An intermittently recurring feature on the blog has been bands I wish I'd seen forty or fifty years ago, didn't, but now have. Latest to join this illustrious list is Wreckless Eric, a name he spent decades trying to avoid, but has now reclaimed. It was worth the wait:

He was supporting Dr Feelgood, who I probably would have gone to see anyway. The issue of whether I'd ever seen the original line up has now been resolved (although I can still remember absolutely nothing of the event) and this latest gig turned out to be 48 years all but one day since that previous occasion. That, I think is the longest period between my successive attendance at gigs of the same band, always assuming that you count them as being the same band. This lot are a bit of an odd mixture between being a proper band (they released an album of new material last year) and a tribute act (they play all the old favourites), but however you classify them they are bloody good and well worth seeing. Not, though as good as Wilko Johnson, Lee Brilleaux, John B. Sparkes and The Big Figure, so here they are:

Someone else who I've seen live this week is Tom Robinson, who I last saw in either late 1977 or early 1978, so not quite as big a gap. He was also excellent and extremely engaging; his anecdotes being almost as good as his music. I particularly liked the one about the time the Sunday People described him as 'Britain's no. 1 gay' when they 'outed' him for being in a relationship with a woman. Wreckless Eric's best anecdote was about Kevin Coyne, but he was perhaps topped by Maddie Prior of Steeleye Span - also seen by your bloggist with the last seven days; I am ceaseless in my search for material with which to entertain you - whose story concerned both Peter Sellers and his ukulele.

 Life carries on here much as usual: BT have given me another seemingly arbitrarily precise compensation payment, £26.24 this time; another family of mice have appeared, necessitating more poison to be laid out; I have spent an inordinate amount of time in the dentist's chair due to problems with decades old crowns; and I have ordered another set of rules for the Mexican Revolution, despite it being a period which I never intend to game. I shall no doubt return to the last of those when they turn up.

I mentioned in a recent post that 'The Book of Mormon' contained songs on all sorts of potentially offensive subjects. I have now been to see the much more mainstream 'Sweeney Todd' - by the late, great Stephen Sondheim - and find that much of the lyrical content is about murder and cannibalism, so not offensive at all. It was very good though.

I've also been to see Steeleye Span's 50th anniversary tour. The band are, as Maddy Prior pointed out, a 'Ship of Theseus' with not many original members remaining. Indeed two of those in the official 2022 tour photograph above weren't there. Still, they were also very good. [Note to self: see if you can think of some more exciting descriptive words before writing your next review] Anyway, being folk music, the lyrical content was all a bit grim: cruel killings, seduction and abandonment of innocent maidens who then perish, hauntings by headless monsters etc. There seems to be a bit of theme developing here.

Musicians often refer on stage to others they have interacted with. Recently Nick Lowe spoke about Mavis Staples, which certainly impressed me. Maddy Prior out-namedropped them all by telling us what the Queen said to her, which was apparently: "Such jolly tunes". Still, if my ancestors had carried on in the same way as those of Her Maj, then I might also have a different threshold as to what constituted 'jolly'.

We'll have a break from the lightbox photos - though be warned; they will return - to mark the passing of Julie Felix, as yet another memory of my childhood is gone. She introduced me to an awful lot of good music, both by covering other artist's songs and by inviting some top-notch guests on to her television show.



Those who have been paying any attention at all will have been expecting this one:





And, of course, there's this, to which I still know all the words despite not having heard it for decades:

Before anyone else points it out, there have indeed been two Pot85pouris. The house rule is friendly ties and so this becomes number 87.

There's lots of stuff happening in Otley at the moment. This weekend for example is the Folk Festival, which means the streets are full of people who look like this:




I believe that the next lot are meant to be crows although why that means they have to whack each other with sticks I don't know.




This bunch are dancing with swords, although my photograph doesn't really show it very well; nice waistcoats though.



And then there were these ladies, who took it all very seriously indeed, but in fairness had a really slick entrance and exit routine.




Anyway, that's enough pot/kettle mockery of other people's strange hobbies so let's turn instead to the recent Vintage Transport show. There weren't many traction engines this year, which is a great shame, but there were a few military vehicles including this one which gave rise to a question in my mind.




