I saw Wishbone Ash in concert at..........

Wishbone Ash Argus

Wishbone Ash

.....the festival hall Paignton Devon UK in 1975 and have been an avid Wishbone Ash fan ever since.

The Album Argus is my all time favourite ...

I remember we near on wore out a copy of that album listening to it over and over again whilst jamming along with acoustic guitars ...ah halcyon, hedonistic days!

I've seen Hawkwind Twice by Mistake

Hawkwind Warrior on the Edge of Time

Once at Port Meadow in Oxford

There we were, my now wife and myself.
Way back in 1980 something or other, 82 or 83, I think.
Having just finished work for the day we decided to repair to the local hostelry other wise known as The Radcliffe Arms Public House or the Raddy to the locals in Jericho Oxford.

We'd been there for a while...when the door burst open and half a dozen hairy guys descended upon the bar with outlandish orders of triple gin and tonics and the like.

Any ways...Once the rush had died down Bob Moore the then Landlord of the Raddy said to us whilst serving us our next pint (no such thing as binge drinking in those days)..."those chaps are Hawkwind and they say their doing a gig tonight on Port Meadow"

So all sensible thoughts of going home and eating suddenly vanished...off to Port Meadow we went at chucking out time...around 11pm

Sure enough a stage had been erected..

Hawkwind played...we saw...we danced...we drank...

The only down side came when I realised that dawn was breaking and we had to go to work...suffice to say it was a hard days work indeed!

Hawkwind the Second Time

Hawkwind The Solstice At Stonehenge 1984

The second time Stonehenge 1984

So it's holiday time...we've got a couple of weeks off work...

The good lady and myself have decided to do the right thing and go and see my aging Grandparents.
The snag being we are in Oxford and my Grandparents are in Paignton Torbay Devon, we don't have a car and are as usual somewhat skint.

We decided to hitch-hike from Oxford to Torbay....we'd done this on a few occasions before and had no problem covering the 200 odd miles...

Rucksacks on (thank god we took a tent) and off we set...

We stood at the round-about and stuck out our thumbs...
Success within 10 minutes .... a car stopped for us...
Where are you going says the bearded chap in the car..Torbay we say hopefully ...
Well says the bearded chap..."I'm going to the Stonhenge Festival..jump in Stonehenge is on the A361 road you're bound to get a lift from there...(yes I know thousands of people and we expected to get another lift).

Some time later we arrived at the festival site....
I won't hurt to have a look I say..
So in we went....

After a brief tussle with some rather nice farm cider, sold to us by an ageing hippy from the back of a pick up truck, we gave up all hope of getting another lift out of the place and started looking for a place to pitch the tent.
We pitched up right up the top of the field and gave into the cider and went to sleep....

2am... I awake with a start...Hell someone's playing Hawkwind....REAL LOUD.....
I unzip the tent....they've built a stage next our tent and yes that's Hawkwind giving it their all ...

So again.....we saw, we danced, we drank.

No downside to this one other than it took us five days to get out of Stonehenge..

We did get to see my aging Grandparents so an all round win!

Amnesia by Richard Thompson

We first saw Richard Thompson play live at the 25th Anniversary Fairport Convention Gig at Croperdy Oxford.

As it happens it was also our Wedding Reception and Honeymoon!

We'd done the deed and got married in the morning..
A quiet affair, with just the Good Lady, myself, a couple of friends and their young daughter as witnesses.

After the ceremony it was off to Fairport Conventions 25th anniversary bash at Croperdy as husband and wife...

So we had 15,000 people at our wedding reception or so we like to say!

Richard Thompson plays a mean guitar and sings his songs with a heart rendering passion.

We bought a copy of Richards album Amnesia whilst we were at the festival and it has become an album of great sentimental value to both my wife and myself.

Don't Tempt Me from the Amnesia album...that's a track and a half..

Thanks for the Music Richard.

Adrian Legg

Guitars & Other Cathedrals

I have seen Adrian Legg play live at the Radcliffe Arms in Jericho Oxford three or four times way back in the mid 1980s.

Stunning and Spellbinding is the only way to describe Adrian's performances.
The things that Adrian can do with a guitar have to be heard and seen to be believed!
His between songs story telling is also top notch.

If I had too choose a favourite album and track I'd say the album 'Guitars and other Cathedrals' and the track 'Pass The Valium (With Knobs On)'