Heroes of She at the Penny Bank, Lancaster Part 1

As I was trying to catch the barman’s eye at the Penny Bank in Lancaster I overheard someone saying “Why is this place so packed tonight?” “There’s a band on”, came the reply “They’ve got a massive following”. And it was a massive night for the Heroes of She, who played two sets over nearly two hours, with no fewer than six songs from their forthcoming second album including two played in public for the first time- Don’t Talk To Me and Not Wrong. This video features Don’t Talk To Me and you’ll see that it’s a change of style for the band, but one of the most original, innovative songs they’ve written. I love it and can’t wait to hear a recorded version.

Heroes of She at the Penny Bank, Lancaster, Part 2

At the Penny Bank in Lancaster I managed to capture a Flip video of the second public performance of We Don’t Love You. The tune is irresistible. In fact I’ve had it on my brain for the last couple of days. The style, pace and tempo are just right for the Hammond /Drums combination of James Mackie and John Elles. It’s my guess that this will be the first single release from their second album. On the other hand I’ve only heard half of the songs for the new album. Let’s just say- It’s looking good.

Richard Wilson 20:50

The artist Richard Wilson has made his reputation and his fortune from his discovery that oil is a good reflective surface. His artwork 20:50 where a room seems to be half-filled with oil, reflecting the walls, windows and ceiling of the room is a favourite of Charles Saatchi’s- it has appeared in all of Saatchi’s galleries over the years- and is now installed in the space in the basement of the Saatchi Gallery in Duke of York’s Square which until recently was occupied by the highly entertaining installation of waxwork figures of ancient crones in motorised wheel-chairs who played a never ending game of dodgems.
Children loved the wheel-chair dodgems and they seem to love 20:50 as well; I viewed it last week during half term when the gallery was full o school kids and they seemed to be
fascinated by it. I wondered why the surface of the oil wasn’t littered with sweet wrappings- at that age i don’t think I’d have resisited the tempation to see what would happen if I
threww something onto the oil.
Tonight I’m at the Saatchi Gallery to hear Richard Wilson talk about his art. His aim, he tells us, is to challenge our preconceptions of architecture. He spoke with great intelligence and lucidity and convinced even a huge sceptic like me to seek out his work wherever I can find it.
This video clip shows the artist talking about 20:50 with a brief glimpse at the artwork itself.
After the talk I asked him about the conundrum of the sweet papers. He told me that the oil absorbs dust and most pieces of debris and that one bonus for him is that when an installation is dismantled, the bed will be full of coins! By the way- although Richard Wilson didn’t admit this on the night, the oil is in fact only two or three inches deep. My guess is that it is contained in a huge plastic tray supported by beams.

My Mother Said I Never Should

“They tuck you up, your Mum and Dad”
Adrian Mitchell (after Philip Larkin)

The Round at the Dukes Theatre is an exceptional experience for the spectator. There are only three rows of seats on all four sides so that the audience is right among the action. This was particularly effective for Amy Leach’s production of ‘My Mother Said I Never Should’ which has an all female cast, with Christine Mackie playing Margaret. The play is more Larkin than Mitchell, more Mum than Dad, although Dad doesn’t get away scot free. It’s about four generations of a Northern family and how each disappoints the other in it’s own special way. Some uncomfortable truths were laid bare. Slightly unnerving to watch sat next to your fifteen year old daughter. The play is marvellous in every respect, but don’t go if you don’t enjoy a good blub.
There’s more about the play and the production in this flip video of Christine, taken after the show. Thank you Christine.

Fund Raising for Haiti with the Heroes of She

When the Heroes of She agreed to headline at a fundraising event for the earthquake victims of Haiti they were told that they would be following “The Bishop”. A spin-off from Reverend and the Makers perhaps?. Nothing so mundane. This was a real bishop, the Bishop of Haiti, who was there to lay bare a few uncomfortable facts about the tragic events in Haiti. He did a good job as more than £1,000 was raised on the night.
As for the Heroes- they were storming, playing a full set for more than an hour- in fact one of the best gigs they have done. The Heroes have been lying low for a while, writing and rehearsing songs for their second album; tonight they played two of the new songs in public for the first time. The first, “We Don’t Love You” is instantly catchy, obvious single material. The second, Diabolique, sung partly in French, is one of the cleverest, most inventive songs they have written. Here it is, as captured on my flip video. Thank you guys for your generous words in the introduction.

The Farm in Winter

It was touch and go whether we would reach the farm this morning. It had started snowing at 7 (by the way, the sixth heavy snowfall of this winter) and when we set off at 9 in the Warrior, which is a 4×4, the snow was settling on the road- an ominous sign. But we wanted to battle on, partly to make sure that the animals were OK but mainly because our youngest, Sara, had sneaked her sledge onto the back of the pickup and would not be denied her fun in the snow.

When we arrived Jean and Tony’s children were already sledging on the steeply sloping field in front of the farmhouse. The pigs weren’t having so much fun; I found twenty of them huddled together for warmth on the straw next to an old black sow. But the Highland cows were out and about about, shrugging off the conditions in their long shaggy coats. This Flip video captures a few of those moments on this invigorating morning.

Chelsea Flower Show Site Visit

Excitement is in the air as we have a peek for the first time at our “plot” at Chelsea . Philippa and Alex (the show organisor) are pictured here in exuberant mood on Main Avenue in front of what will, in less than three month’s time, become the Victorian Aviary Garden. The site couldn’t be better because we’re on the main thoroughfare close to the main entrance through which 70% of the visitors enter- that’s up to 50,000 people a day.
The only times I’ve been here before have been on show days, when the site seems vast- almost impossible to get round in half a day- but today when there are no buildings or people- or gardens!- the space seems impossibly small. It’s just a gentle stroll from one side to the other.
The video below shows the full panorama, with a glimpse of Philippa, Alex and Mark Richardson (the guy who will be in charge of the build).

