scroll down to start at DAY 1 blog post - UK TOUR 2010 - DAY 4-5

Sunday – Monday April 25th. – 26th. 2010

Woke up around 9am, got a good shower in and then had breakfast and great conversation about culture and politics with my hosts Dave and Suzanne.
Being open enough to share both your pride and your shame of the country that you love allows for a much deeper, richer connection without pretense – we were all able to do that and it was very refreshing.

After breakfast we took a walk through their Cambridge neighborhood, down to one of their favorite coffee shops called Café Brazil. One of my favorite things about touring is all the good and genuine people I’ve met and how open they’ve been with their friendship and homes.

I left Cambridge kinda’ early (around 12:30) and headed for London. I did pretty well on this leg with directions, but the traffic (which was massive) and lane closures made the trip to the Kingston section of London a major chore. It took me several hours to get in the vicinity of the venue. When I got over near the venue, the city tended to remind me a little more of Cambridge. It was quainter than London proper and in a Garden district, a famous one in fact called The Kew Gardens. I would have loved to have had time to walk through the Kew and thought I would, but traffic conspired.

The Grey Horse venue proved hard to find. It’s situated just off a complex town square-one-way street maze. So it took awhile for me to find the joint and a place to park, but I arrived about 4:30 for the 5:30 show – so no panic there. I talked with Richard the owner for a bit and then set up in the corner of the pub room. On Sundays at least there is constant music rotating among their 3 venue rooms – starting around 1pm and going through midnight. My set was scheduled from 5:30-7:30.

As I was waiting for the cool blues band to finish up in the next room I talked with a lot of the local gathered in the pub, some of them having seen my CNN Coverage of the Volcano cancellation and interested to check the show out – so that was cool!

By the time I was half way through the first set, the pub room was full and people were into it; so much so I decided to blow past break and just play the whole two hours – it was after all the last show of an already truncated tour! Again, this crowd was a quick study for singing along and I finished with them singing the chorus of “Stars in their Eyes” back to me – sold some CD’s and had a great time.

Since I had already committed to staying up all night and touring around the city, I decided to stay at the pub, get something to eat, some more bitter beer and see the next show. The pub itself didn’t make food, but they would order from a Tai place across the street for you and serve it all up at the table on their own plates. The food was cheap priced and fantastic!!


The next show was an open jam with a small combo leading it. I am so glad I stayed – it was a lot of fun. It was run by Ian Hunt, a great guitar player in the tradition of Chet Atkins. In talking with Ian, I learned that he had recorded and toured with my first mentor Tom Paxton, back in the ‘70’s. So, the universal language and small world continues!

The pub began to fill up with folks with guitars, trombones and songs to sing. Ian’s band kicked the night off and then folks would drift on stage and play cover songs mainly, but with their own touch. The band (Ian plus a bass player and drummer on a small trap kit) would back everyone up, both on songs they knew and songs the didn’t (the bravest of all assignments). The guys were great and I really enjoyed them, so much so that I jumped up a few times to play – it was blast and over too soon!

I packed up my gear, got some general directions to the center of London and struck out with all my late night, left lane intentions! I spent the next couple of hours just driving the streets of London, trying to get my own feel for the city and how it was laid out (considering I had made this whole trip without maps). When I found the parliament square area, down by Hyde park, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben – I decided to park and strike out by foot (this was about 3am or so). My car had all my gear in it, so I was naturally nervous, borderline paranoid about getting everything stolen. However, I found a spot near where a bunch of city buses were idling, under the light of street lamps and the glare of CCTV monitors – so I figured, what the hell and headed out on the streets of London.

I had a blast, seeing all these sights at night. I walked over several bridges, including London Bridge, but the most beautiful bridge at night was the Waterloo Bridge (just as Dave and Suzanne had suggested). The view of Parliament Square, Big Ben and the big blue Ferris wheel was really great!

About 6am I decided to head for the airport and the rental car return. I found a place to fill the car up and headed into the huge Heathrow airport complex, just as the sun was coming up. The flights would prove to be uneventful and unfettered by mother nature’s pimples. Although the first half of the tour was not to be I am so thankful to have had the very short time I did in the UK – it was an inspired long weekend!








So ….the final count:
½ - walking up to the wrong side of the car (I thought it about one time)
5,768 – air miles since Wednesday night
952 – car miles since Thursday morning
29 – hours awake until I slept on the plane
∞ – new friends
0 – regrets

As always, thanks to all my friends and supporters on both sides of the pond! Traveling solo always reminds me of how important you are to me

Peace,
Mark