RichardRadio

My bike is a beer bike (pub and back). With panniers on the back wheel and no suspension on the front I was eating my brothers dirt. I had plenty of time to think about why my brother spends more on his bike than his car.

Anyway there he is (up ahead as usual) near Chactonbury Ring which is above Lancing and Worthing

Classic South Downs & GPS navigation

We took the (slow) train to Winchester and set off after lunch. Camp sites were hard to come by and I was going too slow to make the intended campsite so after an amazing descent down Buster Hill right next to the A3 we stopped in a B&B in the next village, Buriton. Second night we camped outside Truleigh Youth Hostal near Shoreham – didn’t want to have lugged the tent and food all that way for nothing.

Looking down towards Amberley and River Arun

Chactonbury Ring

Our super-duper guide book. Matt would eat off the corners of the page as we progressed through the route for easy page finding. He’s an animal!

Matt at Beachy Head. I didn’t do this last bit. Once you cross the A27 and get up onto the downs above Brighton you are only 20mins downhill from my house and as it was raining windy and zero visablity I thought I would leave it for another day.

Not quite sure about the Great Escape Festival. I had a great Thursday, a pretty crap Friday and a mediocre Saturday. The problem was that the gigs didn’t really start to get going until about 8pm and were over by 11. Yes there were bands playing earlier but it just felt that you had just arrived and were having your first drink – and the bands knew it. Then, if you thought you were going to catch one of the late night gigs before everyone else and their brother, forget it.

Thursday
Firstly thanks to Annabelle for pursuading me to go. Saw Cherry Ghost in the Barfly/Gloucester at about 8.30 after leaving ZZZ (for dead) at the King and Queen. Went via Hector’s to the Red Rooster to see Kate Walsh (Recommended by Luke and Doc) and caught Angus and Julia Stone. For a Joanna (Newsom) fan like me she’s great and his falsetto backing vocal over her voice was eerily identical – but not. Lovely, lovely lovely. As for Kate Walsh, she has an amazing voice and as a local I hope to catch her again in Brighton soon.

Friday
Needed a snooze after work to recharge. (7.30) The San Miguel was good at Audio but that was about it. Then the bonus of the night was seeing Young Plan play their last song on the Topman (puke) New Talent Stage at Hector’s House (8.00). Made me grin, deafened me too cos I was standing just by the ride cymbal in the door. Next the King and Queen again to see Nic and Sarah’s band Scouting for Girls (8.30) which was a bit middle of the road for me.

Then was a bit of aimless wandering, not getting into the Ocean Rooms nor the Pavillion for Willy Mason and ending up in the Corn Exchange for Art Brut (10.30) which was better than being out on the street -just. Then the that Great Escape moment queuing up to get into The Beach. A plus was meeting Flash Gordan and Citizen Smith in line but it was cold and windy down there so we went home.

Saturday
Should have got out earlier – but hey. Waited an hour to see the Maccabees before realising (duh) that it wasn’t going to happen. Uderbelly was full so no Tiny Dancers (just cos their from Sheffield) nor British Sea Power. Disillusioned, went to Audio for the San Miguel. Music was similarly bad as the night before, but I spotted Jamie, SanMig in hand (with Lisa and crew). We bundled off to Revenge to catch ZZZ. This was a surprise having walked out on them on Thurs. Think Lemmy meets the Doors – looped. I think the keyboardist got a little bit too into it and ended jumping up stamping on his keyboard and hanging from the ceiling – rock and roll yeah.

click image for House of Sin mp3

Rest of Saturday is best forgetten except for Cheese burger at the Market Cafe and meeting Flash and Smiffy again.