A Dreaded Sunny Day ☀️
A 'dreaded' sunny day and a trip around town hunting down some art galleries and hitting a few other bits along the way. This post also catching some music by an Indie band of the day that I loved and still do.
It's A Heatwave! 🎶
Very recently we had had a bit of a mini heatwave going down (which is pleasant for October), but in some ways a little unexpected after periods of cloud, rain and slightly cooler temperatures, still I guess we can't moan too much, it's nice to be out and about when the weather is good before we hit Winter.
On the Saturday temperatures hit around 26 degrees, we jumped the Overground at Stratford to get to Canonbury, we have been there a few times to a little art gallery there, the first time to catch an art exhibition by my Bro In Law, which was a good night out, some wonderful work by him and plenty of cheap drink whilst we admired the work and got chatting to the other artists. We hit the Atom Gallery to check out some artwork to buy and update some of the pictures we have at home. Although there was plenty for sale we decided to hold back and see what we could see at another gallery called Pure Evil based in Shoreditch later in the day.
Going Around The Bend 🤪
To get to the other gallery we headed around the 'back doubles' down some beautiful tree lined roads of North London, it is quite amazing what wonders lurk down some of those side roads you have never been down before. We passed a fantastic looking Caribbean Restaurant, the food looked delicious, further along a Coffee Shop/Art Gallery which we had a nose around and some lovely old skool pubs. We hit Stoke Newington High street (aka Stokey by those who live there) we came across an amazing Cemetery (I know, the two words kind of don't go together), but Abney Park Cemetery is such a serene and peaceful place, nicely shaded from the sun and with people just taking in the calm or walking their dogs. The architecture of some of the tombstones is amazing and a little 'gothic' in some instances, many of them covered in moss and clinging ivy. Towards the middle of it sits a chapel which is sadly closed off at the moment, but still managed a snap of it.
And Cue The Music...🎵
Anyhow, the experience of Abney Park reminded me of Indie band The Smith's from back in my youth and their track 'Cemetery Gates' taken from the album 'The Queen Is Dead' released on the Indie Rough Trade Records in 1986, it was initially released on single as the B Side to 'Ask' in the same year. The usual lyrical genius from Morrissey and wonderful riffs and 'jangle' from Marr as well as the steady drumming and awesome bassline from Messrs Joyce and Rourke!
Have to say it is a band I haven't featured on this site before, which is kind of strange as they were an act I loved back at the time, this album by them was played to death by me as a youth and sits proudly in my collection of Smith's albums. The above album containing some great tracks and some tongue in cheek titles including, 'Vicar In A Tutu', 'Frankly Mr Shankly' and a couple of other true favourites of mine, 'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side' and 'Bigmouth Strikes Again', which you can catch at the youtube links.
If you like the whole 'jangle' Indie type sounds from the same era catch the Featured Post menu item or the post link to 'Everybody Knows The Monkey' on this site.
Pubs With Doggy Menus🐶
We headed out along Stokey High Street, dropped into a few shops and a neat pub called The Coach & Horses which has obviously found a niche in the market by offering our four legged friends a 'banquet' of dining options, how cool😎 is this menu!
We then hit the 243 to Wood Green which took us to Shoreditch, hopping off along by Dalston to check out the massive 'Beyond Retro' a vintage clothes shop in an Art Deco building, the 'vintage scene' (without being too cynical) means they can ratchet up the prices for some old clothes which have found a way back into fashion with the young hip and happening youths, nonetheless an interesting stop off and I did have a rummage around whilst listening to some 'cool' old sounds such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and Thin Lizzy to name a couple!
Shoreditch Street Art & Pure Evil😈
We finally hit our destination to have a nose around the Pure Evil gallery which sells artwork and prints in a Pop Art style using images of well known faces e.g. Debbie Harry, Marylin Monroe and adding the artist's own unique twist. We just couldn't decide what to buy as there were so many good pictures. Ok so we didn't make any purchases but it was a nice way to see some other parts of the capital and have a bit of a purpose, sometimes it also nice to just get 'distracted' along the route and take in some sights we weren't expecting. Canonbury and surrounding areas are really quite nice to have a trip around and I have another post coming at some point with some more photos from the same area plus some sounds from my musical memory that kicked in as I was out and about.
Scratch ya soon with some Halloween vibes.
Video & Gif Thanks📹
Photos📷
𝓐 𝓚ⅰ𝓬𝒌 Ìռძⅰ𝓮 𝓝𝒖ꚍⱿ