The Peacock Throne

Peacocks have been a feature of our Victorian Aviary Garden from the start. In our first submission to the Chelsea panel, when the garden was called “A Bird Lover’s Garden”, we had Peacock chairs on the Aviary terrace. The idea of the chairs didn’t survive the first draft but the peacock imagery re-emerged when Maggy Howarth designed her lovely peacock mosaic for the pathway leading to the aviary. Today we have learned that the aviary which inspired ours, the one at Waddesdon Manor, was built in honour of a visit in 1889 by the Shah of Persia, the occupier of the Peacock Throne. The Shah’s host was Baron Frederick de Rothschild, who completed the magnificent rococco structure just in time for the Shah’s visit. This is how the aviary was described by the Bucks Advertiser at the time:
“The enlarged Aviary was only completed just before the Shah’s visit and is now a little showground in itself. There is a superb collection of birds such as parrots, doves and pheasants of the brightest plumage, and with every arrangement for their well being in the shape of lofty caged enclosures. The aviary surpasses that of the Zoological gardens…”
It’s good to think that, however inadvertently, this peacock imagery has been carried forward over 121 years.
My thanks to an article by Sophieke Piebenga in the Historic Gardens Review for these fascinating details.

Watercolour

Tina Bone, who comes from Camberton, Cambridge, down Philippa’s way, has produced this exquisitely detailed, wonderful watercolour of our Victorian Aviary garden for the Chelsea Flower Show. This is the image which will go into the official Show brochure and which will accompany all our press and media releases in the run up to the show. I’d be perfectly happy to rest on my laurels now, but apparently its the done thing to reproduce in real life what you promise in the brochure. Will this be possible, or has Tina set the bar too high? I now understand why so many of the gardens in the show brochure are represented by vague artists’ impressions.

Catherine Gazzoli

This is Catherine Gazzoli who has taken charge of Slow Food, grabbed it by the lapels, turned it round and given it a good kick up the backside with her 4 inch Jimmy Choos to propel it into the 21st century. Catherine is making friends with all the right people in all the right places so that now Prince Charles and Jamie Oliver are ambassadors for Slow Food and Pru Leith is on the board. At the recent Slow Food Burns Night dinner at the Damson Dene, Sue Jackson, our Chairman’s wife, kept us enthralled with her description of Catherine’s visit to the farm at Highgrove, when she was dressed to the nines when everyone else was in wellies, in the expectation of meeting Stella McCartney as well as HRH. Her chutzpah must have paid off because Prince Charles has agreed to host a Terra Madre event at Highrove this year. Slow Food was recently given a full page in Country Life, who said that Catherine approached the job of revitalising Slow Food “with all the delicacy of a Force-10 gale”. Equally importantly, Catherine was profiled in The Caterer, our trade magazine. This is significant because chefs read the Caterer and up until now Slow Food has rather passed by the infantry of the catering world. Catherine intends to change all that. I’m sure she will.

The Evil Bee

Is this the worlds most evil creature? Although it looks like a Honey Bee, which is perhaps the world’s most benevolent creature, it is in fact the Horse Bot Fly, whose entire existence seems to be devoted to tormenting the horse, one of the world gentlest creatures. This is the Bot Fly’s life cycle. In late summer the female Bot Fly will lay eggs on the hair of a horse’s leg. The eggs are yellow and look like specks of pollen. The heat from the horse’s body causes the eggs to hatch and the emerging larvae will make the horse itch. The horse licks the itch, whereupon the larvae burrow into the horse’s tongue drilling holes to the surface from which they breathe. They stay in the tongue for 28 days when they emerge and are swallowed. Then the larvae mutate from a burrowing to a clinging creature, attaching themselves to the lining of the horse’s stomach, where they remain for nine months, eating at the lining and causing ulcers. After nine months they pass through the horse’s gut, burrow into the manure, pupate and emerge as flies, ready to start laying more specks of pollen on the horse’s leg. I there is any good or useful purpose in the life of a Bot Fly will someone please enlighten me.

Maggy’s Magnificent Mosaic

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I know I’m biased, but I think this design is stunningly beautiful. This is our first glimpse of the pebble mosaic designed by Maggy Howarth, which will form the 3 metre wide and 4 metre long pathway in our Victorian Aviary Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. All the large show gardens are on Main Avenue and we are lucky to have 15 metres of frontage to Main Avenue next door to Darmuid Gavin’s garden and looking onto the Laurent Perrier and Daily Telegraph gardens which are on the other side of the street. Maggy’s mosaic will be right alongside Main Avenue, along which 150,000 visitors will walk and no doubt look on in awe. If there were any such thing as a show stopper at Chelsea, this would be it.

The Slate with the Golden Thread

Cumbria produces the best slate in Britain, from three mines, but only one mine produces slate with a golden thread. The mine with the golden thread is Kirkstone, whose genial proprietor, Nick Fecit, has kindly agreed to co-sponsor our Victorian Aviary Garden for Chelsea with the supply of the slate for the floor of our Aviary. The golden thread will marry well with the gold-leaf decoration of the Aviary. I spent the morning at the Kirkstone workshop at Skelwith Bridge choosing the slate which we will use. It was fascinating to see the processes used to produce the various slate finishes- from walling stone to polished worktops. This video shows Nick and some of his skilled craftsmen working on the slate.