Spent a hot and sticky weekend in London… 29 degrees!! So busy in town – the pre-Jubilee buzz beginning to descend on a very busy Capital…
Caught up with a couple of friends in Camden, close by the well known London Jazz Cafe. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and pretty relaxed and mellow as we had a drink in a nearby bar and watched the world go by. Catching a tube train to Covent Garden a couple of hours later was a whole other experience though – it was packed on the underground and served as a reminder of why I don’t think I could ever live in this City again. London for me was a great experience when I lived there, but I think for most people, it’s one of those things that you do, usually in your youth, and somehow ‘get out of your system’. Never to repeat.
It did somehow turn into a bit of a nostalgic experience though, as I later wandered down Dover Street in the central district of the city (opposite the world famous Ritz Hotel). It was here in the Dover Street Wine Bar – now a very much respected Jazz Venue, that I thought back to all those late nights I spent gigging in this very Bar when I sang with a blues/soul band in London a few years back. I remembered one particular night when footballer George Best turned up to see our band play…apparently he loved Blues and Soul and we all had a drink with him… and how our sax player was so star struck he was almost unable to play that night!
Later, I took a walk down a Union Flag covered ‘Mall’, to see the how things were shaping up for the Jubilee Concert taking place in front of Buckingham Palace next weekend. The circular stage looked really impressive as a group of technicians continued to work rigging the lighting, whilst Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ blasted out through an awesome PA system. I’m sure many of you will no doubt get a chance to watch some of the concert footage next weekend as it is beamed around the world.
By this time it was almost dusk and time to head back to North London to pick up my car and head to Kent where I was staying the night. It had been a lovely day, as the sun finally dipped in the sky, and I wandered back to Leicester Square, and once again, a very busy Underground.
Julienne x