In the film 'A Bridge Too Far' (and I am specifically talking about the film rather than reality) Sean Connery complains at one point that something hasn't arrived and is consoled in traditional British fashion with a cup of tea. The question I am asking myself is whether the thing that has gone missing was a jeep itself or a specially designed airborne motorbike such as is strapped to the front of this one. It's bugging me more than it should and I may have to watch the film again. Inevitably it will be a hugely disappointing experience and another fond memory of my youth will be spoiled.




Finally, I expect that you are all waiting eagerly for my insider's view on the latest shenanigans within the Labour Party. In particular you want to know what prompted the aborted attempt to abolish the position of Deputy Leader, an attempt which seemed to come from nowhere and catch everyone, especially the incumbent Deputy Leader himself, by surprise. My view is that we should interpret it to mean that Jezza is intending to stand down fairly soon and the manoeuvre was driven by the wish for Tom Watson not to be in interim charge while a new leader is elected. You will recall that the pair have very different views on the big issue of the day. You heard it here first.

I have been to see Martin Simpson perform again, and once again he was simply brilliant.

Some years ago - to celebrate being sixty in fact - I made some ginger, chocolate and rum biscuits to take along to the boardgames session in the pub, and apologised to those trying them for having been a touch heavy handed with the bottle. "Don't apologise," came the reply "there isn't anything that can't be improved by adding more rum". This video is an exception to that rule; not just for the annoying advert at the beginning, but because the cameraman gives every indication of having had a free sample or two. The music is good though:

I have been to see KT Tunstall, and it was, well, it was OK; which is to say that I was a bit disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more. I hope that makes sense. She has an engaging stage presence, plays a mean guitar and was wearing a pair of shiny trousers that looked as if they had been sprayed on, but somehow it all fell a bit flat. She has abandoned playing with a band, instead using a loop pedal arrangement to accompany herself taking what she does away from folk/blues into folktronica or techno-folk or something similarly made up. Other than one or two highlights - notably 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' - it didn't really float my boat.

Less hi-tech and all the better for it were Coope, Boyes and Simpson. A male acapella trio they are definitely within the folk tradition despite writing much of their own material, often political in nature. They have become associated in the last few years with songs about the Great War and did a selection of such material, including a couple of self-penned numbers about Major Valentine Fleming of the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars. Fleming was in many ways the epitome of the sort of person they - and your bloggist - dislike on principle (Eton and Oxford, Conservative MP etc), but there is no denying his bravery, which ultimately was to cost him his life. Apparently he and his fellow officers tried hard to ensure that those one hundred years on would have strongly mixed feelings about them despite their heroism, by transporting their horses and hounds to northern France and spending their time when not in the trenches by hunting; there is no record of whether or not they hunted for monkeys. Fleming, whose son was of course the creator of James Bond, was born on the banks of the Tay and another of the songs the threesome sang, written by Michael Marra, was about an imagined trip by Frida Kahlo to Dundee. Other, perhaps more likely, subjects varied from the refugee crisis to the return of fascists to political power (a song which reminded me, and probably only me, musically of 'Yours Is No Disgrace') via a lament for Kurt Cobain. A mention must also be made of a song about the environment, which concluded with the refrain 'one million plastic bottles' sung to the tune of 'ten green bottles', but which thankfully they didn't sing to a conclusion.

It is once again the time of year when I report that I have been to see Fairport Convention, this time on their fiftieth anniversary tour; that's a quite remarkable feat when you think about it, even if there is only one of the original members left. I've written about seeing them several times now and have rather run out of different things to say. The set list was the usual mix of the completely new, stuff they haven't played for a while and one or two that they could never leave out. It was good to see this one, with Sally Barker making a good fist of the thankless task of taking Sandy Denny's part:



And I enjoyed their version of Steve Tilston's 'Naked Highwayman', and also the story of the rather calculating way that it came to be written:



And then there was 'Matty Groves'. I've always loved this song about sleeping with other men's wives with which the band traditionally finish the show - make of that what you will - but I think we can all get special amusement at the moment from the fact that the elderly rich man who is cuckolded by his trophy wife is called Lord Donald. Of course in the song he then lashes out violently to compensate for his diminishing virility, so perhaps we shouldn't laugh too hard.

