#London to Cardiff has a direct line

[mankillercalledbunny]

Some people will be out here writing shit like a Brit getting an overnight train (extremely rare) leaving at 11:30pm (most trains from major stations stop running between ~11pm and ~4am) on Christmas eve (trains don't run after 6pm on Christmas Eve/NYE and don't run at all on Xmas/NYD) between two UK cities that are a 3 hour trip at most and that's if you're hitting every tiny country station along the way

Meanwhile I'm checking that my character's brief distracted geological ramblings are factually accurate by checking a research paper on quartz inclusions and asking a geologist to proofread them

We are not the same

[louisupdates]

The Habit He Can’t Break, 2/4

IQ 123 | Gordon Masson | 9.11.2023

“In Santiago, for instance, we’d sold out two full arenas of 13,000 cap, but then the government declared that for mass gatherings the number needed to be limited to 10,000 people.”

Rather than let fans down, Move added a third day, which again ended up selling out. “I remember being on a night plane from Miami, while Matt Vines was flying in from Dallas, and we were both using the aircraft wi-fi to negotiate via text for that third show. It was an interesting way to confirm putting the third date on sale, just three days before the actual show!”

He adds, “We’re taking a big bet on this tour when it comes to the number of cities and the capacities of the venues, but we’re hoping for the best, and we’ve gone out strong. We feel that the artist is in a good moment and that the latest album has just created more interest, so we’re looking forward to when he arrives in May.”

Further north, Ocesa will promote three dates in Mexico, including a stadium show at the F1 circuit, Autódromo Hermanos, Rodríguez, deepening Tomlinson’s footprint in that crucial North American market.

Meanwhile, in Tomlinson’s homeland, Jack Dowling at SJM is promoting seven UK dates in November at arenas in Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Cardiff, London, and Birmingham, which will round out the European leg of the tour.

“SJM has done every show Louis has been involved with, including all the One Direction arena and stadium shows” notes Dowling, adding that on the first tour, the London show was originally penciled in as a Roundhouse, then two Roundhouse shows, before finally being upgraded to Wembley Arena. 

“This time, The O2 arena show in London will be sold out, while all the others have passed the expectations of where we wanted to be on this tour. In fact, when the UK dates were announced, it ranked as the fourth most engaged tour on social media in SJM’s history – his fans are just nuts.”

But Dowling also reports that the fanbase for Tomlinson is expanding. “The demographics are pulling not just from pop, but also from indie rock now.”

Dowling adds, “Louis really looks after his fans. On the last tour, they did a deal with Greggs to give free food to the people waiting in line, as some of them camped out for days in advance.”

Out of My System

Ensuring his fans are looked after properly is the number one priority in Tomlinson’s live career.

Noting that Tomlinson’s audience comprises mainly young women and girls, Rowland reveals that, at the artist’s insistence, a safety team has been added to the tour to ensure everyone that attends his shows is looked after. “They manage all the safety within the shows for the fans,” she explains. “They came in for the Wembley show last year and have been with us ever since - they’ve been beneficial to the running of the tour. 

“When he played in South America, some of his fans were camping outside for a month. So we have a responsibility to look after them. Coming to a show should be a safe place, it’s where they find joy, and we have a responsibility to protect that.”

Manager Vines comments, “One issue that we came up against almost all last year was crushing and fans passing out. We adopted a system where we could communicate with fans, who could hold up a mobile phone with a flashing red-and-white sign if they were in trouble but then we’d see them all popping up.

“I don’t know whether some of that was a hangover of the pandemic where fans just weren’t used to being in venues. But we experienced a number of situations where hydration and temperatures in venues became an issue. I know Billie Eilish went through similar issues.”

With Tomlinson determined to meet a duty of care toward his fans, Vines says that the team now sends a “considerable advance package” to promoters ahead of their tour dates. “Our safety team goes into venues in the morning, and basically ensures that a number of different things are in place – making sure that water is given to the fans, where the water comes from, and at what points in the show it happens.”

And on the crushing phenomena, he reports, “We’ve worked out how many fans it’s safe to have without a secondary barrier. So we instruct promoters to have certain barriers in place to relieve the pressure and avoid crushing.”

He adds, “I get detailed incident reports after each show, which lets myself and my management team know exactly what happened, and so far on this tour, we haven’t had any issues with crushing or hydration, which is fantastic.”

Production manager Craig Sherwood is impressed by the way the tour has pivoted to protect the ‘Louies.’ “The welfare officers are vital for the young girls were aged from, I guess, 14 upwards. They can get dehydrated and malnourished pretty quickly if they are camping out for days, so it’s important that we look out for their well-being,” says Sherwood. 

Citing the extremes that the Louies will put themselves through in an effort to secure themselves prime positions at the front of the stage, Sherwood recalls, “The first show on our US tour was in February, and it was freezing, but we found out that girls had been camping out on the pavement for five days. It’s crazy, as we know these young girls are coming from all over the world to see Louis.”

However, Tomlinson’s connection with those fans is evident in the level of merchandise sales at each show. “It’s a huge part of our business, says Vines. “In America, we averaged about $36 a head, and it’s not much shy of that in Europe – we set a few national records in terms of spend per head. But we spend a lot of time on merch plans, and we do venue-specific drops and give it a lot of care and attention, as it’s a really important element of Louis’ business.”

1/4, 3/4, 4/4

[musicblogwales]

L E M F R E C K - 'Come Outside En' Video

Rising Newport artist L E M F R E C K shares the video for his brand new single ‘Come Outside En’, a commanding call to action that captures his poetic lyrical form and ability to effortlessly transcend between hip hop and alternative R&B. The stunning video, filmed in Southerndown on the Welsh coast and impressively self-produced and directed by L E M F R E C K, features an appearance from Skindred’s / Dub WaR legend Benji Webbe.

L E M F R E C K speaks on the track, “It’s a perfect term used in the depths of South Wales when you've had enough of a situation and it’s just time to step outside and have it out. I had reached the end of my patience and decided the only way I was going to get through this was by stepping out”.

‘Come Outside En’ is the first new music from L E M F R E C K since last year’s album Blood, Sweat & Fears, a bold, honest reflection on his Welsh community, alongside the balance of preserving inner peace but also pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. The release saw widespread support from the likes of BBC Radio 1, BBC 1Xtra, BBC Radio Wales, Rinse FM, Clash, Viper, Dummy, Notion, WhyNow, The Line Of Best Fit & more. The release culminated in his producing and presenting of acclaimed BBC Documentary ‘Black Music Wales’, a celebration of the incredible talent and legacy from his home region past and present.

Over the weekend, L E M F R E C K was announced as a Welsh Music Prize shortlist nominee for the release of Blood, Sweat and Fears.

L E M F R E C K’s unique blend of introspective lyrics and elegant, grime-infused beats have already gained him a Welsh Music Prize nomination, alongside and a place on BBC Introducing’s Ones to Watch 2021 before being named BBC Radio Wales’s Introducing Artist of the Year in 2023. Additionally, off the back of a North American tour that included SXSW and M for Montreal he has had an incredible live performance journey - selling out The Social in London and Paradise Gardens in Cardiff, alongside performing at The Great Escape and Horizons Gorwelion festivals.

Beyond simply flexing his lyrical muscle, L E M F R E C K’s an ardent supporter of reformulating what it means to be a Black, British rapper. Expect more new music soon.

[frustratedpoetwrites]

when Lily’s normal route home from work is closed she has to find a new way, and discovers a cute little bakery with a viewing window into the kitchen.

Read on AO3

Lily Evans had no problem walking around London. Her flatmates would always tell her to be careful, take the train, the bus, or even an Uber. Like she could afford to take an Uber every day for goodness sake. Lily  had a plan to pay off her student loans before she was thirty, and a tight budget to meet that goal. So she walked nearly everywhere, no matter the weather or the season. That’s what waterproofs, big coats, and good shoes were for. 

Her favourite was the walk home after finishing a night shift at around 5 am when the sky was just waking up. Not that a person could see much of the sky when walking through the built-up areas of London. The streets would be free of nearly everything but the vans delivering the first edition papers to the newsstands, or the milkmen doing their rounds, milk bottles clinking as the electric carts trundled past her. She hadn’t even realised milk was still delivered this way, not since she was a child growing up in the long narrow streets of Cardiff could she remember collecting milk from your door. 

She always walked the same way. Turn right from the hospital, then keep going straight across three traffic lights until she came to the rather grand looking Empire Hotel. There, cross the street and take the diagonal alleyway down to the underpass. Putting her foil-wrapped packet of leftovers from the night shift into the outdoor sleeper’s donation box, then up along a collection of grubby shops around the kids’ play park and then home.

That had been her route for months, it was the shortest she had managed to find. She never worried about muggers or strangers, she knew how to look after herself if anyone did try. Fourteen years of Thai-Kwon-Do training did that to your confidence. But even despite that, wearing her NHS ambulance uniform was like wearing an extra layer of protection anyway. So walk that way she did, every single time without fail. Until one day the alleyway was blocked by a great big orange barrier, stopping her halfway along.

Lily grumbled thinking they could at least put a sign up by the entrance and not make her walk all the way up here first. She disliked the idea of backtracking too far so she got out her phone and let it find her location. The maps on her device were notoriously inaccurate, usually putting her in the general direction of about three different streets, but this time it pinged her straight away and gave her a dotted line to follow. Just a little further down from the blocked off alleyway was another little side street, this one brighter and more welcoming than her usual route. There was also a fantastic smell of baking bread emanating from one of the buildings.

Normally at this hour, the only shops with any sign of activity were the 24hour convenience shops with their harsh strip lighting, lino floors, and soulless self-checkouts. As soon as she saw the front of this place she wished she had found this route sooner.

It looked straight out of a Dickens novel with its small square glass panelled bay window, the outside woodwork and door painted British racing green and with a swinging sign in the shape of a mushroom-like chef’s hat. She read the name of the place written in golden cursive lettering, Too Hot to Handle. She nearly laughed out loud. As she stepped closer wondering when they opened she spotted the small side window into the kitchen, where the baker was busy making bread.

Was there anything in the world more satisfying than watching someone knead dough? The way the shoulder blades slid underneath the thin t-shirt, biceps bulging and contracting. Strong hands gliding the dough, fingers sprinkling down the flour. 

Perhaps Lily was a little obsessed, perhaps not everyone thought the way she did about bread. The smell alone was making her mouth water, but perhaps if they also happened to walk past a bakery that had a viewing window into the kitchen they would find it equally mesmerising. The muscled back in question that had first caught her eye never faced the window, never even lifted their head from the task. She stepped away reluctantly, promising herself to come back when they were open.

The next morning she had to walk past the bakery once more. She was pleased to see it hadn’t been a figment of her overtired brain. The swinging sign and golden lettering were a welcoming sight to her. Once again her footsteps slowed as she approached the window peeking into the kitchen, she let herself stand a bit closer this time, breathing in the delicious smells coming from the extractor vent. Was it the same baker as yesterday? He still didn’t seem to notice her looking at him, his methodical movements were efficient and captivating. He was making rolls, two at a time. A figure coming into the kitchen broke her stare and she looked away from the baker to see a woman standing in the doorway to the shop looking curiously straight at her. Guiltily she stepped back like she had been caught peeping at a changing room and rushed off up the street, her heart beating.

For the next few days, Lily’s mind kept going back to that little street. She was on her rest days so had no reason to just randomly walk past. She would actually have to stop and buy something. She had not had a properly made crusty roll from a bakery in so long. There was nothing in the world as comforting as freshly made bread. She remembered her dad making some every Sunday as a treat until his arthritis made it too painful. She had already started to fantasise about what it would taste like, what kind of bread would she buy? It wasn’t that she had a problem, of course she didn’t, but back when she had been training more, it had become a staple to stop at the bakery on her way home from the gym and buy herself a doughnut. She still remembered the way her sister had always commented on it, making her feel like she should be ashamed of eating anything at all.

Luckily for Lily and her mental health she had stopped listening to what her sister thought of anything at all long before that moment, in fact, it would make eating the sweet treats taste that much better. She wondered if they did french pastry too? Unfortunately, she was still too mortified about being caught sneaking outside to go in. Even the next couple of times walking home in the early hours, she made sure she took the detour past but refused to let her feet linger, telling herself the smell was enough. 

*

There were no leftover sandwiches when she walked into the break room at the end of her shift. There were always leftover sandwiches. It wasn’t really that big of a deal, but on top of everything else that had happened this shift, it made Lily almost feel like crying. She had been on an emergency call trying to keep them calm, willing them to keep talking to her until the ambulance arrived. She had stayed on the line with them well past the end of her shift, not wanting to leave even after she heard the paramedics arrive and she was supposed to hang up, she had listened to them working to stabilize them enough to transport. It was only when the line went quiet that she disconnected, knowing they were on their way to the hospital, to the best possible care. Being an emergency call operator was never an easy job, but some days were way worse than others. Lily had just wanted to sit in the break room for a few minutes to settle herself and eat something sweet to feel better. But the staff room that always had snacks of varying levels of freshness was looking extremely clean and bereft of anything apart from coffee. She sighed, thinking she would have to brave the Tesco on the corner of her street before she went home, being unable to rely on the contents of her own fridge. She hated that supermarket, especially when she was already past the point of regular tiredness. It was going to be a slow walk home.

She thought that until she walked past the little bakery. The bakery that was not closed. The smells of baking, more intense than ever with the shop door propped open by a statue of a round fat man in a similar chef’s hat to the one on the sign. It had been over a month since she had been seen at the window, surely enough time had passed for her to no longer be embarrassed.

Inside the shop was just as pretty as the outside. Shelves lined with wicker baskets filled with so many types of bread covered the back wall. Glass fronted display cabinets filled with colourful dainty cakes, pastries, meringues, pies, and biscuits, made a barrier between where she was standing and the server. There was not a great deal of space where she stood, even less behind the counter, it was small but every part of it had been maximised to its full potential, the selection was astonishing, considering she was pretty sure all the work was done by hand. Lily had no idea how long she stood there astonished by the selection. It reminded her of the fancy cake shops she had seen on her school trip to Paris as a teenager.

When Lily finally tore her head away from the displays long enough to look at the server, she recognised them as the same women who had spotted her at the window. She looked to be in her sixties Lily guessed, her short grey hair was kept neatly in place by the white hat she was wearing, her intelligent eyes were watching her with polite interest. And her smile was warm and welcoming. Lily tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked back down at the display.

“Two sourdough rolls, and three Pain Au chocolats’ please?” she asked shyly. The ladies’ smile broadened as she turned to fill a paper bag with two intricately scored round rolls from one of the baskets behind her. Lily glanced to the side door, she could hear the sound of dough being slapped against the table, but wherever they were standing they were not visible from her position.

She paid for her goods contactlessly, grabbed the paper bag as it was handed to her, and practically ran out of the shop.

She unfurled the top as soon as she was out of view, unable to wait until she was home to eat the pastry. She was so hungry she didn't waste any time but bit about half of it in one. It was sweet and buttery, with a softly melting chocolate centre, she had never tasted anything that came even close since that same Paris trip. She was just finishing it off, licking her fingers unashamedly when she reached the underpass. Because she was later the usually unidentifiable lumpy sleeping bag was a person sitting up. She did not hesitate at all before handing them the other pastries still in their smaller paper bag, hoping they wouldn’t be disappointed.

