Some sunshine, some seaside, some mods.....

A pinch & a punch for the first day of the month.....and all that jazz.

Ah....September......the month when Autumn starts (I do love a cardie!), I have a birthday, there are mod boats to go on, cocktails to be drunk (again), Amy Winehouse to be remembered, and vintage shenanigans to go to.

August was an enforced quiet month after a week in Stockholm.  Needs must.  Dear Catastrophe Waitress continues to get better & better (in our minds anyway!) and we must nearly be a year old now mustn't we Darren?

Trying not to repeat my blog from this time last year regarding the Brighton August Bank Holiday mod weekender.......however, apologies if my grumbles are much the same!!!!

This year meant a longer than usual visit to the seaside....a mix of dentist stuff (big yawn), visiting folk and cat-sitting.  I got lucky with an empty flat for the weekend.  Perfect!

Day 1 (Friday) - Dental hell, followed by drinking smoothies through a straw down the Laines with the ladies......followed by drinking prosecco through a straw outside The Dorset.  I realise that if you sit outside The Dorset for long enough, you see everyone you know/knew ever!  Pretty sure I saw my once Pop Klubb colleague from Newcastle too.  Brighton is a small town.  Plenty of people start to arrive for the weekender on Friday...and plenty of lucky devils it seems had booked The Grand for the duration too.  Oh to be flush.

Day 2 (Saturday) - Vintage market in the Western Front, and coffee at a new place to me - The Marwood Coffee Shop (http://www.themarwood.com/).  Very "me" - vintage furniture, relaxed atmosphere, good cakes.  'nuff said.  Saturday afternoon is always an afternoon outside The Volks on the seafront, where everyone congregates, has their photos taken (whether they like it or not), listens to very young bands, who are no doubt trying to following in The Strypes' footsteps, and dodges the showers under dome umbrellas!  If the whole weekend just consisted of sitting outside the Volks, I'd be a happy woman.

Unfortunately, as the sun sets....so the idiots come out.  After last years' Saturday night of plastic white boots, overweight middle-aged blokes on speed, and general annoyances, I probably shouldn't have risked it again.  Still, I never learn!  I feel for my dj friends who have to put up with the randoms asking for The Snake every 5 mins, people falling on top of their decks and generally being a right pain in the posterior.  This year we had to contend with "John Travolta baldy bloke on Class A drugs, getting more frantic as the night went on", Zumba class women taking up the whole dancefloor, a BIZARRE group of people in parkas, Nirvana patches & totally inappropriate clothing (my theory being that they were a coach party who got lost on the way to Wookey Hole).  I'm sure there were more but that's enough for a grumpy old woman like me.  Can we have a door policy next year please Modesty???  ;)

Day 3 (Sunday) - Sunday lunch with the ladies at The Dorset (yep, I know....might as well move in or get some kind of advertising commission here) then down to The Volks for the scooter cruise etc.  One of these days I will take a helmet and will get a lift.  I'm fussy mind though lift-offerers....if you're lacking in hair in the right place or your stomach is hanging over your trousers, I'd have to turn you down...sorry and all that.  Oh, and none of those new-fangled "pretend" scooters thanks.  Just remembered, my moan of the afternoon actually - someone wearing a "Mrs Paul Weller" t-shirt.  Yep, you love.

We headed down to the beach later that evening, to watch a preview of the new Small Faces musical - All or Nothing.  Now, I really don't know how to write about this without upsetting people who may see it but truth has to be told I say.  I don't know the people who were involved in the production personally but I know lots of you do.  This is not just my personal opinion - this is the opinion of lots of other folk too, lots of other folk who are too embarrassed to tell you what it was REALLY like!

Where do we start?  Well, there was the annoying compere bloke whose other job was obviously at Butlins, trying to get the audience to chant "We are the Mods" and failing.  If the sound had gone off at this point, the crowd would have been more than happy.  Then there were the horrific so called "60s styled" women in bad wigs, dancing like idiots, in fancy dress clothes.  Why oh why didn't you just use people that were REALLY into it, really loved the music, really loved The Small Faces? Arrggghhhh.  The script was all over the place....didn't know what the hell was going on from one moment to the next as the sound was tripping out.....all night.  Danny Dyer reading from a piece of paper, looking uninterested himself, The Small Fakers looking uninterested, the random actors probably wishing they'd taken that part in Hollyoaks after all.  Now I know that some of the well-known actors had done this as a favour to the producer but they must be cringing!  Excuses of only 4 days rehearsal and the sound problems "not being their fault" are really not good enough.

This was your chance to preview your show to people who are passionate about the era, passionate about the Small Faces.....unfortunately many, many people walked out that evening....we probably should have followed.  Mr Marriott - I hope you weren't watching down on Brighton beach that night.

As much as I might moan about lots of people that frequent the Brighton weekender every August, if I missed it, I'd hate it.  15 years or so of going and not missing one.  I still love you Brighton, and love my friends even more......but if you could stop any idiots at the station gates next year, I'd appreciate it.

Yours, grumpy of Crouch End x