We moved into our new place on Monday, and we've spent the last week acclimatising to our surroundings. The area is much more promising than our previous place; requisite bloggable landmarks in the vicinity include: organic butchers (which I shall visit tomorrow in the hopes of procuring calves liver for dinner), scary shack (sadly not scary church), several second hand/charity shops (items of furniture bought: 0, suits purchased:1; priorities clearly in order), a highly recommended cafe (which we haven't visited yet) and Big Ben's English theme pub (which we visited last night).
Big Ben's has some serious potential. It's an English pub in Switzerland, yet has more Belgian beers than English and Swiss put together. In fact, the choice of English beers (all served in cans) is woeful; this is where sinful readers of What's Brewing go when they die. However, the pub does have splendid genuine imported English decor (including flock wallpaper) and the best selection of pub books I have seen for a long time.
I'm bunking off work this afternoon to go to Bern's agricultural fair with Mary. This should prove more fun than it sounds, as amongst the threshing machines and cattle there should be copious wine tasting and such. It would have rounded up the day quite nicely if we could have got tickets to see the Alan Parson's Live Project, Jethro Tull and Barclay James Harvest (never heard of them -- should I have?), who are playing there tonight, but they were sold out. I have consoled myself by buying tickets for the Zutons next month.
2 comments:
Zutons are good, I hope. Have their 1st album on order. I am going to see Spiers and Boden in a couple of weeks.
Yes, you should have heard of Barclay James Harvest! They started off in 1968 and until 1973 played folky and orchestral rock. from 1974-79 they made a series of classic prog albums, and in the 1980s went very pop, mainstream and commercial (and did vast stadium tours of Eurpoe). In 1997 they called it a day, but the two main songwriters (John Lees and Les Holroyd) continue to record and tour using the 'BJH' name. Watch out for which one you are going to see, Holroyd's version of the band focuses on the later commercial sound, whilst Lees' re-lives their 1970s heyday.
BJH were hated by critics but, have a large devoted fan base even today. One of the reasons for their obscurity is the sheer variety in types of music they have made, there is no "one" album that is definitive - but a series of albums that define the main eras the band has moved through.
The full info is found at bjharvest.co.uk .
Post a Comment