The gangs all here in Devon ..

2017 saw the gang decamp to the hamlet of Hemyock for a quiet weekend of tranquil meditation and self reflection .

Hmmmmm - I think not!

History of Hemyock

Hemyock is the largest village on the Blackdown Hills, Devon, which is now designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The parish has an area of about 2350 hectares, and lies on the NW of the Blackdown Hills. The village has a very long history, some prehistoric remains may be found, from about 100 BC to well beyond. In the middle ages local iron ores were smelted in small  bloomeries (furnaces) to produce pure iron. In Saxon times a battle was fought at Simonsburrow between the native Britons and King Ime's Saxon army, which put an end (temporarily) to the Kings expansion to the west.

The name Hemyock could have originated from the British stream name "Samiaco" (meaning summer), other authorities suggest a Saxon origin from a personal name "Hemman" coupled with a Saxon word for a bend or a hook (occi).

Hemyock gave its name to the Hemyock Hundred, a unit of 7 parishes, that was an administrative unit of local government during the Saxon period.

After the Norman conquest a castle was built adjacent to the Parish Church, the remains of some towers may still be seen.

Hemyock is a typical upland settlement consisting of a central "town" surrounded by a number of hamlets (Culmdavey, Millhayes, Simonsburrow, Ashculme, Tedburrow, Madford, Mountshayne etc). From the 1500's to the early 1800's much of the parishes wealth came from the production of wool. The population remained fairly constant throughout the 1800's, and until the end of the second word war. Since then a  number of housing estates have been built, and our population has increased to over 2000.

Hemyock remains a busy village, we have a primary school, excellent medical facilities, 2 garages, 2 hairdressers, a pub, a building society, 2 shops one with a Post Office, a playing field (soon to become 2), a Parish Hall (soon a 2nd will be provided) and 2 Churches. (Baptist Churchand St Mary's)

The village has had some important national points of interest.

The Cadbury family, of chocolate fame, originated here.

Hemyock was the terminus of the Culm Valley Railway that ran for about 100 years from our village to Tiverton Junction.

The first mechanically operated butter factory in the West of England was started at Mountshayne in 1886 by 4 local farmers, this was later transferred to Millhayes, and was only closed in the 1990's.

The first Young Culm Farmers Club in England began here in 1921, and it continues to prosper as the Culm Valley Young Farmers Club.

Brian Clist 24th May 2003

love supreme 2017

Well it was that time of year again and so off we trekked to Glynde and a weekend of chillin and groovin to this fine menu of musical delights....

we also inducted a new member into the funbus hall of fame - meet Hepcat Dave - Brother of the ever cool  Tony 'the man' Weise.

honorary funbus Hepcat

As quoted;

Frank Zappa once suggested that jazz wasn’t dead, it just smelt funny. Judging by the ongoing success of the UK’s first outdoor jazz festival, that funny smell is now one of freshly mown grass, chemical toilets and hand sanitiser. After five years, Love Supreme – this gentrified camping weekend in the grounds of Glynde Place, near Brighton – is attracting its biggest and youngest crowd ever.

The festival has welcomed plenty of big R&B names over the years, from Chic to Grace Jones to De La Soul, but this year it hosted its first true jazz legend: Herbie Hancock. He eschewed the outdoor main stage for the more intimate Big Top, his quintet mixing up exploratory electric jazz with some expansive versions of bangers such as Come Running to Me, Cantaloupe Island and Actual Proof, with Hancock and his guitarist using Jacob Collier-style software to harmonise their voices. When he comes out for an encore carrying a keytar, to perform Chameleon, a crowd who were barely born when the record was released go nuts.

