29/5/2022 Bike Shed Motorcycle Show part 2

So on Saturday I went to the Bike Shed Motorcycle Show on the train, had a beer, got the train to a gig in the evening, and had more beers. Having satisfied my desire to sit at the front and pretend to be a train driver on the DLR I decided to go to the Bike Show again on Sunday, but on an actual motorcycle - one ticket to the show gives multiple admission on different days if you want - so it didn't cost any extra to go twice and see the few things I didn't get time to see the previous day. Well that's the theory anyway, but of course there is a little petrol used to get there and back. Journey planning says it's quicker going by bike instead of train too. And it's also a good way to see how well my new Beeline motorcycle SatNav system works as well. 🏍

The weather is nice enough, and the ride down to Shadwell is fairly straightforward as the roads for at least the first half of the journey are fairly familiar and SatNav isn't required. My new Beeline takes care of the rest. 🏍 The Bike Shed people have arranged free motorcycle parking in the street right outside the venue - which is cool. 😎

This picture is just a very small section of the show - there are hundreds of bikes on display, and as it's not a commercial 'trade' show the machines on display are virtually all custom bikes.

The atmosphere is very cool and relaxed, and you get get as close as you want to the bikes if you want to inspect their engineering or paintwork closely.

This one brought back some memories as it's based on a Triumph Speed Triple like the one I used to have - much missed and my favourite of all the bikes I've owned.

However, this old Royal Enfield is more like what I'm riding these days - although mine is very updated for modern times.

And the engine from this one looks very familiar too.

I suspect some of the bikes on display don't even have working engines and may never have turned a wheel under their own power, but they really are literally works of art and things of great beauty.

There really are some inspired and highly imaginative machines here - would you believe this started life as a Honda step-thru moped?

Brilliant!

Not all the bikes on show are shiny works of art.

Royal Enfields seem to be getting increasingly popular with custom builders - both old ones like this.

And new ones like this dragster based on the current 650 twin models.

And this one, which is actually a factory concept bike based on the current 650 Interceptor/Continental, but a possible future production model.

And this custom which is based on the latest 350 Meteor model.

This is just a tiny selection of the weird and wonderful machines to be seen - there are are Harley's, Triumphs, Nortons, Moto Guzzi's and Ducati's from Italy, as well as BMWs and all the big four Japanese brands, and many others - road bikes, choppers, racers, off-roaders, supersports, and everything in between.

There are plenty of other things to see and do as well - get a tattoo, get your hair done, shop for motorcycle parts and clothing, eat a wide variety of street food, and drink a wide variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages at the venue's pub or the whiskey bar. And there is plenty of live music too! It's been a good, varied, and interesting day out - I expect I'll be back next year.

The journey home turns into a bit more of an adventure than planned. There is a major bicycle race going through London on the Sunday and some of the roads are shut - only a minor problem on the way to the show, but more so on leaving to ride home. We were diverted South instead of being able to head back North. Somehow I ended up leading a very noisy convoy of motorcycles towards Wapping. I think they somehow assumed I actually knew where I was going - so they followed me, but actually I was winging it based on my SatNav auto-reroute. It's many many years since I actually drove or rode through Wapping and it has changed totally since the times I drove to a rehearsal studio there. Anyway, due to road closures and diversions I ironically ended up going past the actual Bike Shed club venue in Old Street!

PS: The following week I receive a letter from the Metropolitan Police informing me that I got caught doing a massive 24 MPH in a 20 MPH zone on the A10 on the way home - so it's going to be either a fine and points on my clean license or a Speed Awareness Course for me - again. So going to the show on my bike didn't work out so cheap after all.... Now I'm wondering if I'm going to get another letter regarding all the times I used bus lanes on the way to and from the Bike Show as well...

28/5/2022 Syteria @ The Cart & Horses

...So I leave the Bike Shed Motorcycle Show at Tobacco Dock when it closes at 8.00 and get the train(s) to the gig - which takes a surprisingly long time considering both places are in East London.

