Led before bed.

Had a very heavy week - went to the British Premier of the film IT MIGHT GET LOUD at the Hammersmith Apollo. This is a documentary featuring Jimmy Page , The Edge and Jack White in which they chat about and play the electric guitar. Lots of great live footage and we almost exploded with excitement when Jimmy Page came on stage to introduce the film.




Jimmy had some of the best lines and one of the many highlights was when he started to play the riff from A Whole Lotta Love in front of the other two , who both immedialtely put their guitars down and were clearly transported back to their early guitar playing days. I knew that Jimmy Page was the best guitarist ever but had never realised how good he was at air guitar in his front room ...

Later on in the week I went with youngest son to see Them Crooked Vultures - also at Hammersmith Apollo - with Dave Grohl on drums, Josh Homme on guitar and John Paul Jones on everything else.



My 13 year old son was beside himself that he'd seen half of Led Zeppelin in a week.

Highlights were JPJ playing slide on his base and Dave Grohl's animal-like drumming .



Would highly recomend their new album. John Paul Jones was born in Sidcup.

I also found a good quote from Jimmy Page on wikipedia on how they met-

'I was working at the sessions for Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man, and John Paul Jones was looking after the musical arrangements. During a break, he asked me if I could use a bass player in the new group I was forming. He had a proper music training, and he had quite brilliant ideas. I jumped at the chance of getting him'

Culture workout.

No running planned for December due to various party and shopping trip commitments - also its a bit cold and slippery ...

Managed a fair bit of culture in December - the highlights being RED at the Donmar Theatre (all about Mark Rothko) and a visit to the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries at the V & A. Fortunately, I had seen Graham Dixon-Taylor on the Culture Show and he introduced his top 5 pieces. One of them was a very rare wax model of a slave by Michelangelo used to make a final marbel sculpture now in the Accademia in Florence for the tomb of Pope Julius II.

Apparently, when he was carving a large marbel sculpture, he would place a wax model in water and gradually raise it to reveal more of the form.

My next favourite was this silver hand which is a reliquary - not something I had come across before. Valuable relics would have been put inside the reliquary- these were often modelled on parts of the body.

In this one the relics, now lost, would have been visible through the windows in the fingers .

My other highlight was the Luck of Edenhall Goblet - the glass beaker was made in Egypt or Syria, probably in the 13th century. At the time the Arab lands produced the world's finest glassware, which was decorated with enamelled and gilded designs.

Its true origins were forgotten, and a legend grew up to explain its presence. According to this tale, a party of fairies were interrupted while making merry round a north english spring called St Cuthbert's Well. As they fled, they left the beaker behind, and one of the last cried out, 'If this cup should break or fall, Farewell the Luck of Edenhall'.

Well worth a visit.

Top 10 albums of the decade

The Hazards of Love - the Decemberists

Hail to the Thief - Radiohead

Time The Revelator - Gillian Welch

The Mirror Conspiracy - Thievery Corporation

Community Music - Asian Dub Foundation

Hymns for the Exiled - Anais Mitchell

Black Holes and Revelations - Muse

Re-Foc - Rodrigo and Gabriela

The Great Destroyer - Low

Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

Swine flu recovery requires copious amounts of music

Not running through swine recovery - did lose 3/4 of a stone so not all bad.
Actually I was too busy going to brilliant gigs - after the wonders of Yes, I did The Decemberists, who did the entire Hazards of Love album - my album of the year.
Then saw Duke and the King at the rather squalid Scala, who started with a fantastic version of their song, if you ever get famous, followed the next night by my favourite Mexican heavy metal acoustic duo, Rodrigo and Gabriela - would really recommend their recent 11:11 album .
Finished this gig fest off with an evening with the Unthanks - the Observer 50 albums of the year had them in at 48 and the only folk album - the Bairns - the Observer best album was the Streets, Original Pirate Material so probably not much of a guide to what we should have listened to over the past 10 years.
Will have a go at my top 10 for the last decade next week.

Yes meet Hendrix

Swine flu has hit - so no running at the moment.
Went to see Yes at Hammersmith - now got Rick Wakeman's son Oliver on keyboards and the lead singer is the singer from a montreal-based Yes tribute band - is this how old bands will carry on in the future ?
All fantastic prog stuff - Roundabout and Long Distance Runaround were the highlights.
Would recommend a great interview with Chris Squire on when he first met Hendrix at the Marquee in London - http://www.chrissquire.net/video.html

More running next week ...

Winter beckons

As the days draw in and winter beckons we start to look for ways of making running easier.

East is East

Long run this weekend - almost 2 hours. Started in Spitalfields and headed north to Haggerston to the rather wonderful Regents Canal - this time we went east via shoreditch and mile end.

Could barely contain my excitement as Mark showed me round the Mile End climbing wall -



Outside was the owner's car , there is clearly money in walls with knobs on ...



I liked this subtle choice of number plate.

Then found a disused railway line over the Mile End Road - new technology in my camera meant that I was able to capture this image - to the human eye it would be just a blur.



Made our way back through Stepney Green with fantastic old houses and cobbled streets.



Found this old bakery near to Whitechapel Road - Daren bread appears to have been a patent bread for the 1880's onwards - made of wheat, wheat-germ and rye - which claimed nutritional advantages and was aimed at the diet-conscious, middle-class consumers of the time. Other new brands included Traigon ( wheat , maize and rice) and Kermode (wheat and maize), but the eventual winner was Hovis (reinforced wheat-germ).

No stunning sculpture on our run this week, so we would recommend you catch up with a fantastic Irish sculptor, Redmond Herrity - picture below is a work in progess that Mark saw on a recent visit to Donegal - also see http://www.redmondherrity.com/index.html



Finally, video and song of the week is Phoenix with 1901.