In Which we Party. With Music and Food.

I have written before about seeing Bitter Ruin - the first time when they supported Amanda Palmer at one of her London gigs, and several times since then, as support act and in their own right.

Georgia and Ben (AKA Bitter Ruin)

On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to be at a house-concert-party hosted by Mike and Sue (who also hosted the party with Mitch Benn, which I went to last month).

There were lots of lovely people there, and Sue had cooked up a storm, and there was lots of time for mingling and conversation before the music started.

Despite threatened rain, the weather remained good enough to allow them to play outside, under the bunting, which was lovely.


Ben and Georgia had asked in advance for requests, but rather than prepare a detailed set list, they instead let us chose the order in which they played, via a game of 'pin the tail on the set-list' which worked remarkably well!


As the evening wore on, and it got darker and cooler, the party moved indoors and acquired more hats, with regular hat-swaps between songs. It all made perfect sense at the time.

Bitter Ruin played us lots of old favourites, as well as songs from the new album (produced via Kickstarter funding).

It was a great show, and lovely to have the opportunity to chat with Ben and Georgia, too.

After the concert finished, the party continued - with ukulele music, and a game of twister, and more hats.

A good time was, as they say, had by all. (and thanks again to Mike and Sue for their hospitality!)

In Which There is Music and Much Driving, But No Keys

This weekend, I had one of the few (total:20) tickets to see Bitter Ruin play some of the songs from their work in progress, in their home in Brighton.

I've seen them several times before, most recently last June, in in Bath, and earlier last year when they opened for Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley's EvelynEvelyn show in London, and it seemed as though it would be a fun thing to do.

My trip didn't start well. Brighton is a long way away, so I planned to drive to my sister's place in Portsmouth, then get a train to Brighton. She & C were willing for me to stay there in their absence, and so the plan was to get the train back after the gig, sleep there, and have a leisurely drive home on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately Royal Mail let us down, and the keys to the flat which were posted to me on Wednesday (1st class, which is supposed to mean they arrive the following day) failed to turn up. Having stayed in until the post arrived (well after mid-day), I was not best pleased that the keys didn't arrive.

Having no option, I then drove to Brighton (which takes about 3 hours) where I inadvertently parked in the Worlds Most Expensive Car Park before heading out to look at Brighton.

The Royal Pavillion is one of the sights of Brighton. It was built for the Prince Regent (later George IV) between 1787 and 1822, and as it currently stands was designed by Nash, in the Indian style - the interiors are (mad) Chinoiserie, but I didn't go in on this occasion, as it's not cheap, and I didn't have time to do it justice.

I think perhaps we should be grateful that The Prince Regent did not allow his enormous debts get in the way of building such a lavish palace, as it gives us something most impressive to look at now! The pavillion was used as a hospital during WW1 - it must have been somewhat disconcerting, espcially for any poor soul suffering from fever...

After looking around the town a little I found a very nice restuarant and gorged myself on fresh whitebait, and wild mushroom risotto, then I walked along the promenade watching the gulls riding the wind, and the people on the beach.

I met up with 5 or 6 of the other people going to the show, outside Ben and Georgia's flat, and we all headed in. 

We all settled down on the living room floor, with glasses of wine (and little bowls of dolly mixture, supplied by our hosts) 

 Ben & Georgia played us a selection of the new songs which they are currently working on for their next album - I particularly liked 'Child in a Sea Cave'.                                                                                                                                                                 In between songs we talked, and they answered questions, then played more songs from the back catalogue, with more conversation and discussions in between.  It was a lot of fun!

When the show ended, Georgia took a picture of the bunch of us, before we left.

(Picture taken by Georiga )

Then there was just time for a little more conversation before heading back to my car for the long drive home. It was twilight as we left the flat, and the amusements on the pier were all lit up.

It was well past midnight before I got home, and my dodgy shoulder is complaining about all the driving, and I still have the problem of how to get my sister's keys back to her (once they finally arrive here!) but despite all that, it was fun, and I'm glad I went.

I would also like to go back to Brighton at some point, and spend a bit more time looking around the pavillion, gardens and so forth..

General Round Up

Dear me, no blogging for a week. I have been slack.

On the other hand, there has not been a lot to blog about. Its been a bit of a frustrating week at work, one way or another - the way when you have one thing which goes wrong, or one client weho is difficult, you suddenly have 2 or 3 more.

This weekend I had been planning to go to London to see Bitter Ruin - I have seen them before - they opened for EvelynEvelyn back in April, and Cheryl and I went to see them when they played in Bath in June.

When the tickets went on sale for this tour, I bought a ticket for the Friday night (as that was origianlly the onlt show within a distance I could get to) then when they added an extra show on Saturday I bought a ticket for that instead as it is easier to do these things on weekends. - However, I came to realise that it really wasn't going to be  practical to go. I was too tired, feeling too run down, and the logistics (I had inadvertently booked myself in for a flu jab on Saturday morning, which I couldn't reschedule as my GP's surgery does them on designated days and this was the last one) plus to cost of travelling up etc. meant it just wasn't going to work out.

On the plus side, I was able to find someone else who could use each of the tickets, so at least they didn't go to waste.  And given how much timme I have spent either sleeping, or curled up on the sofa this weekend, I am sure it was the right decision, but I am sorry I  missed seeing them.

As I found myself in town to get my flu jab, I did do a little shopping, and found a couple of shirts and a coat, all on sale, and also picked up 4 new books, 2 of which are definitely going to be Christmas gifts, and the other 2 may be (I bought them with other people in mind but would rather like to keep them...)

Things I hoped to get done but didn't (once I had resigned myself to not going to London) included making and freezing food for next weekend, when I have guests coming, and going to the framers to get my 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties' print and my 'Billy Bones' illustration, framed. Oh well. Soon.

I kind of hoped that some housework would get done, too. Sadly the houswork fairies seem sadly delinquent at present.

Bitter Ruin!

Thursday evening saw me heading into Bath, to meet up with Cheryl and together to go to Moles, to see Bitter Ruin.

I first heard of them (and heard them) when they played support for Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley at the EvelynEvelyn show at Bush Hall, and at the 'Underworld' gig, and really liked their music, so when I saw they were playing in Bath I booked tickets straight away.

Moles, as the name suggests, is to be found in a cellar (with a bar above), and is pretty small. When we arrived, 5 minutes after the doors opened, it was empty other Georgia & Ben (a.k.a. Bitter Ruin) so we had the oppotunity to chat to them briefly, then as other people started to arrive we headed upstairs for a drink.

The first band on were a local duo whose name, unfortunately, I didn't catch, but they were good - then Bitter Ruin were on - I really enjoyed their set - especially as they played two of my favourites - "The Vice" and "A Brand New Me", plus a new song - "Relief"

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In between times I chatted to Ben's dad, who apparently lives locally, and learned that Ben went to the same school I did (although about 12 years later than me!)

All in all, a great evening, and if you get a chance to see Bitter Ruin play, take it!