The brand new Elizabeth Line/Crossrail is now (partly) open. I thought as it goes from East to West and most of my journeys in London go North to South I wouldn't have much use for it, but less than a week after it finally opened I was on it - twice in one night. In spite of all the media hype it's still not actually finished and won't be for another year - and you can't currently travel on it from one end to the other as it's split up into 3 sections and you have to change trains twice. However, I can report that the new stations are massive and the trains themselves seem about a mile long! However, inside the trains don't seem any better then the latest ones I use regularly on GNR - and on leaving Liverpool Street the information screens in the train aren't working. 😕 After I eventually get to Liverpool Street (via DLR & tube) The Lizzy Line train reaches Maryland pretty quickly, and I find that the venue is virtually within sight of the station - so it should be quite easy to get to in the future.

The Cart & Horses is a recently refurbished East London pub where Iron Maiden apparently played their first ever show. To be honest I doubt very much if anyone from the band or the audience in the pub that night would recognise anything at all if they stepped into the same pub in 2022. However, the people in charge of the place now have obviously spent a great deal of money modernising the pub for better or worse, and the Iron Maiden connection is now the pub's entire raison d'être. The target clientelle is obviously rock and heavy metal fans, and the place is virtually an 'Iron Maiden' theme pub - but I don't see anything wrong in that. At least the pub still exists - which is more than can be said for my local pub in Barnet that Iron Maiden once played in.

Predictably, the Maiden theme extends to the beers on offer - Trooper obviously, but also all the other currently available Iron Maiden beers from Robinsons brewery. The only snag is - the pub has no real ales available on draught at all - not even Trooper! 😮 Not good enough! The other Maiden beers on offer tend to be in small bottles and work out very expensive so you are better off sticking to Trooper as it least it comes in large bottles and is far better value for money. The usual common keg beers are available on tap for the less discriminating beer drinkers...

A new feature of the pub is it's dedicated music venue downstairs. I am guessing that this room now taking up most of the pub's beer cellar is the reason for the lack of real ales available on draught. 😞 At least there is a bar downstairs, although you have to go back upstairs when you need a piss. The new downstairs music room is modern and well equipped though. - lacking the traditional 'rock 'n' roll toilet' venue vibe with it's suspect smells and sticky floors. At least everything is painted black - as it should be. 👿

It's great to finally see Syteria back playing a London venue that is actually in London - unlike last time they played a 'London' show on tour... Actually, it's great to see Syteria after lockdown etc, now that bands can finally actually start to get out on tour again. Syteria is the side project of Girlschool lead guitarist Jackie Chambers.

Girlschool tend to have a lot of downtime between festival appearances, tours, and making new albums - so as Jackie likes to keep busy she formed her own band in her home town of Leeds. Two albums later and they are out on tour again.

Now they have new music to promote in the form of new single It Hit Me. It's much more poppy and commercial that the band's usual heavier and harder hitting songs, but ironically has been played on Planet Rock national DAB radio! Don't worry - the band haven't 'sold out' and gone lightweight, 'cos when they play this song tonight it sounds very different (and much better) than the 'single release!

Apart from this one new song, all the other material played tonight is harder and heavier - at times sounding quite like Girlschool - which isn't that surprising as some of the songs were written for Girlschool but not used.

There has been a change to the band lineup since I last saw the band; Keira Kenworthy has left to play bass in JoanOvArc and her place is now filled by the very capable Steph Dawson.

As the band are currently on tour they are tight and polished - they sound excellent - apart from the guitars being too quiet, but that's due to the venue's sound mix and not the band themselves.

As the band now have two full albums of their own music to promote there are no covers and Jackie doesn't show her punk roots with the band's often played in the past cover of the Ramones classic 'Rockaway Beach'. Fortunately Syteria's own material is strong enough to stand on it's own - 'Revolution' from the band's debut album 'Rant-o-Bot' is particularly catchy.