“No leftover sandwiches today I’m sorry,” she told them, not waiting around for a reply. She was beginning to feel a rather welcome sugar rush, pushing off her fatigue for long enough to keep her legs moving and back to her flat.

When she finally got home, she sat down hard at the kitchen table, contemplating just going to bed instead of trying to eat anymore. But the sugar from the pastry was wearing off and she knew she would wake up famished, and sooner than she wanted to if she didn’t. Wearily she lifted herself back up and looked in the fridge. There wasn’t a huge selection to go with her bread, but there were some cheddar slices and still a little bit of her dad’s homemade chutney.

The first bite made her make a noise she had never uttered outside of her bedroom before. The way the crispy crust broke making that wonderful crackle as her teeth sunk through to soft inner bread, the flavours of the cheese and pickle mingling perfectly, she was in complete heaven.

“My god, Evans I thought you’d brought a bloke home!” Marlene, her flatmate, exclaimed walking out of her bedroom already in her scrubs, blonde hair tied back severely into a bun. “You’re home late, bad shift?” Lily just nodded and took another bite, swiping the crumbs off her chin with a finger, “Do you want to talk about it?” Lily shook her head and moaned again. “Jeez Lily, why don’t you take it to your room? What’s in that sandwich?”

“This is the best thing ever, you have to try it.” Marlene looked sceptical but nevertheless took a bite out of the roll and her eyes rolled backwards. No words were needed Lily just nodded her agreement.

*

Lily didn’t think about the little bakery until she was standing outside it again the next morning. She should have just kept walking, she knew it would be closed. Why had her feet even come this way at all? But her feet wanted her to have a closer look at the treats on offer, and perhaps a peek at who was making them.

The dark-haired, broad-shouldered guy was there again, his back to the window, hands and arms busy working the dough on the table in front of him, she thought he was making some kind of small pastry, his fingers were deftly twisting then placing on large greased trays.  He was wearing black and white check chef’s trousers today with the same long sleeved, tightly fitting, white T-shirt she remembered from before, his shoulder blades danced underneath the cotton, the ribbon of his apron crossing tightly around his neat waist, and a red and black bandana covering his head.

She couldn’t make out his face. Not even in a reflection, as every surface in that room was stainless steel or wood.

“Good morning,” came a female voice from right beside, making Lily jump out her skin and turn like she had been caught with her hand in the sweetie jar.

“Hi, sorry,” she gave her a nervous smile, “ just looking at your wonderful cakes.” She felt the heat rise up in her cheeks at the obvious lie. She was at the wrong window.

“Did you enjoy the rolls yesterday?” she asked next, making Lily stop.

“Yes, thank you, they were wonderful,” she replied, impressed.  “You must have a good memory, I’m sure you get loads of customers every day” 

“True,” she replied with a twinkle in her eyes, “ but not normally as early as you.” Lily shrugged looking down at her shoes.

“Yes, I’m just going home from my shift, I finished a bit later yesterday so you were actually open.”

“Oh, we are open now, if you would like to buy something. Not quite as much is ready yet, but we have croissants just out of the oven.” She started walking back into the shop as she was speaking so Lily had no choice but to follow her in. Lily’s mouth was already watering at the thought of the buttery flakey pastry.

“Just out the oven?” Lily asked in a delighted almost whisper.

“Oh, yes. How many would you like?”

“Four?” Remus had thrown a strop yesterday when he’d discovered she’d gone to a bakery and hadn’t brought back anything for him so she would make sure she did today.

“No problem, I’ll just have to go get them. They might still be a little hot but I’ll put them in a box for you.” Her voice trailed off as she went into the kitchen leaving Lily to stand and wait. “JAMES!” She heard the woman shout from another room. “Where are the..? Oh, never mind, I found them.” She came back carrying the kind of boxes that were normally reserved for delicate cakes and placed it on the top of the glass for Lily to take.

“May I ask, do you make everything by hand?”

“Well not me personally anymore, I help a bit but it’s mainly my sons who do all the work,” she stated proudly. “Would you like anything else?” Lily shook her head.

“I would love too but I don’t have the time to burn it off anymore,” she confessed and the lady smiled politely. She paid for her pastry, went to leave but before she reached the door the thought struck her.

“Did you open just for me?”

“Oh, no my dear we just decided to open a little earlier today for no reason at all.”

* 

Lily arrived back at her flat to find Marlene and Remus already sitting at their kitchen table expectantly. Remus was hugging the biggest mug they had and the smell of roast coffee was thick in the air. Marlene was wrapped up in her fluffy pink dressing gown, her hair in rollers. Lily remembered her saying she was going to spend today with her girlfriend, the doctor. Lily thought she might have been here already. Dorcas often spent the night, especially if they both had the rare occurrence of a shared day off the next day. It was a little cliche for nurses and doctors to date, but understandable as who else could understand the demanding schedule of hospital staff. But it seemed that Marlene had made plans to meet her later. Where Marlene looked like she was on her way to being ready for her day, Remus looked like he had barely woken up. 

“Wow Remus, what’s the occasion? I don’t normally see you out of your room before noon?”

“Marlene and you were rhapsodising about those fucking rolls you had yesterday. I just had to try for myself, so hand them over.”

“Who says I want to share?”

“That box you are holding,” he replied with his hand out, with an exaggerated sigh she placed the box in his hand and went to make herself some tea. She smiled to herself as she saw the teapot already sitting with a herbal tea bag inside.

“I would have poured it already but I know you don’t like it over brewed.” Marlene told her with a smile, and she was right. Lily hated the bitter taste if it was left too long. Coffee was her favourite but she would never sleep if she took any now.

“No cakes?” Marlene exclaimed sounding slightly disappointed, taking a croissant out the box. “These do look good, though.” Lily tried not to roll her eyes at her friend who had the sweetest tooth, Lily, on the other hand, didn’t quite so much, she liked chocolate but preferred it more on the dark side. She was the type of person who would eat the rich fruit Christmas cake but leave the icing.

Remus picked up one for himself. “They’re still a little warm!” he exclaimed with joy. Without being asked Lily took the jar of chocolate spread out of the cupboard and placed it with a knife in front of him, he didn’t say anything just smirked at the jar.

“Oh my fucking god,” Marline said her mouth full, she moaned leaning back in her chair looking up at the ceiling. Remus and Lily both watched her, slightly stunned by her reaction. Remus pulled a piece from the end and popped it in his mouth. His reaction wasn’t quite as extreme but his eyes closed as he savoured the flavour nodding to himself as if agreeing with Marlene.

“Good lord, can you two get a grip on yourselves?” Lily complained before sitting down and taking a bite of her own. She thought she knew what it would taste like having already tried a breakfast pastry just yesterday. The outside flaked but not enough that you were left with a mouthful of crumbs, the inner layers were soft and pale yellow, with almost a lightly toasted flavour. 

“Huh?” she said amazed.

“You need to tell me where this place is. You can’t deny me this, you have no idea,” Remus told her earnestly.

“Do you and these need to get a room?” Marlene giggled, looking in the box for more.

“Says the woman who was moaning not two minutes before.” Remus glanced at the single crescent moon left in the box, then at her. Lily took a long sip of her tea before placing it down with a sigh. 

“You two can fight over the last one or be adults and share it. I’m going to bed.”

“Lily, where is this place?” Remus called to her pleadingly

“Buccaneer street,” Lily replied with a yawn closing her bedroom door, and blocking out her two best friends.

*

Lily awoke to a quiet house. This was not unusual, Marlene was often on the opposite shift to herself and Remus tended to spend most of his awake time doing whatever freelance photographers did outside the house.

Sleepily she stretched and put her slippers on, shuffled back to the kitchen hoping they had refilled the coffee machine for her. She had left her phone on the kitchen table and the screen lit up as she sat down.

Two texts from Remus and an Instagram notification. 

Remus: I found your bakery. 

Either I need to start going to the gym again or find a man who likes my dry wit and stunning 

personality.

Remus: The baker is HOT. Like OMG are you kidding me hot!

Having that viewing window into the kitchen is genius.

I could have stared at that arse all day.

Lily rolled her eyes as she tapped out a reply.

Lily: Haha I knew you would love the place, it's cute isn’t it?

Lily poured herself a large cup of coffee and was settling down to drink it when her screen lit up again.

Remus: Update. So I got talking with the owner and said she would be happy for me to take a few pictures to help promote their business.

Apparently, they’ve not been there that long.

I’ve already taken a few snaps for my insta.

Lily exited her text messages and opened her Instagram and selected Remus’ page. It was always full of an assortment of fabulous pictures of all sorts of things, normally related to current events. But all of them today were pictures from that beautiful tiny bakery. Her breath caught when she viewed the last picture. The grey-haired lady who had served her both times without the usual white hat and apron, wearing a cornflower blue dress covered in tiny white flowers, standing smiling proudly, an arm around the two men standing at each side of her with their backs to the camera completely dwarfing her. They were wearing matching bandanas and T-shirts but instead of the usual plain white she had seen every time, these were dark green and both said Too Hot….? across the shoulders.  Euphemia Potter with her sons: James and Sirius Lily read. At least now she had a name for each of them but still not a face to the bakers. Which one was her baker?

Lily: Your skills are slipping, Remus. Are they so ugly you had to save us from seeing their faces? 

Remus: They wanted to promote their brand and not their faces, which I am so upset about. They are both extremely handsome, but Sirius (the one with the sleeve tattoo) is so hot I almost dropped my camera.

Lily looked a bit more closely at the photo and spotted the arm with the intricate sleeve work. Unfortunately, this still wasn’t much to go on. They both had dark hair the majority of which was hidden under matching bandanas and the same build, was one a little shorter? 

Lily: Did he show any interest back?

Remus: Sort of. I’m not sure, I’ll tell you about it when I get home. Are you working later?

Remus, as it turned out, was hopeless when it came to making a first move, and had no additional information to tell her beyond the fact that when he had told Sirius he liked his tattoos, Sirius had complimented his camera and touched his arm. This to Lily was a ringing endorsement of interest at the very least, but not to poor Remus who couldn’t even say for sure he knew he was gay.

This just made Lily shake her head at her poor clueless friend, and decide she would have to do something about this herself. The way Remus was talking about him she just knew this had to happen if it was at all possible, she owed it to Remus as his best friend.

Going back to the bakery for the third day in a row, Lily’s budget was really starting to take a bit of a battering. She wasn’t sure if she could keep this up. Buying things in London was expensive, buying handcrafted artisan food in London was enough to make you consider your life choices. She would sacrifice her budget, just this once. 

It was not exactly the day off she had originally planned. That day had included wearing her pajamas all day, a scorching hot bath, a bottle of wine and not leaving the flat at all. But here she was, dressed in her best fitting jeans, midnight blue top, long grey oversized cardigan, and ankle boots, standing outside the little bakery waiting her turn. She had never been in the middle of the day before so had never had to que. This did not bode well for her plan at all. She couldn’t be charming and funny and ask for his number for her friend if she was holding up the line. She just couldn't do that, she hated people who did that. Well, hate was a strong word, she would get mildly disgruntled if she had to wait behind chatty customers when she was in a hurry.

The first barrier to get over of course would be Mrs Potter, perhaps if Lily could get her inside help? But the relationship between sons and their mothers was a tricky thing. She would have to tread carefully, she had grown far too fond of this place to have to stop due to a misunderstanding with the owner. The line got closer to the shop and she could now see inside the kitchen. The stainless steel table was bare and wiped clean, no evidence of the usual industry. She tried to suppress her disappointment, feeling more than a little guilty for objectifying whoever it was she had been looking forward to watching. 

The que ahead was going down quickly now, and just before she reached the door a customer came out clutching a large paper bag to his chest.

“We’re sold out folks.” Lily heard a strong male voice call out to the waiting customers, who immediately started moving away, with less grumbling than Lily would have thought. This must be a regular occurrence.

“Knew I should have gotten here sooner, dang it.” The man behind her spoke, before heading back up the street in the direction of the Empire Hotel and the main road. Lily watched him go and noticed she was now the only person left waiting, seeing this as a perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation without holding up any customers she stepped inside. The man who had spoken had his head down adding numbers to a large notebook as she walked in. She tried to look for any signs of tattoos but his arms were covered by the same style white coat that she’d seen Mrs Potter wearing. But where her coat had a large golden E on it, this coat had an ornately scrolled S.

“I’m sorry if you didn’t hear, but we’re all sold out,” his voice trailed off as he looked up from his task, her heart gave an involuntary flutter as he shot a lopsided grin at her while dropping his pen. He wasn’t wearing the chef’s whites, but Lily was pretty sure this must be Sirius. He was incredibly handsome, dark eyes regarded her behind dark framed glasses, that rested on a bold but not over large nose, his strong jaw had a hint of stubble that suggested he had either missed shaving that morning or was someone who needed to shave more frequently. A green and white check bandana covered his head showing very little of the dark hair underneath apart from at the nape of his neck where a few strands had escaped and were curling.  He flashed another smile at her showing perfectly straight white teeth. “All I’ve got is coffee. Would you like some?” The way he asked wasn’t the usual seller to potential purchaser tone. It sounded to Lily like he was offering her a friendly drink. 

“How much is your coffee?”

“Oh no, it’s not for sale, it’s just I’m going to have a cup, so if you want some too you can. It’s not good enough to sell to customers.” He flushed slightly and shook his head. “I’m sorry. Mum usually does the customer side. I need more practice. It’s not terrible I promise.” 

“The coffee or your customer service?” she replied with a twitch of her own lips.

“Both could be better,'' he replied. That lopsided grin was back again as he adjusted his glasses and made his way over to the only plastic thing in the shop apart from the till. He looked at her expectantly as he held two empty mugs. 

“Eh, yeah sure. I’ll have a cup. Milk and one sugar if you have it.” Lily was trying her best to stop admiring him. She had never found herself attracted to someone quite as quickly before, especially not someone who Remus was hopeless about. Lily determinedly squashed down her attraction, her friendship code wouldn’t allow that. From what Remus had told her she was pretty sure Sirus wouldn’t be interested in her anyway. Remus might not be sure, but Lily knew that he had a tendency to get rather flustered around attractive men, and miss the most obvious of signals. “I hope your mum’s okay?” she asked, taking the mug quickly as he was holding the handle out to her. 

“Oh yeah, she’s fine, just her day off.” He waved his hand casually before grabbing his own mug. She took a sip of the coffee as she tried to think of a way to bring up the whole reason why she was here. He was right, the coffee wasn’t good enough to sell. It tasted like the stuff she occasionally had to drink from her work’s vending machine. She tried to hide the grimace at the taste. 

“I have a friend who was here yesterday, he said you’ve not been open long? But you must be doing well to sell out so quickly.”

“We’ve been doing okay,” he replied modestly, giving a shrug and rubbing the back of his neck. “We normally have more made, but on the days my mum isn't here it’s more difficult to keep up, you know?”

