Worcester Punk Sounds
So, I took a recent short break up to the jolly old West Midlands visiting sunny Worcester (which was indeed sunny by the time I got there after a soggy start to the journey from London in the morning) and what a lovely city it is! The journey up took about 2 and a half hours by train changing a Gloucester to catch another train into Worcester Shrub Hill station. From the station I took the 10 minute walk into the city centre, the aim was to visit as many places as I could before being able to check into the hotel at about 3pm. I am very blessed in that I like to 'get way by myself' and get some 'headspace' around my birthday, it often feels like a little 'present' to myself to allow me some time to keep my head and soul 'in the moment', not thinking about anything specific, just being in the here and now, looking at the scenery, clouds, people around me, feeling detached and not thinking too hard, letting nature, scenery and life wash over me and above all else really enjoying and having some time to truly appreciate what I see and feel. Sometimes, gifts don't mean so much over just a complete brain and soul refresh and it is the best 'gift' my family give me.
Day 1 - Cathedrals, Tudor Houses & Floodingย
I meandered my way through the back roads of the City aided and abetted by my trusty phone and good old Google Maps and hit Worcester Cathedral (the website link gives more high quality photos of its exterior than I could possibly capture on a cell phone). The Cathedral is huge and almost quite overwhelming in size and presence, it reminded me so much of Salisbury cathedral in terms of its size, architecture and the ornate stained glass windows. You can catch some of the photos below, as it was coming up to that time of year to remember I also took a snap of one of the stained glass windows commemorating the fallen during World War I.
I then trotted over the road and round the back doubles and passed a statue of Composer Edward Elgar who resided in Worcester.ย I then found The Commandery just around the corner, a beautiful old Tudor building with a rich history covering not only Tudor times but also a lot of interesting information about the English Civil War.
After that and not so far away I hit the Tudor House Museum which was once a pub and again showed what life was like hundreds of years ago. Finally before heading over the bridge to check in I attempted to follow the river walk which runs by the river Severn and allows you to walk along by the Cathedral all the way down to Diglis Lock and over the bridge catching the other side of the river and would have led me to the hotel, sadly the pathway was flooded as with all the recent rain the river had burst its banks, one of the hotels/restaurants that sits beside the river was being pumped out and white swans were gliding gracefully by it as if were just a normal thing! When I got over the bridge I could see the hotel (which sits next to Worcester City Cricket ground) had also been affected in that the hotel car park and in fact whole cricket ground was submerged as well! At the hotel reception I overheard the guy at the front desk explaining that although the car park usually had a big capacity it was down to just 10 places that weren't underwater! The Severn looks pretty, but I wouldn't like to live next to it.
Day 2 Malvern Hills, Street Art & Good Ale
So, on the first day I had wandered through the Market and spotted plenty of street art, the description next to the pieces stated that they had all been created by local artists as part of the Worcester Paint Festival (You can catch just how much of it there is on the link with a map, just click on the dots and it shows the work and the artist). I loved the works and was pleased when I visited the Art Gallery & Museum as it also contained plenty of street art as well, have to say the little restaurant inside served up a really lovely coffee and sandwich as well which was much needed!
I hopped the train down to Malvern (evidently as corrected by a fella I got chatting to in a pub on the previous night pronounced Mulvern! I apologised for my southern pronunciation which was accepted and kindly showed me to another brilliant pub I didn't know existed called the Oil Basin Brewhouse). I heard the correct pronunciation the next day when it was announced at the train station, isn't the English Language and regional dialects a strange but wonderful thing.
Malvern as a town is a beautiful little place right in the Malvern Hills, the walk from the station to the town was, yep you guessed it... uphill, as was much of the rest of the town. The views were quite stunning though and worth the slog. It was kind of difficult to get good photos of the vistas surrounding you, but I am sure the website Visit The Malverns will whet your appetite for a visit.
I spent a few hours wandering around and instead of the train I jumped a bus (nowhere near as frequent as in London I hasten to add!) back into the centre of Worcester again, just quite nice to see a bit more of the surrounding countryside and local folk. I headed to a pub that I wanted to visit before I departed called The Imperial Tavern and I wasn't disappointed the beer was tasty and kept well, it seemed to be from breweries from around the area e.g. 'Black Country Ales'. Inside the pub was like a 'proper' old school boozer with real fire places and a sense of warm community spirit. After some well needed refreshment I headed to the station for the return journey, which all went quite smoothly and with a couple of hours of time to kill I took to some free Wi Fi courtesy of Great Western Railway to hunt down bands (preferably Indie, Punk or both) from the Worcester area and here's what I found...
And Cue The Music
A band called The Tights, who were formed in Worcester in 1976, they released two singles, both on the Independent Cherry Red label, 'Bad Hearts' was released in 1978. With some help from being played by BBC Radio One DJ John Peel the single climbed the UK Punk charts of the day. You can get a beautiful little slice of Worcester Punk by catching the single at the above YouTube link.
Their second single 'Howard Hughes' was also released the same year and again seemed to score quite well in the punk hit parade.
They Were/Are:
- Rob Banks (guitars)
- Barry Island (bass guitarย andย keyboards)
- Rick Mayhew (drums)
- Malcolm Orgee (vocals)
They were short-lived performing a farewell gig at the Marquee Club in London in 1979, but all was not lost as they reformed again in 2004. For more information about the band catch their website ย thetights.com at the link.ย
And for some more Cherry Red Record Label sounds catch the link to a previous post 'Pay No More Than 99p' here featuring some post punk music or catch the 'Cherry Red' tag at the link.
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Video Thanks
Photos
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Street Art Work
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