I was very pleased with how simple the system was. Look, book and pay. It was a house in Liverpool, three bedrooms all with double beds and for the guys a room on their own can be a luxury as they often have to share twin rooms whereas being the only female I don’t.
Along with the confirmation came the instructions. Those of you who have done this will know how it works. Andy drove me there on the way to Liverpool Phil so I could have a quick look at the house, collect the keys and grab the best bedroom of course ..ha ha!
We did check the kitchen..nothing except some T’bags. There were various assorted ordinary T’bags i.e. all the same type of tea just different makes and a jar that was once instant coffee that had the dregs of powder, turned into a brown solid stain in the bottom of the jar..no coffee at all. I was glad I looked because it meant I could at least pick up a pint of milk for breakfast in the morning. Is it normal that Air BnB is only the ‘Air B’ and not the ‘nB’. It seems to me that ought to be sorted out in the name somehow. When you’re on the road and only stopping one night you don’t actually want to buy loads of stuff you can’t keep it seemed a slightly difficult situation. Even a few slices of bread, a bit of butter and some marmalade would have done but nothing….hmmm…doesn’t seem right. I had to throw the unused milk away too as it would never have survived in a hot car. Anyway you’ll let me know no doubt what my expectations should be and what is normal.
Having said the bit about the breakfast I actually thought it was excellent value for money. Ten minutes from where we were playing, clean tidy and comfortable. Just no breakfast.
It did get me thinking today about Bed and Breakfasts. It does come up in conversation so often and Whitby has been part of a song in my trio Moirai.
I may have told you this story before so forgive me if I have. It was, I think, the Whitehaven Bed and Breakfast. They had the whole of the Old Swan Band billeted with them. Most of the dance bands at Whitby at that time were booked all week. You hosted some sessions, did a couple of early evening dances and a couple of the late dances. One night it was our turn for the late night. Unlike most professions it is not particularly frowned upon for musicians to drink alcohol whilst at work. Within the band were several fella’s who could truly quaff the beer…and they did. You have to bear in mind that these dances were two and a quarter hours long from what I remember often hot and very sticky and thirsty work therefore. Plenty of people around usually to help ferry drinks from the bar too. So all in all a great night was had and a little too great by some members of the band. Off we went after the gig, with all the instruments unloaded got to bed, all by about 3am.
The hosts of the Bed and Breakfast might have been relatively new to that Bed and Breakfast as they actually seemed excited about having musicians to stay. This meant that the following morning they decided that what musicians would love best would be music whilst eating…shows how much they know about musicians. Some of the ones I know almost never listen to music because they need clear space form time to time so that when they do get to listen it’s with a good ear and real enjoyment .
Down we trouped and two members of the band appeared to be a stunning shade of green. Skin that looked decidedly fragile and eyes like stained glass and barely open. Once seated the landlord went fiddling down the back of a cupboard somewhere plugging something in, opened the door of the cupboard and pressed go. What was in the CD player? The 1812 overture! With every cannon volley some people visibly jumped and tried to sink lower and lower in their chairs.
Eventually one of them could stand it no longer and stood up and asked them to ‘please turn the bloody music off as they had a terrible headache’.
The landlady and landlord looked absolutely crest fallen and didn’t put any music on for the rest of the week. Sad….
Other noises caused problems too. One member of the band snored so loudly that three of the others carried him, asleep on his mattress, out of the bedroom and as far away as possible on the landing and dumped him there. He didn’t wake until morning and everyone else got a much better mights sleep.
One of the beer quaffers had another amazing occurrence with another band. He’d similarly had a joyful but overly drink indulgent night the night before and had a lunchtime concert. Just before the concert started he threw up in his fiddle case…lucky it wasn’t anyone elses and the fiddle wasn’t in it. An ambulance was called for as they believed his stomach was haemorrhaging where as actually he’d had about four tomato juices in fairly quick succession in an attempt to feel better! Hence what looked like blood wasn’t….fortunately they were able to cancel the ambulance once they realised what and occurred.
Hopefully this hasn’t put any of you off your tea!
Tonight I am in Kendal. The Brewery Arts Centre. I remembered playing here with Tanteeka many moons ago. Tanteeka was myself, Andy Cutting, Alice Kinloch and Oliver Knight. In the first half we played one of my tunes, ‘Claire Conner’s lament’. I always introduced it by saying that it was dedicated to a woman in Nottingham who I hadn’t known well but had seen how much she had touched many peoples lives. She was one of those people who did a lot for others and sadly she died young. I wanted to mark her life by writing a tune in her honour.
In the interval a tall red haired young man came up to the CD stall and he was ghostly pale and looked, quite frankly, deeply shocked . He said, ‘I am Claire Conner’s Brother!! Where upon I was lost for words. What a shock for him that must have been. This was many months after Claire’s death. There he was out for a nice evening of music and a woman on stage starts suddenly talking about his dead sister without any forwarning. I was in a completely different part of England and had no idea she had relatives north of Nottingham. We chatted away and, despite his shock, he was happy the tune existed and I gave him CDs for the family and received a message some time later to say they thought how lovely it was that the tune existed. It came to mind because I’m here but also a band in Germany contacted me only last week to say they would be playing the tune in a concert and couldn’t find anything about Claire Conner on line and was she a famous woman? Well she wasn’t but in a small way now – she is.
Jo Freya’s Musings 