“Yes, I understand, that must be so difficult to manage. Did you relocate far, because it doesn’t seem like you're new to this?” Why was she interviewing him? This wasn’t how it was supposed to be going, but she just wanted to know everything about him. It was incredibly charming, the way his eyes would meet hers then drift away like he didn’t want to be caught looking too intently at her.

“We had a place in Brighton, it did pretty well but just didn’t get the foot traffic. A developer offered to buy the whole row of shops well above the market value, so mum decided we would try our luck in the city instead.” He seemed to be relaxing into the conversation, resting a hip against the back counter, his free hand holding onto the edge. Lily found herself clinging on to every word he uttered, he had a very calming tone to his voice. He was so fascinating to her. Oh, it wasn’t fair that someone could be so attractive and so unavailable.

“Oh, I love Brighton, me and my mates would go all the time when I was at Uni, there are some really great bars and drag shows, it’s always a fun night,” she told him earnestly. “There is such a good scene in Brighton you must miss it.”

“Maybe a little but honestly it’s been a long time since I went out regularly, and the bars were never really for me. Bakers have to be up too early in the morning to spend all night out drinking.”

“The hours must make it difficult to spend time with your boyfriend,”  she asked him, trying her best to sound casual. He choked on his coffee.

“Boyfriend?” he spluttered, making her shrug.

“I just thought a handsome guy like you, no way you’re single?” She smiled at him warmly, he was clearly a little shy talking about this as his cheeks flushed slightly. He even looked attractive when he did that.

“That’s nice of you to say, but sadly I am definitely, extremely single. What about you? Anyone special in your life? Did you come to my shop to buy sweet treats for them?” She shook her head in reply.

“No, I’m just as single too. I guess we’re both as bad as each other?”

“Eh yeah, I guess we are. It’s a nice change when someone comes in and isn’t mad we have sold out of food. ” He took a long drink from his coffee, his eyes watching her intently over the top of his mug. It would have made her blush if she thought he had any interest in her.

“Yes I can imagine.” She really could sympathise, her own work took up so much of her time, a social life beyond the occasional night out with her friends was pretty much beyond her. “Well if you ever get a day off and want to go drink better tasting coffee than this I know a few places, one not that far from here in fact.”

“You do?” he asked, sounding surprised,.“I’d like that. It’s my day off tomorrow actually, it’s probably too soon…”

“No, tomorrow would be nice. Shall we meet here around this time?”

Remus was sitting at the kitchen table once more when she got home, various piles of chopped vegetables arranged before him in neat piles. She loved it when she was home for Remus’ cooking, it always made her feel like they were their own little family. She walked up to him and hugged his shoulders as he continued to chop mushrooms into four.

“You seem happy,” he observed, “did you have a nice day off?”

“It was nice actually,” she replied, releasing him and grabbing a slice of pepper, “I’m off again tomorrow we should do something.” He shrugged and nodded in a maybe kind of way. Which was as close to a yes I’d love to as she was likely to get.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Oh, nothing in particular, we could just go out for coffee, or whatever.”

“Lily, you constantly complain to me that barista coffee is overpriced, to be fair you complain that most things in London are overpriced” his eyes squinted at her suspiciously. “What are you up to?”

She took a bite of the pepper and tried to look innocently back at him. “Why do you think because I want to do something nice with my friend you immediately think I’m up to something? It’s outrageous.” She finished her pepper before giving a dramatic yawn. “Well, I think I’ll take a little nap before dinner is ready, unless you want some help?”

“No, I’m good thanks. Pretty sure I can manage to make pasta sauce without your assistance, I’ll wake you when it’s ready.”

*

Lily was enjoying walking with Remus, they didn’t do it nearly often enough. Normally when she walked it was by herself, with a purpose and normally at a brisk pace, but not today. Today she was strolling casually with one of her best friends, back down to the street where the bakery was. Her arm was linked through Remus’ who, as always had his camera slung around his neck making him look more like a tourist than someone who had lived in London their entire life. Freelance photographers lived for that perfect image that would make them, they also never took a day off. Lily had given up trying to get him to part with it for at least a day long before now. But it seemed today he was content to leave his camera at his side.

Either Remus was no longer suspicious of Lily’s motives to go for coffee with him , or he had decided to play along. He was looking very fine in chinos and a coral v-neck jumper. He had styled his sandy locks, and it was flopping over to the left side of his face in a perfectly casual way. She was pretty sure the reason why he was so nicely dressed and no longer asking questions was because he had sussed out her cunning plan to set him up with Sirius the fit bakery guy. Especially as he had not even commented when there were a dozen nicer coffee shops much closer than the one she had suggested.

“Can we please stop pretending  that we aren’t going to the bakery now? I’m pretty sure you are setting me up in some way here, and by the direction we are going, it has to be with that delicious baker boy,” Remus said finally, making Lily chuckle slightly.

“Why do we have to stop pretending? I was having so much fun watching you silently holding back your questions.” He didn’t respond at first just compressed his lips into a thin line and continued their walk in companionable silence.

“You may as well tell me, we are almost there.”

“Well okay, yes, but you have to pretend to be all shy and surprised to see him, I want my matchmaking skills to be on full show.” She hugged his bicep briefly, making him shudder at the contact. Lily loved when Remus was slightly off balance it made her feel a bit more normal about her own insecurities.

“Lily, there will be no need to pretend, I’m already in danger of sweating through my jumper,”

“But you look so handsome,” she replied looking up at him adoringly making him smile a small pleased smile. “Sirius isn’t going to know what hit him.”

“Oh, I hope you’re right.”

Lily spotted him before Remus did, standing outside his bakery, talking to another man, who Lily assumed was a customer by the familiar paper bag he was carrying. At least she thought it was the same guy who had offered her a coffee yesterday. She recognised the smile first, and his laugh as it drifted towards them. Lily had thought he looked handsome before in his white coat and bandana, but it was nothing compared to how he looked with his hair set free. He had so much of it, how on earth had he kept it all under that piece of fabric. He was wearing jeans and a short sleeved shirt. Lily looked curiously to Remus when he stopped walking, a funny little half smile on his face. Sirius walked over to them smiling and raised his hand to shake Remus’ own, his forearms clearly visible, without a single tattoo. Lily’s heart began to hammer slightly as the reality of the situation dawned on her.

This wasn't Sirius.

This must be the other brother, the one that Remus hadn’t said much about at all. He could have warned her how disarmingly handsome he was. Remus shook hands with him enthusiastically, looking more amused than disappointed at Lily’s mistake. “Nice to see you again.”

“Yeah, you too,” not Sirius replied, with a sidelong look at her. Lily crossed her arms and squinted, this was not how this was supposed to go.

“Lily, have you met Sirius’ brother James?”

“Not properly, no,” she said slowly he offered his hand out to her and when she took it she had the strangest sensation, almost like pins and needles shooting up her arm. “You knew I was going to bring Remus, didn’t you?” She asked him letting his hand go probably a little too quickly but she felt so completely off balance.

“When you said you had a friend visit the shop the day before and then asked if I had a boyfriend I kind of guessed. It was flattering actually to be mistaken for him, he’s normally the one who gets all the attention.” Lily wanted to say that she found that hard to believe but she was struggling with the ability to form coherent sentences.

“So Sirius, is he?” Remus asked, taking advantage of Lily’s silence and James smirked.

“He told me he wasn’t sure if you were picking up his signals, he felt off his game without his hair to flip around.” He played with his own hair for emphasis, Lily’s heart gave a little flutter. Remus reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s his turn in the window today,” James continued, “it does draw in the customers.” He was watching her again, his hands in his pockets, trying not to be too obvious about it but every time she caught him looking at her it was like she was under a heat lamp. How could she have been so stupid yesterday not to see?

“I’m sorry I thought you were your brother, even though I’ve never met him.” He smiled at her again giving her both barrels of his dazzling white teeth.

“Oh, you will meet him soon enough, he’s just cleaning up. Mum said she’d close today, the customers never argue with her.” He took a step backwards in the direction of his shop still looking at them. “I’m just gonna go see if he’s ready.” James turned sharply before trotting over and disappearing down the small gap between the bakery and the next shop. As soon as he was out of sight Lily’s knees felt weak, and she grabbed onto Remus to hold herself steady. Remus turned to her, his face looking concerned.

“Lily, are you okay?”

“I’ve made a complete idiot of myself, what’s he going to think? This is terrible and he’s so cute. How did I not notice?” Remus looked at her astonished. She took a couple of breaths as Remus steadied her with a hand on her waist.

“And you say I’m an idiot when I see an attractive man. Lily, he adores you, I could see it clearly.”

“No, he was just being polite about the mix up!”

“He was trying to be polite, but he couldn’t keep his eyes away from you.”

“You really think?” She tried to get a grip on herself, she knew in herself she ever saw Remus or Marlene behaving this way she would tell them to do just that and probably be a lot more blunt about it than Remus was being.

“Yes I do, so stop thinking like you’re an idiot and let's go have a really nice time with two really nice boys, okay?” As much as she didn’t particularly relish the idea of going on what would be a double date with Remus, in this moment she was glad he was there. He had talked her back from the edge.

“You’re right, okay.” She closed her eyes and exhaled fully to expel the last vestiges of her anxiousness . “So do you think this is like a double date? He’s not exactly asked, and he knows I wasn’t exactly asking him. So is this a date?”

Remus rolled his eyes at her and threw up his hands. “You need to stop, you need to catch your breath and stop overthinking this.” He rubbed her arm. “He wasn’t mad or offended, he said he was going to get his brother. He was giving you full on smouldering eyes so badly.”

“He’s so lovely, what do I do?”

“Lily, I know it’s been a while, but you’ve had a coffee with another human being before.” 

He looked up then and his cheeks started to flush slightly, she followed his gaze to see James returning with the person who could only be Sirius, and now she understood what James had meant about Sirius always getting the attention. He was the type of person that drew every eye , even without trying. He flicked his long black hair over his shoulder as he walked towards them, already smiling confidently.

 Lily understood perfectly why Remus had found this man so attractive, he was clean shaven with strongly defined cheekbones and a slightly sharp chin. He was perhaps an inch shorter than his brother but you could only tell if they were standing side by side like they were now. Seeing them in person she saw they were not that alike at all. Sirius was wearing skinny jeans and a tucked in dress shirt with its sleeves pushed back above his elbow, the top two buttons were undone leaving it open at the neck revealing some braided cord necklaces. His eyes were pale and they looked at Lily with warmth as he reached out to take her hand, his intricately tattooed forearm clearly visible.

“So it’s you I have to thank for setting this up then?” He tilted his head and looked at her admiringly. “I was annoyed at myself for not being more obvious and asking for your friend's number,” when he said those words his gaze turned to Remus and then never left. “James can tell you I haven’t stopped talking about him ever since that day.” Lily watched her friend react to such an intensely obvious stare, he looked a little taken aback at first, but slowly the edges of Remus’ mouth curled up and his eyes met the others blushing  slightly. 

“Sirius, you say it like it’s been weeks, it was only two days,” James piped up with a smirk, drawing Lily’s attention, she smiled back at him enjoying this shared moment. “But yeah it’s true.” Sirius returned his gaze to her and took her hand once more to quickly place a kiss upon it. 

“Thank you,” he said then gestured to his brother. “And James thanks you too. If nothing else than stopping me from being a -- what did you call me? ‘A mopey arsehole?’” He let her hand go and turned his full attention back to Remus, who was standing very still and looking like he was totally captured by the magnetism of Sirius and his smile. “Shall we let these two get better acquainted?” He asked Remus, offering his arm. 

“Er, yeah okay.” he managed to reply, a bright smile appearing on his face. Remus took his arm and they started walking off together already talking to each other like this was more than only the second time of meeting.

“That went well, I think,” James said as they both watched them walking away, heads close together. “If you don’t want to - I mean it’s totally fine- I understand if you didn’t really.” His sudden insecurity made Lily’s own nerves fade a little. He was just as nervous as she was, she noticed as he raised his hand and rubbed the back of his neck.

“No, I would love to. As long as you do? I really want to go have a drink with you,” she looked down at herself, and tried not to sigh. “I just wish I’d made more of an effort to make myself look presentable.”

“What I’m seeing you look pretty perfect to me,” he replied, which made Lily snort out a loud laugh. 

“James, that was quite a line,” she chuckled, making him blush and look down at his feet. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I liked it.” She took a step towards him and lifted his chin so his eyes would meet hers again. She glanced over to where Remus and Sirius were now standing facing them, Remus had his camera up to his face and Sirius was casually resting an arm on his shoulder. “They look like a couple already, how is that possible?”

“Sometimes things are just meant to be together, like tomato and basil, or hazelnut and chocolate,” he suggested offering his hand to her. When she placed her hand into his, fingers sliding along his roughened palm she knew exactly what he meant. 

[helloyoucreatives]

Queer East Film Festival (15 - 26 September) is delighted to unveil its full programme centred on queer storytelling and activism from East and Southeast Asia. This year’s programme includes a selection of 37 features, short films and artists’ moving image works from 15 countries, ranging from new releases to classic retrospectives, mainstream box office hits to radical independent works, accompanied by pre-screening introductions and filmmaker Q&As. A series of online panel discussions with international guests will run throughout the festival period, covering topics such as women in the film industry, queer film festivals, and the development of Asian LGBTQ+ movements.

Launched in 2020, Queer East is a new film festival that aims to amplify the voices of Asian communities in the UK, who have often been excluded from mainstream discourse, despite Asians being one of the country’s fastest-growing ethnic groups. Queer East seeks to facilitate a better understanding of the richness of queer Asian heritage, and to bridge the cultural distance between the UK public and the region. Featuring works made by international filmmakers and Asian diaspora communities, and looking to foster authentic voices, the festival explores a wide range of perspectives, showcasing stories that intersect with personal experiences, cultural norms, and socio-political transitions.

The second edition of Queer East opens with the UK premiere of Daughters (2020), the directorial debut of Hajime Tsuda from Japan; and will close with the multi award-winning Dear Tenant (2020), directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Yu-Chieh Cheng.

This year, the world’s spotlight shone on Japan as the host country for the Summer Olympics. This drew the programmer’s attention to Japan’s history of iconoclastic, inventive and unapologetic queer filmmaking, and its growing strength in advancing LGBTQ+ rights. To mark this, the festival presents Focus Japan, a ten-film programme that looks back on queer representations in Japanese films from the 1980s until today. It features a double bill from the Japanese maestro Nagisa Oshima; Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and a rare 35mm presentation of Gohatto (1999); a queer revisiting of the 1995 animation Ghost in the Shell (dir. Mamoru Oshii) and the 20th anniversary screening of Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s Hush! (2001), alongside recent releases like Queer Japan (dir. Graham Kolbeins, 2019) and Close-Knit (dir. Naoko Ogigami, 2017).

Building on the success of last year, the festival’s Focus Taiwan strand continues with Days (2020) by the internationally acclaimed auteur Tsai Ming-Liang, the UK premiere of Teddy-award winning director Zero Chou’s Secrets of 1979 (2021), and a special presentation of The End of the Track (dir. Tun-Fei Mou), a rediscovered classic made in 1970. The series also includes an exciting line-up of short films and experimental works that showcase Taiwan’s vibrant queer culture.

