| The inevitable Whitby blog! |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|09:09 am] |
As this was only our second excursion t'north, the excitement was pretty immanent. It only took us four and a half hours to reach our B&B, which considering my map reading skills took us past the A64 instead of turning onto it, that wasn’t bad. I must admit, none of us relished the thought of driving through Pickering again, with any number of pigs waiting to pull us over for any motoring technicality, so this slight detour proved rather handy.
So, Thursday 29th October at four thirty pm, we arrived in Whitby. A quick chat to the landlord, bundled all our luggage to the very top of the stairs (5 flights in all was not much fun I can tell you!) then headed out to Gatsby’s for tea. Next stop – The Shambles for the DV80s night with good friend katykitten playing a short guest slot. Pretty much everybody we knew that was attending this Whitby turned up which added to the excitement, and the beer flowed well. Come midnight we headed back home not wishing to over do it on the first night like so many previous, and picked up a pizza on the back to consume in our small front garden as no take-away food was allowed into the B&B!
Friday 30th October. One very nice cooked breakfast later (with lil_red_neck making no effort to attend) we headed off to the usual pubs (Elsinore, Resolution etc) and the various staggering around for supplies. Loopy & I agreed that we we’re in the mood for bizarres and stalls, although, my mind was solely on the evenings DJing at The Spa. Come afternoon, we were back in The Res to support friends in Last July.
Before I knew it, it was 6.45pm and we were there, meeting up with Martin Oldgoth, my partner in DJ crime, Evil Stu and various others. Quick check and tweaks with the decks that (imo) were poorly placed in the venue, giving us both a sense of disorientation with the potted plants either side not really helping to create the right atmosphere! Regardless, the night started well with Grooving In Green , and the eventual arrival of Zombina & The Skeletones pushing the schedule out for everybody else! The Eden House were as great as I expecting, although the sound engineers really fucked up the first few songs with constant volume changes.
DJ wise personally, the night was a bit of an anticlimax for me having believing that this was going to be my biggest audience to date, but in relaity, I do beleive I played to more people at my last Coven event! With so many people leaving after the final band, regardless that the night was on until 4am, this kinda left Stu and me a bit empty, but the show must go on, and we carried on regardless. (DJ sets up soon) Come the end, we still had what few people left up and dancing which was reward in itself which was just as well as any monetary rewards were anywhere to be seen.
Saturday 31st October. Loopy & I were up stupidly early and headed down to breakfast with Paul in tow, who was feeling rough due to a bad pint of Kronenberg at The Spa from the night before, which prevented him from actually doing anything for the rest of the day/night. We all headed back to bed and kicked around the room till late afternoon before Loopy & I headed off to the Coliseum for the new horror-punk night, leaving Paul to suffer alone. Due to the lateness of the advertising, the night was very poorly attended with most of my friends without Spa tickets not even turning up, although we pulled in more than the Faith & The Muse acoustic gig the night before. Again personally, I enjoyed playing this night a hell of a lot more, and DJ Evil Stu and I kicked out some great tunes (again sets up later). Unfortunately, as this venue is new to the Whitby collective, it finished at 11.20pm, but I’m sure it’ll be back in use by next April with a much later finishing time. Everybody headed up to The Spa afterwards, but after traipsing home with all my CD cases, I was knackered and happy to stay home and watch the various horror movies on tv.
Sunday 1st November, we were awoken by the torrential rain and wind outside. Another cooked breakfast (without Paul) and again back to bed until the weather had calmed down. This was very frustrating as it was the first proper day for me to relax without anymore DJ duties to perform. We’d planned to head up to the abbey, and maybe a walk on the beach, but it just wasn’t going to happen. By 1pm, we all headed for The Resolution, only to find it was completely out of alcohol, so we headed over to The Shambles were we all seemed to meet everybody again, and promptly get happily drunk. Come evening, Loopy and I had promised ourselves all year to head down to The Red Chard for a relaxing and romantic meal, only to find the bloody place shut at 7.30pm! Not impressed. We settled for a rather disappointing meal back at Gatsby’s for convenience and took Loopy back home as she was very tired and didn’t fancy anymore clubbing. I headed out via The Res, which had now restocked it’s supplies, met up with the Bedford crowd, and headed to Raw for Nostalgia. Even by 9.15pm it was packed, and although I congratulate Martin Oldgoth for pulling in the punters and running a decent night, it was too packed for me, and by 12am, I’d had enough. I settled for more horror films (Halloween III) back at the B&B.
Monday 2nd November. Unfortunately, kick-out time was 10am, and with Paul not getting in till 5.30am, it was a bit of a job trying to get him mustered. Eventually at 9.40am he seemed to get himself into gear, but then we were all faced with having to wander round Whitby again waiting for him to sober up so we could drive home. Luckily, this gave Loopy & I a chance to head up to the abbey making up for Sundays disappointment. Eventually we left, but the journey home took longer and we were all very tired and fed up to get back home.
All in all, we a had a great time meeting up with friends, seen some great bands and its obviously an honour to be asked to play the main event, but I think we’ll be leaving it at least another year before we head back again.
All pics here for anybody remotely interested! |
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