Here's to the next fifty years.

It is the Otley Folk Festival this weekend. I became aware that it had started when, having retired not particularly early, I was awoken by someone singing 'Dirty Old Town' very loudly outside my house. I didn't mind that so much, but was somewhat less pleased when upon stepping out of my front door this morning I walked straight into three morris dancers. I was accompanied by the big bouncy woman who, to my astonishment, professed a liking for men prancing around with bells on their trousers and pigs bladders on sticks. Still as Jean-Paul Sartre said "We do not judge the people we love".

On the subject of quotations, it was Winston Churchill who first said "Never let a good crisis go to waste". I'm now feeling slightly better and so I have suspended my no nursing rule; the big bouncy woman was with me because she had been on first shift today.  Always careful of her reputation she is keen that I should point out to readers that the level of any perking up that may have taken place was specially tailored to my invalid status.

After lunch, when I'd also been visited by la seconda infermiera, I felt well enough to step outside to give the folk festival's street entertainment the once over. It was all very pleasant: the sun shone, the streets were busy, there was food and drink (not for Epictetus, who hasn't eaten anything but porridge for some days now), and the Ukulele Orchestra of Otley were just packing up as I arrived. In my brief visit I saw passable covers of songs from artists such as John Martyn and Joni Mitchell plus a Chuck Berry song that I'd never heard before. It wasn't one of his best, but any Chuck Berry song has got to be good right? Except for 'My Dingaling' obviously.

There's still no painting action chez Epictetus. The new movement trays etc got finished and put away and then so did all the modelling stuff. Perhaps my interest will pick up again when the weather isn't so good. That's a little joke for the benefit of our British readers, although it does give me an excuse to include this clip as a little tribute:


Anyway, hobby stuff has basically been the Seven Years War campaign and a bit of boardgaming. In the former, I am concerned that the Austrians may already have peaked with their rather lucky victory in the Battle of Aussig being followed by all commanders moving when asked. It has to be all downhill from here. Boardgaming for the last two weeks has taken place against a background of constant and unprecedented discussion about politics. Our Monday night group is attended on and off by Americans from the nearby 'secret' military base and it is interesting, if disheartening, to hear their views on it all. I'm not sure which is worse, their lack of understanding of the world outside the US, or their lack of awareness of the way the rest of the world regards the US. And these are people who have not only travelled abroad, but spend all day every day listening to our phone calls. Frightening.

In other news a low level of cultural intake continues. I went to see Bob Fox, folk singer and original Songman in the National Theatre production of War Horse, an evening which also featured short sets from Yan Tan Tether and Jon Palmer, the latter of whom I also saw with his band in the Junction Inn, a pub referenced in his song 'Another Friday Night in a Northern Town'.


In the cinema I saw last season's version of the 'Merchant of Venice' from the Globe plus 'Love & Friendship', the not very widely released film based on Jane Austen's epistolary novella 'Lady Susan'. They were both very funny in parts, with Tom Bennett (now there's a proper Jane Austen name) stealing the second as the clueless Sir James Martin.

I've been to see Rod Clements, once of Lindisfarne and Jack The Lad performing an acoustic set accompanied only by Ian Thomson on double bass. Clements originally left Lindisfarne while I was still at school and the forming and reforming of these groups is a mystery probably even to the members themselves. I can confidently say that he wasn't a member when I saw them a couple of years ago, although I believe he is now. Thomson is, I think, their current bass player, but whether he was then is another matter.



Clements has a great track record. As well as writing 'Meet Me On The Corner' he has worked with the likes of Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell (he played on 'Streets of London') and, more recently, Thea Gilmore and Nigel Stonier, artists much admired by this blog. Indeed Nick Hall, a local singer/songwriter featured fairly regularly in these pages, was in the audience and was deep in conversation with Clements after the gig.




As well as both Lindisfarne and Jack The Lad numbers, they performed a couple of Jansch's songs, Ledbelly's 'Bourgeois Blues' and, more unexpectedly, the theme from Barry Norman's film review TV programmes which the more elderly among you may remember. He encored with an instrumental version of 'The In Crowd' as originally made famous by Dobie Gray. An eclectic mix therefore, which showed off his guitar virtuosity and demonstrated that you don't have to be a brilliant vocalist to entertain a crowd if you have guitar virtuosity to fall back on.