Other highlights include a 20th anniversary screening of Lan Yu (dir. Stanley Kwan, 2001), one of the most iconic gay films in the Mandarin-speaking world, presented here in its newly restored version; South Korea’s award-winning drama Moonlit Winter (dir. Daehyung Lim, 2019); and drag comedy Number 1 (dir. Kuo-Sin Ong, 2020) from Singapore.

Significant progress and landmark rulings have been made across Asia in recent years, from India's decriminalisation of homosexuality to Taiwan’s recognition of same-sex marriage. However, challenges and obstacles remain, and are faced by many people. It is within this context that Queer East explores the various forces that have shaped the current queer landscape in East and Southeast Asia, reflecting on what it means to be Asian and queer today through its curatorial approach.

The pursuit of legal protection for, and recognition of, marriage equality and same-sex families has been one of the focal points in campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights in Asia. Hence, the programme this year has a particular focus on ‘family’, a noun that conveys strong cultural traditions and ideologies.

Yi Wang, Festival Director and Programmer for Queer East, discusses his approach:

“By showcasing films that challenge conventional understandings of family kinship, I hope to provoke a conversation about how we understand and interpret the meaning and formation of family, through an alternative queer lens, even when the films do not include obvious LGBT storylines.”

Wang continues,

“Global events in the past year, from Covid-19-related anti-Asian attacks to the Black Lives Matter movement, have once again reminded us how vital fair and authentic racial and sexual representation is for our society. LGBTQ+ people have had labels, stereotypes and stigmas imposed on them for a long time. For me, queer is a word without consistent meaning, and we should not settle on a one-note definition. I believe that film is one of the most direct and accessible mediums that allows us to address issues and situations that people simply weren’t aware of before. Films enable us to construct a more positive, inclusive and dynamic LGBTQ+ narrative both outside and within the LGBTQ+ communities.”

Queer East Film Festival is supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. The Focus Japan programme is organised in partnership with the Japan Foundation, with support from Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and Japan Society. The Focus Taiwan programme is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan and Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute. This year’s artists' moving image programme is supported by Arts Council England.

Coming soon – in autumn this year, highlights of the Queer East Film Festival will tour to a number of UK cities including Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Sheffield and more. Full details and dates to be announced.

https://queereast.org.uk/festival-2021/

[feigeroman]

Thomas OCs: Mungo

Number: D6 Class: BR Class 37 Co-Co Built: 1964 Arrived on Sodor: 1972 Service (Shed): NWR Utility (Knapford) Livery: NWR Diesel Black

The NWR’s diesel fleet is often badly misjudged, as media attention tends to be biased towards the smaller diesels, leading people to assume that the whole fleet is similarly made up of smaller engines. This is obviously not true, as the NWR does in fact own diesels of all different sizes, with one of the largest being Mungo - one of two 37s owned by the NWR, the other being Donna (NWR #D25).

Mungo is one of a number of diesels employed on the NWR’s heavy goods link, and is usually kept busy on the Main Line. Sometimes, however, he’s allowed to venture beyond Barrow-In-Furness, as some of his trains run directly from Sodor to any number of destinations on the Mainland. This direct running is more efficient than the usual system, whereby outbound goods trains have to stop at Barrow to change engines - the only reason the NWR doesn’t do direct running more often is because they only have limited powers to run their trains onto BR metals.

Like all the NWR’s big diesels, Mungo is proud of his strength and modernity, and never fails to let anyone forget it! Beneath his huge, powerful exterior, though, Mungo is pretty much just a big kid - he’s one of those engines who believes in growing old, but not growing up. He has an air of youthful innocence and enthusiasm normally only seen in smaller engines - luckily, his larger size means there’s more room for all that energy! Unfortunately, this also means Mungo has a tendency to act impulsively, and bite off more than he can chew, something which often spells trouble for himself and others. Nevertheless, he means well, and provided he can calm down and think things through, he’s really quite a hard worker - indeed, the other engines can’t deny the effect he has on the trucks!

Mungo was one of the last of the 37s to enter service, in 1964. Although most of the later 37s were initially based at Cardiff, it is recorded that Mungo had his beginnings at Stratford, the main depot in London for the Eastern Region. In fact, his was a doubly unusual allocation, for while the 37s were generally used on heavy freight traffic, he spent most of his time on passenger services - usually from Liverpool Street to Norwich, Cambridge or King’s Lynn. Mungo’s excitable tendencies shone through even then, but it seems that learning to handle passenger trains properly helped to curb some of these vices a little.

At some point in the late-1960s, Mungo was temporarily reallocated to Glasgow, as BR wanted to test the feasibility of employing 37s on the West Highland line. To this end, Mungo was tried out on both passenger and freight services from Glasgow to Oban or Mallaig. The results of these tests aren’t known, but they couldn’t have been favourable at the time, as 37s didn’t work this service again until the early-1980s. On the plus side, though, it was during these trials that Mungo first gained his name - Saint Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow.

After that, Mungo returned to Stratford, and continued his work there for the rest of his BR career - which was to turn out to be very short. Not through his own unreliability or anything like that, but because in 1972 he was sold to the NWR. The background behind Sir Topham Hatt’s decision to purchase a 37 is a little muddy, but it is thought that he wanted to expand the railway’s freight traffic to include more direct services to destinations served by BR. In any case, he thought Mungo would be just the engine for the job, and that was how the diesel found himself entering NWR service later that year.

At this time, the NWR’s diesel roster was still very small, and so the steam engines only had a limited idea as to how Mungo would behave: Would he be another Daisy, BoCo, or Bear? Or even another Devious Diesel? In the end, what they got was a Mungo - he was nothing like any of the diesels that’d run on the NWR before. Not just in looks, but in outlook as well. He wasn’t a smooth talker like Diesel, nor a shameless flirt like Daisy. He wasn’t even an old grump like BoCo (apologies to him!), or noisy like Bear. Nobody was quite sure what to make of Mungo, but the general consensus was that he was something special.

It was only when Mungo actually started work, of course, that everyone realized just how different he was from the diesels that’d come before him. His first regular train was a fast freight, and the other engines had warned him just how troublesome the trucks could be. Many had suggested ways to keep them in line, but Mungo decided to instead try something he’d learned while on trial at Glasgow. When the trucks began playing their tricks, Mungo joined in, and gave them a taste of their own medicine. That did the trick, as the trucks found out that it was possible to have too much of a good thing!

The story soon spread, and the trucks became wary of trying anything with Mungo - they suspected he was just naiive when it came to hauling trucks, but they had no way of telling whether this naivity was genuine, or a facade meant to lull them into a false sense of security. They didn’t dare try to test this either, and to this day Mungo has had little-to-no trouble with trucks at all (coaches, though, he still hasn’t had much luck with, but he’s working on it!).

Trivia

Like most people, I’d never really been satisfied with the NWR diesel fleet as shown in the TV series. As mentioned above, there seems to have been a bias towards smaller diesel types, in stark contrast to the wide range of sizes and types to be found in the steam fleet. This contrast was brought into painful relief in the episode The Big Freeze, in which a group of small diesels was somehow shown as being able to efficiently cover the duties of steam engines much larger than them.

Just to put this into perspective, their method of covering for Gordon on his express is running Den, Dart and Sidney as a triple-header. It honestly has to be seen to be believed.

Anyway, I decided to try and address this imbalance, and so when I started properly developing my NWR stocklist, that’s what I did. To compensate for the lack of bigger diesels in canon, most of my diesel OCs were based on larger prototypes. In fact, I’ve just checked, and my diesel fleet is perfectly balanced; of the thirty diesels I have, fifteen are small, and fifteen are big.

This was what lead to the creation of Mungo. I originally had him work on the West Highland line for most of his BR career, and that was what gave rise to his name. However, I later discovered that the 37s didn’t see regular use on this line until about 1980, so I had to retcon Mungo’s backstory so that he was based at Stratford, where some of the class were based in the 60s.

I did like the story behind his name, though, so I did some further retconning to suggest that he at least spent some time on the West Highland, purely on a trial basis.

I did have a specific 37 in mind when developing Mungo’s backstory, but I’ve since been unable to remember which one (I just know it was built in 1964). I’m good at writing down information like this, can you tell?

[i-ghd]

Pembrokeshire, county of castles, coves and film star sands.

The eye was piercing. The gaze was imperious. The message an unspoken “Do you know who’s in control around here?” Eventually, of course, the human in boots, inching forward as quietly as he could along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, prevailed over the haughty feathered hunter perched on a fence post.

I was no more than 15 feet away, with the summit of nearby Carn Llidi as a backdrop, when the sparrowhawk very reluctantly gave way. It lifted off and, after a few grudging wing beats, alighted again about six posts along.

In the space of ten minutes, as I moved slowly forward, it repeated this procedure: lift off, lazy flutter of wings and perch again, about fives times, before cutting back in a wide arc across the field to roughly where I first met it.

The guidebooks tell you to look down from the cliffs for seals, porpoises, dolphins and to the windy space between land and sea for choughs, those comical blackbird-size birds with red legs. But not a word about this top predator, which had clearly dined so well on the local singbirds that it scarcely needed to move. (The birds sang on, despite the predations.) 

Approach this national trail as you might a long, detailed menu in a restaurant, one with a wide choice of starters, many of them a meal in itself. There are also some main courses, specialities of this county, and you will want to sample one or two of them. However you would need a giant’s appetite to consume the whole 186-miles, still less the entire 870 miles Wales Coast Path, of which this is only a section.

Let’s start with those appetizers. (The sparrow hawk would be in the “today’s specials” section.) I stayed at the county’s western end, on its final thrust towards Ireland. As the chough flies, Waterford is closer than Cardiff.

Hearabouts any three to five mile stretch contains many permutations. The trail twists, it lurches, it plunges, it turns severely back on itself then climbs steeply down into and up out of tiny coves. Little tumbling streams cross your path. Banks dense with foxgloves enclose your way. A flower strewn meadow ends in a sudden sheer drop down to waves boiling over jagged rocks. The view constantly changes. Nothing stays the same on this path for more than a few minutes.

I did an idle measurement on Google Maps afterwards. Made into a straight line the Pembrokeshire Path would stretch here roughly from London, 198 miles away. In 2010, duly impressed, National Geographic Magazine judged this the second best coastal destination in the world, just behind the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada.

Every three or four miles, over much of the western end at least, there is a convenient pause, in the shape of an attractive little harbour, and there’s a fair chance it is served by the coastal bus.

This part of the coast was bristling with unexpected, at least to me, industrial history. We think of the Welsh valleys studded with smokestacks and pit heads, but there is the evidence of long and serious industry in this quiet backwater. The clues that somewhere, such as Abereiddi, was once very busy is in the eroded remains of labourers’ cottages. In other places those that stood up long enough after the decline are now holiday cottages.

We dropped down into Porthgain, an industrial powerhouse  in its day. The roads of England were paved with crushed dolerite processed here. Now gentrification is complete. The main industrial building is now the Shed Fish and Chip Bistro. On our visit no fewer than ten Norwegian-registered vintage MG sportscars were neatly parked on the quayside.

The drivers and passengers were in the Shed, where they may well have been enjoying the exquisite if expensive fresh crab sandwiches, sold at prices Chiswick visitors would recognize. We ordered the same at the Sloop Inn opposite. We were perfectly positioned, some time later, to see the MGs set off in orderly convoy on the road to Fishguard.

The coast continues like this for miles, with a spot of strenuous striding, frequent heart-lifting views, tantalising glimpses of islands big and small just off the coast. Here and there an encounter with a profound religious past, in the ruined chapel and well of St David’s mother St Non, for example.

There are other, bigger harbours. In Solva the man in the car park handed out leaflets promoting all the little art craft shops, restaurants and guest houses. The Dutch and German cars underline the county’s appeal to a discerning international market – the drivers were not there for the weather.

And so to those landscape “main courses” I mentioned. On the path from the lifeboat station at St Justinians, heading north, I am suddenly above a wide, flat,  sandy beach where somebody had expertly drawn a vast jellyfish, so big it could only be seen to proper effect from 200 yards up, on the footpath.

Pembrokeshire’s beaches are now an international hot property.  Hollywood could have chosen some enchanted strand on Bali or Hawaii as the location where Kristen Stewart thunders through the surf with 80 muscular extras on horseback in the 2012 movie ”Snow White and the Huntsman”. Instead the studios chose the wide, flat, golden film-star sands, perfectly smoothed by the outgoing tide, of Marloes Sands, on southern Pembrokeshire, even if they did computer-generate an extravagant outburst of fairy-tale towers on the conveniently flat-topped Gateholm Island, which stands just yards off the headland.

Marloes first broke into the movies in 1967 when The  Lion in Winter was filmed here. Whitesands was used in the BBC4 Richard II. 

In 2010 Hollywood came to another Pembrokeshire beach, Freshwater West. Ridley Scott had filmed Robin Hood there, with Russell Crowe. The filmmakers built higgledy-piggledy Shell Cottage there for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The beach is clearly visible in the film. You will find no trace that the scrupulously tidy film makers were ever there. It’s the same at Marloes, left just as they found it.

You could easily construct a week or ten day holday around this sublime coastland, mixing up walks with boat trips to Skomer or Ramsey, dining out in the many harbour pubs on fresh local fish. The coast path has been conveniently cut up into 200 bite-size local walks, some of them circular.

One took us a few miles inland to St Davids, which is Britain’s smallest city, by virtue of the cathedral. We arrived early to benefit from its remoteness. Most day trippers, coming from afar, don’t get there until well on in the morning. We came across the intimate little cathedral, nestling in a green valley, well before the throng.

In the nave we had plently of room for some entry-level surveying, measuring the startling incline on the spirit level app on my daughter’s smartphone. It is almost two degrees.

St David’s has an understated nobility, because of its size and unusual position. On a scale of conspicuous cathedrals, Lincoln would be a 10. St David’s would be a 1. It was a steep climb up to the city, in reality a pleasant little town, where we gave in to the Italian charms of  the Bench cafe for coffee and ice cream.

Until the early 1800s Pembrokeshire would have been as remote by land as some European cities were for a traveler starting out from London. Railways opened the county up, and oil at Milford Haven and the Irish boat traffic through Fishguard Harbour ensured the rail links survived even in the bleak post-Beeching era.

The trains helped build Tenby into as gracious a Victorian resort as Whitby or Ilfracombe. Novelist George Eliot was inspired enough by her visit to this perfect little resort in 1856 to take up writing. It has been a destination of rare distinction ever since.

A cordon of high, narrow Georgian and Victorian town houses in delicate pastel colours still wraps around Tenby’s sea front. To dodge the wind you either head to the sandy beach on the town’s north flank, or, if it’s blowing from the other direction, seek out the little harbour to the south.

Praise, then, for frequent services direct from Manchester deep into Pembrokeshire, connecting with services from London and the west and south.

It’s still the case, of course, that most visitors drive here. They will find the car necessary for visiting the centre of the county where the excellent bus service doesn’t reach.

Pembroke, is technically on the coast. The tide probes almost under the walls of the castle where  Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII, was born in 1457, (It was restored to its formidable Norman pomp after a crumbly, ivy-covered interlude in the 1900s.) But it feels like an inland town.

