Cotham Hill by Theo

There should definitely be more of this kind of thing, especially if this glorious weather is going to continue: street parties.

Last Sunday one of our favourite streets in Bristol, Cotham Hill, closed itself of for the day to host stalls and live music. Lined with charity shops, the organic food shop Earth Bound, plus several delicious coffee bars (including the Tinto Lounge where we had our first meal together) it's been a favourite haunt of ours for a while, so it was really nice to see it so thronged and busy. We even bumped in to a couple of friends; Susy from Glis Glis and Bob, the former landlord of the pub where we first met (The Junction on Stokes Croft). Rosie was pretty content being slung on our backs for the most part, although she had to be mollified with biscuits when the fruit smoothie we offered her wasn't up to her standards!

However, as much as we like browsing on Cotham Hill, the real reason we were there stepped on stage at 5pm: The Hinkley Veltones. Part Rock n'Roll, part Country, and all great, they are one of our favourite bands, so we seized the chance to get to see them without having to arrange babysitting. 

They'd added a forth member since we last saw them, which just made them rock even more. Kate in particular had a good boogie to them, with Rosie stoically putting up with it in the back carry. Their first album was one of the few CDs we actually took with us on our grand European honeymoon, and we were very pleased that they squeezed in some of their 'hits' from that - 'Baby please don't leave me' and 'Man of my intentions' still sound awesome.

More of this kind of thing please!

Soundtracks of our sojourn

As we drive we mostly listen to music on our laptop, the records of which get published on our Last FM profile. However we´ve a few CDs to keep us entertained when the laptop battery dies:

An ace compilation CD, a wedding present from Kate's old gigging & hitch-hiking friend Wigs, featuring Bob Dylan, Midlake, Bright Eyes, Beiruit, Herman Dune and loads more. It's great and many of the tracks (and artists) were new to us.

The Flying Club Cup by Beiruit which I left in the Sheena's stereo - cheers for introducing us to them Anna, as it's become a firm favourite.

Tied to the Mast By The Hinkley Veltones - an awesome wedding present from Steven Marr, one of the band who have been firm favourites of ours. I gave them their very first gig, they asked Kate to manage them, they came on both our radio shows, and they were brilliant supporting Frank Sidebottom the week before they left. It's a really great album and we suggest you get it.

(Rose Kemp also gave us a copy of her brand new album, straight from the studio, which we managed to feed into the Mac before we left. It too is excellent and we suggest you get it when it comes out on One Little Indian Records later this year.)