GYBE, Coventry, 3rd October

It being over 9 years since the last encounter I journeyed to Coventry to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor. A worthwhile trip all round.

To despatch the routine -

• The lights dim (I mean dim) and a drone grows in volume. After some time, Sophie Trudeau appears and begins to play, The noise is quite thrilling as the others appear one by one to play.
• As tradition begs, the set begins with "Hope Drone".
• The lights remain dim throughout. I chose to stand close enough to the stage to count them: 3 guitars, 2 bass, 1 violin, 2 percussion. That's eight.
• Passim, visuals from 4 oldschool projecters fill two screens behind the band. These are variously wildfires, scenes of riot and ruin, some vintage military hardware - all calculated to reassure you of how worthwhile the human race is.
• They play for 2 hours, uninterrupted by any vocal link. As they depart, a rather loud guitar loop plays as the visuals continue.
• No encore.

So far, so predictable. Some might say "Surely this is a group of semi-visible people making a loud discordant noise" - how wrong can you be? What more might one say?

• The mix was very well controlled. The violin was prominent throughout.
• The visuals were the best I had seen them use; I stood behind the fella swapping the loops for about 20 minutes and I can tell you he really earned his money.
• It was usually hard to applaud anything as there was only a nanosecond gap between pieces. Nevertheless, a splendid elongated version of Job's Lament drew a lot of appluase and was the best appreciated piece on the night.
• Prevailing wisdom is that the dress code for these gigs is black, with an earnest facial expression. Bucking this trend, I wore my post-fashionable Montreal Canadiens t-shirt, which is usually only allowed out when I am perrforming on guitar. Most others there wore t-shirts/hoodies/whatever advertising their allegiance to a cult I had never heard of. But I saw no duplicates, posing the question of whether it's a cult before it has two or more adherents.

Beyond that, I can report that the Coventry HMV Empire is one of the most comfortless venues I've ever been in, but it didn't matter. I really hope they play Aberystwyth one day.

Xeter

Regular readers may have spotted that I am [sort of, nearly] a child of Exeter. It was with some glee that fate took me to Wroxeter, and I was keen to seek out the similarities.

The name Exeter is derived from Isca Dumnoniorum: "Isca" is a Latinisation of the Brythonic word "Uisc", which means "flowing water" - so, a river. The Dumnonii were the local tribe, and the suffix was important to the Civil Service of the day since there was a another Isca, properly Isca Silurum, whose local tribe were the Silures. The modern name for this place is Usk, so they were quite a way apart.

Wroxeter turns out to be small. Actually tiny. It has just a few hundred inhabitants, so drawing cultural, commercial or industrial comparisons with Exeter is a bit of a waste of time. But in Roman times, named Viroconium Cornovorium, it was a boss place - the fourth largest British town; when the legions left the whole area was deserted so the archeological remains are plentiful and largely unspoilt - you can see them today. Wroxeter church is small but handsome: it has a font made from a pillaged Roman column

and the churchyard gate makes use of two other columns.

A thieving lot, these Christians.

The name Wroxeter is obscure in origin; The original capital of the Cornovii tribe was the hillfort on the Wrekin, (also called Uiroconion). The name Wroxeter may also refer to the capital of the Wrocensaete, a sub-Roman kingdom that succeeded Cornovia. The name Wrocensaete literally means "those dwelling at Wrocen".

Then of course there is Uttoxeter, of racecourse fame. The name is post-Roman, and comes from the Anglo-Saxon term Wotocheshede, which appears in the Domesday Book and translates to "Wot's homestead on the Heath".

There are only the three Xeters in the UK.

23rd March things

March 23rd was unusually productive for Things.

VoR museum

Opening day for the VoR museum. I went down fully expecting large banners and welcoming volunteers - perhaps a brass band. I had obviously forgotten this is Abeystwyth. A nice man reminded me it was opeing day and sold me a ticket, after which I strolled alone among some shny exhibits, having passed through an archway recyled from London Bridge (seriously).

I'd seen many of them before, but the standard gauge Dukedog (on loan) was new, and it's never disappointing to see the Beyer Garratt. One of the highlights of the VoR is standing near a steep incline (there are many) and just listening to a loco labouring uphill - apparently the B-G is so powerful it barely makes a sound. When used in South Africa, two of these monsters were harnessed at the head of timber trains that were very very long indeed.

Other pictures exist.

Bryntail lead mines

There were mines just all over the place, but the Bryntail site is distinguished by having many remains of buildings, wheel pits etc, all in the shadow of the Clywedog dam. It is a short distance to the very productive Van site, so ironic that despite huge investment and innovation by a Cornish engineer, Bryntail never produced much and closed very shortly after the fellow's death.

Other pictures exist.

Llanidloes

A refreshment break in Llanidloes - didn't meet any Chartists.

Alison Cotton

Something drew my attention to A Cotton opening her tour at Gregynog. A cursory search suggested that if Godspeed You! Black Emperor operated in the folk music sphere, this is what they would sound like. A must-do. On arrival, the Gregynog organisation was just as expected (yeah), and the remainder of the audience looked as though they knew just why they were there, and might all be related to Vashti Bunyan.

The lady plays drone viola, but is actually a vocalist and her unaccompanied singing dominated (a pest, as she had a sore throat and had to abandon an attempt at one song. Never mind, we got lots of others). She played from her very recently released Engelchen, about two Tyneside sisters who rescued large number of Jewish children from the Nazis. She sported gold boots and eyelids, and from time to time was accompanied by Chloe Herington on percussion and harmonium. Both of them made interesting use of loops and other electronics. If there's one thing in the world I don't need it's another T-shirt, but I was easily persuaded to buy one in her support.

Support came from Elizabeth Still, who played a fabulous short set. She was a bit of a one-woman band with lots of instruments and electronics. Apparently the founder member of Haress, of whom I had never heard - there's always something new.