London November 2014

  

London November 2014

17 Nov 2014 5:47PM   Views : 558 Unique : 419

I visited London again last weekend, and i had a hoot!

Friday night was a night with Damien Rice at Londons Palladium. Now that venue is posh, very posh, with ornate plaster work and red carpet everywhere, though not much room in the seating area, everyone has to stand up if you wanted to go to the bar or whatnot, but that didnt spoil things at all.

We sat there waiting for the show to begin, and the music playing from the PA system was the one and only Sigur Ros! A pleasent surprise, but Damien must be a fan, he has lived in Iceland for god knows how long, and Alex Somers, the boyfriend of Jonsi, the sigur ros frontman, helped co produce some of the tracks on damiens new album.

Then on came the support act, a band called Broken Twin, and i enjoyed their mournful sound, very lovely music indeed, album already downloaded!

Once the support act did their thing, there was a small interlude before the main act came on.

Damien Rice.

I loved his album O, and 9 Crimes, and to wait another 8 years for a new album has been terrible but very worth the wait, he is a damn fine songwriter and a fabulous singer/guitarist. And i have waited a long time to see him perform live, and it was as good as i imagined it would be, it was utterly spellbinding.

After 4 songs he began to engage with us, tell us back stories to his songs, which were amusing and charming, if self effacing, but he continued smiling throughout, he clearly enjoyed himself on stage right then.

Highlights include Volcano, which everyone got involved with, we all had to sing along, see the video for evidence =)

Oh did we join in! Brilliant stuff!

He announced on stage that this was just a warm up tour, the proper tour will be next year, he hinted with an ever present grin on his lovely little irish face.

The crowd were lovely, not too quiet, not too rowdy, just right, quite respectful and very appreciative.

The last song, Trusty And True, was performed unplugged, no mic, no amp, just a guitar and his voice, and when the lights went up midway through the song, we saw him joined on stage by a chior, and wel all gasped in delight.

Wow, amazing, truly fabulous night out!

The next day i woke and went into town in the afternoon, deliberately avoiding the lord mayors procession, meh... As per, i got off at picadilly, headed to the river and explored a bit round waterloo and the strand. I went out with my real camera, and i took quite a few photos, most which came out lovely..












as well as a few terrible selfies lol




yeah, not so many selfies this time, i just took photos of london this time round, experimenting with my cameras auto modes, those blurry bus images were done in auto mode too, not sure which one but i only pressed the shutter, letting teh camera decide the best settings for a change!

Sometimes an image worked, sometimes not...




... but i had fun not giving a toss about the settings.

I actually recognized downing street this time, and not just walk past thinking "hmmm..." and i found the coolest underpass at waterloo, all lit up with colour changing LED's...




I accidentally stumbled upon Somerset House, oh my, what a place! I wanted to visit, and there it was, i could not wait to get inside the courtyard... but then i saw an ice rink in the middle, with a christmas tree standing large by the rink... Oh well! The building did look gorgeous, maybe visit when there is no ice rink!

The strand is a good place for photography, the big wide busy street littered with iconic red telephone boxes makes for a prime spot to capture some of londons most recognizeable features. and i enjoyed pottering around that area.

As i made my way along the Thames again, it began to rain hard, so hard that folk were sheltering in those telephone boxes to avoid the rain. I felt warm and dry

I soon headed for the underground though...




After a delightful meal at the hotels eaterie, i went back out in the rain for these...









It was warm outside, but wet, but the rain made for a gorgeous feel to Canary Wharf, where i was based diring the trip. Then my cameras batteries died on me, and i had not bought the charger lead, fecking eejit!

I didnt really mind, i had a handful of good images, a bucket full of not so good images, but lots of memories of not sitting still for 5 minutes.

Not sure when my next london trip will be, hopefully before new years eve, and i will be there for the fireworks on new years eve too, you can count on that =)