Jazz is often an introverted art form, and it’s sometimes difficult for its musicians to project their music in a festival environment. One extrovert who can is tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, who fronts three lineups on the Saturday. His Ancestors band engagingly mix danceable South African township jive with atmospheric sax drones and mantra-like vocals. Later on he gets an Arena stage moving with Sons of Kemet, his tuba-driven outfit (with two drummers, Showaddywaddy-style) who sound like a New Orleans-style marching band who’ve wandered through Lagos, Accra and Trenchtown. Later on, Hutchings re-emerges, fronting The Comet Is Coming, his Mercury-shortlisted collaboration with rave duo Soccer96. Mixing wailing improvisations with squelchy acid house basslines, thumping rave beats and juddering electronica, it’s a thrilling example of what “acid jazz” might have sounded like.

Throughout this festival, it was the thumpier, more exuberant acts who managed to connect, grabbing passing punters almost as hostages. The Hot 8 Brass Band – who play jerky, New Orleans-style arrangements of everything from Snoop Dogg to Joy Division – could probably get the crowd throbbing at any festival, anywhere. The Black Focus project – a south-east London quartet led by drummer Yussef Dayes and synth player Kamaal Williams – mix thumping junglist beats with fast and furious musicianship; while Nubiyan Twist add a dubby, Ethiopian jazz spin to funk and reggae. Even the more subtle acoustic outfits are pushed into wilder territory: the semi-classical drums/sax/piano trio Mammal Hands mutate into a high-volume rave act; German pianist Michael Wollny and his remarkable trio mix rumbling free improv with pyrotechnic moments.

The alumni of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly album are well represented on the Sunday bill. Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper both play to huge crowds, the former anthemic and orchestral, the latter riff-based and intense. Shortly before appearing with Kamasi’s band, bassist Miles Mosley leads his own flashy four piece, the West Coast Get Down, in a smaller tent. Mosley sings and plays double bass – often through octave and distortion pedals – and takes the jazz funk of his recent album Uprising into thrash metal territory.

Some struggled in this environment. Corinne Bailey Rae’s excellent space-age soul ballads are a little too low-key for a big outdoor crowd, while lauded Canadian five-piece BadBadNotGood, shorn of the deliciously restrained studio production and all those guest singers and rappers, just sound like a rather classy smooth jazz band. Others worked surprisingly well. Mica Paris gets a huge crowd for her Ella Fitzgerald tribute, her chesty contralto and R&B band adding a heavy take on such standards as Summertime, A Night in Tunisia and Can’t Buy Me Love. Young American singer and educationist Charenée Wade impresses with a cracking trio and a supple voice that recalls Dianne Reeves. Laura Mvula, carrying an enormous white keytar throughout, succeeds with a widescreen mix of tribal beats and orchestral arrangements, pitched somewhere between Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.

The veteran soul stars on the main stage fulfil their function. The Jacksons play a largely identical set to the one they brought to Glastonbury the previous week, with a fine backing band recreating some of the finest moments in disco history, even if the four sixtysomething brothers now have voices that don’t quite sparkle in the upper register. Amazingly George Benson, at 74, is in remarkably good voice (hear him negotiate three successive upward key changes towards the end of Lady Love Me) and his guitar chops are still in fine shape (check out his florid take on At the Mambo Inn). Benson is the second bona fide jazz legend on this weekend’s bill, and it’s his mix of populist R&B and heavyweight hard bop that seems to embody the spirit of this flourishing festival

Manics at the harbour side 2017

One of my all time favourites - in Bristol - in heaven !

As quoted locally;

So it was like a meeting of old friends when the normally taciturn frontman of Manic Street Preachers took to the stage at the Bristol Sounds series at the Lloyds Amphitheatre on Thursday night. And with the stunning backdrop of the Harbourside and the Matthew, the band received a huge amount of love which just grew and grew as they tore into their set. They didn’t disappoint, and packed their show with classic hits and crowd pleasers, like they were taking people on a guided tour of their back catalogue. Soon into the show, Bradfield was reminiscing about a city he knows well, and clearly loves.

He began name-checking every venue in the city the Manics have played at, giving a shout out to all the old fans who had been there from the start. And Bristol ’s recent news hadn’t passed him by, either.  “Shout out to the people who came to our early gigs in the ‘soon-to-be-renamed’ Colston Hall, where we played to about five people,” he said.