The castle, proud and imposing above this ancient town, is just one the county’s rich crop of citadels, The list includes Manorbier, Cilgerran, Haverfordwest, Lamphey, Llawhaden, and Picton castles. There are over 50 all told, if you include forts and the reconstructed 600 BC Iron Age citadel Castell Henllys. Leading the list is Carew Castle. It overlooks a serene millpond, with a 11th century Celtic Cross and Wales’s only restored Tidal Mill. Narberth is another appealing little castle town. If you buy the Welshcakes in Waitrose, they come from here.

[javic-piotr-thane]

TW One: Latter Days - the VORTEX article on the upcoming audio!

THEY’RE BACK and it’s all about the team (unless you’re Yvonne Hartman and then it’s very much all about you !)… We return to Canary Wharf in London to meet the team at Torchwood One for a third box set of adventures in Latter Days. Tracy-Ann Oberman is back in the heels and business suit of Yvonne Hartman, and Gareth David-Lloyd reprises his role as Ianto Jones.

In this box set of three tales we meet Yvonne’s mother; see Torchwood through the eyes of one of its cleaners; and Ianto finds himself trapped inside the retirement plans of Tommy – the head of Alien Acquisitions.

The set opens with Retirement Plan which was written by Ianto  himself, actor Gareth David-Lloyd, and features a character we first met in box set one – only now, Tommy is retiring. But there’s something very wrong in the idyll of El Cielo, and it’s going to kill Ianto. There are spies, guns and snowmobiles, a secret base – and definitely piranhas!

Gareth says: “I’m a bit more familiar writing for the characters than I was the first time around when I had to go back over the first series of Torchwood One. I did some more research on Yvonne’s character for this one, but I know her and the others much better this time. 

“I wasn’t given too much of a detailed brief – just that it was all to do with retirement – and that was it! The central character in this one is Tommy played brilliantly by Tim Bentinck who was in the first series of Torchwood One. Unfortunately, death is the way most people leave Torchwood – either that, or they are retconned! But Tommy has some ideas about retirement within the constraints of working for Torchwood and he’s planning an alternative. He’s been secretly pottering away on his own retirement dream but he needs Ianto’s help to realise it.”

As well as writing the adventure, Gareth is enjoying playing a different facet to Ianto’s character, having established himself as a firm favourite with listeners through his work at Torchwood Three in Cardiff.

He confirms: “It was great fun to play a different, more innocent side to Ianto in the first series, and to come back and write for him has been a great pleasure.

“The whole idea of Ianto living out his fantasies as a secret agent has been in my head for some time. Ianto and Yvonne get trapped in a James Bond world – it’s a bit risqué.

“When I was writing there were some moments where I thought Tracy-Ann will either love me or hate me for this – the reasons for which will become evident! “Yvonne is a great character. At least you know when you work for Torchwood that you are sort of being looked after by Yvonne – as long as you do exactly what she says! She can be very unforgiving if you stray from her agenda.” When you’re writing a script that features the character you play, do you ever consider giving yourself all the best lines?

Gareth laughs: “Ianto always gets a couple of nice dry one-liners, though there wasn’t any temptation to give myself the best lines – I definitely wanted to make the story about Tommy. Ianto has some fun interjections but Tim has got such great comic timing I wanted to utilise that as best as I could.”

A MYSTERIOUS FORCE is wiping out Torchwood in Locker 15, by Matt Fitton, the second story in this set, and the only person who can save London is a cleaner called Dave.

Matt explains: “The Torchwood One stories are all about office life, in a way. I just wanted to look at how Yvonne runs things, and what it is like working there for her. Yvonne likes to know her staff but she can be incredibly ruthless, to get the job done.

“The first box set was about the new person coming in to work at Torchwood and seeing it through her eyes; volume two was about business as usual and the day to day work. Series three is about what happens when you retire, and we’ve various stories about people coming to the end of their Torchwood working lives and their different ways of leaving.

“In Locker 15 they uncover a problem in the offices of Torchwood One and need the help of an old employee who used to be a cleaner and has been retired for a few years, as he might know something about what’s going on.”

Although Torchwood as a series features fantastical ideas, there’s always been an element of the real world to it. As the original publicity for the television series said, it’s The X Files meets This Life.

Matt explains: “Even though Torchwood are dealing with weird and wonderful aliens you’ve got to remember they still have an office to run – with people to empty the bins, refill the paper tray and fix the photocopier. Would someone who has done that at Torchwood need to be retconned when they leave, and what would the longer term effects of that be?

“Just what happens when someone retires from Torchwood? There’s a high mortality rate among its agents, but what about the cleaner? That’s when we meet Dave Cook, who Yvonne and Ianto find in a care home, and they try to prise information from his memory.

“In the past, we’ve likened Torchwood One to the TV series Archer which features a dysfunctional group of spies – here we have a dysfunctional office, which just happens to be full of alien hunters.”

THE EVENTS of the Torchwood team’s domestic lives come to the forefront in The Rockery by Tim Foley. Anne Hartman has retired to the country, which comes as a surprise to her daughter. Has Yvonne met a problem even she can’t solve?

Tim says: “This is probably the first Torchwood story I’ve pitched completely from scratch. I was watching the recording of 9 to 5 (from the previous box set) and Tracy-Ann squared up magnificently against Jane Asher. Yvonne’s dynamic with a figure that was older and equal to her was so electric. So I got in touch with James Goss and asked, ‘Are we ever going to meet Yvonne’s mother?’ Hint hint hint. He got in touch with Russell T Davies who really liked the idea, and then we found ourselves working out how we could meet Anne Hartman, what she was like and what she’d think of the daughter she’d raised. It turns out that the themes worked really well for the next Torchwood One box set, so I leapt at the chance to write it!

“Yvonne’s mother has retired early and Yvonne isn’t happy about it. Anne Hartman moves to the countryside and we see Yvonne bouncing back and forth between her life in the city and her mother’s new life in Shropshire. It’s a story of a strained relationship, with love and pain and things unsaid and strange plants at the bottom of the garden.”

For Tim, expanding on Yvonne’s personal life was something of a joy. He says: “This is somebody retiring who has never known Torchwood… and never wishes to know it. It would be very easy to write a character that was effectively Yvonne senior, but we found it far more interesting to imagine Yvonne as her father’s daughter (I obliquely referred to Yvonne’s dad in a previous Torchwood story since we decided he’s mentioned as working in security in a certain 1970s Doctor Who!). 

“Who, then, is Anne? I’m really excited for listeners to meet her. Unlike her husband and her daughter, Anne has always tried to live a quiet life. But with Yvonne back in the picture, there’s hardly going to be much of that…”

Tracy-Ann adds: “There’s so much love for Yvonne. Whenever I’m on tour, people bring her up and say how much they love her in Big Finish.”

Matt Fitton and producer James Goss have previously told Vortex that their writing for Torchwood One has been partly inspired by bad office jobs they’ve held in the past. Has there been anything from Tim’s own working life that’s fed in to this story?

He reveals: “I mainly work in theatre, and this script is the most play-like I’ve written for Big Finish (that’s something James Goss noted as well, I think he called me out for using act breaks!). It’s three characters navigating what it means to be human; it’d work well on stage. I adore the fact that Torchwood as a show can be this flexible. Some days I get to write about the end of the world, and on other days I get to write about a lonely woman tending to her rockery. When I retire myself, it’s a time I’ll look upon very fondly!”

TASKED WITH bringing the trio of tales to life was director Barnaby Edwards, who tells Vortex what he thinks makes Torchwood One so special: “We only got a glimpse of Yvonne Hartman on television before she met her well-deserved cybernetic fate. And yet those brief minutes during which she lit up the screen with her ruthless, camp, solipsistic effulgence were enough to make us thirst for more. Similarly, we never got as much Ianto as that character merited.

“So, for me, what makes the Torchwood One adventures so special is expanding our knowledge of Yvonne, the black widow spider who is the master brain at the centre of Torchwood’s web, and Ianto, the loyal puppy who is very much the heart of Torchwood.”

Barney – who also directed the first two box sets of this series – particularly enjoys working with the series’ two main leads. He says: “Tracy-Ann and Gareth are two of my favourite performers. The partnering of cynical Yvonne with the exuberant, innocent and utterly loveable Ianto is what makes these stories such a joy to direct. They’re the best double act around.”

And were there plenty of memorable moments during the recording days? Barney grins: “Many, actually. Hearing Ianto’s James Bond fantasies, finding out what makes Tommy (Torchwood’s Q, played by the brilliant Tim Bentinck) tick, and – of course – meeting the only woman more terrifying than Yvonne Hartman: her mother!”

[tomk4e]

Premier League Week 8 Review

Tottenham’s road woes continue

Tottenham have not had fun playing away from home. Dating back to last season, Spurs’s last league away win came against Fulham On Jan. 20, and their last clean sheet away from home came against Cardiff City Jan. 1. Since then, Tottenham have failed to earn three points away from home in the Premier League. This poor trend of results away from North London continued when Tottenham were thoroughly beaten by Brighton 3-0 at the Amex Stadium.

The game started terribly for Spurs. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris spilled a cross that was pounced upon and finished by Neal Maupay, giving Brighton a 1-0 lead in the third minute. On top of that Lloris fell awkwardly on his arm when coming down from his leap and was stretchered off after receiving medical treatment for nearly five minutes.

However, the injury stoppage didn’t change complection of the game. Brighton constantly took advantage of Tottenham’s high defensive line by passing balls over the top to their pacey forwards Maupay and Aaron Connolly. This strategy worked again in the 32nd minute when 19 year old Connolly scored his first Premier League goal.

And in defense, the Seagulls swarmed to the ball whenever they lost possession. The constant pressing from Brighton resulted in Tottenham losing possession in midfield. This stopped the threat of any attack coming from Spurs. Striker Harry Kane had Tottenham’s only shot on goal in the first half, and this trend continued in the second half.

Brighton amassed 17 shots and 13 scoring chances created by the end of the game, compared to Tottenham’s eight shots and six scoring chances. And most of Tottenham’s chances came in the final 10 minutes of the game when Brighton were already up by three goals.

This loss comes at the end of a string of poor losses for Tottenham. They were knocked out of the League Cup by League 2 side Colchester United. Then Tottenham were thrashed at home 7-2 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League this past Tuesday. And finally rounded off by this poor display against Brighton. One has to wonder how much longer manager Mauricio Pochitino has left with Tottenham is the team continue to underperform.  

Liverpool win their 17th in a row

Jürgen Klopp’s team are now one win away from tying the all-time first division record for most consecutive wins. That record is held by the 2018/19 Manchester City team that ripped off 18 wins on their way to winning their second consecutive title.

Liverpool’s impressive run might have started at the end of last season, but the Reds have taken a maximum 24 points from their opening eight games this season. What’s made the start to the season so impressive is Liverpool’s resilience.

In last year’s match at home against Leicester on Jan. 30, Liverpool opened the scoring through Sadio Mane and Leicester equalized. However, the game ended in a draw, one of seven that Liverpool collected last year. If any of those seven draws were wins, Liverpool would have won the title. Instead they finished one point behind Manchester City.

This year seems to be different. There have been plenty of games where Liverpool have been sluggish, but they still manage to win. Against Newcastle on Sept. 14 Liverpool conceded in the 7th minute but rallied to score three unanswered goals and win. Last week against Sheffield United the Reds were frustrated for 70 minutes before a Dean Henderson error gifted Gino Wijnaldum and Liverpool a 1-0 victory. There were instances in the second half of their game against Chelsea on Sept. 22 that Liverpool could have blown their 2-0 lead. However the Reds escaped Stamford Bridge with a 2-1 victory over their top four challengers.

Despite not hitting the electric heights of last season the results say that Liverpool are one of the best teams in the League. They’ve scored 20 goals, which is the second best in the league, and conceded a league-best six goals. And winning eight from eight speaks for itself. After a week off because of the international break, Liverpool return to the Premier League on Oct. 20 with a chance to reach 18 wins in a row when they visit bitter rivals Manchester United.

Leicester City stake their top four claim

Of course a loss is a loss, and that means Leicester City walked away from their visit to Anfield with zero points in a 2-1 loss to Liverpool. And it looked as if former Liverpool Brendan Rodgers’s return to Anfield would end in a draw. However after Liverpool’s James Milner dispatched the winning penalty in the 95th minute, Leicester City left Liverpool with nothing.

If there is a positive to come from this loss, it’s that Leicester are genuine top four contenders. Before the game, the Foxes were in 3rd place with 14 points. Their attack, led by Jamie Vardy, had 13 goals, and even after losing star defender Harry Maguire, the Foxes had only conceded 5 goals. Even after this loss, Leicester is still tied for the 2nd best defense and tied for the 3rd most prolific attack.

Before the season Leicester were one of the few teams that would be challenging to break into the top six. However, if Leicester continue to perform the they could find themselves fighting for a Champions League spot in the top four.

The Foxes only losses this season have come away from home. A 1-0 loss to Manchester United and then this loss to Liverpool. Meanwhile, Leicester have won three of their four games at home by a combined score line of 8-2. They have also drawn against fellow top six challengers Wolves and Chelsea, along with beating Tottenham.

Right-back Ricardo Pereira has been outstanding to start the season. The Portuguese defender has two goals and is the club’s second leading scorer behind Vardy, who has five goals.Then there is attacking-midfielder James Maddison pulls the strings in attack. The England international has two goals and two assists in the opening eight games. Maddison plays just behind Vardy in attack and operates the space in between opposition midfields and defenses. His goal against Liverpool is an example of the dangerous attacking positions Maddison has constantly found himself in to start the season.

After the international break Leicester return home to the KP Stadium to play Burnley. With the early season struggles of Manchester United and Tottenham, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Leicester challenge Arsenal and Chelsea for the last two Champions League spots.

Wolves shock Manchester City

Manchester City had to match Liverpool’s result from Saturday if they wanted to remain five points behind the leaders in the title race. And after Liverpool were tested by Leicester City, the Citizens had a difficult test of their own, hosting last year’s top six upstarts Wolves. However, Wolves have not had a great start to the season, taking only seven points from their first seven games.

So it wasn’t surprising to see Man City dominate the early stages of the game. So much so that the game was played almost exclusively in Wolves’s defensive half. But there were signs that Wolves could sucker-punch Man City on the counter attack. There were two instances in the first 20 minutes where Wolves squandered a one-on-one opportunity.

Wolves striker Patrick Cutrone skewed his shot wide in the 5th minute and his strike-partner Raul Jimenez had his powerful shot blocked by Man City’s fill-in centerback Fernandinho in the 19th minute. Meanwhile, in defense Wolves sat back and frustrated Man City as much as possible. And it was working as the game went to halftime scoreless.

The second half was not much different from the first. Man City continued to dominate possession, with Wolves looking to catch out the champions on the counter attack. And that’s what happened in the 80th minute. Jimenez and Adama Traore combined on counterattack to give Wolves a one-goal lead. Wolves would double their lead with a carbon copy of the first in the 94th minute. Once again it was Jimenez assisting Traore on the counterattack.

Both teams seem to be going in opposite directions right now. Wolves have now climbed up to 11th place, and are just four points behind 6th place. While Man City remain in 2nd, but are eight points behind 1st place Liverpool, and just one point ahead of 3rd place Arsenal. There are still 30 games left to be played, but this one could have huge title implications for Man City.

