Oxford, Rivers, Art Work & Indie Pop
So, we recently took a trip to a City in the UK I have never visited. I still want to go back and explore some more, but what I did see was a quite beautiful thing. We booked the trip up in March and my, the months just fly by! The day of the trip was overcast and generally rainy (typical!). So, in terms of seeing the 'gleaming spires' of Oxford, it just wasn't going to happen. Nonetheless a great trip.
We booked the coach trip with a local companyย joining a bunch of 'old gammers' for a jolly jaunt from East London to Oxford with a few hours to explore the City and then a trip down the river from the City down to Abingdon-On-Thames.
We wandered through the City, hitting first upon an antiques market which was fun to nose around, we then headed through the main shopping area passing by lots of wonderful old architecture, reaching an undercover Market and then on to the Universities and back again to near where we had to pick up the coach, we had lunch in a lovely Thai Restaurant complete with decorations such as traditional fishing vessels, tuk tuk's and other artefacts that reminded us both of our holiday in Thailand so many years ago.
What a F**kin' Liberty!
So, we hopped back on the coach in amongst all the old age pensioners enjoying a 'jolly' day out. A couple of 'coach classics' happened one was the random old guy by himself that just moaned all the time about anything (mostly to himself) and the other when two of the party rolled back late to the coach after the exploring the City, initially the coach party were worried that they had got lost, but then they 'rocked up' about 15 minutes late and then one of them decided to 'spark up' and have a cigarette before getting on board much to the howls of derision by some of the old 'uns e.g. in my best East London accent... 'Ere she's only 'aving a bleedin' fag, cheeky cow! It was almost like watching Catherine Tate do her Nan Taylor sketch (moan about them behind their backs, but then in front of them be quite polite and worried about them when they got on board).
Good fun to watch! and we managed to stifle the laughter. I guess me and the missus are too laid back and kind of guessed the coach driver would wait and the next trip booked for down the river would have enough 'allowance' for lateness, other people on board were almost in cardiac arrest though!
Meandering Down The Thames
It is quite bizarre in a way just how far the Thames stretches, from the City where everyone most knows about it all the way out west to Oxfordshire and beyond to Gloucestershire.
We made it to the pub 'The Head Of The River' on time to pick up our boat trip scheduled with Salter's Steamers offering trips down the Thames via a boat built at exactly the same time the Titanic was, fortunately with more success, as at least this one still floated! We passed by all of the boat houses of each of the Oxford University Boat Clubs, and learned that in the past the majority of rowing clubs (being mostly male) tagged their names on one of the bridges after winning. In a welcome to the world of equality the female rowing crews now tag their winning team name on the opposite side of the bridge (providing they can find someone mad enough to hang upside down with a spray can!).
The trip down river was punctuated with some wonderful sights including the beautiful little lock keepers cottage, many herons and wildlife and the brilliant artwork depicting the 'Thames Water' Boss adorned in his 'corporate underpants' toking on a huge cigar. Evidently Thames Water have been responsible for maximizing profit over anything else by pumping raw sewage into the Thames which our guide had a sly dig at!
Think the guy in front of us with the floppy hat, grey hair and grand children was an artist, he was clearly sketching the river as we sat there and getting the grand kids involved a lovely thing to watch.
Anyway despite the overcast start to the day by the end of the trip the sun shone through, we made it to Abingdon-On-Thames via a couple of locks, beautiful sights, some cream tea and scones with jam and reached the pub called The Nags Head to pick up the coach again, a beautiful trip in elegant style down a most famous river, leaving all of our cares behind for a few hours, it was a very welcome break.
And Cue The Music
The band featured here today in my musical memories hail from Oxford from the remnants of a previous band from the 80's called Talulah Gosh, you can catch their fast paced Indie Sound at the link to their '1987 Peel Session' at the link. This band were/are an Indie Pop band from Oxford called Heavenly with a truly gorgeous, jangly C-86 sound and 'heavenly vocals'. This track being their first release called 'I Fell In Love Last Night' released on the Independent 'Sarah Records' label, really quite beautiful and filmed on Super 8! One of those bands of the era that didn't perhaps get the recognition they deserved! Lovely to see they reformed for a concert at Bush Hall in London this year!
Band & Formation
- Amelia Fletcher - Vocals/Guitar
- Peter Momtchiloff - Guitar
- Matthew Fletcher - Drums
- Rob Pursey - Bass
More wonderful that they recently re-formed for some gigs after the tragic loss of one of the band members.
The video brings back so many memories of my Dad, old slam door trains and mostly walking beside the railway tracks together down the old branch line with him as a kid on Summer evenings, he was a railwayman and knew his way about the line and even flagging down a train to stop and get us home again with just a lit cigarette! Which, when I was a kid was pretty impressive stuff! Bless ya Dad!
There are plenty of bands that hail from Oxford and surrounding areas and it just so happens that one of them is featured on this site at the link 'Play Dead T.V. Eye', worth a listen if you like your sounds slightly more 'Goth' oriented!ย ย
Photos
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Video Thanks
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