At the edge of the Vale of Camelot, with a fine view across to King Arthur’s original seat at Cadbury Castle, lies the little market town of Castle Cary, perhaps best known as the main railway station for the Glastonbury Festival. It is here, on Saturday 15th September, that stalwarts of Readers Recommend and the ‘Spill will be gathering for the first West Country Social, to partake of cider and other hospitality at the Abahachi homestead. The festivities will start some time around midday, and will continue until everyone goes home.
You are all heartily invited to come along. I don’t want to put all my details onto the web, and equally I would like to have a rough idea of who’s likely to turn up, so please write to me (abahachi[at]hotmail.co.uk) to let me know if and when you’ll be coming and to give some idea of preferred tipple and dietary preferences; I’ll send some directions in return, and adjust the menu accordingly.
It’s traditional, I believe, for people to put together a compilation cd for the occasion. In the light of comments below, I think we’ve got a couple of viable options, so here’s a poll…
CD social swap: it’s the weekend of RR’s 7th birthday –
perhaps something to do with 7 or 7″ all songs you first got as singles – you know something like that.
Or we could go back to the first ever RR topic – “Change”.
Is there an established mechanism for making the decision? ‘Cos I like DsD’s suggestion of “Home” as well, or maybe something like “The Singles Collection”, and this kind of open-mindedness and indecision isn’t going to get us anywhere…
I bagsy Yo La Tengo for my CD if it is “Home”
I’m deffo there: booked in at Fox Cottage on Fri & Sat nights.
Cider is my first-choice tipple, but I’ll drink A LOT of it if I’m not controlled, so keeping the alcohol content down may not be a bad thing, particularly as I’ll have a long drive home on the Sunday.
As this is (to my knowledge) the first home-based Social, maybe “home” for a theme for CDs? Having said that, my WIP list isn’t themed as such: I’ll go with the flow.
Whoops. Sorry – DsD on the girls’ laptop here.
DsD here: having problems posting comments from this laptop (which ain’t mine).
My cider is relatively weak stuff (only about 5% according to my limited testing equipment), so you should be okay. What time are you due to arrive on the Friday evening?
Dunno. Depends what time I finish my one-person training course in Redditch, and then what the M5 traffic is like.
*sigh*
That’s me at Fox Cottage. Apologies if multiple versions of comments appear from me eventually: I appear to be disappearing into the ether.
I’ll be driving from MK on the Saturday morning and staying overnight. Happy to make detours to pick people up – or if anyone east of me wants a lift and can make it over to MK, I’d be very pleased to take you too.
Ooh… might you be considering the route down the A34? I was thinking I would drive myself and proffer lifts, but, well, if you were going that way anyhow…
Certainly – Kingsclere, is it? Looks like a reasonable detour to me!
Excellent!
wish I could TFD – but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it over (if that offer was to me – not many of us East is there? – except nilferd, the letter O, sakura, panthersan, fuel, etc, etc – oh there’s a few of us isn’t there – hee hee)
should be really good fun – I do hope you will all be shouting out tunes still for the weekends guest guru.
It was to you and Mitch. But especially you, because I’ve met Mitch already! Adam offered me that weekend as guru, but I said I couldn’t cos I was going to the social.
I’ll be driving down and back on Saturday, so no boozing for me. If anyone wants a lift from Bristol, let me know.
Seeing as the whole Glastonbury area is so soaked with tales of magic and sorcery, how about that as a topic?
If you send me an email, Carole, I can send you back some directions.
Ooh, I was going to get the train, but a lift sounds very appealing and a kind offer. I have to be back in Bristol early though (before 6pm) so might not work. I’d like to do a CD of magic and sorcery, sounds fun.
I’ve just thought I could get the train back. Tired tonight, could I give you some petrol money?
Beth, mail me on Facebook and we can arrange where I can pick you up from.
have done
Theme: something Arthurianesque? Chivalry/Myth/period-of-your-choice-between-Roman-Britain-and-Medieval/lords’n'ladies…
Or “West”.
I think I forgot to click “notify”…
Hmmm, yeah. “Go West, Young Man” *
That does have a certain appeal.
* … Or woman, or hermaphrodite, or transgender: we’re an all-inclusive bunch!
“West” could be interpreted in many ways.
Really sorry I won’t be able to come, have explained to Abahachi. But I would vote for magic and sorcery. Not that I can think of anything.
That picture reminds me of the frot cover of “Argus” (Wishbone Ash).
It’s Roxy Music’s Avalon; clearly a view across the Somerset Levels from Castle Cary on a misty autumn morning…
Hi Aba, that photograph was taken back in the Auld Sod on the banks of Lough Corrib in County Galway. I would love to attend the shindig, but alas will gave to give it a miss this year. Hope y’all have a great day!
oh, that’s a pity, Ali, hope to meet up with you at another one maybe?
I’ve added a poll above, if you’d all like to register your preferences – I devised “Once upon a time” as a way of combining the votes for magic and sorcery with Zalamanda’s Arthurian/medieval suggestion.
We’re driving down from Birkenhead Friday but stopping for the night partway, so that’s no help to anyone. But we’ll be returning Saturday mid-evening and driving straight back if anyone needs a lift to Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham or anywhere else mostly along the way.
Since I’m guessing steenbeck won’t be coming, I thought I’d make one of the cakes from Out Of The Ordinary for the Social. Then we can toast her in cake.
Anybody got a favourite?
Yes. Driving. Later.
Hi TFD.
Re Claire’s cakes: can I offer a couple of potential faves?
(I say potential, ’cause DsMam has given up trying to translate Claire’s, um, happy-go-lucky US measures into her preferred, precise/ordered UK ones.)
1. Banana, lime and coconut bread. (early July)
2. Strawberry tart, white choc & hazelnut crust. (mid June)
3. Chocolate brownies – crazy-paved, gooey version. (ages ago)
Were the brownies the Mexican hot chocolate ones, DsD? They came in cakey and chewy versions.
Yeah, that’s them.
Off to Chatsworth Country Fair for the day now:
notoriously crap mobile signal.
Laters.
Hope you all have a wonderful time. it sounds like a fun, drunken*, cakey, and legendary weekend is loomimg.
* commiserations to CaroleB
I’ll manage Richard. I am not as much of a drinker these days as I used to be. So long as there is some nice apple juice and fizzy water, I’ll be fine. Anyway, it is all about the people and the music.
Is there a deadline for the social CD theme? I’d like a little bit of time to compose a playlist.
On the basis of the votes, I think we’re going with ‘Once Upon A time…’: Arthurian and medieval stuff, magic, fairy tales, mysterious mists across the moors and so forth…
excellent, I fear some prog rock might feature!