Goal of the week: Sebastien Haller vs. Crystal Palace

The opening goal in the London derby between West Ham and Crystal Palace was a wonderful team goal. West Ham’s Sebastien Haller scored his fourth goal of the season at the end of a slick passing move that started back in West Ham’s half of the field. There were nutmegs, one-touch passes, through balls, quick dribbling and an instinctive finish. Just watch the full highlight. Artistry from the Hammers.

[catalinda04]

Carried Away Chapter 10: Decisions, decisions.

Masterlist

“You didn’t feel the need to tell me about a new woman in your life? Especially when you’re traipsing all over town together? And snogging at the train station like you’re in some 50’s flick.” Will nagged while Henry skimmed the article and pictures inside the paper.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you, it’s new, I didn’t think the photogs would glom onto it so fast.”

“So who is she?”

“She’s a school teacher, from America. She’s on holiday. Kal tackled her in the street, I took her out for coffee to apologize, and we just clicked. I can’t explain it. She’s not glamorous, and she’s a lot nerdy, but she’s beautiful inside and out.”

“Is she upstairs? I assume she is given the dreamy expression on your face. Go get her, so we can talk about this. All three of us.”

Henry trudged upstairs with some trepidation. He wasn’t sure how Lucy was going to handle this new development. He could only hope she took it well.

She was sitting up on the bed when he entered the room. Her hair was a tangled mess, reminding him of the passion they’d shared the night before. Her eyes were still sleepy, as was her voice when she asked, “Who was at the door?”

He sat down next to her, kissing her lightly. “My publicist, Will Turner, is downstairs. He came to show me something.” He handed Lucy the paper.

“Oh my god.” Lucy exclaimed, reading the front cover, then the story inside. She vaulted out of bed with her hand over her mouth, and ran to the bathroom. He heard the sounds of her retching, and rushed in. He held her hair and rubbed her back while she finished emptying her stomach. This was not quite how he hoped she’d take the news.

Once she had finished, he ran a flannel under the cold faucet, and filled a glass for her to rinse out her mouth.

“I didn’t expect that you’d be pleased, but that was a bit worse than I expected. Are you going to be ok?” He asked as she sat on the bathroom floor.

“I don’t know. This is insane. I don’t even take selfies, let alone have my picture in the paper!” She said in a half-panicked voice, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Listen, Will is downstairs. He wants to talk to you, and I’d imagine you want to talk to him too. You collect yourself, I’ll go down and make you some tea.” He kissed her on her clammy forehead, before giving her some privacy.

“So, is she coming down?” Will asked when Henry reappeared in living room.

“Yes, she’s coming, but you’ll have to give her a minute. She didn’t take it well.”

“When you say didn’t take it well, like she started crying…”

“She was sick.”

“Oh, well, that’s something different entirely. Let me think for a minute.”

Will moved to the the kitchen table and started scribbling furiously in a notebook. 10 minutes later Lucy came in, still looking a bit dazed.

Will rose and extended his hand to her, she shook it limply. “You must be Lucy. Will Turner, Henry’s publicist. I hear you didn’t take today’s development well.”

“No...I….didn’t. How did this happen? Henry was wearing a hat and glasses, and hardly got noticed at all, and I’m a nobody, and I haven’t even seen any photographers, and they don’t know my name do they, and what do we do? I’m rambling.”

Henry handed her a mug of tea, kissed her on the cheek, and directed her to a chair.

Will chuckled. “Well I’ll tell you one thing, your reaction gives me hope. You’re obviously not with our boy here to try to further your career.”

“Further my career‽ I’m a teacher! I don’t even like yearbook picture day!”

“So tell me, what is this?” Will asked folding his hands looking from Henry to Lucy and back again.

“What is this?” Lucy asked, confused.

“Well where is this going? Is this something I’m going to have to handle, or is it a holiday fling, as they call them, that’s going to be forgotten in a fortnight.”

Lucy looked at Henry, Henry looked back at Lucy. The panicked expression on her face gave him a pause. He turned to Will.

“Will, would you give us a few minutes, we need to talk, I think.”

“Ok, I have some phone calls to make. I’ll go to the coffee shop around the corner. I’ll be back in half an hour. You need to decide by then how we’re going to handle this.” With that he left them to their silence.

“So...I guess it’s time to address the elephant in the room.” Lucy said, carrying her mug of tea to the living room, Henry followed.

“I suppose it is.” Henry replied. “I personally would like to see where this relationship could go. I know it won’t be easy, as I have several big projects in the near future, and of course you don’t live here, but I will be filming in the US for a number of months, so it could be easier to continue seeing one another.”

“You want to see where this could go?” She asked, incredulously. “You barely know me. And the me you DO know isn’t the REAL me. You know Summer Lucy. Summer Lucy is fun, and adventurous, and likes to go out to restaurants, and clubs. Winter Lucy doesn’t go out. She works 12 hours a day at least, then spends her non working time obsessing over grading, and fundraisers, and special education plans, and prom! She’s impatient and has a temper and a six-pack a day Diet Coke habit. Right now this is a Cinderella story. I’m going to turn into a pumpkin come September. Are you sure you want to be around for that?” She rambled.

Henry just laughed. “I happen to like pumpkins.” he said cradling her face in his hands before kissing her. “I understand that right now this is all very exciting, simply because it does have an expiration date, but I feel like I’ve learned enough to decide I want to learn more. I told Chris last night that you got under my skin, and that I want you to stay there. I know you’re leaving in a few days, and I’m not going to ask you to stay. I’m not even going to ask to travel with you, even if I could, which I can’t due to my next project. This is your celebration trip, you need to do all of the amazing things you planned to do. I’d like to keep in touch with you while you’re traveling, hear about everything, and see if we still have this chemistry when we’re apart. If we do, then we’ll figure things out from there. One step at a time.”

“That might be the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. My very own Mr. Darcy.” She replied and kissed him, crawling into his lap. Their kisses deepened until they were both breathing heavily.

“How I want to take you right now and show you how sweet I can be, but Will will be back much too soon for that.” He grinned down at her.

Henry and Lucy ate a quick breakfast while waiting for Will to return.

Once Will was back and they were all seated at the dining room table Will started, “So, I’m assuming you’ve decided what this thing is.”

“Yes, it’s a relationship. We’re going to see where it leads,” Henry confirmed.

“Ok then. Well the firm’s position is always that we don’t comment on the personal lives of our clients, but I will try to minimize the press exposure, since you are obviously uncomfortable with it, Lucy. Now, Lucy, how much longer are you in London?”

“2 days” she replied sadly.

“Then you return to the states?”

“No, I’m still traveling for another 2 ½ weeks. She laid out her itinerary for him.

“And Henry, will you be accompanying her on any part of this trip after she leaves London?”

“Well I thought I might go with to Cardiff, but otherwise, no.”

“That may actually work in your favor, because even if you are photographed together over the next 2 days, once you leave London, Lucy, you’ll most likely drop off their radar. They’ll bother Henry a bit, but only for a few days.” Will laid out the entire strategy he had devised for them. After some tweaking Lucy and Henry agreed. Will left looking a bit more stressed, but happier than when he’d arrived. Henry walked him to the door.

“I like her Henry, try to keep that one, will you?”

“I’ll do my best.” Henry grinned.

“You should probably talk to Dany too. She’ll have gotten wind of this. I’m surprised she hasn’t called you yet.”

“I’ll get right on that.” Henry replied sarcastically, though he grabbed his phone, calculated the time difference and texted his agent to call him when she could. He also included a link to the tabloid’s website.

Henry returned to the kitchen to find Lucy cleaning up the breakfast dishes.

“So, girlfriend, what is on your sightseeing agenda for today?”

“Actually, boyfriend, God I hate that word, it makes me feel like I’m 15, but I’ll take it, I was wondering, what YOU would be doing today? I mean if you hadn’t met me, what would you have done today?”

“I’m not sure, there’s a rugby match I would probably have gone to.”

“Well, then, why don’t you take me to a rugby match. You’ll have to explain what the hell is going on, but I’d like to learn. If it’s something you enjoy, I’d like to learn about it.”

Lucy and Henry sat in a box overlooking the Rugby pitch. And it was a Rugby pitch not a Rugby field Henry had stressed. Henry explained the basic rules and procedures for the game.

“So in order to score a point they need to cross the goal line and touch the ball to the ground? Like football, er, American football.”

“Yes, but it’s called a try, and a try is actually five points.” Henry explained.

Lucy continued asking questions throughout the first half of match, by the second half she was just as invested in the game as he was, leaning forward in her seat, yelling about calls, cheering completed tries. As he stared at her, biting the side of her thumb nail in nervous anticipation, he felt himself slip closer to love.

Henry and Lucy had just returned to the house to change clothes before going out to dinner when Henry’s agent called.

“Dany. Thank you for calling me.”

“So you’ve managed to find a woman. Thank god. Tell me about her.” Henry gave Dany all of the pertinent information.

“That all sounds wonderful. Where do you see this going?”

“Dany, we’ve been dating officially for less than 12 hours. I’ve only known her just over a week.”

“What I mean is, is she going to be your special friend that gets a hook-up whenever you’re in the area, or are you off the market, as it were.”

“Off the market. I’ve never been a more than one woman guy. And I know she wouldn’t put up with being a ‘friend with benefits’ even if I were willing to go that way, which I’m not.”

“Well, you know where I stand on client’s relationships. If you need assistance with anything, you let me know. An American, and a regular gal. This should be interesting.” Dany disconnected the phone and called in her assistant.

“I want you to do a full background check on Lucy Claussen. Criminal past, facebook, twitter, the works.” If one of her top clients was going to fall in love, she wanted to go in eyes wide open.

Lucy and Henry spent her last 2 days in London splitting their time between her original planned itinerary, and him showing her his favorite spots in and around the city. On her last night in London Henry treated Lucy to a special dinner at his favorite restaurant, then a stroll along the Thames.

The following morning Henry finally asked. “Why are you going to Cardiff? It’s just well, it’s…Cardiff.

“Why the Doctor Who Experience of course!” Lucy explained, eyes wide  with excitement.

“Oh lord you’re a whovian! Lord help me.” Henry teased covering his eyes with one hand.

“Is that making you reconsider keeping in touch with me?”

“Maybe a little.” He joked.

“Like I said with the Harry Potter thing. I warned you, I’m a big nerd. You should have come into this with your eyes wide open.”

Lucy and Henry spent two nights in Cardiff. The last night they didn't sleep much, wanting to spend as much time together as possible. They talked about their childhoods, her plans for the rest of her trip, his upcoming projects, anything but what the next day would bring. When they couldn’t talk anymore, their bodies said all the things their words couldn’t.

When it came time for them to part, Lucy couldn’t hold back her tears. Henry left her with promises of calls and emails and video chats that would keep them in touch during their separation.

They said their final goodbyes outside the security checkpoint at the airport. Henry waited for her to go through, then watched her disappear down the concourse, before letting go of the tears he’d held off. Neither of them had said the three little words they each so desperately had wanted to say, and needed to hear.

Chapter 9         Chapter 11

[doomedandstoned]

Conan Share Earth-Shaking Set at The Live Room in Belfast (plus Interview!)

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

Doomed & Stoned is proud to partner with CONAN and The Live Room Belfast to share this striking live studio performance of the band playing three of their standards: "Total Conquest," "Satsumo," and "Gravity Chasm." This comes just weeks ahead of Conan's new album, 'Existential Void Guardian' (2018), releasing September 14th on Napalm Records.

Start Together Studio recently launched The Live Room Belfast to invite touring bands in for special recordings, usually between 3-5 songs, as a way to capture the intimacy of a live studio performance. This set was recorded, mixed, and edited by Niall Doran, with help from Assistant Audio Engineer Paddy McEldowney, and filmed by Ciara McMullan. The team did a fantastic job of capturing the massive weight of the Liverpool trio's legendary riffs and especially the fearsome caveman vocals of frontman Jon Davis.

This all took place on May 16th, the morning before Conan took the stage with Monolord and Elder Druid at Voodoo Belfast for an unforgettable show. Jon also sat down with Elder Druid guitarist Jake Wallace (who organized our recent Doomed & Stoned in Ireland compilation) for an in-depth interview.

And now, it's time for Jon Davis (guitar/vox), Chris Fielding (bass), and Johnny King (drums) do their thing! Enjoy...

Conan On Tour

10.08.18 PT - Moledo / Sonic Blast Moledo Fest 11.08.18 UK - Winchester / Boomtown Fair 16.08.18 IR - Galway / The Loft 17.08.18 IR - Cork / Cyprus Avenue 18.08.18 IR - Limerick / Dolans Warehouse 30.09.18 UK - Sheffield / O2 Academy 02.10.18 NL - Eindhoven / Effenaar 03.10.18 DE - Bochum / Rockpalast 04.10.18 DE - Hamburg / Logo 05.10.18 DE - Berlin / Musik & Frieden 06.10.18 PL - Wroclaw / Firlej 07.10.18 PL - Warsaw / Poglos 09.10.18 LT - Vilnius / Rock River Club 10.10.18 LV - Jelgava / Melno Cepuriso Balerija 11.10.18 EE - Tallinn / Sveta 13.10.18 FI - Helsinki / Blow Up 4 Festival 15.10.18 SE - Stockholm / Kraken 17.10.18 SE - Malmo / Plan B 19.10.18 DK - Copenhagen / Stengade 20.10.18 NL - Leeuwarden / Into The Void Festival 07.11.18 AU - Canberra / The Basement 08.11.18 AU - Melbourne / Max Watts 09.11.18 AU - Sydney / Manning Bar 10.11.18 AU - Brisbane / Crowbar 12.11.18 NZ - Wellington / Valhalla 13.11.18 NZ - Auckland / Whammy Bar 16.11.18 RU - Moscow / Aglomerat 17.11.18 RU - St. Petersburg / Zoccolo 23.11.18 UK - Nottingham / The Loft 24.11.18 UK - Leeds / Temple Of Boom 25.11.18 UK - Newcastle / Byker Grave Festival 26.11.18 UK - Glasgow / Audio 27.11.18 UK - Manchester / Rebellion 28.11.18 UK - Coventry / The Arches 29.11.18 UK - Cardiff / Clwb Ifor Bach 30.11.18 UK - Milton Keynes / The Craufurd Arms 01.12.18 UK - London / Boston Music Rooms 02.12.18 UK - Oxford / Buried In Smoke X-Mas Weekender

Interview with Jon Davis of Conan

~By Jake Wallace (Elder Druid)~

Recorded May 16, 2018 in The Live Room Belfast

Do you enjoy being on the road so much?

Yeah, we do. We have always tried to tour as much as possible, ever since the very beginning. I remember the first time we played outside of Liverpool with Charger in late 2010, and that was a really big thing, something we were pushing for to try and breakout of Liverpool gigs. We almost immediately started getting opportunities to tour and play, and for a year or so it was just weekends here and there, I really loved that. Then we got the opportunity to go touring around Europe. Of course, that brought its own problem then, because we had to get a van, so we invested a bit of money in an old Ford Transit. And I remember spending nearly £600 on installing a cool sound system in there, so that we could listen to Iron Maiden on the road full blast. Like with speakers right by our heads in the bulkhead.

