Ryan O'Reilly band.

An interesting early evening at the Cow; my guru and anger management counsellor dropped by for a chat followed by a notorious pot growing friend... then the king of tours turned up still loved up from Port Eliot; he had Ryan with him.

Ryan and his eponymous band busk on Portobello Road on Saturdays... Get down there, check them out and buy the CD. http://www.ryanoreilly.co.uk/

Sherlock, Telegraph and child abuse.

I do not own a television nor do I wish to own a television. But there again no-one owns a television; television owns you!

However I have been hearing a great deal of positive stuff about the new BBC 'Sherlock'. People who I consider sane and rational were raving about it.

I found it on iplayer last night; watched the first two episodes back to back... I'm hooked!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t4pgh

I note that John Preston panned it in the Telegraph...

Not long now before the entire Telegraph readership is dead or in cryogenic suspension and that ghastly rag can be put out of it's misery. I grew up with the Telegraph as a constant in the house... Nothing short of child abuse.

On another subject entirely I find that my daily burgeoning inbox requires a considerable amount of my time.

Be careful about what you wish for.

Kristina Bill, garden sheds and the Stranglers.

Last night, while you were in the pub talking about garden sheds or the stranglers I was at the Island Experiment...

I met Kristina Bill who did a song there... hopefully she will come back and do more:

.http://www.kristinabill.com/index.html

Now garden sheds and the Stranglers may appeal at most times but I can assure you that when Kristina is in the room it is definitely NOT one of those times.

Accreditation from the the king of cool..

After a very, very late night which took in the island experiment at some point I awoke to a message telling me that Jarvis Cocker read one of my poems on the radio.... I'm off to sing 'common people' in the bath!

Good friends.

Some people you meet in life and just carry on. Some people you meet in life and you celebrate then hope you meet again.... Maybe in a bar in Mexico, any where will do!

Michael... see you in Guadalajara.

Miss you already!

Rusty's breakfast.

Rusty writes from Mountain View:

'Hi, how are you? And how is Jan (is he dead at the moment or just ill)? Try my latest breakfast sensation... Raw egg, strong black coffee, banana, milk, yoghurt. Put it all in the blender and whizz!

Breakfast in a glass!'

Rusty.

It sounded good so I tried it out.

david randall curtis / mary cigarettes

Ray Roughler Jones book launch.

This is how the Hill magazine saw it.

http://thehill.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/ray-roughler-jones-drowning-on-dry-land-w11-notting-hill-tabernacle-party-22291/

Open heart therapy.

Annabel just coined that.

I felt it my duty to put it up and credit her.... Here, first and Annabel.

Overseas readers, punctuation and beer.

I often wonder what my overseas readers think of this blog; I know I have one or two who regularly look in. Perhaps they are expats who want a reminder of dear old blighty.

I get very few comments posted so have little feedback, which is a shame; I have even tried bad punctuation in the hope that I will draw out the colon fanatics, sadly to no avail.

I do hope however that if they ever visit London they will let me know in advance... I can then buy them a beer in the Cow.

Michael Campari

Michael Campari crooned the night away at Port Eliot... Great fun.

http://michaelcampari.com/

Port Eliot Images

Charlie Dancey


Murray Lachlan Young
Bess Cavendish
Michael Campari


Marlon

Port Eliot Festival.

I will not bore you with details of the journey down through sometimes torrential rain. Nor will I bore you with tales of camping; not an activity I relish.

Port Eliot was fantastic, the setting is perfect and the slightly decaying house appears more of a rocky outcrop than a man made structure. I was welcomed, and looked after, by some lovely people most notably Shelly, Rick and Marlon; thank you for that!

The Times described the festival as 'Notting Hill on sea' and there certainly did appear to be a large number of my neighbours down there... The Blue bar tent became the Port Eliot 'Cow' for the duration.

There were some great acts; I'll discuss those in a later blog, and some real surprises; most notably Lana Citron's 'lecture' on kissing... Not to be missed.

Something of a cloud hovered over our weekend due to a broken down car but our bacon was well and truly saved by Charlie Dancey and 'Tugger'. Charlie you are a star!

The atmosphere throughout the weekend was extremely happy... The whole thing was a joy.

I'll write about my 'gig' at a later date!