Support acts were decent too. The Anchoress, a female singer and pianist, showed promise, and British Sea Power warmed the crowd up well for the main event. But everyone was here for Manic Street Preachers. After that lovely Bristol connection, the crowd sparked into life with the first chords of You Stole The Sun From My Heart, and just to bring the cherry on the icing on the gert lush Bristol-Manics love cake, Bradfield reminded the crowd that local boy Nick Nasmyth was banging away on the keys.

 “Introducing one of your own…” said the singer. The hits flowed and the love built. Kevin Carter was followed soon after by If You Tolerate This, a song about fighting fascism which still resonates today. There was a brief mellow period with Ocean Spray was played acoustically, before the monster anthems You Love Us – dedicated to Massive Attack – and Tsunami brought us all into the home straight.

Then the finale. Regretfully, with the strict harbourside curfew of 10.40pm, A Design For Life was the last number. “This is our last one,” said Bradfield, scuppering hopes of a naughty extension. “I know you’ve got a spectacular council, but we’ve still got a curfew,” before launching into possibly the band’s best-known hit. It was glorious, the sound – which is sometimes patchy given the outdoor acoustics of the unique location – was perfect, and thousands of Manic Street Preachers fans ended the evening with the warm glow of reciprocated love

uncommon people at the common people festival - 2017

Having tried out this small but perfectly formed festival in 2016, Bish and Mrs Bish were so enthusiastic it took not even a nano second to accept their kind invitation to join them for the 2017 bash... we were not disappointed; good times (yet again 😎)

A veritable smorgasbord of talent and genres ...

 

2017 R&R in the New Forest

So Bish has decided on an awesome challenge and to help in in his endeavour he has engaged the able support from the all round super cool Tony 'the man' Weise .. but more of that later !

To show my support on this challenge we have come to our favourite campsite in New Forest - close to the  famous Happy Cheese pub and solidly good curry emporium that have been discussed in earlier posts.

Heavy duty pedalling and imbibing of food and drinks ... no difference from other adventures 😊

Keeping body and soul together with a light funbus luncheon

Suitable attire apparently for pedalling    

Bish responding well to my training instructions

Hebrides - inner and outer in 2017

The beautiful one and I, in the august company of the delightful  Sandra and Steve enjoyed a memorable adventure touring the rugged majesty of the isle of Skye and the breathtaking wildness of the isles of Lewis & Harris.
We sampled the delights of Fort William and the bustling metropolis that is Glasgow. Whilst journeying between stops I naturally made sure that whiskey was firmly on the menu 😎

..and here are the distilleries starting with my favourite tipple from Oban

(2nd favourite ...)

Up a hill and beyond the clouds .... 2016

So what do you do when you have a large number of years on the clock; carrying a large amount of excess baggage and have a fear of heights ...... obviously you decide to go for a walk up a hill.
I could kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak - lose some unwanted weight and confront my height demon and so it was decided.
Now, what hill to walk up was the next decision .... ???

Yep ....  If you are going to do it then do it funbus style !

Off to Africa and Tanzania to scale Kilimanjaro - a rather large hill that rises to just under 6000 metres which is about 20,000 feet (note people skydive from 15,000 feet) and to put it in context is 4 and a half time higher than Ben Nevis.

Now I needed a buddy to share the madness ... step forward that damn fine fellow the truly Right Honourable Steve Butterworth esq. - a young whippersnapper with wisdom and attitude beyond his years.

So plans were made and plots were hatched to who would get us above the clouds and how would they do it. After a lot of research and measured against a high ethical bar, 'Kandoo Adventures' were engaged and a route decided upon that gave us adequate time to acclimatise as the biggest reason by far why people don't reach the top is lack of oxygen !!!

Now I could wax lyrical about Steve and mine African sojourn but everyone knows a picture paints a thousand words and so I will recount our experiences in the genre of image...

Demon - conquered 😎