There's something about being on the road, and everyday just looking forward to playing the music that you've written, and the law of seeing the reaction of people who are listening to your music, that you've written sometimes easily, sometimes songs have come together when they've been difficult to write. I've always found it really rewarding to play music, whether I'm on my own, or whether in the practice room with the lads, or whether onstage. And I remember when I was 16, promising myself I would do this, telling myself that I'm gonna play music cause I saw playing music as a long term thing that I would be in charge of. I never really wanted to work for anyone else, I always wanted to do music, and I remember as a shy and less than confident teenager, thinking this is a path that I can grow, and I really enjoy, something I could do for the rest of my life, hopefully.

When I get too old to lug cabs then I'll just pick up an acoustic, and do something with that. So getting on the road has been something we've loved from day one, and now were touring all over the world. This year already, we've had a US of 5 weeks, we've been to Japan for a week, and we've got more far-flung shows lined up for the end of the year, not announced yet, plus European tours, another UK Tour, and we've got an album out soon. I mean it's just -- we love it. I couldn't do anything else now, if I had to have an office job, I'd probably commit suicide, seriously. (laughs)

What make Monolord the perfect match for this tour, and will you be back in Ireland anytime soon?

I mean, we wanted a band as physically attractive as us, and we've finally done it with Monolord. Seriously though, they are a really cool band, they are really good people to tour with, they're professional, friendly, really interesting people, and they come from a different culture to ours, and we enjoy being on the road with them. We're not sharing a van with them, although we have done, we shared a night liner with them in October last year. And we didn't know what to expect then, as we didn't know them very well on that tour, but we got along really well. They're from a different culture but very similar people, at the same time, at the core of what we all are in a love for music, and they put their money where their mouth is, in terms of that. They also like to tour a lot, they release really great music, and they're a really good live act. So when you are choosing a band to tour with, our booking agent puts forward bands and it was really natural, that us and Monolord tour together. It's cool that we get to this joint headliner, switch headliners every night. Yeah, they're just great. I mean, I don't think we've ever toured with a band that we didn't really like, some more than others, obviously, but they are cool as fuck.

I suppose it's an interesting parallel, between both bands having three members, you get to see how another band performs as a three piece as well every night. Tell us about the origin of the band name, and how you guys have created a genre known as 'Caveman Battle Doom.'

Well, Conan could have been called anything, really, from '70s and '80s science fiction movies. You know, Krull was one idea that I had for a band name, very briefly I thought about that. We were called Elf-Beater for a time in our practice room -- that's obviously an awful name so we were never going to use that one long term. Conan just came to me one day, you know, I was going through some personal stuff and I'd had to move into my parent's for a little while, and I started this band up with an old friend of mine who was a bass player, but he played drums a little bit. So we started and we actually wrote and recorded "Satsuma." We had these songs, and we didn't really have a settled name. We were going to call ourselves Pazuzu for a little while or Demon-Demaro, as like a Bebo page in that name. There's some really old demos if you can search for that.

Initially, I wanted it to be a little bit occult-ish type of stuff, and then quickly I realised the lyrics weren't really going in that direction, and we were more about Sword & Sorcery, Science Fiction, and Mythology. Then I remember sitting there one day just kind of thinking, "What do I for a band name?" and then it just came to me. And it stuck, there wasn't really any other bands, well there was an Argentina metal band called Conan, but I think they had expired in the '80s, so there was nothing, no current bands within our scene, with that name, or anything close to it, so we grabbed it with both hands.

How did the name 'Caveman Battle Doom' come about?

The very first show that Conan did in Liverpool was with friends of ours, John McNulty and Gemma McNulty. They weren't married then but they are now, and they're really close of mine, and the band, they recorded at our studio. But they put us on our first ever show, when it was just me and Paul O'Neil, a two piece, and on the poster for that show, I think it said "primitive battle doom," "caveman battle doom," or "caveman doom." The label we were on, fast forward a couple of months, we recorded Horseback Battle Hammer and we released stuff on CD with Aurora-Borealis Records. They used that phrase as part of their sales pitch, on the website, taking it from that first ever poster, and then we thought we’d put that on a t-shirt because it looks cool and it sounds cool and those t-shirts just sold like hot cakes. So we thought, that's a cool name to make a joke about. Obviously, we haven't created our own genre; it would be awesome if we did cause we'd obviously make loads of money then, but it's just a bit of fun.

I know yourself are involved in Black Bow Records and Chris is involved in Skyhammer. How did both of those projects come around? Was it through the band that this became something you were interested in, or what was the path towards a label and a studio?

When I moved into a large house in a rural location, not far from Liverpool/Chester, there was a couple of extra buildings. One of them was a large coach-house and I actually wanted to turn that into a rehearsal studio initially. But it needed a lot of building work, which would have cost a lot of money, so I thought, "I wonder if I could somehow turn this into something that would repay some of that investment? So I'll do a practice room and then I may be able to rent the practice room out to bands." And I thought, "Nah, I don't think that will make generate enough money to make it worthwhile, unless we have people in there all the time." And if we did that, it could just be people in there 2-3 hours at a time and it would be a bit of a nightmare to manage, with it being a home. I then thought of, "Well I could turn it into a recording studio." So I got a couple of quotations for layout and stuff like that. It became obvious that it was going to be really expensive to do. So I thought, "I'll do that and see if I can maybe learn the ropes, I might work in there myself as a recording engineer."

For an extremely short-lived time I recorded bands in their practice rooms. I had one band ask for a refund, so then I thought, "Maybe I need to practice a little bit more." So I was going to set up the studio and decided not to, in the end, when Chris got in touch. Me and Chris had been friends and I'd been asking him what microphones to get and what stuff do I need really to set up a studio. We got chatting then one day out of the blue, and he wrote to me saying he had a really crazy idea and could he ring me. So I said okay. He gave me a call and Chris' idea was that he would come and work in the studio and take over and run it, and I waited a little bit and spoke to my wife. Then in the morning, we chatted again and it became obvious that yeah, it was going to be a great idea. Chris and I started working in the studio from August 2013, the build started in May the same year. We had a company called Studio People do it and they were brilliant.

The first band in there were called Bast and they came into the studio. They didn't have a label, I think they had been in talks with Candlelight Records, but nothing had been agreed at that point. So they recorded this album called Spectres and I said, "Why don't I just release it for you?" It was cool to release the first thing we ever recorded at the studio and that album did quite well. I had to repress it and then another band came in and I released theirs, as well. Then I spoke to Fister and Norska from America, I did a 7-inch split. Before you know it, I'm releasing music from bands all over and it's just snowballed. I didn't expect it to and I didn't really try very hard, to be honest.

I'm still learning all the time about running the label, make mistakes all the time, but I love it and it fits in nicely with the band, fits in nicely with the studio. I'm able to really diversify within music now, because obviously everyone has to earn a living somehow and unless you're very lucky, you can't earn a living from just the band. Some people can, but I can't, so I have to add other things on to make it possible to have a career in music. So that's all I do now, thankfully.

You guys feature heavily in the upcoming documentary 'The Doom Doc' which is due out this summer. How important is a documentary like that in promoting the underground?

I think it's cool, because it engages with people who may not have necessarily have checked out the bands that are being talked about on it. It gives a good overview of what the scene is like and it's something that you can take all round the world. We're friends with Joe Allen, one of the lads who made the documentary, and we played in Japan with him recently and his band Kurokuma. We played a sell-out show in Tokyo in a venue called Earthdom, which hadn't sold out for ten years or so. And part of the reason why it sold out so well was because the documentary was really popular over there. It's really cool, because it's shone a light on the very grassroots level of heavy music in the UK and beyond, and I don't think a documentary has done that really for UK heavy music, the very grassroots level, or I've never seen one that does it. Obviously, in America you have Such Hawks, Such Hounds. It's good that something like that has been made in England.

Finally, you've got the next album 'Existential Void Guardian' coming out in August. What can you tell us about that?

Well, it's all recorded and mastered now. We're just waiting on a video getting done for one of the songs and I'm not going to give any of the songs away, but it's cool, it's heavy as fuck, and we're really proud of it. It's the first album that we've done with Jonny on drums and it was quite a challenging album to make, because if we'd had anyone else on drums I don't think we'd have been able to manage it. But fortunately, Jonny being as professional as he is, he came in after touring with us for one month, just practicing a riff or two here or there in sound checks, and we sat down in the studio and we kind of wrote the drum parts of the album within a week -- or a weekend event, maybe 3-4 days -- so it came together. It wasn't easy, but the fact that it came together at all was a miracle, because we didn't allow ourselves the usual amount of time to write an album. So we pushed ourselves to the limit to get it written and get it to a level that were really happy with, because we wouldn't have released it otherwise. We wrote the drums and the guide guitar in the first few sessions, and then we went back and recorded guitar and bass, and when we got back from Japan we recorded vocals.

It came together in a different way to all the other albums. Maybe Revengeance was a bit like that, but everything up until then was the product of weekly practices, an hour or two every week. So we're kind of getting into this vein now, where we're writing music almost like as soon as we sit down. We get together and we can all play and write music together. It's really cool. I think a lot of that is to do with Jonny, because he's got a particular style that really blend in with what me and Chris are doing. It comes out mid-Sept. Tony Roberts is doing the artwork, as many people would expect, the artwork's cool. And we've got a really good video coming out, it's been done by the same people who shot the "Foehammer" video, and I gave them this idea of what I'd like them to do with this next video, and it's insane. It's everything I would ever want from a Conan video -- it's so sick, it's amazing.

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[pierrotdameron]

BBC and Bad Wolf today announce a stellar cast and crew line up to join Academy Award winning director Tom Hooper in Jack Thorne’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s acclaimed series of novels. Principal photography has begun in Cardiff.

Dafne Keen takes on the lead role of Lyra, the young protagonist of the story who lives in Jordan College, Oxford. Placed there at the request of her Uncle, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) she lives a sheltered life amongst the scholars and college staff while under the watchful protection of The Master (Clarke Peters) and Librarian Scholar Charles (Ian Gelder).

When the glamorous and mesmeric Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson) enters Lyra’s life she embarks upon a dangerous journey of discovery from Oxford to London. Here she meets Father MacPhail (Will Keen), Lord Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) and journalist Adele Starminster (Georgina Campbell) at a glittering society party where she first hears about the sinister General Oblation Board.

Lyra is subsequently thrown into the nomadic world of the boat dwelling Gyptians - Ma Costa (Anne-Marie Duff), Farder Coram (James Cosmo), John Faa (Lucien Msamati), Raymond Van Geritt (Mat Fraser), Jack Verhoeven (Geoff Bell) and Benjamin de Ruyter (Simon Manyonda) who take her North in her quest.

Once in the North she meets charismatic aeronaut and adventurer Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manuel Miranda) who joins them on their epic journey and who becomes one of Lyra’s closest allies.

Talented young actors joining the cast include Lewin Lloyd as Roger Parslow, Daniel Frogson as Tony Costa, Tyler Howitt as Billy Costa and Archie Barnes as Pantalaimon.

Philip Pullman says: “I’m delighted that the production is under way, and I’m looking forward immensely to seeing how it looks. Bad Wolf has assembled a wonderful cast and I’m sure every HDM reader is as keen as I am to see it all coming together.”

Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, says: “The vast, complex and deeply imaginative landscape of Philip’s novels requires a world class but quintessentially British band of creatives to bring them to life. The BBC is proud and privileged to be the host to such visionaries. Thank you to Jane, Jack, Dan, Joel and Tom and of course to Philip for entrusting us with their work and sharing the journey of seeing His Dark Materials come to life”.

Bad Wolf founder and Executive Producer, Jane Tranter says: “The calibre of our cast and directors is a testament to the brilliance of Jack Thorne’s scripts and also the sheer bravura, depth and imagination of Philip Pullman’s original novels. Our determination is to sound every note of the books in a series that will fully explore the many worlds and concepts in Philip’s work. Bad Wolf has assembled a world class production team at Wolf Studios Wales in Cardiff who will bring Philip’s incredible works to life for a whole new audience.”

Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, This is England ’88) is a Bafta, Tony and Olivier Award winning screenwriter and playwright.

Thorne says: “His Dark Materials are the most beautiful set of books, taking us into a world of constant imagination. Reading them I was a massive fan, in adapting them I've increasingly felt in awe of them. It's the constant invention, the way the story never sits still, and that the characters constantly surprise you. It's been a joy being part of a creative team for this; from Tom's incredible analytic mind and amazing eye, to Joel's beautiful world building, to everyone else involved. And then there's the cast, which has proved to be the cast of dreams, we are so lucky to have been able to entice them in.”

Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Miserables) will lead as director and helm the first two episodes with Dawn Shadforth (Danny Boyle’s Trust, Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head) directing episode three and Otto Bathurst (Robin Hood [2018], Peaky Blinders) directing four and five, with other directors to be announced.

Production Designer Joel Collins (Black Mirror) says: "I wanted to be part of a show that would challenge every bone in my body. I was looking for something that would be a true test of my mettle. The hardest thing in fantasy is trying to show a mass group of people what they’ve only previously seen in their minds.”

Dan McCulloch (Victoria, Endeavour) is Executive Producer and Laurie Borg (Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror) is Producer.

In its first foray into British television, New Line Cinema is producing the series with Bad Wolf for BBC One.

The design team is led by Joel Collins (Black Mirror, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) with costumes designed by Caroline McCall (Downton Abbey, Hyde Park on Hudson) and hair and make-up design being led by Pamela Haddock (The Terror, Sherlock). Director of Photography for block one is Justin Brown (The End of the F***ing World, Sixteen) and casting director is Kathleen Crawford (I, Daniel Blake, Filth).

Framestore takes the role of VFX creative partner on the show: managing and executing VFX throughout, and working closely with the production team to ensure the awe-inspiring work can be achieved on budget, and on time.

Michelle Martin, Head of Television, Framestore says: "We could not be more excited to partner on His Dark Materials, a televisual event of truly epic proportion. It’s a hugely ambitious project, but one we at Framestore take on confidently, knowing our award-winning teams will successfully see it through."

His Dark Materials is produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema for BBC One in association with BBC Studios Distribution and Anton Capital Entertainment, S.C.A. The series will be filmed in Cardiff at Wolf Studios Wales.

His Dark Materials is one of the supreme works of imaginative fiction for both children and adults published in the 20th century. After series one, which covers the first instalment of Northern Lights, the story continues in The Subtle Knife where Lyra is joined on her journey by Will, a boy who possesses a knife that can cut windows between worlds. As Lyra learns the truth about her parents and her prophesied destiny, the two young people are caught up in a war against celestial powers that ranges across many worlds and leads to a thrilling conclusion in The Amber Spyglass.

His Dark Materials has been published in more than 40 languages and has sold worldwide close to 18 million copies.

Since first publication in 1995 of Northern Lights, the three books have been acclaimed worldwide and have won many awards. In 2001 The Amber Spyglass was the first and only children’s book to win the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year Award, in 2007 Northern Lights won the Carnegie of Carnegies and in 2005 Pullman was awarded by the Swedish Arts Council, the children’s literature equivalent of the Nobel Prize, The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Nicholas Hytner’s stage production of His Dark Materials was produced in two parts at the National Theatre in 2003-4. In 2006 New Line released a film of The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra.