There is strong material on the band's second album 'Reflection' as well like rebel rouser ''Make Some Noise!', with 'Asylum' and 'Plastic Fantastic' also being standout tracks.

I'm not usually a fan of drum solos but...

...this is really good, and well choreographed as the rest of the band sit down on the stage to showcase Pablo Calvo enjoying his moment.

Then it's back to business as Julia resumes her duties fronting the band. She has a great voice and doesn't have to resort to screaming or shouting as is currently fashionable in the metal scene - give me a proper singer any time!

All to soon (actually well over an hour after the band took to the stage) the show starts to draw to a close...

...Syteria are getting their stagecraft well honed by now..

...and build up to a big ending for their final song of the night...

...Syteria show they are a polished and professional act ready for bigger stages.

This band certainly know how to end a show! Hopefully it won't be too long before they make it back to London again.

So, back to the Elizabeth Line for a straightforward journey home? Just getting from Shadwell to Maryland should have taken just over half an hour, but actually took over an hour after I tried to second guess the TFL Journey Planner on my phone thinking I knew a better route the planner had missed.. Getting home from Maryland should have taken not much over an hour...I left the venue in time for the the train around 11.00 - so far so good. I got to Finsbury Park where I had the option of the Piccadilly line to Cockfosters or my preferred faster GNR to New Barnet. I found there was a GNR suburban train even sooner than expected so I jumped on. It seemed to good to be true - and the train duly sailed through New Barnet at high speed without stopping - until Potters Bar. 'Oh well' I thought 'It will take longer but I'll just get the next train back to New Barnet'. Only there wasn't one - they had finished for the night. No buses that time of night either. So I had a six mile walk home to Dark Towers - cross country in the middle of the night. At least it wasn't cold or raining. My simple hour or so's journey home took three hours in the end. A lesson learned the hard way - don't try to second guess the TFL Journey Planner - you might think you know better and there is a quicker way, but there probably isn't.

28/5/2022 Bike Shed Motorcycle Show part 1: No pictures of bikes...

I really enjoyed the Bike Shed Motorcycle Show in 2119, but due to Covid-19 there hasn't been one since. Until now. As one ticket allows you to go to the show multiple times over the weekend, and the fact that my transport situation has changed since 2019 I decided to go on Saturday and again on Sunday. On the Saturday there was a gig (also in East London) that I also wanted to go to - so for this reason it made sense to use public transport, and then I could have a few beers at the gig later. I also got to use some the brand new Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) which has been open for less than a week - huge new stations and the trains seem about a mile long! Also, 'cos I'm a big kid at heart I wanted to make the last part of the journey to Shadwell on the DLR - so I could sit at the front of the train and pretend to be the driver! Yes, this is still a bit of a novelty to be as I don't get a chance to do it very often - or at all for the last three years due to Covid restrictions. I make no apologies for my behaviour - I wanted to be a train driver when I was a kid. Then on Sunday I planned to actually go to the show on a motorcycle - which I couldn't do last time as my bike had been stolen the previous December and I didn't think I would be able to get another one.

So, I arrived as planned after pretending I was driving the DLR train. The bike show was excellent as expected with many interesting machines on display. It is basically a custom bike show rather than a trade show trying to sell new bikes, so there are many weird and wonderful motorcycles on display - some are interesting from an engineering point of view, while some are literally works of art. However, I decided to avoid taking any bike pictures until Sunday to avoid any duplication. As this event being organised by the Bike Shed there is lots of other cool stuff going on too - you can get a tattoo, get your hair done, buy bike clothing, get a wide variety of street food, enjoy a drink at the bar or other beer outlet, or catch some live music.

Most of the acts were a little too 'Country', acoustic, or 'Americana' (I can't stand that made up bullshit term) for my taste, but Logan J. Parker managed to get my attention.

Imagine Amy Winehouse, but with a guitar and playing more blues influenced stuff, with maybe a little funk and country thrown in.