Stage 2 of le Tour de Yorkshire was in town today, as was a one off women's race. The latter started off at 8:15 in the morning, but still drew a large crowd due to the presence of local heroine (and world champion) Lizzie Armitstead. I'd like to illustrate all this with a brilliant photo of her, but like all bad workmen I was let down by my tools. Instead here's one showing how le Tour respected diversity by making a panda a steward for the day:




The ceremonial roll out passed in front of the Casa Epictetus, but one of the competitors, number 95 in fact, didn't, managing to bust a wheel before they had gone a few hundred metres.




There was plenty of entertainment to keep the crowd occupied during the six (count them: six) hours between the start of the women's and men's races, although frankly most of us just went home, a journey in my case of about ten feet. I did however step out again to check out the excellent Yan Tan Tether peforming outside the Woolpack. Unfortunately for them their performance was interrupted by a huge hailstorm.




Even more unfortunately this resulted in the PA system going bang, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the recent exploding kettle incident chez Epictetus. Indeed, as with the earlier occurrence, we should be thankful that this ill advised mixing of electricity and water didn't have far worse results. But instead, like the troupers they are, the ladies simply stepped off stage to be nearer their audience and sang unamplified. Admittedly because of the appalling weather the only people still there were their families and me, but nonetheless one must admire such a display of the Dunkirk spirit.

Well, I've had a good weekend, but you'll just have to take that on trust. I am tempted to write about my kettle blowing up, but although it was somewhat disconcerting when it happened, calm was soon restored; sadly not by the traditional British method of having a cup of tea, but restored nonetheless.

I am therefore going to break the habit of a lifetime and post a photo of some figures that I have completed. Not for the painting - which is, what's the word, crap - but for the conversions, which I rather like. The background is that I wanted my bombing section to be, well, bombing, but didn't want them all lined up on the table in identical poses. The lack of a decent camera makes it difficult to see the detail (it helps if you click on the photo to enlarge it), but nevertheless here they are:


The one on the left is the original, the others are the conversions.

Among the highlights of the weekend was seeing a concert by Martin Carthy, doyen of the British folk scene. Now I can stick my finger in my ear with the best of them and so I really enjoyed it. Here he is from nearly thirty years ago:

"Little Matty Groves, he lay down and took a little sleep
When he awoke, Lord Donald was standing at his feet
Saying "How do you like my feather bed and how do you like my sheets
How do you like my lady wife who lies in your arms asleep? "
"Oh, well I like your feather bed and well I like your sheets
But better I like your lady wife who lies in my arms asleep"
"Well, get up, get up," Lord Donald cried, "get up as quick as you can
It'll never be said in fair England that I slew a naked man"

I have been to see Fairport Convention yet again, and they were as excellent as ever. In fact I am tempted to simply point you at the last blog posting about one of their concerts. The set listing has changed a bit over the last year, but not that much and the highlight for me was once again 'Matty Groves' from Liege & Lief. It's a traditional folk song of 'two chords and nineteen verses' which ends badly for the title character, but then again I think we'd all agree that he deserved it. Anyway, none of the above should be taken to suggest that I didn't enjoy seeing them. I did, very much, and I shall hopefully be there to watch them on their 50th anniversary tour next year.

The Great War has featured in this blog recently and here's a sad song on the subject that they performed last night:

Indeed so:

... Belgium again; and, with a new string to my bow, I haven't been to Turkey either. I have been to London - Marylebone or thereabouts - but that was dull. It was my first trip on the East Coast Mainline since it was reprivatised in the hands of Virgin and, to no surprise whatsoever, it was terrible, culminating in my return train being cancelled completely.