Bad Wolf is a UK/US production company founded by Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner and co-sited in South Wales and Los Angeles. The company is responsible for co-producing award-winning The Night Of for HBO and A Discovery Of Witches for Sky One. His Dark Materials is New Line Cinema’s first move into British television.

His Dark Materials will be Executive Produced by Dan McCulloch, Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner for Bad Wolf, Philip Pullman, Jack Thorne, Tom Hooper, and Deborah Forte, Toby Emmerich and Carolyn Blackwood for New Line Cinema, and Ben Irving and Piers Wenger for BBC One.

BBC Studios is the international distributor for His Dark Materials.

[bunnyjoyce-blog]

Useful Vocabulary for StEx Fans #27

I was reading Agatha Christie’s book, 4.50 from Paddington, and I saw this description in the first chapter (emphasis mine).

“Then [the character’s train] began suddenly to slow down, presumably in obedience to a signal. For some minutes it crawled along, then stopped, presently it began to move forward again. Another up train passed them, though with less vehemence than the first one. The train gathered speed again  At that moment another train, also on a down line, swerved toward them, for a moment with almost alarming effect [sic].”

Up train? Down line?

To Wikipedia!

’In British practice, railway directions are usually described as up and down, with up being towards a major location.  This convention is applied not only to the trains and the tracks, but also to items of lineside equipment and to areas near a track.  Since British trains run on the left, the "up" side of a line is on the left when proceeding in the "up" direction. On most of the network, "up" is the direction towards London.  In most of Scotland, with the exception of the West and East Coast Main Lines, "up" is towards Edinburgh.  The Valley Lines network around Cardiff has its own peculiar usage, relating to the original meaning of traveling "up" and "down" the valley. On the former Midland Railway "up" was towards Derby. On the Northern Ireland Railways network, "up" generally means toward Belfast (the specific "zero" milepost varying from line to line); except for cross-border services to Dublin, where Belfast is "down". Mileposts normally increase in the "down" direction, but there are exceptions, such as the Trowbridge line between Bathampton Junction and Hawkeridge Junction, where mileage increases in the "up" direction. Individual tracks will have their own names, such as Up Main or Down Loop. Trains running towards London are normally referred to as Up trains, and those away from London as Down. Hence the Down Night Riviera runs to Penzance and the Up Flying Scotsman to Kings Cross.’

For fans of Hashamoto and the other bullet trains (because I know FaNationals exist):

‘In Japan, railway directions are referred to as "up" (上り nobori) and "down" (下り kudari), and these terms are widely employed in timetables and station announcements for the travelling public. For JR Group trains, trains going towards the capital Tokyo are "up" trains, while those going away from the capital are "down" trains. For private railway operators, the designation of "up" or "down" (if at all) usually relies on where the company is headquartered as "up".’

[globalmediacampaign]

The BBC ensures world-class broadcasting services with MySQL Enterprise Edition

The BBC delivers resilience of broadcasting services across TV, radio, and digital platforms using MySQL InnoDB Cluster. Kim Cassells, Senior Database Systems Engineer, BBC said, “MySQL InnoDB Cluster provides us with the high availability, fault tolerance, and scalability that are critical for delivering modern broadcasting services. We also get advice directly from the MySQL engineers and can monitor our applications proactively.”   She also concluded,“Our success in deploying MySQL InnoDB Cluster at the BBC is extremely encouraging. We can offer this high availability solution now to other broadcast-critical operations within the BBC, such as the automation of the program-making galleries and studios in the BBC Broadcasting House in London.  It's an exciting time ahead for us.”   Watch the full BBC session at our latest MySQL Day - UK Video   Business Challenges & Goals The BBC is the world’s leading public service news organisation. BBC Wales ensures news and content production in English and Welsh for 3 TV stations, 25 radio stations, and numerous online channels. It is a pivotal site for the BBC. The BBC needed to modernize its media production environment and further enhance production quality, high availability and on-demand scalability of its critical broadcasting applications. Those applications are dedicated to automating studio production systems, audio and video exports, and optimizing graphic engine routes.   Business Results & Metrics   Multiple MySQL InnoDB Cluster nodes were deployed in separate fault zones in the Cardiff datacentre. This provided enhanced efficiency, resiliency, and scalability to BBC Wales’ broadcasting services which are consumed round-the-clock by viewers in the United Kingdom and worldwide on television, radio, and digital platforms.  MySQL’s InnoDB Cluster technology gave the BBC a native, perfectly integrated, high availability solution for managing critical broadcasting services without having to rely on any external component or application failover logic. Failovers and data replication to all nodes are automatic. “The MySQL InnoDB Cluster configures itself automatically to determine which MySQL instance will act as the primary database node. Nobody notices anything: there is no service outage and no need for manual intervention,” Kim Cassells said. The BBC’s DBAs have gained full visibility of potential issues in each node and the overall cluster with the help of MySQL Enterprise Monitor. The tool provides in-depth advice and alerts the DBAs on problems before these become critical. It also makes maintenance easier, enabling the DBA team to focus on core tasks such as process documentation instead of managing the clusters.  The BBC now has direct 24x7 access to experienced MySQL engineers and technical support to assist with the deployment, administration, and monitoring of their MySQL databases and applications, enabling the DBA team to adopt a more proactive approach for managing databases and applications.  The BBC now has the flexibility to scale MySQL on-demand, by adding more cluster nodes, thus ensuring sustainable performance of the organisation’s broadcasting services, in line with the requirements of increasing data loads. This allows producers to constantly expand on the content they create.    https://blogs.oracle.com/mysql/the-bbc-ensures-world-class-broadcasting-services-with-mysql-enterprise-edition

[rockrevoltmagazine]

MASON HILL Release Official Music Video for "D.N.A."

First Rock Act to Debut Album in UK Top 20 since GRETA VAN FLEET in 2018 & and the first British rock act debut album Top 20 and #1 UK rock chart since Royal Blood in 2014!!

Glasgow, UK based Rock band MASON HILL has released the official music video for their blistering metal single, “D.N.A.” Directed and produced by David Barras and Scott McKay for Strangeboat Productions, “D.N.A.” is the third single off the band’s chart dominating debut album, Against The Wall.

“D.N.A.” is also dominating German and French charts, sitting comfortably on Rock Antenne FM’s‘ top 20 and hitting top 10 in the Heavy 1 French radio chart.

“A blistering and hook filled bit of gleaming modern metal, it manages to perfectly mesh heaviness with melody that shows a maturity way beyond most of their peers.

With a superb production, this just doesn’t pop out of the speakers, it practically roars, the Highland passion in full flow and Celtic fire blazing.” – Metal Planet Magazine

Released on March 5th, Against The Wall achieved the UK national album chart at number 19, taking a coveted top 20 album position, and reached over 750,000 streams on Spotify. The long awaited album, which received critical acclaim from both media and fans alike, also hit number 1 in the UK rock album chart. It is the first time a rock band has debuted with their album in the UK Top 20 since Greta Van Fleet in 2018 and also the first time a British rock act as debuted with their album in the UK Top 20 and # 1 in the UK rock album chart since Royal Blood and Lonely The Brave back in 2014!

It is an incredible achievement for new British rock band, starting from an almost zero sales base and during a pandemic when there has been no traditional retail, no live shows or touring opportunities. The innovative marketing campaign run by both 7Hz Productions (ADA) and the band involved a six month fan building initiative utilizing the band’s social platforms, streaming performances, virtual ‘in store’ launch events, dark ad audience building and strategic media take over promotions. Coupled with very positive press reviews, online reviews, regional radio support, and four Planet Rock playlist additions, the band’s new album has connected musically with rock fans resulting in a surge of sales.

The band is set to release their next digital single, a cover of the 2005 Foo Fighters hit “The Best Of You,” all platforms on April 23, 2021.

Against the Wall Track Last: 1. Reborn 2. No Regret 3. Against the Wall 4. Broken Son 5. D.N.A. 6. Who We Are 7. Find My Way 8. Hold On 9. Out Of Reach 10. We Pray 11. Where I Belong 12. Reborn (Reprise)

Purchase / Stream Against the Wall Online: iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

  Click HERE to Order ‘Against the Wall’ Vinyl (Red & Blue Vinyl Sold Out)!

MASON HILL has also announced UK tour dates. The 17 date UK & Irish tour will head out in early September with support from Hollowstar and Empyre. Despite never having headlined a club tour before, the band has sold 1,800 tour tickets in just 2 weeks!

“Our fans have been so supportive and to have a top 20 national album on our first release is mind blowing. We are extremely humbled at the reception Against The Wall has received and needless to say, it has been an extremely bright light for us during this long Covid tunnel. It has made us even more hungry to get back out and play live again. Everyone is itching to crank up the volume and blast out the new material” – (Scott Taylor – Vocals)

Tour Dates: 09/02 @ Tunnels – Aberdeen, Scotland 09/03 @ Garage – Glasgow, Scotland 09/04 @ Macarts – Galashiels, Scotland 09/09 @ Grand Social – Dublin, Ireland 09/10 @ Voodoo – Belfast, Ireland 09/14 @ Junction 2 – Cambridge, England 09/15 @ Corporation – Sheffield, England 09/16 @ Fleece – Bristol, England 09/17 @ Patterns – Brighton, England 09/18 @ Leos – Gravesend, England (Sold Out) 09/20 @ Globe – Cardiff, Wales 09/21 @ Joiners – Southampton, England 09/22 @ Nightrain – Bradford, England 09/23 @ Waterloo Music Bar – Blackpool 09/24 @ Underworld – London, England 09/25 @ Rebellion – Manchester, England 09/26 @ KK’s Steel Mill – Wolverhampton, England

Click HERE for Additional Dates & Ticketing Information.

To trace the Mason Hill story to its origin, Scott Taylor and James Bird met at school in Glasgow. At the age of 14, Bird was already an accomplished, award-winning, gifted guitar prodigy, who’d shared a stage with Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society man Zakk Wylde, a personal hero, toured across the UK, and secured endorsements from leading music brands. The teenage Taylor already harboured dreams of fronting a rock ’n’ roll band, and the pair’s friendship and shared aspirations led them to form a band. In 2013 the pair formed Mason Hill, adding drummer Craig McFetridge, bassist Matthew Ward, and guitarist Marc Montgomery in due course. Five diverse, colourful characters, the members of the group were instantly bonded by a shared, singular vision for their band: Taylor relinquished long-held plans to become an Olympic swimmer in order to focus on music, while Ward withdrew from a degree course at the University of Glasgow, where he’d been studying microbiology/virology. For these ambitious young men, Mason Hill was and is priority number one.

Mason Hill are Scott Taylor (Lead Vocals), James Bird (Lead Guitar), Marc Montgomery (Guitar), Matthew Ward (Bass) and Craig McFetridge (Drums)

THE STORY SO FAR Mason Hill has spent their formative years “learning their craft” on stages up and down the UK. This included high profile shows supporting the likes of Graham Bonnet (Rainbow), Snakecharmer (feat. ex-Whitesnake, Thunder & Wishbone Ash members), Toseland, Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, Ted Nugent, The Dead Daisies) and Stone Broken.

“this is the best new heavy rock act currently performing in the UK.” (Fabrications HQ)

“a prodigious talent that belies their fledgling years.” (Planet Rock)

In December 2015 the band released their debut E.P, the self titled Mason Hill, featuring four tracks which highlighted exactly why this band are turning heads – outstanding songs that demonstrated a maturity far beyond their years. Recorded at The Foundry Music Lab with Sandy Jones (Wet Wet Wet) in the producer’s chair, the EP has been critically acclaimed amongst the music press and fans alike.

2016 brought several breakthroughs in the band’s career, firstly the invitation to perform on The Rising Stage at Ramblin’ Man Fair, headlined by Whitesnake and Black Stone Cherry, winning the UK wide Highway To Hell battle of the bands competition that earned them opening the main stage slot at Hard Rock Hell, alongside the likes of Ugly Kid Joe, Ratt, and Glenn Hughes, appearing at Winterstorm Festival, alongside the likes of Ricky Warwick, Last in Line (ex-Dio) and Inglorious to selling out their first ever headline show at the famous Cathouse Rock Club in Glasgow with one month left to spare – a feat only achieved in recent times by Anthrax and Black Stone Cherry.

The career progression continued into early 2017 when the band was special guest to Inglorious in London at their sold out second album launch show, appeared triumphantly at Download on The Boardie Takeover Stage, opened for Airbourne at their sold out show in Edinburgh. and returned to their hometown for their second headline show at G2; again this sold out with demand so great that it was upgraded to the 750 capacity The Garage where the likes of Magnum, Tesla, and Symphony X have performed – packing the place to the rafters

The first promo video “’Now You See Me” was released in 2017, which to date has more than a quarter of a million views.

The year ended with support for GUN at Glasgow Barrowlands in December plus an appearance at Planet Rockstock:

“Fresh-faced Glasgow boys Mason Hill were nothing short of a triumph. Completely packing out the room, they served up a rock and roll storm from the offset with anthems like ‘Now You See Me’ before showing off another side of their art with powerful closer ‘Where I Belong’ that delved into rock ballad territory. In fact, the Planet Rockstock faithful were so won over we’ve been inundated with requests for Mason Hill to be bumped up the bill in 2018” (Planet Rock)

The band spent a lot of time developing material for their album and the first show of 2018 was at Glasgow’s King Tuts which sold out in three days, ten weeks in advance of show!

Ladies and gentlemen – Mason Hill are back with fire in their belly. This group of high achievers carry the pressure of early success but as they take to the stage to the intro tape, it is obvious they have class and confidence…” (Down The Front Media)

“There are few up and coming acts in Scotland that have made a notable impression as swiftly as Glasgow rockers Mason Hill. They have grown in popularity and garnered an insane following like nothing else” (SMS, Scotland)

“Mason Hill never disappoint, in fact they always take it to the next level every time you see them” (Jace Media)

This was followed by an appearance at TRNSMT on the same day as Queen, and Steelhouse Festival in Wales alongside such as Black Star Riders, Glenn Hughes and, Myles Kennedy.

The latter part of 2018 saw Mason Hill going out on tour supporting The Dan Reed Network at shows across the UK and a return to Planet Rockstock, by popular demand after their performance in 2017, this time on the main stage.

In a further development Mason Hill agreed to part ways with Frontiers Records.

A further sold out King Tuts show followed in 2019 and a sub headline slot at Planet Rock’s Winters End in February 2020. Since then live activity has been curtailed by the covid 19 pandemic, in common with every other band. However the band has not been idle and the focus has been on the debut album, recorded at Riverside Studios near Glasgow and vocals in New York, and mixed by Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro).

In 2020 the band signed a management contract with Jaba Music and a record deal with 7Hz Productions, and the album release date is planned for 5 March 2021. Three singles have so far been released to date from the album to critical acclaim.

2021 promises to be a big year for Mason Hill, despite on going restrictions.

Mason Hill are just getting started!

Connect with MASON HILL: Official Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

MASON HILL Release Official Music Video for “D.N.A.” was originally published on RockRevolt Mag