The Power of Facebook to bring Colour to Listed Buildings

So, it seems that Homebase have given Carlisle station a temporary redecoration, including arm chairs on the platforms and this amazing paint scheme on the bridge:


(Lots more photos in the facebook group this was taken from)

As with anything people feel vaguely strongly about a facebook group was set up as if it was a formal petition. Now, I would be one of the first to argue that facebook groups are no replacement for other forms of protest, but when they get large enough they do have a habit of being listened to and this one seems to be no exception.

According to the Cumberland News, Virgin have responded to say they will be retaining some elements of the redesign (although it is a listed building so they can't keep them all).

Folk Music with added Party Poppers

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered the existence of, Kit and Cutter, a local folk club at the Deptford Arms, so I wandered over to take a look last night.

From what I gathered, it appears to have been set up by a group of (possibly former?) Goldsmiths students and as a result the average age of the people there was a lot younger than you would generally expect for a Folk club. It certainly had a "student run" feel to it, with just enough disorganisation to give it character, including searching madly for the raffle prizes during the draw (thankfully they found it in the end as they then gave it to me :-) ). In the end, they cleared the seats away and it dissolved into drunken student bopping as would expect for a more contemporary band performing in a pub.

The booked guest spots for the evening were from Bartram, Brookes and Weatherall, and The Wright Family. Bartram, Brookes and Weatherall, were very traditional folk, but with a bit of character (such as playing the washboard with pet brushes, which sounded amazing). They'd started off well, but really picked up in terms of energy in the second half, even before the drunken bopping.

The Wright Family, brought something a bit more unusual with a couple of there performances being entirely jews harp based. I've not heard many jews harpists before (although it is the second time this year having bumped into the youngest Wright at a session up in Manchester back in January), so this was something a bit different, especially having 3 of them! That said, thankfully, there was a bit of singing and some other intruments in some of their other songs, which prevented jews harp overload.

Some of the floor spots were amazing too.

To top it all off, as it was there first birthday, there was cake (admittedly probably not vegan, so I didn't have any) and party poppers too!

Will definitely have to head back over there again for some of there future events.

If anyone else is interested, their upcoming dates are:

• 27th March - Alasdair Roberts and Elle Osborne


• 15th April - tbc


• 1st May - Martin Carthy Mayday Special

They've also got a Facebook group and MySpace page where they announce the events.