Secret Chiefs 3 / London

I took a trip down to our capital this week to watch the Secret Chiefs 3 during their three night residency at Corsica Studios. The band have multiple “sub-bands” focusing on different styles of music, so each night had a “different” band playing. I could only make two nights, so saw the UR / Xaphan combo plus the final night set of a mixture of various sub-bands / sounds.  It was fantastic.  They have a new (ish) drummer who is an incredible technical death-metal style player which has added a whole different vibe, great in most of the songs, but I did find it a but strange during some others.

Of course I took the opportunity to take some photos.  The venue was packed so it was difficult to get a good position and it took a lot of settings-juggling to even get any photos as i’m new to this style of photography.  It was a great learning experience and i’m a lot quicker with my settings now and understand the ISO/Shutter Speed/metering a lot more now…   Here are a few pics along with some others around London.

Timba Harris.  He played a number of instruments throughout the night, violin, guitar (an Encore no less!), keyboard, trumpet and an egg shaker

Trey Spurance.  Band Leader.  Had unfortunately injured his foot on the tour so had to sit in a rather comfy looking office chair

The Chiefs in all their glory

Skateboarding next to the Thames

I always try to get a Tate visit squeezed in on a visit to London.  This is part of a set of paintings by Mark Rothko.  I really like The Tate as I can wander round in awe firstly at the fantastic art on display, but secondly in amazement at some of the seemingly childish scribbles, or blank canvas’, or a couple of swirls 0n a piece of canvas (along with  the descriptions of what the swirl represents).  Some of it is utterly arty tat IMHO, but nevertheless it causes a reaction.  I’ll be talking about the black circle on a white piece of paper at the art museum in New York for far longer than the incredibly intricate painting of some historical figure.  I think some art has transcended its very purpose, with artists being almost able to get away with “anything” due to their reputation.

No trip to London is complete without a visit to the London Aquarium.  By far the best I have been to in any country.

The very essence of this blog.  The fantastic creatures lurking in the depths.