Logan is a natural and relaxed performer, and her band are good musicians although I'd prefer to see her with a more rockin' band. However, I will be seeing another blonde with a guitar and a much harder rocking band elsewhere in East London later - so this is something different to relax to before I head to the Bike Show's 'pub' for a beer before getting on the train to tonight's gig in Stratford...

15/5/2022 Big Boy Bloater & The Limits @ The 100 Club

Big Boy Bloater has been around for quite a few years on the UK blues scene, as well as playing with other artists both live and as a session player in the studio. I am late to the party and he has only appeared on my radar in more recent years - via Team Rock Radio, and a live session on Nicky Horne's excellent show on the now defunct Vintage TV. More recently he was a DJ on the great and much missed Feedback Radio. His radio shows were great fun and showcased his love and deep knowledge of 1950's (and onwards) blues, rock & roll, and R&B. However, being a musician is his main gig and in the last ten years or so he has been recording and touring with his band The LiMiTs. Since he moved to France live appearances in the UK by Big Boy Bloater & the Limits have been scarce, and as I had never seen him play live this short UK tour with The Limits was too good to miss!

The sound mix on this tour is being done by ex-Team Rock engineer/producer, ex-Feedback Radio main man and now Primordial Radio presenter Adam Whalley - it sounds pretty good too - this boy know's what he is doing. The iconic 100 Club is the perfect venue for music like this having in the past hosted so many blues and rock legends. And me. But tonight we are here to see someone far more deserving of your time. Big Boy Bloater is one of those artists who other musicians go to see, and tonight I spot members of The Urban Voodoo Machine lurking in the crowd.

With several albums under their belts the band have plenty of material to choose from when picking their setlist. Most of tonight's set comes from the band's last two albums 'Luxury Hobo' and 'Pills'. The songs are old school R&B, rock & roll, and blues based, but with a more modern lyrical twist like 'Robot Girlfriend'. The music sounds quite bright, bouncy, and uplifting - but if you listen more closely the lyrics are often very dark and touch on subjects like mental heath issues and serial killers like in 'Pills', 'Insanely Happy' and 'Every Path Has It's Puddle'. There is some dark humour ('Robot Girlfriend' again) in there as well as dealing with matters of the heart - so it's not all doom and gloom. The lyrics are witty and often put a different twist on familiar social situations - there is plenty to digest as well as entertain with songs like the surely Chuck Berry inspired 'Oops Sorry', and 'I Love You (but I can't stand your friends'. 'It Came Outta The Swamp' is a cautionary monster tale in the blues tradition, while I can identify with songs like 'Messing With The Booze' and 'Friday Night's Alright For Drinking. I think most people will find some songs they can identify with - hopefully not including the ones about serial killers!

Bloater himself has an engaging personality and a good (if sometimes dark) sense of humour - you get the feeling he would be good company down at the pub while sinking a few beers. However, in spite of the sometimes dark subject matter, this is basically a rock & roll show - and rock & roll is meant to be fun! 'Devils Not Angels' is an all-out rocker to get your feet moving and tonight is fun - for an hour or so we are well entertained by Bloater's friendly persona and charisma - he is one of those characters you can't not like. And the music is pretty good too; Big Boy Bloater is an excellent guitarist and singer, while The Limits (Steven Oates, bass guitar & Matt Cowley, drums) provide a tight and dynamic rhythm section. This has been an enjoyable and entertaining evening of live music, and afterwards I enjoy a chat with Bloater himself - it's great to finally meet after thoroughly enjoying his radio show and all our intereactions. I also buy the exclusive limited edition 'Live' CD only available on this tour - although obviously it's not a recording from this actual tour it makes a great souvenir of tonight's show.

Hopefully it won't be too long before Big Boy Bloater returns to our shores for some more shows, but it's unlikely to be before next year...

In the meantime - Feedback Radio may no longer be around, but look out for Big Boy Bloater temporarily back on the radio on another station soon...  😉