by. My text inbox was almost full with the purchaser getting more and more despondant about where his irreplacable amp had gone, although he was very understanding, although this may be after having made the Ebay faux pas of giving me good feedback before he got the goods!
I refunded him in full, lost 8 pounds commission on the postal order (I thought they were free!!!), £12.99 paid to send the parcel, £2 for packaging bubble wrap and £80 pounds worth of equipment. I was only covered for £50 loss, and have yet to see anything other than “we are still looking for it” emails.
It really bugs me that a parcel carrier can lose something so large, so easily, and shrug it off as one of those things that happen. In fact the agent through whom I booked the service claims they only lose 0.4 per cent of packages. Looking at the number of parcel carrying vans on the road that sounds like a very large number of items to me!
So I wait with baited breath to see if I get a penny back.
To make it worse I ordered a pot of Captain Tolleys Creeping Crack Cure a couple of weeks ago, again from Ebay but from a very reputable looking marina. It didn’t come. I made a fuss after a week and they put it down to computer problems, but the promised replacement hasn’t arrived either. With my own lost parcel I wasn’t at all surprised when the vendor told me he has lost over 200 pounds worth of stock in the mail last week alone. Where are all these lost items going! To his credit he has sent a replacement under recorded delivery, and this should come in the morning. Its one thing me losing a box in a private sale, but when a mail order business loses so many items this has to be devastating for them. “Just leave good feedback or no feedback” he asked. At least I have waited for the product to turn up - and then I shall leave very good feedback, as this supplier is tearing his hair out trying to run a business and is now providing excellent customer service. I can’t penalise him for the Royal Mail’s shortcomings.
So hardly a day has gone by in the last three weeks without apologising to or being apologised to by someone with whom the only thing we have in common is Ebay, parcel firms and Royal Mail. What an incredible waste of time and money. I am currently at least two hundred and fifty pounds out of pocket through this, let alone the cost of phone calls and stamps.
Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2008
The first time I passed through Cropredy on the Oxford Canal was on a school canal society trip in 1974. Whilst I don’t remember much about the week, I retain one memory of the Brasenose Arms which I was told featured on the album cover of a certain band called Fairport Convention. Being into prog rock at the time it was not cool to admit to liking Fairport, although I do admit to making a few tapes (pre MP3 I’m afraid).
About this time two members of the band had moved to Cropredy and began to play the occasional local gig evolving into an annual festival which now attracts 20,000 visitors every August. Somehow I never seem to be in the area but here I am on Zulu Warrior - apparently a Cropredy virgin but feeling like an old hand already, especially as Zulu would already have been one year old in 1974. Who knows - she could have been here many times!
Met up with the Warriors - Sarah, Jim and Baz, who had been allowed to moor on the Long Term moorings and soon visited the Brasenose Arms where the new landlord of two weeks was certainly being initiated in style.
Up on “THE FIELD” the stage was very impressive with a great view of the stage from almost anywhere. An imaginary line was drawn behind which deck chairs and picnics were permitted, and the atmosphere was very laid back with the added bonus that dogs were not only allowed into the main stage area, but free poo bags were being handed out with wristbands. Seth was impressed.
So three days of music and spending ensued. Swept into the traditional instrument tent by a sudden rainshower I came out having fulfilled another long term ambition - owning an accordion, or to be more precise a button accordion (melodeon). Something special about buying it in a field, I thought, and the hard case turned out to make a handy seat too.
My highlight of the weekend was when Robert Plant appeared as Fairport’s special guest, playing a haunting version of the wonderful Battle of Evermore (1971) which took me right back to my roots.
And so a good time was had by all (I think) despite the rain on Saturday afternoon.
It was especially nice to be able to head back to the nice warm dry boat instead of sliding into a muddy tent, and although there were a lot of boats it would still have been possible to moor, just a bit further away! It was also wonderful to see how the village embraces the festival - there is no heavy handed security, gardens and driveways opened up as cafes and stalls and the sports field held one of the most impressive car boot sales on Saturday morning. It was such a shame it rained hard, as the range of goods on sale was way above the usual car boot tat - no plastic play kitchens or used baby clothes to be seen - instead a range of musical instruments, vintage records and CDs, traditional tools, home made produce, local craftsman bakery and so forth. I bought a pewter tankard to allow drinking of ale without plastic, and the lady running the stall bartered the price down by 50p without being asked. You can have that one for two pounds; - its a bit bashed, which is what I liked about it.
So from a boating point of view - some FAQs, but of course the answers are only my opinion!:
Will we be able to moor? YES, although try to arrive a few days early to avoid being up to a mile away.
Do boats HAVE to double moor? NO, although in a few places you may prefer to moor alongside someone who invites you. The canal is often too narrow anyway.
Can I rely on the village stores for groceries? YES - they stay open until 10pm daily and have plenty of stock. A local baker brings a van full of fresh bread every morning and farms, clubs and pubs galore open up to serve breakfast.