Other items of note over the last week or so:

• An unnecessarily large Napoleonic cavalry battle staged for no other reason than to get all my collection on the table. The French swept the Prussians from the table easily, but the Russian heavy cavalry won the day in the end. I remembered to take some photos, but I can't put my hand on my camera.
• I definitely had my camera with me when I went to the Otley Show at the weekend. This is the first of the large agricultural shows of the year in the north of England and was replete with livestock of all sorts and the farming community of the dales making merry. The absence of photographs means you are denied a detailed report on the ladies tug-of-war; which is possibly just as well.
• I have seen Thea Gilmore again. She was as excellent as on the previous occasion.

So, still no wargaming, although a largish and mixed order has gone off to Warbases. The games it's aimed at are:

• trying Basic Impetus using the Celts and Romans that I have for the Pony Wars variant we played a few months ago.
• extending C&C Napoleonics to deploy more units on a wider battlefield
• differentiating between battle commanders and unit leaders in the Wars of the Roses

Speaking of the Romans in Britain, Peter has drawn my attention to a meld of Pony Wars and Sharpe Practice that appeared in the Lardies' last Christmas special which looks to be an interesting source of ideas. My big problem is that I didn't redraft the rules immediately after the last runs through and have frankly forgotten what we decided.

Boardgaming resumed (by the way I still intend to dedicate a whole post to the whys and wherefores, but the world of boardgaming in Leeds has been riven by a schism every bit as deep as that of wargamers in Ilkley) with the usual wide range of games:

• Kobayakawa: another excellent minimalist Japanese game. In fact it's so minimalist that once you know the rules - themselves, er, minimalist - one could play with a normal pack of cards (or even better 6 Nimmt!) and not need to buy it at all.
• Abluxxen: I like it, but still can't work out a strategy to follow.
• Mysterium: Cosa? Dove? Chi? Still don't like it.
• The Three Musketeers: I was the cardinal and was given the runabout by the musketeers. I'd like to play it more often.
• Hanabi: Much discussion of conventions - I think I'm against - and a solid 20.
• Fidelitas: A new one on me which I'd like to play again now I understand it. I didn't win because I couldn't count to nine.

And briefly, music has included the Jon Palmer Acoustic Band and Blueflint. They were both excellent although sadly the two - count 'em - banjos in the latter did nothing to alter my aversion to the instrument.

My mug - see postings passim - has arrived. It is too good to actually use and now resides in my trophy cabinet next to my award for being Yorkshire Interim Finance Director of the Year, 2011; and very little else. A small wargaming context is provided by the adjacent Mambise flagbearer that I bought in Havana's only model soldier shop. Given the concern expressed by General Fwa over the likelihood of the mug being transported without damage it is ironic to note that it is in pristine condition while both award and figure are much knocked about.

One hundred years ago today Ewan MacColl (né Jimmie Miller), the Grammy-winning social activist, was born in Salford. A complex man, with plenty of negatives, one must nevertheless stand back and admire the achievements. As a keen walker I've always enjoyed his song about the mass trespass at Kinder Scout:


And who could resist a song called 'Ballad of Accounting'?

I have recently been to concerts by a couple of bands and/or artists that I haven't seen for decades. And now I can add Steeleye Span to that list. The previous and only gig of theirs that I saw was in December 1974 at Leeds Town Hall and now the second was in the City Varieties. The t-shirts on sale proclaimed this to be their 45th anniversary tour so I seem to have missed a good chunk of their career.

Ms Prior

I now rather wish that I'd had caught up with them during that time because it was a very good show, notable - in my untutored and amateur view - for very high standards of musicianship. Admittedly Maddy Prior now moves around the stage in a somewhat more stately fashion than she did before her MBE, but her voice is still excellent especially on what for me was the highlight, a cracking version of 'Thomas the Rhymer'.


They played a large selection of tracks from 'Wintersmith', last year's album based on one of Terry Pratchet's novels. Whilst Ashley Hutchings may have founded the band to be more traditional than Fairport Convention they have always seemed to me to be at the rock end of Folk Rock and much of this new material, especially the title track, rather reminded me of Jethro Tull; and all the better for that. In a further nod to Prog Rock their current line-up contains a genuine multi-instrumentalist in Pete Zorn.

Hold that shaft tight

They don't eschew their folk roots however. Not only do they perform 'Blackjack Davey', but one of the songs had a lyrical reference to the blacksmith holding his hammer in his hand; when in doubt stick a cliche in.