Meeting Ramsay after getting the train up to Leeds he drives us back to Otley where after a brief hello to Jo, Maisie and Richard who I've not seen for a number of decades we dash out (without Maisie) to the start of the weekend of music to The Black Horse where we have tickets for Mik Artistik who is playing a supposedly socially distanced set which means people sat in chairs for most of the room and crowded standing at the back. Mik is fairly charismatic, very funny and quite an entertainer. He's a local Yorkshire hero and most of his songs are about Yorkshirey northern things which to be honest if it were me singing I'd probably be accused of discriminatory behaviour. He is very good though and goes down well. See him live rather than listening to recordings. His bass and guitar player were pretty tight too. After that we go to an even more unsocially distanced, or rather more socially crowded, bar to drink too much and dance to classic indie. A lot of fun which continues back home where we go to bed far too late.
Saturday sees us off again after some food with Poppy and Tom and his folks and soon we are watching Tom drumming with Koyo back at The Black Horse but this time with no seating. Koyo play an excellent hard psychedelically edged set which set's the day up very nicely and we are honoured with the presence of Sarah, Malcolm and Lisa. Among other old friends. Now the next few bands I'm not 100% sure of the order or whether I remember them well but here goes...
Mood Organ are a young and quirky quartet who play left field indie which is very entertaining and upbeat. Mostly. They like to chat and crack a few jokes usually about mistakes they've made playing or how they got ideas for weird lyrics. Fun. Gawjuss are a bit of a swing into rock with big guitars and a fair bit of soloing which blows any remaining cobwebs away. Van Houten are billed as Pavement shoegazing but far more interesting that the dreaded P. I don't think I took a photo of them for some reason. Last up are Bull who play quirky rock with a big blue trombone. A nice end to the evening at the pub and after a lot of faffing about we take a couple of taxis over to the Otley Social Club, way out of Otley, and catch most of an interestingly quirky singer songwriter type set by who I think go by the name of Dilettante but I may be wrong there. Back home for more drinks and music along with the remnants of Koyo who crash with Poppy in the front room. I'm a little embarrassed as I'm sleeping in Poppy's bedroom but age before beauty and I manage to sleep soundly enough.
Sunday is not a day of rest and we take the Otley Nature Reserve sound tour which doesn't inform us about any nature as it's a series of QR coded audio downloads of birds tweeting (no not those sorts of birds and social media) with an ambient music overdub. At least it gets us walking all over Otley and most of the way up the Chevin. Back in town we meet up with friends again and watch what I think is a reformed Otley stalwart band called Fauns who are very good. For an outside the pub (OK, Woolpack ex pub) in the afternoon band. Calling it a day and a weekend we head back home stopping off for a last beer in The Black Horse meeting more friends then back home for a well deserved take away curry. Relatively early night then it's the long haul back to the big smoke. A great weekend...
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| Mik and band |
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| Otley junction, but not The Junction |
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| A couple of very good buskers |
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| Random Band |
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| Very Random Band |
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| Koyo definitely |
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| Mood Organ almost definitely |
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| Jawguss probably |
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| Bull possibly |
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| Malcolm's Revenge |
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| Dilletante quite likely. I think. |
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| Excitement on the Otley Nature Trail |
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| Otley from the White House on the Chevin |
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| Fauns probably. Linda and Melvin most definitely |
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