England Tour, April 2007

Wednesday April 25 through Saturday, April 28

(Note: Clicking on any image in this travelogue will bring up a full screen version of the image.)

Wednesday, April 25

Off in the morning to Whales. (I spelled it that way on porpoise.)

Speaking of spelling and Wales

When I went to England for the first time in 199?, I had gone on vacation with my friend Jenny Holan. She was in a choral group that had arranged a tour of English Cathedrals in which they sang. I tagged along for the ride, and in the process, made a few calls and snagged a few gigs. One of those was a small guest spot at the Llantrisant Folk Club near Cardiff. So I was very happy to have landed a featured spot at that same club 10 years later. After crossing the big cable-stayed highway bridge across the Severn, all the road signs took on a surplus of consonants. The plan was to stop off at BBC Radio Wales at 4:15 to do an interview with DJ Frank Hennessy of Celtic Connections, and then to meet the Club's organizer Pat Smith at her home. I was reasonably early, and sort of tired on the road, so I pulled over to the shoulder to rest my eyes for few minutes. I was awakened by a patrol officer. This didn't upset me. In the US they just check to see that you're OK, and send you on your way. In Wales they give you a ticket. £30. An expensive nap. And how do I pay it without a checking account in the country? I later gave Pat Smith some cash, and she wrote me a check.

When I arrived at Pat's a little past noon, she was just off to some errand, and I had time to kill. I asked her where I might spend a couple of hours sightseeing, and she recommended the Museum of Welsh Life, just a couple of miles back the way I had come. This was an enormously extensive facility with both indoor and outdoor exhibits, including a castle with formal gardens, exhibits on the Welsh coal industry and enough to keep me occupied for a couple of days if I had them.

It was really lovely wandering around the place, but sort of lonely too. This is a sight to see with another person to discuss and bounce reactions off. After a few hours of this, I left the facility and headed out to the BBC Wales Studio in Cardiff (Caerdydd). Rather spiffy facilities, but a parking spot in the lot is like gold. I met Frank and we repaired to the well-equipped studio for the interview. It went smoothly, and will be broadcast in a week or two. I drove back to Pat's and had dinner with her and her sweetie, Ned Clamp, and we went off to the club. The gig was well received, and we repaired home for some late night conviviality and music.

Thursday, April 26

I slept in that morning while Pat went off to work. Awoke to find the electric power out. Sort of put a damper on the morning. I had wanted to take a leisurely hot shower in the morning and make breakfast for myself. Neither was possible without the use of the electric hot water heater and electric stove. I took a walk up and down the block and found that the general neighborhood was blacked out, and a utility truck was snugged up to one of the power poles and workmen were investigating the problem.

Today's plan had me heading up to Blaenafon, Torfaen to check out the Big Pit, a national museum of coal mining. It was a bit of a drive through some lovely countryside. I kept looking for places to stop for breakfast, and didn't find anything along the road until around 1:00 PM when I got so hungry that I pulled into a town and found a Burger King in the town center. Ah, a touch of home. (They still don't make them right there, though.)

As I continued to wend my way north, I kept getting sidetracked by other attractions along the route. I saw a sign for a steam railroad, and followed it, only to find that the train had just left, and the next one wouldn't go for another couple of hours. I hung around, looking at the work going on in the repair shop for a while, and then hit the road again for Blaenafon. I again got sidetracked by another railroad exhibit. This one appeared to be closed or abandoned when I got there. There was a large rail yard with all sorts of old engines and rolling stock with absolutely no one around. I wandered around the old equipment for a half an hour or so, and then once again headed for the Big Pit.

The Big Pit

Of course by the time I arrived there, I was too late for the last tour down the mine. (Had I made it in time, chances are I would have again been the only one on the tour.) But I wandered over the grounds for a while looking at the aboveground exhibits amongst hoards of schoolkids. Again I could have spent a couple of days there, but I had to head back to Llantrisant in time for dinner. I ran into horrendous traffic as I neared home. The ubiquitous roundabouts on British roads handle the traffic quite efficiently up to a point. But when the traffic density gets high enough, they slow things down terribly. A day of much driving, and not much done at the end of the drive.

After dinner, Pat and Ned took me to a session of Welsh dancing. They belong to a troupe of demonstration dancers, and this was one of their regular Thursday night practice sessions. The dancing is similar to English Country Dancing, with a little more attention paid to fancy footwork in addition to the figures. Mostly I sat in with the band, but I did join in one more simple dance. I asked if they would like to try a contra dance. They agreed, and I walked them through "Shadrack's Delight". I couldn't get the musicians to play up to speed, so the dance took on a bit of a plodding character, which the dancers compensated for by inserting the footwork they were used to from the Welsh dancing, rather than the more simple fast walk common to contras. After the session, we headed out to a local pub for beer and conviviality.

Friday, April 27

Last gig of the tour in Southampton at the Fo'c'sle Folk Club. My journey was, for the first time, uneventful. Didn't get lost once. Found my way to Jane and Trevor Gilson's house in a peculiar little corner of the city. I drove through a fairly crowded lo-rise section of the city, and made a turn onto a nondescript short gravel ("unmade-up" in English parlance) and found myself in a little enclave of rather posh single-family houses whose back yards open onto Southampton Water. This is a rather large estuary leading out to the English Channel with lots of interesting shipping plying the water.

Jane and Trevor and cats

Jane and Trevor welcomed me with the gracious hospitality I was coming to expect, set me up in a spare bedroom, and fed me heartily. They have two cats (whose names escape me now), which they would release in the back yard, but needed constant herding so that they would not go exploring and fall into the estuary. We all know how well cats take to the herding instinct.

They had had a bit of trouble with their venue, and until the last minute, they weren't sure where the concert would be held. But it was all resolved, and the gig went well. Next day I had some time to kill before I had to head back to Heathrow, so Trevor took me to Netley Abbey, a monastery demolished by Henry VIII when the church wouldn't let him be King sufficiently. An interesting ruin, and evocative of the facility in its earlier glory.

Netley Abbey

I made sure to watch my footing before gawking.

Off to Heathrow. Got the car returned with no hassle. Had a little scare when they said that they were going to close out check-in an hour before the flight, which was just about when I arrived. But they put me on an express line, and I made the flight handily. All my luggage and instruments made it with no incident. Bill was there waiting for me when I arrived. Home at last.