Should I moor above the lock or below? ABOVE - the moorings below the lock are a mixture of long term and visitor moorings and form one of two main routes into the festival site. If you do get a spot below the lock your boat will either become covered in mud or dust depending on the weather. Once past the festival gate you will be able to find towpath moorings but if approaching from the north remember the nearest winding hole is quite a long way (almost at Banbury). Boats arriving from the South can wind at Cropredy.
I am not visiting the festival. Can I still moor at Cropredy? DIFFICULT - you will end up a long way from the village if you arrive over the weekend.
I am not visiting the festival. Will I get held up while trying to pass through? NO. The festival boats are there to stay and you will be able to pass through unhindered, although the lock can occasionally have a small queue at any time of the summer. At the end of the festival a few boats will leave immediately but there was no evidence of delays, this year at least.
Are the short term moorings strictly enforced? Apparrently not.
Can I still get water and use the facilities? Yes but if you move the boat then you will most likely lose your mooring space. Many people carry water back to their boat on trollies, but at least make sure you fill right up when you arrive.
Can I empty the Elsan? Yes there is a disposal point but see above.
Is there adequate rubbish disposal? Yes. The skips are emptied regularly.
Do we need to bring lots of food? No. The quality of the food at the festival was excellent and not too expensive. Local farms, the canoe club, the sports club and the pubs open up to serve breakfast and several village houses are convereted into take away restaurants. The festival site is lined with typical festival food stalls and one in particular served and amazingly good plateful of authentic indian food for about 6 pounds. Worth going for on its own!
Are there any cash machines? YES - the Bridge Stores has one, and does cash back too. Then there was a mobile unit with 4 machines between the village and the festival site.
Can we park the car near the boat? Parking in the village is banned, in theory, but some people do. The free public car park is about a mile outside the village. Dropping off and picking up in the village should still be possible at most times.
Are the pubs open for business as normal? Plastic glasses I’m afraid and both the Red Lion and the Brasenose Arms have stages set in their back gardens. Some very high quality bands played in the “fringe” starting as early as the Wednesday evening.
What are the loos like? Excellent. Plenty of them, very short queues if any, and generally quite acceptable, as far as festival loos are concerned.
Is there a bar on site? Wadworths run a huge bar at the far side of the Field, together with a couple of smaller bars, one in a campsite, and the other just outside the main gates to the arena. The main bar is fed from road tankers which don’t do the beer any favours but outside the beer is from the barrel. Take a pewter tankard if you want to look inconspicuous!
Is it better to return to a warm dry boat at the end of the night and sit out with a glass of wine and some friends in the moonlight, or to splodge your way back to a cold damp tent by torchlight and try to find the beers which someone stole while you were out? 
What do you think!
Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable weekend - we will be back!
Ash gig at Coventry
The other day, walking up to Hawkesbury Junction along the main road at Longford I spotted a huge poster for an Ash concert in the Ricoh Arena - only a mile or so from where I stood. Making a mental note I realised it was actually for Friday, and this was Wednesday - so I made a very spur of the moment call to see if tickets were still available.
Three minutes later I had placed my order, mesmerised by the totally automated Ticketmaster service which can actually understand what you say to it. ASH - COVENTRY - 1ST AUGUST. “Do you mean “Ash, Coventry Ricoh Arena, Friday 1st August?” YES!! “How many tickets….” etc and it was so I easy that I read out my card number while walking down the towpath and confirmed the transaction.
As usual I had forgotton that a couple of days travelling by boat can generate amazingly complex return travel plans, so of course the journey to the concert turned out to be from Claydon near Cropredy (almost an hour by road) rather than a 20 minute walk from the Greyhound at Hawkesbury.
Despite this I am so glad I made the effort as the concert was simply outstanding. Supported by Sheffield band “The Gentlemen” who immediately made a gaff by asking the crowd whether they considered Coventry to be in the North or the South. “MIDLANDS” … “Oh - OK - so this is the Midlands is it?” but their music was much better than their geography and this band is certainly on the brink of better things than warming up five hundred or so Ash fans.
I still couldn’t work out what this gig was all about. Why did Ash fly in tonight then back to Norway for a gig the next day, and back to Cardiff the day after? This seemed like a lot of hard work for so few fans in such a strange venue. The Ricoh arena had hundreds of staff, some employed specifically to stop people looking through the curtains to the football stadium below.
At 9pm Ash appeared and the tiny stage burst into life - how amazing sound and lighting can be these days with a very minimalist amount of equipment. The band were as good as they could have been - very loud but crystal clear and best of all we were able to stand only 20 feet back from the stage without being trampled or soaked.
It was as if they were playing to a stadium - but it felt like a personal gig in your own front room. Fantastic.
Outside the rain was tipping down at midnight as we drove round and round and round the Coventry ring road looking for the way home. The concert a distant and damp memory as we finally located the boat in the pitch dark. I bet nobody else there had to duck through damp undergrowth with a torch on their way home.
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